I would suspect that stock top speed is about 85 mph, but it gets there in a hurry. Back in 1987 I raced a desert race that went across the Bonneville Salt Flats. On the flyer they mailed out before the race they told us we would want "WFO Gearing", and that they would have a radar gun clocking top speed somewhere in the race. I went two teeth bigger on the front sprocket, and six teeth smaller on the rear sprocket on my '87 CR500 for that race. Gearing ended up being too high for most of the race, and for several salt flat areas I couldn't even pull fifth gear, because the salt was a bit wet. One salt flat was bone dry though, and I finally got to use fifth gear. After five miles of running wide open they had a radar gun, that was connected to an LED sign that was run by one of those little Honda generators. My top speed was 105 mph, tucked in against the gas tank, holding on to the handlebar with only one hand (the throttle hand). The other hand was tucked in, for less wind resistance. My speed was the fastest speed recorded for anyone racing the amature class, and the fastest speed at that race was the expert class racer that won the overall, on a KTM 520cc 2-stroke, at 107 mph.

[edit] I read the other thread on this forum right now that talks about a stock DRZ400 going 111 mph. I'm not sure I believe that, even if it is posted over on thumpertalk.com. Maybe that speed is possible on pavement, but on dirt, ... lets just say I'm sceptical.

 

desert u got rid of ur yfz for a banshee? and stock for stock how does the ds650 compare to them both?

 

...as long as i'm serving, hell, as long as i'm living in the states, along with thousands of other soldiers and ex-soldiers, if your speaking of some kind of invasion, or nuclear attack, rest assured, we'll take care of the matter. Plus, think of all the hillbilly/rednecks out there that would run amuck killing any foriegn invader...no matter, the U.S. military is unstoppable(well, except when the media gets involved with their hippy human rights bs)[img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-tongue.gif[/img]

 

maybe this is way off the wall, but maybe yamaha is doing like Chevy was doin for a couple years, they pull their high-end sports car off the market and say "it's done for good" just to focus their market on their mainstream cars, then when they get money ahead they bring it back again and say "it's the return of a legend" or whatever. I think they did that with the camaro or whatever. Maybe yamaha is going to do the same thing? they want to focus on the 4-stroke racing to get ahead of honda's 450r (which i'm sure it could) and as soon as they do, the bring back the banshee when they get bored and we all can go out and buy banshees again.

 

Desertviper, thats a cool story. So, was your CR500 stock as far as power goes? I am wondering how my 93 KX500 would do in a straight line WFO race like that with similar gearing. You gotta LOVE big bore 2 stroke dirtbikes man, gotta love em.

Oh yea, and I was wondering if you remember if the motor was reved out, or were you power/drag limited at that point? (with more RPM left, but not enough power)

 

Hey maybe they will bring back the Banshee in five to ten years and make it even better who knows what will happen with the banshee.

 

Mr350x,
the CR500 was stock, power wise, and on that particular top speed run it was very slightly power limited, as opposed to being RPM limited. It may have gone a bit faster with a two tooth bigger rear sprocket, but at that speed you really start hitting the wall, as far as wind resistance goes. Power may have still been the limit, just at a slightly higher RPM, but about the same overall speed. It takes a lot more power to go just a few more mph at that speed. I remember that I got a lousy start on that race (bike didn't start on the first kick), and I couldn't pull fifth gear on several sections of salt flat, but was still top-ending other bikes with my bike still in fourth gear. When we hit the dry salt flat it was see you guys later time. When that bike came on the pipe in fifth gear it felt like you were on a cruise missle instead of a dirt bike, and I'll bet I passed thirty other bikes in that five mile wide open stretch of salt flat. I have a hard time believing a stock DRZ400 can do 111 mph. Out of the 200+ entrants in that desert race the fastest bike was 107, and they were all told ahead of time to gear them up. Maybe the salt flat was a still a bit too wet for maximum speed, I don't know, but I do know that 111 mph is seriously fast, and if they are getting that out of a stock DRZ400 (on dirt) then they are getting good power out of a 400cc four stroke.

DV

 

spoRtRax450R?
Didn't really get rid of the YFZ... My 15 year old son's YFZ is two years old now, and has injested muddy water at least twice, because it took him a while to figure out he needs to slow down for deep water. We did a leak down test, and his YFZ was down a bit on compression. Instead of freshening up his engine I gave him my new YFZ, and traded his YFZ on a new Banshee. He wants to be able to ride the Banshee at times, and I want to be able to still ride the YFZ, so it ended up being a win win situation, he got a new YFZ and I got a new Banshee, and it only cost me a grand OTD for the Banshee.

The Banshee is still being broken in, so I can't say how it does in overall power, or speed, compared to the other two. I can say that I really like the type of power it has though, even if I can't yet say how much power there is. Stock vs stock between the other two, the YFZ is faster to 300', which is where the DS catches up and starts to leave it behind. After similar mods, (pipe, airbox, jetting) the DS is faster by about half a quad length at 300', and keeps getting farther ahead from there.

 

Desertviper, Those flat out races across the salt flats sounds like an absolute blast.

You MUST open up that banshee a little. Pipes, filter, jetting. This is a must with the banshee. Before you do these mods, it just seems like
a quiet little puppy. [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]

 

Planning on it Mr350X [img]i/expressions/face-icon-small-smile.gif[/img]