Tri-Shee Build Thread. A.K.A. Trish

[zmpolaristech]

This whole build started simply because I could. I have been hoarding banshee and Tri-Z parts for years now, and have accumulated quite the pile of spare parts. I had a Tri-Z frame with a junk engine cradle, and I had a spare banshee frame kickin around....not to mention a complete Banshee with a 400 stroked and ported engine.....and so it began.

On April 7th of this year, I showed up at ATCTim's garage with my 2 spare frames, a whole pile of parts, and a big Idea.


We started by hacking off the front of the banshee frame, and the top half of the Tri-Z frame. Then proceeded to ZIP-TYE the 2 frames together until we got an Idea of how this was gonna work out...And we realized real quick, that this was almost meant to be. We basically grafted the top half of a tri-z frame to the back half of a banshee frame.



We then built the engine cradle around the engine. We had to piece the engine cradle together with several pieces canibalized from the old Z frame, the old banshee frame, and even a Mini chopper frame...LOL. A "friend" was supposed to bend us up the cradle with his "sweet" pipe bender, but it seems he was too busy to help...ever. The down tube is actually a Honda 185s fork tube (BAHahahahaa....who knew a Honda could be good for something! j/k)



All the joints have slugs in them and are beautifully Tig welded, thanx to Jake the Snake and Chuck (UpChuck Racing). I ground all the welds with a cookie wheel, then inspected for any pits...ALL pits were then filled, and the joints were hand flat filed by me, until they were no longer noticeable. Those who have seen it, know, its almost impossible to see the seems.



If you look close, the frame is built offset, just like the banshee frame is...the down tube is centered, but the cradle is not. you can see it real good in a few shots. It has to be built like this to have correct chain allignment, being that these engines were designed for a street bike. These engines also "lay down" alot more than the tri-z engine, so we had to raise the front of the engine about an inch so that the cylinders were IN the cradle....


Then we added some cross bracing to the lower engine cradle, just to make sure we didn't twist her up like a pretzel the first time 70 ponies ripped threw her!


We added a few gussets in the banshee sub-frame, since in my experience, they bend like hot butter! The seat latch was cut from the banshee frame, trimmed, and grafted to the top of the Z frame. The angle of the seat is almost perfect. I trimmed about a 1/4 from the front sides to make it as close as possible. The radiator brackets were ever so slightly modified to move the radiators forward and up 1/2" (head clearance).

[zmpolaristech]

Chuck hauled everything to his "shop", sandblasted all the parts, and had them beautifully powdercoated KTM orange. The powder came out flawless!


I then started assembling this creation with parts from just about everything in my garage...and some others.


The engine was pulled right out of my quad, freshened up, and stuffed into Trish. It is a 4mil stroker with a F.A.S.T. racing formula port, stock bore cylinders, 20cc domes (100 octaine), VF3s, Chariotte intakes, and 30mm PWK carbs. In quad form, this thing HAULED THE MAIL! We built another under cover top mount tank, almost identical to the one on my race bike....Only this one has (2) 1/4 outlets, so I don't run the float bowls dry at the strip.


Then it was off to DYNOPORT to have a custom pipe built. I went over what I thought would work for a 2-1-2 inframe pipe with Rich, then let him work his magic! I brought him a pair of FMF shorties to work with ( I LOVE the sound of the shorties). When I showed up a week later to retrieve my bike...I WAS FLOARED!!! I NEVER expected it to be as PERFECT as it is...I will let the pictures tell the rest


And some pics of her at TF:

[zmpolaristech]

I let QUITE a few people ride Trish at TF, and believe it or not, this is a VERY trailable bike. I trail rode this thing all week at TF on a -1 swinger. WHAT A BLAST!!! Enough low end to ride threw the woods at a leisure pace, AND ENOUGH POWER ON THE PIPE TO PASS ANYTHING! And, with regular old coolant, stock tri-z rads, and a t-stat eliminator, she runs around 170deg in the woods, and never broke 195deg at the drag strip. Trish is my new trail bike!

Then, the night before the drags, we threw the +6 in her with some 22" 4-snows. The next day, we let her eat!!! I Took home the first place trophy and the $200 cash in open class at the drag strip! (also took 2nd in mod class with my 310 Dream Z). YEP, this is my FAVORITE TRIKE YET!!!



OK boys, let me know what ya think. Ill get better finished pics of her later...

[userj8670]

im not a yami guy by any means but this is cool! It shows that anything is possible once them creative juices get flowing and you def succeeded. Truthfully it looks factory and not cobbed together. Outstanding buddy!

[slaughter]

holy jesus i am a yami guy and that is one of the sickest things i have ever seen its a work of art
please tell me you have some vids

[aldochina]

very nice work man. that looks to be one mean machine!! to bad i wasnt there to take it for a rip! amazing amount of welding on that pipe!! I can see why it would be your fave, but the Dream Z is hard to beat!!

[sinsayers]

All of these super nice trikes popping up on 3WW recently have my brain fried. That is sweet and the pipes are very nice, I can tell by all of the details you worked hard on her man. Great trike

[Jcormode]

AWESOME AWESOME AWESOME. that's my dream trike. Do you still have the specs for the pipe or do you fancy making another to ship to me in uk? That's the only thing that's been stopping me making one.

[atc007]

Excellent work! Also not a Yammi fan at all. But that is a beautiful ride to be very proud of!! The two of them together is perfect! 2 pieces to be Very proud of !!

[atctim]

Let me be honest here: when the banshee and tri-z frames showed up in my garage and were both cut - I was the biggest nay-sayer there was. I just could not picture in my head this thing working. That being said, I know Jon is a perfectionist, and figured he would come to a point and say - it's not gonna work. As it developed, my mind was changed. Plenty of Yamaha / Honda jokes and trash talking went into this project. I'm just happy it has a bit of red in it (LOL - 185S fork in the frame )

Seeing how this came together with the talent in my shop - I am not afraid to dream up anything now. With 2 AWESOME welders - powder coating and machine shop at Chuck's disposal and imaginations that sometimes need reeled back in - I can't wait to see what is rolled out my overhead door next.

I got to ride it at TF and was astounded by it's low end grunt - with only ever riding one banshee before my entire life, it was a pleasant surprise. This trike really could compete in any trike event. Watch out boys - there is a new sheriff in town!
Great build Jon! I <3 Trish!

[BeersBuds&Mud]

WOW!!! what an amazing build!! you guys r some damn good welders!! your next build u guys should and probably could start with tube stock and build the frame from scratch,lol!! congrats again guys!!!!

[Swinger]

I fell in love with this machine at TF and loved watching her tear up the strip. Awesome job Jon and hope you still plan on hitting Beaverdale this year with us on Sept. 9th.

[zmpolaristech]

Let me be honest here: when the banshee and tri-z frames showed up in my garage and were both cut - I was the biggest nay-sayer there was. I just could not picture in my head this thing working. That being said, I know Jon is a perfectionist, and figured he would come to a point and say - it's not gonna work. As it developed, my mind was changed. Plenty of Yamaha / Honda jokes and trash talking went into this project. I'm just happy it has a bit of red in it (LOL - 185S fork in the frame )

Yeah, I forgot to mention that the biggest "nay-sayer" here was the founder of Tionesta Trikes himself!! But without ALL their help, it wouldn't have been possible. I can't say thanx enough...BIG THANX: Tionesta Trikes (Tim and Jake Kiester), UpChuck Racing (Chuck Seitz), The Birts (Jeremiah and Hoyte Birt...these guys built my fuel tanks), Tri-ZNate (Nate Carey, for donating a swinger for the drags) and DYNOPORT for that GORGEOUS pipe, that obviously performs as well as it looks!!!

Oh, and Rich @ DYNOPORT said that this was a 1 time pipe! He had so much time into it, he said would have to charge $1500 to build another one, just to make some money on it!!!

[Louis Mielke]

Very impressive build John.

I got to ride it guys, and I'll tell you what impressed me the most was how mild natured it was if you wanted it to be. Big power is awesome but big power hidden behind a nice time cruise-able machine is even better. You could literally cruise this machine in the trails all day. Very impressive.

[ebaccm26]

That is a sweet z, I also really like the orange and blue. I only hope to have as nice of a trike as this eventually.