This 440 is Banshee - FAST!

[Steven]

Yesterday while out riding, I wound up chatting with a Banshee owner. One thing lead to another and he asked if I minded racing so he could guage his Banshee against a 440EX. I was equally as curious so I humbley answered, "sure" fully expecting to get my but handed to me.

We spent some time deliberating on how to even the playing field between the two machines, in an effort to handicap powerbands, tire grip, ect... In the end we decided pavement would be the best place to race. So we did - twice.

On the first race, the Banshee got a 10 foot holeshot on me. It kept this 10 foot lead all the way to max speed. On race two, my 440EX got a 10 foot holeshot on the Banshee and kept it all the to max speed.

I was astonished. These two machines accelerated at the same rate! Right away, I became skeptical. I asked him if his Banshee was in need of a top end job? He replied no... "each cylinder is holding 125 lbs of compression."

So thats it... kudos to the White Brothers 440 kit. And of course all due credit goes to the Banshee for OEM power because it was bone stock.

I also think it important to mention that I had my spark arrestor screen installed in my R4 exhaust that day and that my K&N was overdue for a cleaning.

This mod was worth the money.

Steve

[MIKE400EX]

Wait 'til you put a FCR on there! (and hope the banshee doesn't get pipes)

[01_400exrider]

Same with me buddy, my brother has a banshee, i spank it in the dunes, he comes and gets me in the long straight aways though. I was really impressed!!!! He was so mad, he has pipes and boost bottle, not even a race, i dont like waisting my battery to start it to race him :p

[GoLikeHell]

One thing I have always noticed about a banshee is they do not perform as well on pavement as they do on dirt. 2 strokes need fast wheel speed to get into the powerband, and thats achieved by loose dirt. Rerace your buddy on dirt and see how close of a race it really is. I run a 400ex and you have to pull out all the stops to stay in the lead.

Mark

[ChadEXer]

Originally posted by GoLikeHell
One thing I have always noticed about a banshee is they do not perform as well on pavement as they do on dirt. 2 strokes need fast wheel speed to get into the powerband, and thats achieved by loose dirt. Rerace your buddy on dirt and see how close of a race it really is. I run a 400ex and you have to pull out all the stops to stay in the lead.

Mark
This has to be true, because my good friend has a Banshee and i used to spank him on the drag strip every time we raced, this was with my old 416!!!
Steven, do you have porting and polishing and all that good stuff??
If your a good rider, you can stay in the pwerband with a Banshee on the pavement too,,,the tires will spin on the pavement too,,,, but its not good for them;)

[Twiztid]

thats a badazz 440

[JustRace]

I have posted this in another thread in the open forum before but i'll say it again.

I raced my friends 370 shee and on the dirt road (the road was alittle wet from the misty weather all day) and I had him off the line and was able to hold it till I finished about half a quad length ahead of him. This happened 3-times in a row so I know it wasn't a fluke. He was complaining about not getting traction so he wanted to go race on blacktop. Well on black top that thing absolutely killed my 4-wheeler. I took him off the start by a little over a quad length but as soon as he got into third he just flew past me like there was a rocket on the back of the quad.

[Steven]

No porting, the below listed mods are everything altered from OEM other than tires and race gas.

Mark, if this Banshee needed to slip its tires in order to get into its powerband, wouldn't that only be applicabe in first gear? For example, if the Banshee driver shifted each gear at peak rpm that that would effectively keep the engine in the powerband for gears 2 through 6, giving it enough time to run me down.

If your concern is lack of bottom end torque for the Banshee then I think I see what you are trying to say because the 440 has way more. This Banshee and this 440EX both pulled big wheelies off the start however, displaying that each got ample torque to the ground when starting off so I'm still a bit confused as to your angle.

We figured blacktop would be the best was to level the playing field because it left traction out of the equation. Just engine thrust versus engine thrust.

Anyway, I was faster in the sand. We were both riding in the same pit . My out performing him there is what I think sparked his interust in my EX and hence a race.

Anyway, its just a stock Banshee. I didn't want to get into a debate. I know that some have been comtemplating a 440 kit and that they would find my discovery inspireing.

Steve

[GoLikeHell]

Okay we can argue this till we are blue in the face. The problem in racing is there is too much drivers error to really put a good number on anything. Every race I have seen with a STOCK to MILD banshee loose dirt always worked in there favor. Lets just say to get more data on racing it should be done on pavement and loose dirt, then switch riders, and see who wins. I am not new to ATV's, heck i used to ride a US90 back in the day.


Thanks
Mark
PS: great input guys!!

[oregonrider89]

Hey Steve,

You will find a little more speed if you put your stock 15 tooth sproket back on. I bet you have all kinds of bottom with the 440/14 tooth combo. Just a thought.

oregonrider89

[Steven]

Yea, I've tried 14, 15, and 16 tooth gears now.

I like the 16 because I can just leave the bike in 2nd gear most of the time and it makes 2nd pull nice and long. I just dont like how the 16 pulls 4th and 5th gear in deep sand. Its not urgent enough. Now the 16 pulls the top gears fine in anything else but deep sand... that darn sand just really obsorbes HP.

The 15 was also nice and was a happy medium but it still didn't pull 4th and 5th the way I wanted it to in deep sand.

The 14 just plain rips in all gears. It pulls 5th just as well as it pulls 2nd in all conditions. This makes the bike a blast for me to ride in any condition in any gear... hills, sand, whatever. Top speed is ony in the 60's but its a fine trade off. With the 14, I reak havoc with Raptors, DS650's, and Banshees in the top gears and thats what is important to me. Pluss, the bike is a wheelie monster which really ups the fun factor.

Steve