You have to see it to believe it. Typically when we think of private collections, we think of things like stamps, coins, maybe baseball cards or model cars. This guy collects Banshees. No, not posters, advertisements or sales brochures. Actual Yamaha Banshee 350cc twin cylinder 2-strokes. We’re going to go ahead and assume he is […] More »

The quintet. Dear ATVC: I just picked up a Yamaha Raptor 660 and it’s the first Yamaha I’ve ever owned. I am really surprised to hear they ran 5-valve heads. Why not the standard 4? It seems like nothing but more complexity. Even though four valves is the commonly accepted norm (two intake and two […] More »

Two or nothing. Dear ATVC: I have a Linhai 520efi with 2 cylinders. When I start it, it backfires and won’t run but when I remove the coil cable from the lower cylinder, it starts normally. Then when I reattach the plug cable, it backfires. I have checked timing and it’s okay. What could be […] More »

Better than new. The first company in the world to successfully electroplate onto aluminum substrates, WI’s own US Chrome has plated well over 1,000,000 cylinder bores since 1979. Perhaps even more amazing, the company has been in the plating industry since 1940! While their NiCom process is endorsed by performance racing icons such as Mercury […] More »

First of its kind. Last of its kind. All ATVs were single-cylinder until 1987 when Yamaha released the Banshee. It made use of a 349cc, 2-stroke, liquid cooled, twin-cylinder engine configuration. While many manufacturers have since followed up with twin cylinder engines in the time since, the Banshee remains the only factory 2 cylinder 2-stroke […] More »

Dear ATVC: Could somebody tell me if the top ends from a 1987 Suzuki Quadsport 230 and an 86 230 Quadrunner (shaft drive model) are the same? Any help is appreciated. 86230lt We spent many hours staring at OEM catalogs to determine parts compatibility and unfortunately it looks like none of the parts numbers match […] More »

Dear ATVC: Sort of a strange question- When rebuilding the top end on my Can-Am DS, I noticed that the piston doesn’t appear round so much as bowed out for lack of a better term. If the cylinder bore is perfectly round, how can this possibly work? Or did I just get a poorly cast […] More »