Yamaha Banshee 2008

[Yamada]

Do you know that the Banshee is still available in Canada for 2008???:D
As seen in october 07 Dirt wheels...

[jsimonh]

I would think there are a few people that wouldn't be to happy about that news. Could you imagine spending all that money on the SE version, thinking it was going to be the last and then BOOM Canada has an 08 model.

I still don't see why they did away with it in the first place. EPA this and that is bull crap. There are alot more things wrong with the world then 2-stroke smoke.

[LonesomeTriZ]

It was a very old desirn and they felt they should move one. I know it worked and worked well. But you know how it is, if you have nothing new to offer the public they go else where.

[fla 2-stroke]

are they still making them in japan?are the 08 models just leftovers from the cranked up production of the 06/07 models.If they are still rolling off lines in japan, it will be a great day.

[Yamada]

I dont have any facts, but it seems to me that they are selling their leftover in canada...

[LonesomeTriZ]

It would be nice to get a vin and run it. That should tell us if they are 08 models, or left overs.

[Yamada]

A couple of weeks back, I went to my yamaha dealer and I see a banshee on the showroom floor. At this time I tought like all everyone that banshee were dead... Anyway I have to go pick up a oil filter at this dealer. If I see a new banshee there I can try to read the VIN. Where should I look, and what would tell me if it is a 08 model...?

[LonesomeTriZ]

It should be on the lower tube of the frame. As far as decivering, that some one will have to look up.

[Jolly Roger]

I'm not sure on this as a fact, but somewhere I heard Banshees were coming back as a 4 stroke. I'm with you guys, this cutting out all the 2 strokes is a crock. Chainsaws and weed whackers are still 2 stroke so whats the big deal?

[LonesomeTriZ]

Yeah, I agree. I see no real reason for it. I am not a big Banshee fan, but I still think it is wrong.

[NINJA]

I'm not sure on this as a fact, but somewhere I heard Banshees were coming back as a 4 stroke. I'm with you guys, this cutting out all the 2 strokes is a crock. Chainsaws and weed whackers are still 2 stroke so whats the big deal?
When I was still working at the dealer and news of the phazer coming back as a 4 stroke came out we had also heard rumors from a couple of the R&D guys about a Banshee replacement using that same 4 stroke twin. Minoqua, WI is one of Yamagod's testing facilities locations, so we talked to these guys alot. We used to get first dibs on all their spare parts at the end of the season and their sleds. I remember this one RX-1 we got in from them that was completely flat black and had no badging on it whatsoever, turns out it was one of their prototypes. The motor in that one was very peaky almost like it had a different cam profile and there was magnesium parts everywhere in that thing.
Anyway, if the guys said it, then there must have been one they were playing with.

[RedRider_AK]

I think the Phazer motor in a quad would be pretty sick to tell you the truth... Probably gotta replace valves every 2 minutes of hard riding but that's the price you pay for performance.

[MTS]

I think the Phazer motor in a quad would be pretty sick to tell you the truth... Probably gotta replace valves every 2 minutes of hard riding but that's the price you pay for performance.

that would be a waste, the phazer is a slow ass pos,,, the banshee's here are just re-badged, some new LE red plastic, still the same thing from 92,

[BigGreenMachine]

There was a red/black flamed one at the dealer here. Sold quick and such a nice looking quad.

Money is the only reason they are being phased out, the fourstrokes are where its at for dealers to make money. Both on sales and sales of replacement engine parts.

The Phazer sled engine in a quad would be pretty potent but I doubt they'd release a 80hp quad to the public.

[84honda200s]

they can leave them phazer engines rite in them sleds where they belong. now an srx motor would kick but. but as said by biggreenmachine they wont ever put a 80 plus hp engine in a quad and let the consumer buy it. you know how many "wannabe" riders would hurt/kill them selves.

[LonesomeTriZ]

you know how many "wannabe" riders would hurt/kill them selves.

Good, thin out the herd some.

[84honda200s]

Good, thin out the herd some.



i kinda thought someone would say something like that. i agree with it 100%.

[scooterroo]

theres 2 banshees sitting on the showroom floor right now up at my local yamaha dealership, and sitting right next to them, are two blaster. both are 07 models, going for full price. the guy i talked to said the two strokes are done, four stroke is the wave they are riding now, but they can still sell off the remaining quantity of the banshee and blaster that yamaha has. he did say to me and i quote his words..."there is absolutely no reason for yamaha to replace the banshee or the blaster with the wide variety of raptors and the yfz450. they have the market covered from utility, to sport, to racing, he doubts we will ever see another bike like the banshee or the blaster again." now im not saying hes a know it all, or hes right about this, but pretty discouraging words coming from a yamaha man.

[RedRider_AK]

that would be a waste, the phazer is a slow ass pos,,, the banshee's here are just re-badged, some new LE red plastic, still the same thing from 92,

Yes, the Phazer isn't LIGHTNING FAST, but it's a 500cc FOUR-STROKE in a heavy (500+ lbs) sled chassis with a CVT tranny. Think of it in a light (~300) quad chassis, with a 6 speed manual? Ever hear of "power to weight" ratio?

And yeah, the Banshee there is just a re-badged copy of the '92 Banshee. EVERY BANSHEE except the j-arm ones they made in '87 are a re-badged copy of the previous one, they haven't changed a single thing on them in 20 freakin' years.

[MTS]

Yes, the Phazer isn't LIGHTNING FAST, but it's a 500cc FOUR-STROKE in a heavy (500+ lbs) sled chassis with a CVT tranny. Think of it in a light (~300) quad chassis, with a 6 speed manual? Ever hear of "power to weight" ratio?

And yeah, the Banshee there is just a re-badged copy of the '92 Banshee. EVERY BANSHEE except the j-arm ones they made in '87 are a re-badged copy of the previous one, they haven't changed a single thing on them in 20 freakin' years.

Dude, i work with the things day in and day out, dont preach me on power to weight, 90% of the phazers weight is in the motor itself, theres litertally nothing to the sled, it would still be way to heavy for a quad chassie, hell look at how heavy the banshee still is and its a 350 twin 2 stroke, not to mention, the EFI system on them Blow's goats, theres a reason they only ever put 1 twin in sport quad,

[NINJA]

they wont ever put a 80 plus hp engine in a quad and let the consumer buy it. you know how many "wannabe" riders would hurt/kill them selves.

ha hah hah! so true

[84honda200s]

Dude, i work with the things day in and day out, dont preach me on power to weight, 90% of the phazers weight is in the motor itself, theres litertally nothing to the sled, it would still be way to heavy for a quad chassie, hell look at how heavy the banshee still is and its a 350 twin 2 stroke, not to mention, the EFI system on them Blow's goats, theres a reason they only ever put 1 twin in sport quad,


agreed for the most part. ive owned about 8 or so sleds the track is probably one of if not the heaviest things on a sled. i only owned 1 yammie sled. it was a snappy little thing for only being a 250. but pretty much i cant comment on yammie sleds at all. i dont know about the phazer engines but the rotax engines and the invader engine i own now only weighed on avg. 70 pounds.


i do know a rotax wouldnt be to bad in a trike/quad. hell dale put one (i believe a 670 rotax) in his e.t. bike.

but as i said none of it even matters because they will never ever put a sled engine or a engine as powerful in a quad. but it doesnt mean we cant. :twisted:

[dizasterzrfun69]

there was a write up about the "2008 banshee 500" in the april 07 dirtwheels. I have it right here but when i scan it its too big to post up.


Hey i figured it out, here ya go

[dizasterzrfun69]

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee55/Dizasterzrfun69/08banshee5001.jpg

[dizasterzrfun69]

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee55/Dizasterzrfun69/08banshee5002.jpg

[dizasterzrfun69]

http://i232.photobucket.com/albums/ee55/Dizasterzrfun69/08banshee5003.jpg

[NINJA]

April issue is always a joke!

[NINJA]

Dude, i work with the things day in and day out, dont preach me on power to weight, 90% of the phazers weight is in the motor itself, theres litertally nothing to the sled, it would still be way to heavy for a quad chassie, hell look at how heavy the banshee still is and its a 350 twin 2 stroke, not to mention, the EFI system on them Blow's goats, theres a reason they only ever put 1 twin in sport quad,
OK OK, let me straighten something out here. First off, I respect the fact that you work at a dealer. I was a service manager for two years at a YAMAHA dealer and am a certified tech, so i'm giving you some credibility here on what you have to say. However, a snowmobiles crank and flywheel are much heavier to deal with the added strain and the added resistance of turning that huge track, so you can't go by the weight of the motor on this matter. Secondly, the banshees weight problem is actually from the chassis itself, not the motor. Thirdly, the banshee was never intended to be a lightweight racing quad, but a duner and hooligan machine instead. That being said, it is not improbable that yamaha could in fact put a 500 twin 4 stroke in a quad chassis to fill their soon to be missing niche. Who says it has to have 80 horse, they can always detune. Look at yamahas history, they love being controversial. Besides, the consent decree is dead and it's obvious with the machines that the companies are making now. If kawi can have the vforce and everyones 4by4s are having a displacement and power war right now, what's to stop yamaha from making a 4 wheeled bullet? And Banshees don't have fuel injection. Unless you were referring to the sled, in that case, my bad.

[firefirefire90]

April issue is always a joke!


Yeah haha like the 3 cylinder 750cc honda MONSTER from a few years back!



:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

[Lantz Ltd]

agreed for the most part. ive owned about 8 or so sleds the track is probably one of if not the heaviest things on a sled. i only owned 1 yammie sled. it was a snappy little thing for only being a 250. but pretty much i cant comment on yammie sleds at all. i dont know about the phazer engines but the rotax engines and the invader engine i own now only weighed on avg. 70 pounds.


i do know a rotax wouldnt be to bad in a trike/quad. hell dale put one (i believe a 670 rotax) in his e.t. bike.

but as i said none of it even matters because they will never ever put a sled engine or a engine as powerful in a quad. but it doesnt mean we cant. :twisted:


A rotax is going in the Can-Am DS450, 450X, and maybe newest renegade 800. And the Can-Am's go like greased snot.

[370banshee]

that was the april fools issue... why ruin the good banshee name by making it a sloww pile of unammusing 4 stroke garbage...

[MTS]

OK OK, let me straighten something out here. First off, I respect the fact that you work at a dealer. I was a service manager for two years at a YAMAHA dealer and am a certified tech, so i'm giving you some credibility here on what you have to say. However, a snowmobiles crank and flywheel are much heavier to deal with the added strain and the added resistance of turning that huge track, so you can't go by the weight of the motor on this matter. Secondly, the banshees weight problem is actually from the chassis itself, not the motor. Thirdly, the banshee was never intended to be a lightweight racing quad, but a duner and hooligan machine instead. That being said, it is not improbable that yamaha could in fact put a 500 twin 4 stroke in a quad chassis to fill their soon to be missing niche. Who says it has to have 80 horse, they can always detune. Look at yamahas history, they love being controversial. Besides, the consent decree is dead and it's obvious with the machines that the companies are making now. If kawi can have the vforce and everyones 4by4s are having a displacement and power war right now, what's to stop yamaha from making a 4 wheeled bullet? And Banshees don't have fuel injection. Unless you were referring to the sled, in that case, my bad.
Was refering to the sled, i agree, more/less with what ya got, Im going more on the fact that it just isnt going to happen, and if it where, no way in hell would it be a phazer motor, yamaha is better than that, Im sure they can come up with something a little better than a detuned sled motor, Heck, they allredy have, more/less the rappy 700, slow as it is,, a nice 550 single is more long the lines im thinkin,

[84honda200s]

A rotax is going in the Can-Am DS450, 450X, and maybe newest renegade 800. And the Can-Am's go like greased snot.



friggin sweet man. now imagine a 800cc mxz rotax sled engine in a quad. :drool: :drool:

[NINJA]

Was refering to the sled, i agree, more/less with what ya got, Im going more on the fact that it just isnt going to happen, and if it where, no way in hell would it be a phazer motor, yamaha is better than that, Im sure they can come up with something a little better than a detuned sled motor, Heck, they allredy have, more/less the rappy 700, slow as it is,, a nice 550 single is more long the lines im thinkin,

Yeah, I thought about what I said about that niche earlier and the 700 does kinda fill the spot, kinda. It will definitely be interesting to see what happens. I just keep thinking about when I was test riding Blades and they got wind of the rumor of a 4 stroke yammie sled and Gerard just laughed and said it would never happen......

[Kilborg]

The banshee had a good run...over 20 years....without any real changes other then the j-arms being switched up to the standard a-arm. They are extremely popular out here....probably the most popular sport machine rivaled closely by the 400ex. Im not a huge fan of them but I wouldnt think twice about buying one given a good deal at the right time...they are fun quads in their own right.

Good time for yamaha to perhaps re-release it. Like trikes, pingers are going the way of the dodo...for better or worse, high tech thumpers are here to stay. Pingers have become more of the "niche" machine, much like the banshee. While pingers are slowly being phased out it may not be a bad idea from yamaha's standpoint to simply leave the market, as it has dominated it for over 20 years. nobody really makes a machine comprable to a banshee...the quadzilla was probably the closest.

There have been some rumours about 500 thumper based 'shees... I would love to see yamaha come out with with a twin thumper with the same banshee characteristics...a flat out fast bike more dedicated to the rider and the weekend warrior then a racer.

[RedRider_AK]

What I want to know is why they haven't put EFI on any two-smokes. Ski-Doo's 600 and 800 engines (in their sleds) are lighter and, so they say, cleaner running than any four-stroke sled motor around, so why not introduce some sort of high-tech engine wizardry into the standard 350 Banshee motor and make it run better? Maybe add powervalves and other stuff.

[NINJA]

What I want to know is why they haven't put EFI on any two-smokes. Ski-Doo's 600 and 800 engines (in their sleds) are lighter and, so they say, cleaner running than any four-stroke sled motor around, so why not introduce some sort of high-tech engine wizardry into the standard 350 Banshee motor and make it run better? Maybe add powervalves and other stuff.

Oh gawd don't even get me started on that issue! It all boils down to politics and profits. 2 strokes with direct injection do have the capability to burn cleaner and more efficiently, everybody knows this! But there is far more profit in selling parts for 4 strokes, especially the high strung units that are out there now. Did you know that Yamaha is recommending an oil change every six hours on the YFZ450s now? Guess what? If you toast your crank on it (which happens more than you'd like to acknowledge) while it's under warranty and they don't feel you changed your oil often enough you are SOL! 2 STROKES ARE GETTING PHASED OUT WHETHER YOU LIKE IT OR NOT! It's kinda like electric cars, they don't stand a chance, the decision has been made. And yes, it does piss me off!

[RedRider_AK]

But there is far more profit in selling parts for 4 strokes, especially the high strung units that are out there now. Did you know that Yamaha is recommending an oil change every six hours on the YFZ450s now? Guess what? If you toast your crank on it (which happens more than you'd like to acknowledge) while it's under warranty and they don't feel you changed your oil often enough you are SOL!

Yeah, I kinda figured it had something to do with parts replacement. Are you really S.O.L. if you blow up a crank under warranty? How can they tell if you didn't change the oil enough? That sounds like extreme gayness right there.

And I admit that there's a LOT of money when you need a top-end rebuild every 40 hours (that's what I've heard the recommended time is for a new top end on the YFZ450), and since most people don't do that, they'll probably eat some cams and valves and such. Jeez.

[NINJA]

When you send the crank back to Yamaha, trust me, they'll know if it was from the oil not being changed. Some dealers will be nice and send it back anyway, but the Yamagods know.

[SWIGIN]

Was refering to the sled, i agree, more/less with what ya got, Im going more on the fact that it just isnt going to happen, and if it where, no way in hell would it be a phazer motor, yamaha is better than that, Im sure they can come up with something a little better than a detuned sled motor, Heck, they allredy have, more/less the rappy 700, slow as it is,, a nice 550 single is more long the lines im thinkin,

are you forgetting that yamaha reused the rz 350 motor for the shee........they recycled motors in the past

[Yamada]

are you forgetting that yamaha reused the rz 350 motor for the shee........they recycled motors in the past

Yeah, I heard this ( not a yamaha guru at all. I'm to young haha.)
And I know that the rz 350 engine were powervalved.

[Loosecannon]

correct

the rz was powervalved the rd was not

i have an 07 banshee sitting under the covers in my shed- the 08 is just the same but orange plastics insted of red

[icp4life162005]

:pics: :pics: :pics:

[Loosecannon]

http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r282/yamaha06blaster/R0011910.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r282/yamaha06blaster/R0011911.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r282/yamaha06blaster/R0011912.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r282/yamaha06blaster/R0011913.jpg
http://i147.photobucket.com/albums/r282/yamaha06blaster/R0011914.jpg

[NINJA]

Beautiful banshee! How do you like that single carb setup?

[icp4life162005]

damn thats sexy!

[Loosecannon]

thanks guys

the 2-1 carby is a great setup-easy to tune,easy access,gives it a bit more down low

cost me a lot of money but worth it

next project will be a 250R!! make it look as pretty as that

[350Xhilaration]

Very nice. How do you like the DMC pipes/"single" silencer??

[Loosecannon]

hi 350Xhilaration

i love the DMC pipes

they give it a wicked note coming on the band it sounds totaly different to any toomeys or fmf pipes

plus they look cool


cheers
luke

[willrideanythin]

that would be a waste, the phazer is a slow ass pos,,, the banshee's here are just re-badged, some new LE red plastic, still the same thing from 92,

Whats so slow about 70+ HP? Even if it lacks a 2 stroke rip. The sled would be slow, It has 2 clutches, a drive shaft, a gear box and the a huge track to push ponies through. Ther phazer engine tho slow in the sled platform would have to be toned down a bit to be sold to the general public. Companies have done this alot, Like Kawi and the V forse 700 they "reclutched" to make it more user friendly and less dangerous. Bring on the 4 stroke revolution as long as its done right, And with billions in sales on the line it will be done right.
Just my .02,
Luke

[honda250sx]

I dont know what is slow about the Phazer. I have worked at a yamaha dealer for almost 7 yrs now. As soon as they hit our floor they were flying out the door. I have worked as a technician and service manager. I have rarely seen a customer that has not been happy with his or her phazer.

Ninja. Reading your posts I see you have worked at a dealer. I have been to the facility in Minocqua, WI. However acquiring prototypes is very doubtful. These things just dont get pawned off that easily. Especially to dealers. I have worked with famed yamaha snowmobile racer/engineer/ extraordinare Tim Bender. He confirms the same. Tim has built, raced and won on many rare yamaha sleds. He now runs polaris race team.

Ninja also what warranty companies did you deal with? Y.E.S i assume. I have seen some things I would have NEVER warrantied go thru. I.E. Customer with a nytro changed his oil. O-ring from old filter was stuck to engine case. Customer installed another filter then filled oil. Went riding. Oil drained from the engine via oil filter mount. Customer bought two cases of brakekleen and cleaned engine bay. Brought to us the dealer, We tore motor down. Inspected. Verfied middle cylinder catostrophic meltdown and sent to yamaha for further evaluation. End result the gave the customer a BRAND NEW SLED!

If you think changing the oil is bad, how about spliting the cases ever 12 hrs. Ninja since you were in service, did you ever meet Tom Parr from yamaha?