banshee bikes industry insider

Time to get RAMPANT

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 19:05:00 +0000

Every bike brand has a "niche" model which isn't huge on sales, but is perhaps, the 'hidden gem' in the range

It seems the Rampant could be that bike for Banshee / Mythic, its somewhat obscure as everyone knows about the Wildcard and Rune, but less is known about the Rampant

Sales are starting to move on the Rampant which is encouraging because I have been banging the Rampant drum for some time now

It takes time for a new model to permeate the riders' consciousness as they see one being ridden in their local woods, hear about it on a blog or website, or come into our Esher shop looking for a "play bike" and I step up with 'this is exactly what you need!'

The Direct pricing we offer on Mythic means the rider gets a KILLER deal on a sick frame, it undercuts all of the serious competing brands (we are not talking about the re-badge "brands") and of course the manufacturing and design is off the hook

This Rampant, below, belongs to our customer James, who walked in yesterday with a Trek Remedy (from a few years back), and walked out today with a Rampant

James' Rampant is the Short size with Fox RP2 air shock, Rockshox Pike 454 Air U-Turn, Cane Creek headset, Easton bars, Mavic rims on Hope hubs, Maxxis High Rollers, Shimano XT cranks, the latest E13 SRS, SRAM X-o mech and X-0 shift pod, and DMR pedals, lock-on grips and Void saddle

Feels nice and light, he tried it outside the shop when he collected and was stoked..he's heading off riding tomorrow, and doing some DH uplift at Cwm Carn on the weekend

happy trails!

Rob C

Stop Two: Kamloops (Kool Amps)

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 04:14:00 +0000

We got to Kamloops around noon on Monday and were at the trail head a couple of hours later. We rode Harper two years ago and skipped a lot of the jumps. For the past two years we have been saying we should have hit that.

The first stunt we found was a three pack that looked huge the last time we were in Kamloops. We rolled into it and cleared all three jumps with ease.

There was probably a couple of more small jumps and stunts before we found the next jump we sessioned. The gap was about a 15 foot wood to wood. I am not a big fan of wood landings and this one had "Hurtin Albertan" carved into it. We ended up staying there longer than planned because I got a flat ... but it gave us time to hit it a couple more times.

James with a table on the Hurtin Albertan.

Garth stepping up his game for the camera.

James' table from another angle.

After my flat tire and a spoke tighten we were running short on time. We headed back down to the truck in time for one more run. On our second trip it was not long before we found an awesome wood booter to dirt landing. After a couple of speed checks James rolled in and got what I think is the best picture of the trip so far.

The other pictures of this jump are pretty good too so check them out.

We are now in Fernie and have a couple of hard days of roofing before we can get in some more riding. But we should be able to squeeze in an evening ride here and there before a couple of more shuttle days.

I posted a couple of more pictures on pinkbike so check there if you want more. I hope to post some more shots from Whistler there too.

Rob

Some cool Camp of Champs vids

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:25:00 +0000

Camp A

Camp B

Camp C

Custom Amp… so sweet

Stop One: Whistler

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Sun, 12 Jul 2009 06:00:00 +0000

James and I headed up to Whistler on early Thursday morning. We started the day with a couple quick laps of A-Line to get our bikes set up for Canadian riding. The lower part of the mountain was a little bit busy so we headed up the mountain to Freight Train. We ended up stopping to session a jump and take a couple of pictures.

We ended Thursday with a couple trips down Duffman and a couple laps of A-Line.

The riding was so good that we did not want to stop much to take pictures. But on Friday we made a point to stop and session some jumps on Freight Train. A-Line was too busy to stop on so we stuck to the stuff a little higher up the mountain.

Late on Friday we found Dirt Merchant. Too bad we did not find it earlier in the day because it was as smooth as a hot asian with the curves and bumps in all the right places. We rode it a couple of times late in the day with sore hands and big smiles.

Helmets on, Shirts off.

Rob

P.S. sorry for the horrible layout ...

One new, one not so new

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 18:37:00 +0000

It truly was a busy day at Freeborn's Esher bike shop today, we squeezed 2 custom built Mythic bikes into our hectic schedule

One is brand new, so new the owner has not even seen it!

Jamie is coming on Monday to pick up his custom build Wildcard, damn's he is going to feel the stoke ;)

I didn't realise until earlier this week that Stan's make the ZTR Flow rims in WHITE...eyeing some up for my Rampant rebuild already

Jamie's Wildcard has a Fox 36 Talas fork, Fox DHX air rear shock, Easton EA-70 bar, Thomson X4 stem, Fizik Gobi saddle, Shimano SLX cranks with E13 LG1, SRAM X-9 shifting, Stan's ZTR Flow rims on Hope Pro II hubs with DT Swiss Comp d/b spokes and brass nipples, Stan's Tubeless conversion and SBC Control Eskar All-Mtn tires - it feels pretty light and looks trick in the black / white colours

Here's another Mythic that I built this morning, not so new, but its gone to a great home

This is Esher Shore regular Jordan who bought Marshall's (Esher Shore trail pest) Chaparral frame at a killer price, Marshall threw in Diablous cranks, E13, RF Diablous headset and seatpost

Jordan recently bought a Lyric Coil U-Turn and new front wheel from us, we added a Sram X-9 left shifter pod and Sram Next-Gen front mech, DMR Swarm stem and EA-50 bars and new cabling

Jordan was previously riding a Carrera *Banshee* that was on its last legs, its a huge step up to the "real" thing to get a "proper" Banshee ;)

Although he looks pretty serious in this pic, he seemed very stoked on his "new" rig

Always great to see a used frame go to a good home, have fun Jordan!

cheers

Rob C

Mythic AMP

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:14:00 +0000

Here at Freeborn Bikes, we are offering two "stock" custom built AMP bikes for the discerning customer

The AMP is available in both the short and long frame sizes, and singlespeed (£1599.99) and 1 x 9 geared (£1799.99) versions

The builds are very trick, with the raw AMP frame, Rockshox Argyle 318 fork, DMR colour finishing kit (Swarm stem, Alloy wingbar, Void saddle, V-8 pedals), Shimano SLX HT2 crank with Middleburn DH chainring, DMR Pro 26" wheelset with SBC Control Fast Trak LK kevlar tires and Lock-on grips, Thomson Elite seatpost, Avid Elixir R hydraulic disc brakes (185mm/160mm) and DMR singlespeed convertor kit

No idea of exact weight, but feels pretty light, and looks sweet

All the DMR kit is available in various colours including red, green, gunmetal, blue and purple so the possibilities are endless....

http://www.freeborn.co.uk/shop/frames/hardtail/909-mythic-amp-frame

cheers!

Rob C

Super sick Rampant

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 07:56:00 +0000

So I was perusing the mtbr.com forum and came across this sic build… enjoy – i know i did

Thanks to Juanbeegas [mtbr alias] for letting me share this beaut with you guys

Frame: Banshee Rampant (S)
Bottom Bracket: Shimano SLX
Brake Set: Avid BB7/SD7
Cassette: Shimano Dura Ace 12-23T
Crank: Shimano SLX
Chain: KMC X9 SL
Chain Ring: E13 Guide Ring 34T
Fork: Rockshox Pike 426
Grips: Lizard Skins Moab
Handlebar: Nuke Proof Warhead
Headset: Cane Creek S3
Hubs: Hope Pro II 20mm/10mm Bolt on
Pedals: Deity Decoy
Rear Derailleur: SRAM X9
Rear Shock: Fox RP2
Rims: Spank Subrosa
Saddle: Charge Spoon/Stool
Seat Post: Woodman Post SL
Shifters: SRAM X9
Spokes: DT Swiss Competition
Stem: Thomson X4
Tyres: Geax Booze Light/Maxxis Minion DHF 60a Single Ply
Extras: E13 SRS+, Ti caliper, adapter, rotor, stem and crank pinch bolts.

Scythe Review on NSMB.com

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:57:00 +0000

I got into Vancouver last night after spending a week with my family in Fernie. Most of the week was spent 30 feet off the ground putting the roof on my brother's soon to be house. May ride here in Vancouver tomorrow and heading to Whistler at the end of the week and should have some good posts after that.

Saw this review on nsmb, every time I see a review for a Banshee I want to get another one.

Rob

Another cool vid from Matej on the WC circuit

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:47:00 +0000

Unfortunately a crash stopped the weekend a bit early for Matej, but he put together this really nice video to show us.

Camp of Champ customized Amp winner

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:33:00 +0000

Camp of Champions is in full swing and check out the Amp Braden Bohme customized for the Camp.

Looks like someone was the lucky winner

Looks like a ton of fun their having.

Check out the other pics on the CoC PB gallery here

But in the meantime here’s me poaching some from their gallery

A little late but oh well

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 17:58:00 +0000

Happy Canada Day July 1st
A little slice of Canadiana

and Independance Day July 4th

More from Matej

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:39:00 +0000

Hey Keith...just little summary of last month...

First two weeks of this month I was forced off the bike. I crashed in 4X
race which I did just for fun in my home city of Prague. I strained some
ligaments in my left wrist and had to wear a cast for 4weeks.

After 2 weeks and consultation with my doctor I decided to remove the cast
and try to race on European Champs! I've had to tape my wrist and wear
special fixation over it. I did some training runs, felt on it in seeding
run, but still was able to ride with just little pain. I did smooth run in
Final and finished 9th!!! Hey, I think it's not too bad ;)

Matej Charvat - European Champs 2009 from CharvatBros.com on Vimeo.

Next week, bad luck! I crashed in world cup quali in Maribor, Slovenia. That
kept me off the pace...

Last weekend I participated in second race of the National Series which took
place near to east border of Czech Republic in small ski resort called Velke
Karlovice. Actually, this area is striked by the flood. The race wasn't
exception. Whole day of unstopable rain. I was really motivated to win after
victory in first race. I did pretty agressive run with a lot of mistakes,
but in this extreme conditions I was the lucky boy which made it down in
fastest time! I did a little gap between me and the others in overall.

Legend is Awesome...

Cheers!

Matej Charvat

Shore Showdown video

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:25:00 +0000

Chris Seager Smith put together this fine quality, HD video short of the 2009 Esher Shore Showdown

good work fella!!

http://vimeo.com/5379027

Healing Vibes to Kenny.

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 15:51:00 +0000

DH ripper, Legend test rider and my good mate Kenny Howard, has just been chatting to me on this amazing invention called the tinterweb.

At the weekend he took a spill on a supermoto bike while practising in Seattle area. The bike crushed and twisted his leg when the front wheel washed out on him and, but typical Kenny thought nothing much of it and rode back to the pits where he figured he had dislocated his Knee, so drove himself to hospital.

Turns out that he had a tibial plateau fracture (break just below the knee, but close enough that it has likely affected the joint), so he is now stuck with a full leg (crotch to toe) splint awaiting more scans from the doc. It is likely that he have to go 3 months without walking, then 6 months before knee surgery as it is likely he has a lot of ligament damage as well. So will be out of riding for a year or so.

Tough times bud! I'm sending you healing vibes, and I'm sure lots of the Banshee family will be doing the same when they read this. I hope that things turn out better than originally thought and that you do your normal super fast healing.

2009 Shore Showdown

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:33:00 +0000

Just got back from the 2009 Shore Showdown at Esher Shore bike park here in England, UK

It was a pretty chilled out affair this year, with 40 riders and about 60 spectators, and lots of drinks given out by Monster Energy, plus swag from 661, DMR, Freeborn, Devinci and Specialized

the weather was shady last night, with a torrential rain storm; but the bike park benefitted as it made the dusty trail tacky, providing great grip which was useful for a "transfer session" on the Pump'R trail

We had a best trick session on the big kicker, which Tim Webb won with a huge superman air, and all the riders had great fun sessioning all the different trails in the bike park

Adam from the southern freerider website showed up on his super light Wildcard, a couple of other Wildcard riders showed up and I did my best to ride my Rampant with its blown Pike forks (Winterberg!!)

it was a hot and humid day, but good fun and everyone went home with lots of swag...

huge thanks to all the riders, sponsors, hard working trail crew and Marius the DJ for making the 2009 Showdown a chilled, but fun event!!

Rob C

Winterberg helmet cam video on Pinkbike

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:46:00 +0000

the old saying is "a picture is worth a thousand words"

perhaps the new saying is "a video is worth ten thousand words"

here is the helmet cam footage from my recent trip to Winterberg bike park in Germany

http://www.pinkbike.com/video/82785/

I am riding the red/white Rampant and Jesus John is riding the black Wildcard

cheers!

Rob C

Mad Trapper Panorama

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:50:00 +0000

Off to the next leg of the BC Cup.
Invermere and Panorama resort for the Mad Trapper race.
Should be there for practice on Saturday and hopefully the weather is a lot nicer then it was last weekend.
I should have something up on the blog by Monday.
Look forward to see all whose going.
For more information on the race
http://media.intrawest.com/panorama/pdf/Mad_Trapper_Downhill_2009.pdf
and here
http://www.panoramaresort.com/index.htm

Banshee Wildcard tested by Andy!

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:36:00 +0000

To have a start on Wildcard in a race you have to be a newbie, but for all, you have to rock!

Banshee Wildcard isn´t a newbie for this year, but the name is on a place.

Low frame, rider position in centre of gravity, seat between your knees, proper rear frame triangle, changing suspention travel, 1,5head tube, that´s a few specifics, that´s put the bike a great potential.

Read the rest here http://engram-bikes.blogspot.com/search/label/News%20in%20English

Banshee Week on Pinkbike

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 09:55:00 +0000

Yesterday in the POD, Today in the VOD ... I am pretty sure Guy French is riding a Banshee Wildcard just before the 4 minute mark. link to video I tried to embed but it will not show up, I think maybe I am a little bit slow or my computer is a little bit slow.

Check it out.

Rob

Arduum or Ardoom depending on how your race went

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 23:44:00 +0000

It was wet it was dark and it was knar.

It was however a lot of fun, very well organized… so much so that riders were only a few minutes behind when their official times to start were. So huge thanks to all the organizers, time keeper, commisares, first aid guys, and sponsors for putting on a great event.

Now lets get to some pictures.

First was the Trident Banshee Industry team. Thanks Michelle for you 3rd place finish.

As well as Dean Wilkes [Legend] and Tom Thorton [Scythe]

Tom placed 1st in Citizen senior and Dean placed 3rd in the same sandbagger class. EDIT: Dean actually came second to get a Banshee 1- 2! Not sure how they placed overall but those guys are fast so don’t let the class fool you.

Left: Michelle after the rock drop Right: Dean hitting the rock drop

Dalen and Zac were also racing and although podiums we’re not in the cards they were happy with their runs and to have survived Ardoom.

Left: Dalen eating shit before a hip gap. Can’t blame him as it was really greasy and finding traction was the order of the day. Right is Zac taking the chicken line. I guess his bike’s to pretty to get all dirty. You can see the white splotches in the pictures were rain drops and at times it was coming down real hard.

My cousin was one of the smart ones with golf umbrella put to good use on Sunday .

Some guys weren’t so lucky and I saw a few mangled bikes and bodies coming down the mountain. I hope this guy is ok and is healed up for next weeks Panorama race

Taking pics was not easy, everything was soaked, it was dark, and the amount of red eyes I had to fix was insane. So if you see your pic and your eyes look all f’d I tried my best.

Here is the rest of the riders that I managed to get. There was quite a few racers competing but I managed to get a few of you… enjoy.

View Full Album

Tyler from Pinkbike giving out the awards and prizes.

Banshee Scythe Pinkbike POD

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 09:29:00 +0000

Today's POD at pinkbike is a picture of Ryan Kuhn testing a Scythe in Rossland on a trail called Whoopidydo!. If you are ever in the Rossland area check out this trail. I rode it last summer and it is a blast.

Spares kits avaliable.

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 16:08:00 +0000

Spares kits are already, or will soon be, avaliable globally from dealers and distributors for all Banshee frames.

To see what kits there are check out the Freeborn website, where Jim has put up a complete list.

Typhoon Day/Bike Check

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:35:00 +0000

Typhoon Day:

A typhoon is just south of Taiwan. The weather network has predicted it will arrive sometime on Saturday or Sunday. There was a lot of wind here this morning but no rain. James and I decided that we would take our chances with the weather and head out to the jumps. We ended up taping the camera and tripod up in a tree and got some cool shots.

Bike Check:

Here are a couple of shots with me and my Wildcard. I built up my medium sized Wildcard with parts that came off other bikes and will be slowly upgraded. The fork is a fox talas 36, the rear shock is an xfusion H3 (testing for www.cycletaiwan.com), the wheels are halo sas rims built on tank hubs (not the lightest wheels, good enough for now), the cranks, pedals, stem and bars are all from Deity (hope to get some upgrades soon). I have been running Avid Juicy 7's on my past couple of bikes and I have no complaints, so I am running them on this bike too. I am not sure what the weight is as I have never put a bike on a scale. I go more on feel than weight.

Here is a shot of James with his medium sized Wildcard. We were trying to get a new X Fusion Vengeance, but the Taiwanese distributor will not have any stock until we have already left for Canada. He ended up going with a Rock Shox Lyric 2 Step Air. His rear shock is a Fox DHX 5.0 and we spent a good part of today getting his suspension some what dialed. He is running Race Face Atlas cranks, a Gamut chain guide and a combo of XT and Juicy 7 brakes. If anyone wants to donate us some brake hose for Juicy 7 brakes or do a rebuild on a set of XT brakes we will not turn you down.

Keep riding, be safe.

Rob Dunnet

P.S. Jay gave me a couple of blog rules a couple months back. One was no man ass ... this is as close as I can come to breaking that rule.

Edit: Jay has four simple rules for the blog (see his comment), as I was testing my version of the UCI skin suit yesterday I came pretty close to breaking the one I hoped to never break.

Camp of Champions starts this weekend

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:06:00 +0000

Its gonna be another great year at Camp.

Why is it going to be so cool?

We’ll Alan Hepburn will be coaching again this year and I think Dustin Greenhall will be doing a couple sessions as well.

I’m trying to see if Rob Dunnet - whose flying in from Taiwan and Banshee/Straitline spono’d rider- can also tag along for a couple sessions. What he lacks in riding he makes up for in personality so the kids will love him.

There are still a few spots open in camps B, C, and D.

In addition to learning mad skills from the pros you’ll also get a whole bunch of other cool things to do.

On the Banshee side of things we’re going to have Wildcards, Scythes, and Rampants to play and learn on as well.

I’ll be going up hopefully a couple times each week to give away Amp frames and when the camps are all over. We sell off the bikes for cost so imagine getting a 4K bike for around 2K… basically if you need a new bike you might as well get a camp out of it since you’d still be ahead in the pocket book.

So if you’re interested check out the link here http://campofchampions.com/whistler/whatyouget/default.aspx

Public Service announcement for BC

info@bansheebikes.com (Jay MacNeil) — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:54:00 +0000

Dear mountain bike tourism stakeholders:

On behalf of Tourism British Columbia and the Western Canada Mountain Bike Tourism Association (MBTA), we are pleased to provide you with an update on the progress of the Mountain Bike Tourism sector stakeholder meetings. The decision has been made to hold six (6) different meetings in key regions of the province so we may seek input into the development of the marketing plan province wide. Blair Baldwin is the facilitator who is also actively involved in the development of the rail trail network in BC branded the Spirit of 2010 Trail.

At each regional meeting we solicit a broad cross section of stakeholders which include:

1) Lift-access Bike Park Resorts

2) Commercial Tour Operators and Events

3) Destination Marketing Organizations

4) Industry Groups (such as MTBA)

5) Mountain Bike Tourism Services (hotels, bike shops/rentals, F&B, etc)

6) Provincial Govt Agencies

7) Regional and Municipal Govts

8) Mtb Clubs and Trail Stewardship Groups

At each meeting, we review Experiences BC; update all on the BC Recreation Trails strategy; ask for input to define the main mountain bike experiences that we want to market; what makes them unique; identify key targets and their characteristics; validate the current situation analysis for the competitive environment and our own internal assessment of the industry. We finish the meetings seeking input for objectives for the marketing plan. From each meeting, we update the information internally so that subsequent meetings have the benefit of others knowledge when we meet.

We have held meetings in Kelowna, Nelson and Nanaimo this month, all of which were well attended. We will be holding meetings Williams Lake and Prince George before the end of June. A meeting in Vancouver will be held in the early Fall.

Once the regional meetings are held, we will form a volunteer committee comprising one or two representatives from each region that will meet to consider all input and which will validate the findings and recommend strategies; budgets; sources of financing and timelines. The goal is to have a plan completed prior to Christmas. We hope this update is informative and if you have any suggestions as we work through these meetings, please let us know.

To read the official Tourism BC announcement, please go to the following link: http://www.mbta.ca/assets/pdfs/Mtn-Bike-Announcement-May-2009.pdf

Happy Riding!

Martin Littlejohn and Donna Green, Directors

Western Canada Mountain Bike Tourism Association

Heather Boyd, Coordinator, Sector Development

Tourism British Columbia