Sorry midnight,
anyway- this guy had a 84' air cooled model-- the '85 was much faster than this:
http://www.geocities.com/justin1982z...ndaCR500R.html

 

How much horsepower do the CR500's have?

 

I think the best CR500s were somewhere around 55-60 HP stock in the '80s and only what ~20lbs or so heavier than the CR250. And obscenely dangerous for the average novice to ride!! Instant backflips on asphalt! I remember hearing about modded CR500s hitting 70HP without too much effort. My CR250R is all I can handle and is probably around 50 HP (although without the big bore torque), I'll leave the open class bikes to the freaks, that kind of power is only fully useful in wide open spaces.

The LT500 Quadracer had only 52 HP for comparison and the Banshee 48 HP. The 250cc Tecate-4 250 had 42 HP.

 

Wow, thats insane! I believe you are correct with the horsepower numbers for the Tecate, and Zilla, but a stock Banshee only has around 34 horsepower if i am remembering correctly. My friend had his dynoed once awhile back.

 

I remember the day the Banshee came out in '87, in fact I still have the original Dirt Wheels mag I bought as a kid, Yamaha said 48 HP!! I have heard other people say the Banshee is milder now, maybe for more reliability or to keep the insurance/media people, etc from getting too worried? In the early '90s, there was a lot of very negative publicity about super fast quads, and of course trikes had been outlawed by '87, so maybe Yamaha toned the stockers down a little. All I know is that the old school Banshees were VERY fast and that motor loves to be modded. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-happy.gif[/img]

 

That could be true, beacuse my friend has an 02 Banshee.

 

I think the 87 D.W article {I have the reprinted article} that said the shee had 48 hp was measured at the crank not the rear wheels. The factories in later years measuered the hp at the rear wheels for liability reasons {simply sounds better to sell someone a quad with 38hp than 48hp}. Around a year ago D.W did a shootout , banshee vs raptor vs yfz450. They said the banshee had 38 hp at the rear wheels. Personally I think the 06 has the same hp as the 87.

 

IMHO I think all your quoted HP #'s are very liberal. A stock banshee produces no where near 48HP, and the LT500 was very lucky to put out 49-50 because they are so plugged up.. Guess it depends on the dyno as no two are ever alike.

 

Good information on those bikes....CR500 was & still the king of power in the dirtbike world. Didn't Kawaski make a 500 2-stroke ? The all time great Quadzilla 500 holds still holds the record in the atv world.....

 

IMHO I think all your quoted HP #'s are very liberal. A stock banshee produces no where near 48HP, and the LT500 was very lucky to put out 49-50 because they are so plugged up.. Guess it depends on the dyno as no two are ever alike.[/quote]

And where the measurements are taken, crank {motor dyno} or rear wheels {chassis dyno}. A banshee probily does produce 48 hp at the crank, and 38hp at the rear wheels.