rz350 trans in a banshee

[trickedcarbine]

Clusters and all that went in to my passion motor. I got lucky and even found the RZ forks. Slight, but nice upgrade. The earlier gear ratios are a little wider and when you have a built motor it’s nice to have the gear spread. That said, re gearing sprockets is cheaper. Or even do different primaries if you have a bigger motor and hate how fast 1-3 shifts are. 

[Coester]

On 3/26/2020 at 7:22 AM, ClaudeMachining said:

Go ahead, teach us.

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There seems to be a consensus that if an RZ transmission is installed, the machine will have much taller gearing. And beyond that, altering the drive sprockets will be necessary to make it work. That is in correct. Also, you cannot interchange seperate gears to build “custom” ratios. Like most constant mesh transmissions, every gear must be used with it’s corresponding gear. The final overall gearing between the two transmissions is very close. External gearing changes wouldn’t be required or necessary. The beauty of the RZ transmission is it’s noticeably closer 4,5, and 6th ratio which many riders like. 
Most Banshees will drop out of the powerband when shifting from 5th to 6th when on a hill, against a head wind, riding in the dunes or externally geared for hi speed because the gear ratio change from 5th to 6th is 16.26%, very similar to every other gear change.  The RZ transmission will rectify those issues. The jump between 5th and 6th with RZ transmission is 7.6%. Significantly closer. And, the jump from 4th to 5th on the Banshee is also wider at 16.4% vs the RZ’s closer 11.2%. I was lucky enough to test the differences many moons ago when Banshees were first available and was making my living racing them professionally. For a couple of years I was a Team Yamaha ATV racer and part of the team that beat the competition in the 1986 Baja 1000 to debut the New machine for 1987. 
It’s too bad the RZ gears sets are no longer available. They were an admirable alteration for many. Cheers!

Edited March 29, 2020 by Coester
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[kawa110]

So better shift forks and closer 4-5-6th gears.
Specific year rz to look for?

Couldn’t the gearing be accomplished via sprockets, much cheaper.


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[Coester]

kawa110

The RZ’s were only sold in the U.S. in 1984 and 1985. They were great bikes. However, that was 35 years ago. The bikes and parts are getting very rare today. Changing the sprockets will affect your final drive ratio only. Doing that will make 0 effect on the internal gear ratios and the spacing between each gear selected. Theres more to it than closer 4-5-6th. 1-2-3 are spaced farther apart than Banshee 1-2-3. For some, this is also of benefit. There is a guy in Europe that builds gear sets for RZ’s that will work in Banshees too. They are VERY pricey though... Is it worth it? Probably not to the average Banshee enthusiast, but we all know how much time and effort some put into their toys. For others, it’s only money... Cheers!