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By:
Chris Hodkinson
and TBN Racing
By far the most
interesting looking Banshee pipe out on the market today
is the DMC 916. This unique looking pipe and silencer
combination simply does not look like anything else on
the market.
 Instead
of having two separate silencers exiting each side of
the quad this setup brings the exhaust gasses out a
single silencer with dual outlets in the center of the
machine. Was this a gimmick by the designer Dave Miller
to sell some more Banshee pipes because of there looks
or did these pipes really increase performance. After a
couple of phone calls we not only secured 1 set but 2
sets of DMC's to try. One test set was coming from
Moto
Joe Racer and the second test set was coming from
Advantage
Performance Distributing.
 Upon
receiving these pipes the first thing that we noticed
was that the right hand pipe had a indentation in it. We
opened up the second set of pipes to check them out to
see if they had the same indentation in it or if this
was a damaged pipe. Once we inspected the second pipe we
found that this was a planned "dent" to help
give more clearance for the coolant hoses. The chroming
on these pipes is exceptional and the detail that goes
into the silencer is second to none. We did notice one
other difference between the 2 sets of pipes. One had a
brazed on emblem while the other set had the emblem
stamped into the pipe.
Installation of the
pipes was real simple. The only tools needed were a
spring puller or vise grips, 12mm wrench and a 3/8"
wrench for the silencer. It uses the stock pipe hangers
in the front and the mounting hardware for the silencers
is included. These pipes are some of the easiest bolt on
pipes on the market even though they look like the most
complicated. We started the installation and left all
the mounting brackets loose until we had every on. Then
we went back and tightened everything down. These are
the typical Banshee aftermarket pipes in that they
slightly rub against the air box.
Now onto the fun part
of the product reviews that we do here at ATV Source.
THE RIDE!!!!! We fired up our test Banshee and was
amazed at the sound of these pipes. They have a very
distinct sound like no other pipe out on the market.
Once the bike was warmed up and a couple of jetting runs
made to get the jetting spot on we were ready to ride.
One note here is that we use the Toomey Needles in all
of our Banshees along with the Pro-Design Pro Flow Air
Filters. These pipes did not come with any needles so we
left our Toomeys in and they worked extremely well.
 Our
test rider for this was GNC Open B TT #2 rider Neil
Moser and the rest of the TBN Racing crew. Due to the
weather in the area for the test we did all of our
comparison tests out on bare Asphalt and Fire Roads so
that we could get an accurate test as traction out in
the fields and sandpits is at a low right now. But as
you will see we do enjoy going out into the snow covered
fields to have some fun.
The power on the DMC's
is real strong from the midrange on up. After some
playing around with the gearing we came up with the
conclusion that with all the torque this pipe adds you
need to add more gearing to make these pipes work to
there absolute best. Although these pipes have less
torque down low then the stock Banshee pipes you will
not notice it unless you are riding the Banshee out of
it's element in the woods. The Banshees are meant to be
a top end screamer with gobs of roll-on power. As you
can see by the dyno charts for Torque and Horsepower
these pipes have a long broad power band that is not
real peaky and are very controllable to ride. Once you
get above 5300 RPM the torque of these pipes take over.
Our test riders constantly commented on how smooth these
pipes accelerated.
  In
side by side drags with our control Banshee we were
constantly able to run away from it. But then again you
would expect this. For comparison sake we bolted back on
our Fattys to see if the DMC's could dethrone the
unofficial king of the Banshee pipe class. After
spending the day going back and forth between the 2
pipes we have found that the DMC's really do work. In
the drags when we had the DMC's on, the test Banshee
constantly shot out farther and continued to accelerate
away faster against our control Banshee then it did when
we had on the Fatty's.
Do we have a new king
for the Banshee pipes? That question we can not answer
completely yet as we are now going to be testing a set
of the new FMF SST's that Moto Joe Racer sent to us to
try. But if you had to go out and buy a pipe right now
based on what we have seen we would fully recommend the
DMC's.
The price for the
DMC's is $529.00 or you can get the show Chrome finish
for $679.00. You can also get the optional
"2K" Spark Arrestor for an additional $55.95.A
Special Thanks goes out to
Moto
Joe Racer and
Advantage
Performance Distributing for the use of there pipes
for us to test. Be sure to check them out on the web.
Moto
Joe Racer
4680 LosAngeles Ave.
STE1
Simi Valley CA
93063
Phone: 805.520.4625
Advantage Performance Distributing
9774 Hawthorne Drive
Rancho Cucomonga CA 91730
Phone: 909.483.3663
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