The restoration/customization of my 1987 Yamaha Banshee. What started out as a simple engine rebuild blew up and became a 4+ month long project and I ended up with basically a show-bike.

She's no garage or trailer queen, she was built to ride.

This whole project began as a result of an engine meltdown on October 18, 2003 on the last run of the last day of a very fun trip to Buttercup. Just a couple hundred yards from camp, on the way back, the right cylinder quit working at about 70 mph. A post-mortem back at home showed signs of leaning out so off came the jugs and I discovered a bent rod. At a minimum I was looking at a top end and a new crank. Little did I know what I was really looking at.

To put it mildly, this old girl was pretty ragged before the rebuild. No real rust to speak of, but she was dingy and was in desperate need of some TLC. After the engine was out and parts ordered, I decided I'd spend a couple weeks rebuilding the entire thing and give it a coat of paint and scrape all the grime off. My "quick fix" turned into a full blown restoration and several months and a pile of money later, I've got a better than new Banshee, for a fraction of the cost of a new one.