I do all types of riding and need something that will do good all around. Handling and reliability are the most important parts of a bike to me. I can't decide between the Banshee and YFZ450. What should i do? What are the pros and cons of each? How reliable are they?

 

They are both reliable. The 04 yfz's had some problems with the battery and decompression plug but i am pretty sure both problems have been fixed. As far as handling the yfz has better handling than the Banshee.

 

handling, stock goes to the YFZ hands down. and as for reliability, so far the YFZ hasnt had any major probs with it and its a 4 stroke. 2 strokes tend to usualy require more care to keep somthing from going wrong

 

well, ive had lots of bikes and quads...

and I just got my first banshee a few weeks ago.

Its a 97, red and black.
Reliability has been 100%. (well, for some reason the throttle sticks at about 5% open but ONLY at PISMO BEACH!!!!!
Must be the salt water in the air or SOMETHING.. I have no idea)

Anyways its been perfectly reliable. and It seems to handle good too. It slides very well.

 

I know that taking care of 2 strokes is more work (well worth the work). But I have heard rumors that the Banshee has a tendancy to break down, or have problems. I think that after all these years there would be rare defects, so this info was probably coming from someone who doesn't take good care of their machine. I maintain my Blaster very well and haven't had problems, so I would think the same for a Banshee.

 

The banshee engine is more reliable than the yfz's. The first time you take that engine apart to make it bigger and better, you lose reliablility. If an engine is not put together correctly, they will break down a lot more. But this is true for any machine, two stroke or four. The advantage is that two strokes are easy to work on and that there are loads of cheap, good parts out there for the shee. The yfz is still new and the aftermarket for it is still charging a premium.

You really need to look at the type of riding you plan on doing though. If you want the best handling out of the box, you need to look at the yfz. If you are just going to be trail riding, duning, and the occasional drag race, the banshee is the way to go.

 

Banshee are tempermental to jetting, and mods cannot be done without re-checking the jetting and making the nessary adjustments, run them lean and you'll melt a piston, simply as that. Jetting is easly and makes a huge difference the way the Banshee runs. I run my jetting as fat as it will run until it blubers at WOT and back I down in sizes until it revs out clean all the way to the top of the RPM red line, forget plug chops this is my jetting style and I can peg the throttle wide open and just let it scream as long as I want.

 

Thats exactly how i do my jetting as well, even though i have a four stroke i still like running rich than lean thats for sure!!!!!!

 

They are both great bikes...you have a big decision ahead of you....All you will get here are opinions...nothing wrong with that but ultimatly..it's your bike and your money...good luck

 

Thanks for your input everyone. I think I am going to go with the banshee. I will be doing mostly drags, dunes, trails, and i will be hitting some open fields. I figure if i treat the shee well, she will treat me well.