My first post. I wrote a long and rambling novel...

[BrokeVW]

Hello everyone... my name is Brian, and I'm an addict.

I've been struggling with my addiction since 1985 when, like many addicts, I began my addiction while living under my parents roof.
I started small like so many others, but soon found myself yearning for more and more to maintain that initial rush.
My addiction has since grown, and while I was able to avoid the temptation for about 2 decades during the 1990's and 2000's, I have since relapsed and have fallen off the wagon.
My struggle re-emerged in 2011, and unfortunately it has begun to rage out of my control.

In my youth I was able to keep the addiction somewhat under control mainly due to fiscal restraints... when you're young, you don't have the money available to maintain a serious addiction but as I've grown and earned my own money, I've found myself spending more and more on on my drug of choice.
In 1985, I got my first taste and the exaltation and rush never really left my memory.
I can still feel the soft rubber handle of the pull starter in my young and impressionable hands.
I can still hear the steady tone of the 125cc 4-stroke idle in my memories.
It was 1985, and Suzuki just came out with the next new thing, a 3-wheeler with an extra wheel.

My first real high came that Winter, when I learned how to concentrate the feeling with what they called a "powerslide".
I had dabbled that Summer and Fall on gravel roads, but never was able to achieve a nice long throttle-driven powerslide like I could in the snow that 1st Winter season.

Soon, I was pining over more powerful effects, flipping religiously through every single page of 3&4 Wheel Action, collecting sales brochures from the local dealer, memorizing the specs of the various machines offered at the time.
Oh how I wanted that 1986 Suzuki QuadSport 230S... it has a kick starter, a CLUTCH, full suspension, front brakes, and still had reverse gear. I couldn't imagine anything greater in the world at the time, the addiction had fully consumed me.

I used daily, several times a day, often my addiction would get in the way of being sociable, it affected my school work and studies, it prevented my full attention from being spent on the chores and tasks I should have been doing... no, I wanted nothing more than to ride. Just ride.
And ride I did.... across several rural counties, I indulged my addiction and I rode. On the roads, across the fields, through the creeks and around the woods.

Back in those days, the drug wasn't as prevalent as it was now, and riding around on the roads didn't illicit the same fear today when the Police would see you. I would simply pass by them and wave as I went on my merry way. They usually just waved back and nothing was said, nobody was stopped.
Eventually my family moved and my addiction was somehow put on the back burner as I grew and aged, but that fire never really went out, it just smoldered for a few decades.

In 2011 my best friend was diagnosed with cancer and told he had one year left to live. They called him on his 38th birthday to tell him he had Stage 4 Adenocarcinoma of the lung and had one year left to live. As I pondered this information I decided that now was the time to stuff as much living into life as I could for him, so I decided I would introduce him to a past love of mine, my old addiction from the 1980's.... I began my search on craigslist and within 2 weeks had purchased a 2003 Yamaha Warrior for myself and... wait for it... a 1986 Suzuki LT230S QuadSport for my friend.

I obtained titles and plates for both, purchased a small trailer to haul them on, and I introduced my friend to my addiction.
As is so often the case with addictions and peers, another friend of ours who never indulged decided he wanted to be part of the in-crowd and wanted to be cool, so he purchased a 2004 Suzuki LTZ250, and we were off.
Time passed and since then the 1986 Suzuki was garaged, the LTZ250 was sold for a '04 Raptor 660, and I continued to trash the shit out of the 2003 Warrior.

Alas, my addiction flared up recently and I found myself bored and no longer excited by the Warrior 350, especially with the recent addition of a GoPro on the 660 machine. Trails on video would show the Raptor blipping the throttle occasionally, while I would be beating the brains out of the Warrior to get up the trails at the same speeds.
Do you recall the old Pepe LePew cartoons... the black and white cat that would run it's ass off everywhere to escape the love-struck skunk, who simply bounded lazily on his way and always managed to keep up with the cat? That was the Raptor and Warrior. No matter how hard I pushed the Warrior, the Raptor simply showed no exertion in order to maintain the same speed and keep up.

Something HAD to be done.

I didn't like the new and wide machines like the 450R, and I wanted to stay with Yamaha, so I began to look into engine work on the Warrior. No luck, most places are busy with 450R jobs and I had to consider the money I would spend and the results I'd end up with and decide if it was worth it to put the money into the Warrior.

Then my addiction took a turn and I began to explore the the freebase version of the drug I so enjoyed these many years... the potency of the 2 stroke.

Within days, I spent every waking moment looking at videos, reading reviews, and learning about the other more powerful options for my addiction.
I recalled an article from '87 that mentioned screaming, Irish folklore, and something about a street bike motor stuffed into an ATV. I recalled the description of the snail-like dual exhaust that made it stand out from the others.

Soon I was on craigslist again, searching for a new drug.

I found a 2006 Banshee that was listed as "like new". It was an obvious choice for me, I really liked the size of the Warrior and I had experience in maintaining the machine to this point, and they looked to share many of the same designs from the front arms to the swingarm and so on. It was also about the same size, which was important for me as I preferred the slightly narrow Warrior over the 450R or Raptor 660 I had tried previously.
It was a 4-5 hour drive one way to get it, but the pics looked great. I planned to leave the next morning. Unfortunately it sold that previous evening, and I was gutted, utterly depressed, and now really wanting that more powerful rush of a stronger machine. I was jonesing bad for it.

I found another, a 2000 model and it looked new in the pics. It had "normal wear and tear" but it was a full 6 hours drive one way to get it. I made the trip and examined the machine. It had never seen dirt. It looked new. I mean, new new. Plastic so shiny you could see reflections. No dirt, no mud, nothing. Everything was tight, no slop, no scratches on the frame or underside. The grips looked new and original.
It came with a full set of ITP Sandstar tires mounted on new DWT red label wheels. It came with the stock exhaust and bumper and airbox lid. Fitted with Pro Circuit pipes, Pro Design K&N intake, DG bumper, VF3 reeds, and new Holeshots in the rear. Stock bore and original engine. It came with 10 new NGK plugs, 2 qt's Yamalube gearbox oil, a qt. of 2R premix oil, and some Engine Ice coolant.
I made the deal for $3500 and hauled it the 6 hours home.
I took it out to the woods to meet with friends, they asked when Yamaha brought the Banshee back, they thought it was a new machine.

First, I thought the carbs were faulty or something wrong with the engine... taking off in 1st resulted in nearly stalling the engine, it sounded like shit, and it had ZERO power to move itself. I thought I had made a mistake.
The Brits have a phrase... "on the pipe".... and it refers to 2 stroke engines being revved into the powerband to make the exhaust assist in pulling fresh fuel into the engine, it was something I learned while messing with 2 stroke Nitromethane RC cars.
I continued up the trail on the Banshee, wondering how big of a mistake I had made by buying this machine for woods and trail riding.
Then it changed noises and smoothed out and was "on the pipe".

Oh my.

That rush... that feeling.... this is IT... this is what I have been searching for.
Holy fucking sheep shit.
I'm going to kill myself on this fucking rocket sled.
Explosive isn't a strong enough term to describe how it feels when it takes off on the pipe.
It JUMPS from corner to corner in a burst of incredible sheer acceleration, blurring the trees as I whip past them.

I have discovered the next level of my addiction, and I'm well and truly hooked. Bad.

Like any other completely consumed addict in the throes of addiction, I cannot stop thinking about, talking about, sitting on, looking at, or actually using my new machine. The high is exceptional. Like a crack head, if I'm not actually using it, I'm talking about the last time I did or the next time I will. It envelops my every thought, life is now just the shit that happens in between when I can ride.

I hope not to ask too many stupid questions, and plan to use the search feature as often as possible, but I wanted to introduce myself to the community and express my incredible satisfaction with this Banshee.

I have to sort out a float issue on the right carb that wants to leak unless the fuel is turned off when the engine isn't riding, and I need to add some lights to it for riding at night, but I have no desire to continue looking for a new rush. Maybe in the future I'll look into something stronger for it, but for now I'm more than satisfied and am eager to continue being a Banshee owner.

Pics of it here http://brokevw.com/banshee.html
Short walk around vid a friend took of it the 1st time I unloaded it in the woods

 

[bluebanshee98]

Welcome to the hq. Haha if you think the bike is fast now wait till you really get a nice motor in there. Warning this is not a cheap sport windycity2

[03DMshee]

Clean fucking bike! Sorry to hear about your buddy...now tell me more about the MK2 with the cage!

[WINDYCITYJOHN400]

I don't know what you all are talking about......

 

TLDR LOL

[locogato11283]

We already have a windycityjohn.

[special06shee]

Very clean quad. Starting to get hard to find them in this shape. Enjoy it.

[m671054]

Do not cut those fenders. No matter how cool you think it might look. Full fenders that clean are impossible to find. i've never looked at it that way but i to am an addict.

Edited April 26, 2014 by m671054

[BrokeVW]

Thanks all for the replies!

 

Windycity?

Oddly enough, I picked the Banshee up in.... Chicago, the Windy City. Does that count?

 

ride.race.live -

Thanks for the comments about my friend, I appreciate it.

Most don't read these novels, I don't! I post them on the VWVortex forums as well, but those people are forced to read them to get the info to fix their transaxles, so I have a captive audience.

Pics of my friend that passed: http://brokevw.com/suspend.html

 

bluebanshee98 -

I'm excited that there is so much room to grow the engine if I need to. Honestly any more isn't really needed right now.... where I mostly ride (Wayne National Forest near Athens, OH) I can't use the top speed, and it makes enough power that it spins the wheels even with my fat ass on it. Plus it only brakes as well as the traction allows, and it moves fast enough that I'm using the binders a lot now, any more and I'll be kissing trees.

For some reason the fun hobbies are always costly.

 

03DMshee -

The VW is depressing... it's an '86 GTI originally built for SCCA use, I have let both it and the '88 Scirocco 16V sit and deteriorate I'm afraid.

I started rebuilding the 020 VW transaxle and ended up not working on my own stuff, so the GTI has a leaking heater core, the Scirocco has a bad 02 sensor. I have both parts here, I just never installed them, staying busy with trans work. Here is an example of the work I do, this is a trans built for a customer in Perth, Australia http://brokevw.com/grantagb.html

I actually contacted him in my search for a clean Banshee, as I know they had them there in 2012 new at the Yamaha dealers. The dickheads at the EPA put an end to that idea though, I couldn't get approval to import it even if I found one.

If you happen to have a MK1/2/3 car with a 4-cyl and ever have trans issues, let me know. I have Teardown and Rebuild pages on this site http://www.BrokeVW.com

 

m671054 -

I don't plan to cut the fenders, I like how it looks now. One of the problems in searching for one was trying to find one that wasn't completely modified to someone else's tastes, or already ran until it needed the engine rebuilt.

I do plan to add a 60W LED light bar to it, as soon as I can determine for sure if the lighting cicuit is AC or DC voltage. I thought it was using the same 30W 12V DC bulbs and lights my Warrior used, but then started reading about it (and other 2 strokes) being AC current and needing a DC conversion done or floating the ground or this that and the other, and now I'm confused on whether it is ALL AC or the lighting circuit is DC and the rest AC or if you only need the DC conversion for over 60W of lights, or what, but I'll sort it out.

 

The '86 Suzuki 230S and my friend on it before he passed. 100% stock, still had the original tires on it in this pic:

 

 

Nah.... just kidding, we propped it up on jack stands and put those wheels OVER the stock Suzuki tires. The wheels were at another buddies paint shop we ride with, he has an '04 Suzuki DRZ400.

Edited April 26, 2014 by BrokeVW

[MarineNYC]

OMFG. Welcome. But you have way to much time on your hands.

[fastforworddad]

I read your entire post, that being not hard to do when in proper paragraph form and with proper punctuation.  Nice introduction and welcome to the site.  I would hazard a guess that there are probably a few here with similar back stories regarding their addiction, myself included.

 

Very sorry to hear about your good friend, I guess there is something to that saying- -only the good die young.

 

Again, welcome.

[Strm Trpr]

Holy shit, you have no idea how dangerously close my story is to yours, right down to same Suzuki Quad Sport but his was white and blue my other buddy had the Warrior and unfortunately I lost my best friend/riding buddy too, 20 days after we graduated in 93.

 

I so sorry about your friend man.

The big C is no fucking joke.

 

I read every single word.

I'm very impressed with your writing skills.

 

I suck at writing, but I hope get my point across.

 

I'm already looking forward to reading more nostalgic stories!

 

Welcome to the HQ Brian, aka, BrokeVW!

 

Killer Fuckin Intro!

[Strm Trpr]

ps, don't listen to these fags talk shit about your intro.

They're just jealous they can't write like you, I wished I could.

 

Tip on the search function.

You see the green box at the right end of the search bar, click it.

From there you'll be able to do an advanced search with quotes, search by titles or what have you.

 

And I'm sure you already know from other enthusiasts forums, thick skin is required.

[BrokeVW]

fastforworddad -

Thanks for the welcome, I appreciate it!

 

Strm Trpr -

Thanks for the kind words on my post and my friend, I appreciate it.

The story was just to introduce myself in a memorable way to the forums, I don't plan on posting more like that really.

As for people talking shit about it, I didn't really see any... in fact, based on what I had expected, it was rather tame in terms of hazing and was a fairly warm reception to be honest.

 

I've just been reading through the Jetting and Electrical FAQs trying to get a plan for adding LED lights to the machine and learning more about the Banshee in general.

I'm thrilled there is a site dedicated to just the Banshee

 

I've only had it out a couple times, about 11 hours total, and I've put 6 gallons of fuel into it in that time.... this thing drinks fuel faster than the ol' Warrior, that's for sure. I'm into firearms as well, and feeding this Banshee is like feeding the SMG... it's costly and doesn't take long to expend but it has a high grin:dollar ratio; miles of smiles but it costs to keep them fed and running.