I was always told a 125 would make a banshee look sick. I thought that a 125 could beat a banshee, guess I was wrong.....

 

Hey Cron I was beaten by a 125 which had a pipe on it. I was riding a really suped up old 87 banhsee 420. But I don't really no how to race. I wasn't getting very much traction that day on the mud. Though I to always thought that a dirtbike was faster than a atv and would win a drag race.

 

A CR125 WILL BEAT A BANSHEE ON AN MX TRACK....NOT IN A FULL OUT DRAG.

 

take the same rider and have him race a 125 down a drag strip and time it, then have him hop on the banshee and time it, the banshee would be faster, but when your racing against someone else its all the rider! cant really say whats faster, you can say whos the better rider though.

 

Let's see... 30 hp from the 125. 38 hp form the stock Banshee. 150 lb rider, and 200 lbs for the 125, 400 lbs for the Banshee, so that's 36.5 hp/ 550 lbs compared to 30 hp/ 350 lbs. That's 0.0664 vs. 0.0857. Higher number wins.

I'd bet on the 125 if the traction was good, at least until about 50 mph. After that, the 125 will start tapping out around 60 mph and the Banshee will have enough gearing/hp to pass it.

Hp info from dyno runs at gthunder.com

 

This was maybe 5 years ago, but I have raced a banshee on my fully mod RM-125. Pure stock banshee vs ripped RM-125 and I won. It was a little closer than I would think though, only 3 bike lengths. This was on pavement with one long turn in the middle. We did switch and the outcome was still the same. Now on a fire road, or on gravel I know I'm faster on any quad as opposed to a bike.
I have owned (90'RM-125, 91'YZ-125, 90'YZ-80, 90'YZ-250, 94'YZ-250, 91' Blaster, and a 99'400EX) and ridden quite a few quads and bikes and I have to tell you a YZ-80 is nothing to laugh at. They have absoulutely no power off the pipe. Next to a CR-500 they have to be the hardest animal to wheelie, even then you can at least tourque wheelie the 500. It's light switch kinda powerband, faster than a banshee's. I have never raced a banshee with it, but top speed would be 10mph shy or more (on the 80), accelleration wise it would be right there..
Personally I wouldn't put too much weight into drag races. A couple turns either way and you'll find the better rider not the better ride.

Vector