Warrior Upgrades - Handlebars and Banshee Shocks
February 21st, 2008 at 9:21 pm by Bob Weber (Warrior, Toys)
In my continuing quest to improve my 1988 Yamaha Warrior I made two modifications.
The first major change was adding two Yamaha Banshee front shocks.
As you can see in this picture, the Banshee shocks are longer than the stock Warrior shocks.
I purchased both of these of ebay after a significant amount of research into the best/easiest modification to make. Paid around $100 for both, not a bad deal when a good set of aftermarket shocks are AT LEAST 3 times that. This picture is of the bike with one shock installed.
It was a bit tricky putting these on by myself. Had to compress them down an inch or so, and that’s quite a chore by hand.
The shocks turned out to be a GREAT upgrade. The weekend before I put them on we made a trip to Red Feather, and the Warrior suspension really wore me out. Jason has an LT250R, Jeff has a Wolverine, and Jed has a Banshee. I was always well behind these guys, not just because I’m slower (actually my Warrior keeps up really well with the Wolverine), but because the bike just didn’t handle well.
Shortly after putting these one we went up the Poudre to the Green Mountain trail. Rode in the snow and had a blast. The Warrior was like a different machine, much more manageable. Worked great, right until Jeff broke a tie rod, but that’s another story…
You might also notice the new handlebars. These are YZ High bend I ordered from Rocky Mountain ATV. Nothing special, just steel bars. Figured I’d use them until I bent them, since I wasn’t sure how they would work. I’m pretty happy with them, make the bike much more comfortable to ride. I
will probably get the same bend in some aluminum bars sometime down the road.
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Jim said,
August 12, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Id just like to ask you i just got a 350 warrior i think is 2001 or 2005 not sure but im having the same problem im not happy with the way the bike handles did you really see a big differnce in the bike after putting the banshee shocks on?
Bob Weber said,
August 13, 2008 at 9:23 am
Jim:
Yes, the Banshee shocks made a HUGE difference. It is easily the best mod you can make to your Warrior. Mine was very difficult to ride with the stock shocks - just beat you to death. Now it’s enjoyable.
Recently I went riding with some friends on the Moody Hill trail just west of where I live. We’re in the Rocky Mountains, and most of the trials around here live up to the name. One of my friends has an 06 Wolverine, a bike that has some of the best suspension I’ve ridden, and he loves to get out in front and just blast down the trail. I followed him, and was able to hang right with him with my Warrior. It just glides across the rocks, and handles the turns way better than before.
The only down side I’ve seen to the shocks is when you are riding really fast. If you are going down a road at 40-50 MPH I think it gets a little squirrelly. If you do a lot of this, you might be able to make it better by adjusting the pre-loads. I run mine on the softest setting because we are typically on rough trails.
mike said,
October 3, 2008 at 6:20 pm
hey i have the exact same quad but i modified he tires to a titon tire that is harder and more aggresive because i found out that the tires just slip on take off and mine is also able to do all the other things that the quads can do such as wheeles stopies mudding jumping o and also replaced the stator it gave it more power but mine was bad from the start. if you took it on long rides it whould not start afterwords then youd have to wait a week to ride it but in other words it has the power i have the same quad it looks the same 2 email me back to tell me what you think
mike said,
October 3, 2008 at 6:22 pm
oh ande my email is ducttapefreak83@yahoo .com
and i clocked my warrior at 72 mph and i was racing a 1990 yamaha blaster