banshee bikes industry insider

                So, another weekend of riding has passed. Even though it's another week of riding coming up, I still like the weekends where I get to travel a little, ride with old friends and make new ones, have a couple of brews with said friends and maybe ride some things I hadn't before or send a few things I had chickened out on before. This last weekend I made a few calls and wound up with a ride to GJ to go to the Grassroots Cycles Ranchstyle, a buddy's buddy was driving his big truck and had some room, which saved me around 125 miles of riding to the event. I like to tour the bike, but getting some freeriding is always better. I packed my bag and rolled out with the guys, a few hours later we watched the best trick comp, Huge is the first word that comes to mind. There was an eight foot wooden lip to a big dirt lander, and a whole bunch of bad ass dudes showing off their bulky bags of tricks.
                The next morning I got my new friends Matt and Jack out of their tents to go and ride the unique and challenging Ribbon trail. Look it up. We rolled down the long rock slab sending little rock lips and styling out the terrain with long manuals and wheelies. I showed them the tunnel at the climb out, a little side jaunt that was carved by water through soft stone and mud layers. There is now a rideable way out of the canyon, thanks to local volunteers. We then rode Free Lunch, starting from epic views of the Grand Valley and dropping down twisted and rocky as hell singletrack with a bunch of drops, none of which are much bigger than eight feet. Then it was on to Pucker Up, and trail with super tech drops and jumps with blind landings, along with parts of plain old faast rolling fun. The Lunch loops have come a long way over the years.
                As I was cruising along the road at the end to meet the glorious Grassroots Cycles shuttle for a lift back to the top, I got to thinking about the Banshee Paradox I was perched upon. I've ridden that bike for several seasons now, hardly ever changing anything. I've taken it to Washington state and ridden around the entire Olympic Peninsula and finished in Seattle. With all the twists and turns, I ended up pedaling nearly 700 miles in those eight days. My Paradox has seen all the lift access mountains in Colorado, and ridden almost all the d.h. courses on those mountains. I've ridden from my front door up Transfer trail, a grueling climb that goes up five thousand feet in nine miles, and descended through lush alpine forests back to my high desert home at the confluence of the Roaring Fork and Colorado rivers. Last summer while working at a bike shop in Carbondale, I had a twelve mile commute one way, and rode it nearly every day for six months. 125 miles a week, plus whatever I rode that week in the hills. Almost always on my Paradox.

               I went to sleep thinking of the adventures we've had together, Paradox and I, in a tent high on a plateau in western Colorado. I thought about what might be the next adventure. In the morning I watched a little dual slalom racing and caught a ride to my ride home. We met at some local dirt jumps, at the base of yesterday's trails, and spent three hours or so hitting it up. My friends on their dirt jump bikes were putting up some great style, hitting all the lines, no handers and throwing feet. I just kept riding the smaller lines, and got a d.s. course dialed in. Sure, I didn't hit the biggest lines at the park, nor did I throw any tricks bigger than a one footed table, but I did get the lines I wanted, like the small six pack and part of the main line. The lip just feels sharp on my twenty nine inch wheels. Still, I have a little hunch that, as far as big wheels go, I just might have put on a pretty good show.
                                                    BansheeColorado
   

This week's winner is Scott Bureau, the Team Manager of Oliver Racing & this is his tricked out Legend...

You can follow Scott & the Oliver Racing team at Oliverracing.com or on Facebook
Think you can do better than Scott? Want the world to see your pimped out Banshee? Then please email your photos & a description of you & your bike to: info@bansheebikes.com
Photos should be re-sized to a maximum width/height of 1000px & your email should be no larger than 1mb. Crashing our inbox will get you instantly disqualified!

Our newest Banshee dealer in Thailand, X-Biking Chiangmai, is also one of Thailand's top Downhill Biking tour operators. The jungle covered mountains of Chiangmai offer various DH trails to suit every kind of rider and most of the trails promise at least 1200meters of pure vertical downhill fun! If you happen to be in Chiangmai, Thailand, make sure you go shredding with these guys..and maybe grab a Banshee bike or two off them.... visit their site: X-Biking Chiangmai also on TripAdvisor and Facebook..

After its winter hibernation, Bike of the Week is back. This week's winner is Bartosz Morawiec from the UK & this is his pimped out Rune...

Think you can do better than Bartosz? Want the world to see your pimped out Banshee? Then please email your photos & a description of you & your bike to: info@bansheebikes.com
Photos should be re-sized to a maximum width/height of 1000px & your email should be no larger than 1mb. Crashing our inbox will get you instantly disqualified!

The Banshee Legend MKII was designed by suspension engineer and general Scottish bad-ass Keith Scott and was released in 2010 after almost 4 years of refinements from riders around the world. I personally have been riding the Legend MKII for the 2010 and 2011 seasons, and look forward to another season aboard the Banshee flagship DH race bike.

Key Frame Features and Specs

INA Cartridge Bearings
Titanium pivot axles
Maxle compatible rear axle
150mm rear end
83mm BB shell
8” of rear wheel travel
9.5″ x 3″ shock
ISCG 05 chain guide mounts
30.9mm seat post
1.5” headtube
3 sizes (S, M, L)
13.7 inch Bottom Bracket Height
63.8 Head angle
17.4 inch chainstay
Not a Scream!!!



My Build

Both of my Legend MKIIs have been built up with no compromise parts, which for the purpose of this review will allow me to concentrate on the frame only.

Manitou Dorado and Revox combo to handle suspension duties
Raceface Atlas FR: Bar, Stem, Cranks, seatpost
Saint Drivetrain, Brakes
Sun Ringle Wheels w/ Maxxis High Roller 3Cs/HR2


Frame

The Legend MKII frame quality and attention to detail is second to none, including Ti bearing hardware, extra hangers and touch up paint – even the box the frame arrives in is pretty cool. The Legend is an aggressive weight, with the large weighing in just a couple grams below 4kg. Banshee specs the Legend with oversize bearings, and after a season of pressure washing the bike at the WBP and putting it away wet the frame action still feels smooth and supple.

The weight of the bike is usefully low and the mass is centrally located providing a balanced chassis that is easy to turn. The low shock position helps with this advantageous C.O.G. but does not hinder access to the shock’s adjustments. The Legend’s 1.5” headtube provides a number of headset and subsequently set-up options, easily accommodating zero stack headsets or an AngleSet.



The Ride

There are several ride characteristics which become apparent from the moment you saddle up the Legend, the first being its pedaling efficiency. This bike, when equipped with a 38 tooth chain ring, is an extremely capable pedaling bike with excellent power transfer. It avoids bobbing or wallowing within its travel, and accelerates better then several mid-travel bikes I have ridden in the past.

The next most prominent ride characteristic of the Legend is its cornering ability. Sometimes I feel the bike is on rails as opposed to tires. I have found that the Legend is capable of holding speed through the tightest corners, and definitely rewards an aggressive cornering style. I noticed this while following several friends, that the Legend is always capable of taking ‘the most’ inside line. If you watch any videos of the Banshee World Cup team’s Adam Brayton or Matej Charvat, The Geronimo Team, Paul Genovese, or Alan Hepburn you can see the Legend’s inside line capability.



The Legend was designed to utilize a rearward axle path, which is quite advantages when your goal is to squeeze every last bit of speed out of a section of trail. The bike literally accelerates out of every bump, root cluster, rock or square edge bump you encounter, as the axle path essentially acts to push the bike forward.

The suspension design is a virtual pivot system, achieved through a short link 4 bar linkage. The main advantage of this design (other than achieving the rearward axle path) is to separate braking from suspension – allowing you to brake to your heart’s content, while the suspension still remains plush and active. The suspension curve is quite linear, allowing you to take advantage of the tuneability of modern shocks and allowing you to create the perfect suspension feel for your style or terrain.

The Legend has a very balanced and stable ride, and this is most notable through the chunder, where the bike feels planted, and very capable of holding your line. Like all current Banshees, the Legend is equipped with internally ribbed (for your pleasure) chainstays, which provide a very stiff rear end and contribute to the bike’s ability to hold its line in the rough.



Jumping

I have found the Legend to be a very capable jumper, feeling at home on both slower speed steeper jumps, as well as high speed slacker jumps like Crab Apple Hits in the WBP. I wouldn’t rush to the village jumps with it, but I can’t imagine a DH bike that I would. The Legend is also a capable rig when tackling bigger free-ride type features and inspires confidence if you have to ‘guinea pig’ them. This leads into the Legends’ durability, I’ll be the first to admit I have cased some big stuff on this frame – ask Paul Stevens about that Retallack 'shittack' for instance, and the Legend has taken it in stride.



Weaknesses

As with all high performance tools, some of the advantages, depending on your perspective and riding style could also be interpreted as disadvantages and the Legend is no different.
I personally, would like a slighter shorter chainstay. Although I am confident that if I could ever achieve World Cup speeds I would be stoked with the extra stability a longer rear end would provide.

The linear suspension curve could also be a negative if you were to build the bike with an older, or more basic shock which lacked the high and low speed compression adjustments of the Manitou Revox, Bos Stoy, Fox RC4 or Cane Creek Double Barrel.

Proper chain ring selection is essential in order to maximize pedal efficiency, as my 2010 Legend was built with a 36t chain ring and experienced minor pedal bob/feedback. However when I built the bike up with the recommended 38t ring (which the suspension was designed around) the pedal bob/feedback was eliminated.

In conclusion, the Legend is a no compromise speed machine which allows the rider to perform at the top of their ability, and can take years of abuse.

Video Action!





Thanks to Garrett Grove and David Fournier for photos.

Oak Bay Bikes in Victoria BC have this great looking Paradox V2 built up. If you're in the area call in & check it out.

Happy April fools everyone, I am sure everyone was quite happy that the Kiara race wasn't a joke with riders turning up from far and wide. A total of 136 participants took part, one of the bigger races we have had in Malaysia to date. FRM, (FreeRide Malaysia) the race organisers and trail builders, really out did themselves this time, a great combination of high speed sections, some nice steep technical sections and just a tad of pedaling to mix it up. Really shows the progression of trail building in Malaysia over the past few years.


With the large amount of riders present, most of race day was spent waiting around. Elites only came down for their final run at close to 5pm. Its the only real critique of an otherwise great race, we really need to start using 30 second intervals for seeding and finals. Makes the sport far better for spectators too.
It did rain over the past few days but it decided to stay dry today with beautiful blue skies welcoming in the month of april. Conditions were pretty much perfect in seeding run, just damp enough to keep the dust down and gives the tires something to dig into. Aaron seeding in 6th with a 3.12, I seeded in 3rd with a 3.08, rizal got a bit unlucky and crashed at the entrance to Bunians. Hong Chun put in an amazing run and seeded first in Elite with a time of 2.59.
With the blue skies and a gentle wind the track dried out further, leaving it pretty much bone dry. Watching the rest of the field coming down it was obvious that it was getting really slippery on the track from the amount of people crossing the line with soiled kit. Rizal too crossed the line with a frown, torn up his pretty new jersey. Just not his day today, crashed at the same place during seeding and warned us about the slippery conditions. He swears there is a stump hiding somewhere there out to get him. Me and Aaron were both pushing to go faster in the finals, Aaron unfortunately caught out on the slippery corners on the bottom of the track. I managed to hit all my lines and pushed hard on the pedaling bits, managed to go 11 seconds faster in the final. I was quite happy with my time, but was kicked out of the hot seat by the next rider down, beating me by 0.3 seconds. No surprise from Hong Chun, he put out an amazing run and went 2 seconds faster than his seeding time, getting a 2.57. It was nice to see a tight elite field, 1.7 seconds separating the top 3.
Back to the drawing board for me and trying to grow some legs again.

-Adam
Fakawi Team Blog

The dust barely settles at Pietermaritzburg and behind the scenes something's cooking. I mean it's going to be controversial with the capital C.

Of course this is still early in development and what transpires is still merely a "Request For Proposal" but hey, you've heard it here first.

Round #1 Pietermaritzburg was exciting finish - for Greg but it's not getting exciting overall it seems - for the powers that be.

The playing field is not even enough, it's always the same guys, too much technology.
Believe me, even at World Cup level there are whiners. Whiners will always whine. Never mind that the elites put in solid work in the winter when the rest are busy swapping war stories and swigging from a bottle. Tough!. You take out what you put in. But on the other hand, all these murmurs on too much technology...
Now there's something that regulators can work on - regulating technology.

Or specifically equipment. Recall the story of Slovenian alpine ski racer Tina Maze was called to task by the FIS, ski racing’s governing body, after finishing second in a slalom in Lienz, Austria, for wearing “plasticized” underwear.

FIS rules outline what kinds of clothing can be worn by racers and are designed to protect the skiers, in this particular case from wearing long johns that don’t allow the body to perspire and breathe. “Competition suits and clothing worn underneath, such as underwear, etc. may not be plasticized or treated by any chemical means (gaseous, liquid or solid),” the FIS rulebook says, “and must have a minimum permeability of 30 liters per m2/sec under 10 mm of water pressure.”
The real issue, though, is the perception of competitive advantage.

Closer to home we have seen Rachel Atherton whining about Tracey Mosley's skinsuit which was later, gasp! banned. I guess beating Rachel by 4 seconds is just too much.

Anyways, enough talking about the ladies, what we thought you loyal Banshee fans would like to know is what the UCI rulebook has in store for us. They have deemed that there is too much technology in the rear wheel setup. Gear box, derailleurs and purists are complaining. UCI actually wants to simplify things, removing too much tech by running a fixed hub.


CLICK TO ENLARGE: New UCI DH-F Ruling

One of the perceived main attractions of a fixed gear bicycle is low weight. Without the added parts required for a fully geared drive train, a fixed gear bicycle weighs significantly less than its geared equivalent.

Also, a fixed gear drivetrain is more mechanically efficient than any other bicycle drivetrain, with the most direct power transfer from rider to the wheels. Thus, a fixed gear requires less energy in any given gear to move than a geared bike in the same gear.


In slippery conditions some riders prefer to ride fixed because they believe the transmission provides increased feedback on back tire grip.

These arguments seems to make sense to the UCI and hence being part of the industry we have been given a referendum on the subject.

Here your chance for feedback and in the meantime, we show you a sneak peek of what compliance to UCI ruling will look like on the Legend MK2 F.


The current Legend Mark 2 underwent some changes to conform with the new UCI fixie DH requirements. Rear brake mounts are omitted and the rear derailleur hanger is no longer required. Some major changes will have to be made to the VF4B linkage to cope with fixed rear hub forces.

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