The document discusses the Yamaha YFZ 350 Banshee all-terrain vehicle. It describes the Banshee as a uniquely designed and very powerful ATV, built for performance upgrades. Key features included its V-twin engine adapted from a street bike, distinctive bodywork, and potential for extensive modifications. The author argues the Banshee should never have been discontinued, as even minor modifications could significantly increase its power. Upgrades to components like the engine, exhaust, suspension, and transmission allowed owners to customize the Banshee for different uses.

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Blake Newcomer
Ms. Bennett
British Literature
7 October 2011
The Spirited Banshee
Is the screaming Yamaha YFZ 350 (Banshee), which produced tremendous power, the
best all-terrain vehicle ever manufactured? Statistics prove that the Banshee, which is said to be
an amazing machine, should have never been taken off the manufacturing line. This quad is one
of a kind, and very unique from the body design to engine layout of all other quads. It is a quad
that was built to be upgraded with performance parts to produce a tremendous amount of power.
It steals a V-twin engine from an old street bike, and performs it to the extreme. Once you
modify/upgrade the Yamaha YFZ350, it might as well be classified as a transformer.
The head lights stick out like they are eyes from an evil banshee spirit making it look
mean. The body plastics are all straight cut and sharp, it looks like it is up for any competition.
As the radiator cover is the most distinctive piece of the body making it look like a banshee
spirit; it is well put out on the front of the quad directly under the handlebars, giving it features of
having an evil looking face. The Yamaha YFZ 350 was built with an older style, two-stroke, V-
twin engine and was manufactured from 1987 through 2006 in the United States, although
Canada was the only one who kept this all terrain vehicle in the manufacturing lines through
2008. The Yamaha YFZ 350 was built and manufactured in Japan, but was mostly sold in the
United States and Canada. It uses an older style two-stroke engine that was used in the older

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model Yamaha RZ 350 street bike that was mostly used for motorcycle racing. This all terrain
vehicle is one the fastest ever produce, built for easy and highly effective modifications. The
Yamaha YFZ 350 uses a 350cc engine which can be modified to be 700cc’s or greater. CC’s is
the measurement of displacement of the engine in cubic centimeters. From being a personal
owner of a Yamaha YFZ 350 I believe that they are by far the best of all all-terrain vehicles that
were ever manufactured, and they should have never been taken off the manufacturing lines.
The Yamaha YFZ 350 was built with the ability to be modified or upgraded to any
extent. There are available modifications/upgrades for the dual carburetor, engine, exhaust,
suspension, framework, and transmission. The Yamaha Corporation wanted to build a machine
that made heads turn just when the quads rolled by. When they were manufacturing the Yamaha
YFZ 350 (Banshee), they took the unique two-stroke, V-twin engine off of the RZ 350 and
placed it on a four-wheeler frame. A V-twin engine is based on two cylinders collecting the
power, compared to a regular single cylinder engine where there is only one cylinder that builds
all the power. The Yamaha Corporation did not make many changes to the engine swap from the
RZ 350 to the YFZ 350, ”keeping the exterior pretty much identical but changing the gear ratio
in the bottom end of the engine and removing the power valve”(Quad Bikes). Due to this engine
not containing a power valve, it gives the YFZ 350 one of its distinct characteristics of its sound.
The sound of this ATV will turn heads just by simply idling this machine, but when the ATV is
revved out it will give spectators chill bumps.
This engine was built to be very high rev running, letting riders feel the awarding power
given by this small V-twin engine. The dry weight of this machine is 386 pounds while the
engine is 347 cubic centimeters, producing around 50 horsepower (Yamaha Motor Corporation).
Horsepower is the amount of power that is put out by the engine. When the engine is built for

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performance, the engine will want more fuel to run. When you build the engine, you also have to
make modifications to the carburetor. The carburetor is also known as a carb. Modifications to
the carb will allow the carburetor to drink more fuel to supply the engine with the fuel it needs to
run. The easiest way to do this is to change the jets to larger sizes. The “jets” is a bleeder screw
that screw into the bottom of the carburetor and the open side of them sit in the bowl of the
carburetor where the fuel is held from the fuel tank. There are two jets in carburetors, they are
known as the pilot and main jet. Larger size jets allow more fuel to be sucked up from the
carburetors bowl. Bleeding more fuel into the carburetor leads to a greater amount of back
pressure that will need to be released through the exhaust system.
The stock exhaust system on the Yamaha YFZ 350 is a poor design to be dual exhaust,
having too many bends and twist immediately after the head causing too much back pressure
which is reducing power. An aftermarket exhaust usually exists of an immediate U-turn straight
out of the heads, leading to the rear of the four-wheeler, which does not build as much back
pressure. This allows the engine to produce the power it should. Exhaust are only qualified for so
much power so, the exhaust is chosen due to the amount of power planned on putting in the
quad. These quads do have some flaws that limited power and smoothness in the ride, although
there were unlimited aftermarket performance parts on market to fix these flaws.
The suspension of the Yamaha YFZ 350 was also a poor design from the Yamaha
Corporation. The suspension from the 1987 to the 1991 did not have enough travel space, due to
the idea of the J-Arms(Technical Specifications). From 1991 and on, Yamaha Corporation
decided to do without the J-Arms and went to the regular design of A-Arms, which allowed this
quad to have a lot more suspension travel allowing it to provide the rider with a much smoother

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ride. The A-Arms gave the front wheels around 9.1 inches of travel and the rear wheels around
8.7 inches of travel (Technical Specifications).
The Yamaha YFZ 350 V-twin engine is great for modification due to the availability of
the largest available stroker kits on the market. “You can buy replacement/performance parts for
every exterior and interior piece of the engine” (Yamaha Corporation), which is not available
with almost all other engines for all-terrain vehicles. Owners of the Yamaha YFZ 350 build these
engines for different purposes, such as reasons for track racing, joy riding, to high-speed dune
and paved drag racing. The V-twin is capable of being built to out run a Suzuki GSXR 1000
street bike in 1/8th of a mile; which the Suzuki GSXR 1000 is one the fastest street bikes
manufactured(YouTube). The most popular way to modify/upgrade this engine is the stroker
kits. The stroker kits vary in size from four millimeters to about 12 millimeters. A four
millimeter stroker kit will take the original 350 cubic centimeter engine and enlarge the cylinder
space for the piston to travel in to about 400 cubic centimeters. The stroker kits work by giving
the piston more room to travel in the cylinder. If you install a four millimeter stroker kit then you
are giving your piston an extra four millimeters of travel at the top and another four millimeters
of travel at the bottom, all together it would have an extra eight millimeters of travel in the
cylinder. Even small stroker kits allow the engine to produce a ridiculous amount of power for
such a small upgrade.
If you plan on modifying a Banshee’s engine to a great extent, you also have to modify
the transmission. If you build the engine with a large stroker kit and do not upgrade the
transmission then the machine will become more difficult to shift and hitting neutral in between
first and second will become more likely (ITT Tech Reference). These complications will put
wear and tear on the transmission causing it more than likely to go bad. If the engine is

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producing a great amount of power then the stock transmission will not be strong enough to
withstand the power forced upon it. There are several different rebuild kits and actual different
transmission on the market for these ATV’s. One of the easiest ways to upgrade the transmission
to help withstand the power of the engine is to place the billet shifter with a billet shifter star
(Mull Engineering). “This will fix the problem with accidently hitting neutral while shifting
between first and second and will also allow you to shift from gear to gear effortlessly and
smooth” (Mull Engineering) . Although if you build your engine to perform in drag races and
you install an eight to twelve millimeter stroker kit, you would have to replace the entire bottom
end of the engine known as the transmission. The best replacement parts for an engine creating
this much power is a Dun Aluminum transmission. These transmissions are less weight then the
stock ones, but also, built stronger. They are manufactured to withhold anywhere from 200-300
hundred horsepower (Yamaha Corporation).
The Yamaha YFZ 350 was designed to give off the mean look of a banshee spirit and to
outperform all other all-terrain vehicles of its time. Even with a few flaws Yamaha accomplished
their task with this machine. From the show room floor these quads were the best experiencing
and most fun quads to ride. Being rated the quickest all-terrain vehicle produced of its time, the
Yamaha YFZ 350 is a machine that no one person will really understand until they experience
the thrill of feeling the outraged power between their legs. It’s a sport quad that turns heads when
it rolls by and makes one persons ear drums quiver from a mile away with its distinct sound. It is
truthfully a one of a kind that should have never been removed from the manufacturing line.
Even though, the manufacturing of the quad was killed, the spirit and sound of the banshee will
travel on and never be forgotten.

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Works Cited
Auto, Car, and Motorcycle. “Yamaha Banshee Suspension.” Yamaha Banshee Suspension. Ed.
WordPress. MotorCyle, Jan.-Feb. 20011. Web. 6 Oct. 2011. <http://www.finditonmyway.com/
yamaha-banshee-suspension.html>.
Craft, Donna. “Yamaha Corporation.” Gale Virtual Reference Library. N.p., n.d. Web. 15 Sept. 2011.
Gardiner, Mark. “Yamaha Motorcycle History.” Motorcycle.com . Ed. Verticle Scope Inc. Verticalscope
Inc., May 2007. Web. 14 Sept. 2011. <http://www.motorcycle.com/manufacturer/history-
yamaha-motorcycle.html>.
Motorcycle Specs. “2004 Yamaha YFZ350 Banshee ATV Standard Specifications .” ATV Standard
Specifications. Ed. MotorCycle Specs. The Motorcycle Enthusiasts, 2011. Web. 7 Oct. 2011.
<http://motorcycle-specs.com/
motorcycle_specification.asp?manufacturer=Yamaha&model=YFZ350%20Banshee&year=2004>.
MUll Engineering. “Yamaha Banshee Billet Shifter Star.” Mull Engineering Racing Technologies. Ed. Mull
Engineering. N.p., 2009. Web. 4 Oct. 2011. <http://www.mullengineering.com/sc/store.php/
products/yamaha-banshee-yfz-rz-billet-shift-star-shaft-drum-transmission-race-drag-sand-
shifting-hard-online>.
Quad Bikes. “Yamaha YFZ 350 Banshee Review.” Quad Bikes. The Niche Store Builder, 2011. Web. 4 Oct.
2011. <http://www.quadbikesales.co.uk/yamaha-yfz-350-banshee-review>.

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“Yamaha Moving Majority of Worldwide ATV Manufacturing to U.S.A.” Yamaha Moving Majority of
Worldwide ATV Manufacturing to U.S.A. 19 May 2011: n. pag. Web. 14 Sept. 2011.
<http://www.chattanoogan.com/articles/article_201598.asp>.