This whole build started simply because I could. I have been hoarding banshee and Tri-Z parts for years now, and have accumulated quite the pile of spare parts. I had a Tri-Z frame with a junk engine cradle, and I had a spare banshee frame kickin around....not to mention a complete Banshee with a 400 stroked and ported engine.....and so it began.
On April 7th of this year, I showed up at ATCTim's garage with my 2 spare frames, a whole pile of parts, and a big Idea.
We started by hacking off the front of the banshee frame, and the top half of the Tri-Z frame. Then proceeded to ZIP-TYE the 2 frames together until we got an Idea of how this was gonna work out...And we realized real quick, that this was almost meant to be. We basically grafted the top half of a tri-z frame to the back half of a banshee frame.
We then built the engine cradle around the engine. We had to piece the engine cradle together with several pieces canibalized from the old Z frame, the old banshee frame, and even a Mini chopper frame...LOL. A "friend" was supposed to bend us up the cradle with his "sweet" pipe bender, but it seems he was too busy to help...ever. The down tube is actually a Honda 185s fork tube (BAHahahahaa....who knew a Honda could be good for something! j/k)
All the joints have slugs in them and are beautifully Tig welded, thanx to Jake the Snake and Chuck (UpChuck Racing). I ground all the welds with a cookie wheel, then inspected for any pits...ALL pits were then filled, and the joints were hand flat filed by me, until they were no longer noticeable. Those who have seen it, know, its almost impossible to see the seems.
If you look close, the frame is built offset, just like the banshee frame is...the down tube is centered, but the cradle is not. you can see it real good in a few shots. It has to be built like this to have correct chain allignment, being that these engines were designed for a street bike. These engines also "lay down" alot more than the tri-z engine, so we had to raise the front of the engine about an inch so that the cylinders were IN the cradle....
Then we added some cross bracing to the lower engine cradle, just to make sure we didn't twist her up like a pretzel the first time 70 ponies ripped threw her!
We added a few gussets in the banshee sub-frame, since in my experience, they bend like hot butter! The seat latch was cut from the banshee frame, trimmed, and grafted to the top of the Z frame. The angle of the seat is almost perfect. I trimmed about a 1/4 from the front sides to make it as close as possible. The radiator brackets were ever so slightly modified to move the radiators forward and up 1/2" (head clearance).
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Originally Posted by atctim
