Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Dave's Mythic Rune

It's always great to see another RUNE built up, and this one belongs to our customer Dave, who has spent a few months putting it together as funds permitted

He started with getting a lovely anodised black Rune frame from Freeborn, and having some trick Stans ZTR Flow rims built onto gold Hope Pro II hubs




Next came a fork swap - he swapped his Rockshox Lyric Solo Air with a friend, for a Rockshox Lyric Coil U-Turn, but unfortunately the steerer tube was a little short, more on that later...

Headset is Hope's 1.5" flush reducer unit, Shimano SLX crankset, derailleurs and shifters, Avid Elixir R brakes, Maxxis High Roller tires, WTB saddle, Easton handlebar and some other good quality parts

I'd estimate the weight around 33-34lb, and it could certainly dump a chunk of poundage by switching to some lighter all-mtn tires, but Dave seems just happy with the way it rides, and that of course is all that matters!

During the build-up, it became evident that the fork steerer tube was a little short, so we sourced another 1.5" flush top cap from Hope and swapped out the regular Extended lower cup for the flush cup, so the headset is now running flush cups top and bottom (the bearings are identical)

With the hydroformed downtube, there is adequate clearance for the Lyric's Mission Control adjusters, even with the floodgate knob popped up



Of course, this reduction in stack height has changed the geometry of Dave's Rune compared to Keith's original geometry setup - Dave's Rune will have a reduced bottom bracket height, shorter front centre, and slightly steeper head and seat angles, but Dave wanted to setup his Rune as a big trail bike, and so it suits him just fine! It also means a sharper steering rig for the fast singletracks common to the UK woodlands

It also means he can run his Lyric wound full-out to 160mm without having a tall handlebar height, which of course benefits on the climbs

happy trails Dave!

Rob the Giant poacher

Just got this video... pretty bad quality but its funny cause Rob our new Taiwan rider / builder was interviewed on National TV at a Giant Maestro camp and check out his helmet hehehe. I don't think he'll be invited next year.
Again excuse the bad quality as it was pulled off the TV. We were surprised to find him on there and rushed to get any kind of recording of it

Monday, April 27, 2009

Part One

In early March I emailed Banshee about the cost of the Amp and the availability of it in Taiwan. Although bikes are made here in Taiwan, it can be difficult buying them here. Jay emailed me back and put me in touch with the Taiwanese distributor. I met Jay by chance (I am a bit of a stalker) at the Taipei Bike show in March. I started talking to him about how we (my brother and I) have been trying to start more of a freeride/dirt jump scene in the south of Taiwan. We talked a bit about bikes in general and the riding here in Taiwan. I told him that we have a unique opportunity here in Kaohsiung because there isn’t much building going on and because we are foreigners a lot of people hear about what we are doing. He said to give him a call after the bike show to talk about the possibilities of getting us on some Banshee bikes.

After bugging Jay for a couple of weeks I came home from work to find four boxes waiting for me. The boxes were a lot lighter than I thought they would be. And I was like a four year old at Christmas when I got upstairs and opened them up. boxes fresh from the factory pretty happy to have some new frames

My brother and I ordered an Amp and a Wildcard each. It can be difficult to find the right parts here in Taiwan and I was an idiot and let my fork be sold on the promise of only waiting a weekend for a new one. So we have had the frames for a couple of weeks and have only built up a Wildcard and an Amp. james' amp, regular size frame, x fusion velvet r fork, dt swiss ex 5.1 on bear's hubs, maxxis larsen tt tires

I have only spent a day on my Wildcard but I am already in love with it. I have ridden a lot of bikes and this bike is one of a kind. I am not sure I have the vocabulary to describe exactly what I like about it.

better pictures to come, was taken 5 minutes ago. medium wildcard, fox talas 36 (at 160mm in picture), deity cranks, pedals, bar and stem, halo sas rims on tank hubs. testing a x fusion h3 rear shock.

We will do some reviews once we get all the bikes going and have ridden them for a bit. And we will get some riding pictures up in the next week or so.

Rob

Woburn photos



JO took these cool action shots of John and I riding one of the short course runs at Woburn Sands on Saturday - I'm riding chainless on my Mythic Rampant which was "interesting"



And John wound the Rockshox lyric fork on his Mythic Wildcard out to 160mm to help with the gnarly terrain by slackening off the angles and raising the bottom bracket a little

Nic from www.nrs-photographer.co.uk just emailed me this action shot (below) from our riding session at Woburn Sands on Saturday



This is the hip line at Woburn which is huge fun to ride, although this hip is on my switch side so always feels a little squiffy to ride, luckily its followed by another hip on my natural side which I can boost a little better

happy trails!

Rob C

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Session at Woburn Sands

Jesus John and his buddy Rob and I all took one of our annual trips to Woburn Sands freeride area today, catching a train out of London Euston to Bletchley, and then a local connecting train to Woburn Sands village - a really easy journey and no problem taking our bikes



It was the first time I had taken my Mythic Rampant to Woburn, and its light weight, short top tube and short wheelbase meant it was ideal for a trick session started on the big step-up bombhole stunt









We also sessioned loads of the downhill runs and tracks, the Rampant is a bit of a handful at high speed and things started getting seriously tweaked and sideways on the big hip line, until on a later run I totally overshot the landing and soon ended my day's fun!



After removing the mangled parts, I did some chainless runs which are kinda cool as you simply cannot use the brakes much and really have to pump the trails and use the berms to maintain speed

cheers!

Rob C

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Adam's Wildcard - Trick Build

Adam runs a popular forum here in S-East England called "Southern freeride" and is very much into his tech stuff, so bought a Wildcard frame from Freeborn last season, and has spent a good 6 months getting all the parts together to do a trick build


It's finally built, and is 32lb with 1x9 gearing (rather than singlespeed) which is pretty damn light...
He's got Saint HT2 cranks, E13 chain device, Fox 36 Float forks lowered to 130mm, a lovely Thomon X4 stem, SDG seat/post and some Stan's ZTR Flow / Hope Pro II wheels I built for him, running Stan's Tubeless conversion on some large but light Syncros BHT 2.5" kevlar tires
Adam got out for his first ride and said:
"I rode swinley for a few hours this evening and loved it it rips round the trails. very very very maneuverable and quick down the trails love it. partly down to the weight, partly the tasty geometry and light wheelset"
happy trails!!

Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Swiss Time!

Guillaume went to visit Julien (our Swiss Distributor) to ride some of his local trails at the Juride bike park. Here are the results.



Visit the Juride bike park from guillaume Bossu on Vimeo.

That place looks like so much fun! Keep shredding guys!

Also check out some more vids at the above link of G riding his local French trails on his scythe

Thanks.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Muzzler in action on his AMP

This is Muzzler who is a Scottish rider who is going to be helping to represent Mythic in 2009

We hooked him up with a great deal on Mythic's new AMP freeride hardtail frame, and here are some great shots of Muzzler throwing down some shapes at Glentress's freeride bike park

PRIDE 22























Monday, April 20, 2009

He might not ride for us... but I still have to show you his skill!

For those who have never heard this name before... remember it!

Danny MacAskill.
A local to me here in Edinburgh ( Scotland), and possibly the most skilled, and ballsy rider in the world today.

Once again i will let the riding do the talking!




Enjoy!

Banshee on another cover!

Banshee rider and photographer were featured on the April issue of Mountain Flyer Magazine this month. A Rockey Mountain based magazine featured a shot taken by Devon Balet of Banshee rider Linden Carlson in the Colorado desert. We will make our way into the public's eye if we have to force them to look! ***photo to come

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

2009 Banshee Rune' - Downunder in Oz






Well, another Rune' has made it Downunder to Brisbane Australia. Take a look at this smik build undertaken by Darren Bowman of Brisbane Boutique Bikes for me (Harvey Power) 59+ year old father of young gun downhiller, Ben Power (now on a Legend). I did not have a mid life crisis but I think I am having it now and boy, does it feel good!!! Thanks Darren, you are a bloody genius!!

The build on an XL frame includes Fox DHX5 Air shock, Rock Shox Totem Solo-Air forks, NS Hubs laced to Mavic 721 rims and shod with Maxxis ADvantage 26x2.4 tyres, Avid Code brakes, XT cranks & BB, FSA internal intergrated headset with reducers, SRAM cassette, Full Dei'ty Cockpit including 710mm 20/14 bars with Dei'ty lock-on grips and Fantom DH headset, Velo carbon saddle.

This bronc has not been in the paddock as yet but will get its chance tomorrow to tame the mountain at Gap Creek Brisbane, Queensland Australia. If it performs as good as it looks then it will be an awesome machine to partner with for a long time to come!!

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

A tall tale about a bike named RUNE!

'testing' at Ae forrest dh track, a mans track, with man tires on.'testing' at Ae forrest dh track, a mans track, with man tires on.I know there have been a quite a few reviews of the rune lately which is a bit annoying, but I guess the world is catching up on what a little gem that the rune is. Well, here is my very long winded experience with it.

Intro

First of all, I would like to make it clear that I am not using the bike for intended use. In this article, I am treating the bike as a dh bike and judging it as one. It's a little project that my sponsors and I thought would be interesting to do. The RUNE is supposed to be an all mountain bike with good descending abilities, so what better way to prove that then put it in my greasy little hands. Most of the riding I have done is in the UK, with a bit back home in Malaysia. Many dh tracks from both countries do suit smaller bikes.


Set Up

The frame it self isn't new, it has been used for a whole season as an all mountain bike before it was placed in my care. The build for the bike came from parts from my previous dh bike, just a couple new parts here and there. A couple things work mentioning is that I am running a dhx coil, and a 10mm bolt on rear end.

Suspension:
Up front, the 40s are set at 7 inches of travel. I could run 7.5" or even 8" happily, but just trying to keep it fairly balanced with the 6 inches in the rear. Also, a 40 set at 7 inches is just under the axle to crown height of a fox 36. I didn't want to go nuts and totally screw up the geometry to start with

I am quite a light rider; I weigh 140lbs/10 stone. I am running a purple spring in the 40s and a 300lb/in rate spring in the rear. Ideally I would want a bit more sag in the rear, getting 30% dead right now.

Damping wise, I am nearly running full compression up front, 6 clicks from full in on HSC, 4 clicks from full in on LSC. Rebound 3 clicks from full open. On the dhx, rebound is full open and so is propedal. Boost valve pressure is set at 130psi, chamber size screwed in all the way.

Banshee RUNE DH setup!

The Ride

Prior to actually riding the bike (or even knowing much about it) I was a bit worried about the geometry, but it turns out its nearly spot on for dh riding. It has nice long chain stays, low bottom bracket, and a fairly slack head angle. I never felt the head angle made the bike twitchy, but a slightly slacker head angle would allow you to get over the front more aggressively, which would be nice.

Excuse me if I do go on a bit about the differences I feel between a single pivot and the four bar system. I spent my last 3 seasons on a well known single pivot dh bike and was very at home on it.

First thing I noticed is how the bike moves forward, it's an absolute rocket. Not that my old bike bobbed much, but that did come down a bit to a pushed dhx which had a load of LSC. The Rune however doesn't bob at all. It was a very different feeling for me, where I was used to the bike squatting under power and staying there, the rune doesn't squat or extend, just moves forward. Lets you sprint very aggressively, weight behind the bb and pulling on the bars.

It does skip a bit more under power if you don't weigh the rear wheel, but that's down to the bike having less sag then a full on dh bike, meaning less travel to drop into holes to keep the wheel tracking. It was only noticeable when I was sprinting over the front, which isn't the best way to sprint, but is inevitable when you are tired half way down a dh run.

Braking wise, suspension remains active and it tracks the ground well. It just works and it's something you don't really notice it until you really think about it or brake where you aren't supposed to.

catching some fresh tropical air.

catching some fresh tropical air.
Over the bumps, the suspension is very impressive for a little bike. Again, I wasn't expecting it to be on the same level as a dh bike and it definitely isn't for all out ploughing. There is only so much a little bike can do, and a dh bike will definitely do better on bigger stuff just by raw volume of travel. What I did notice is how it suspension does feel slightly 'dead', what I mean is that you don't get as much feedback as you do on a single pivot. Not that there is anything wrong with that, well maybe besides making you feel that you aren't going fast when you really are. Basically it does a very good job, and the more time I spend on it, the more I have confidence to push the limits. It does carry its speed well over bumps, with its rearward axle path in the beginning of its travel.

Again, being designed as an all mountain frame, it definitely doesn't have the ramp up that is needed on a dh bike. I do have the boost valve chamber screwed in all the way to prevent hard bottoming, but it's definitely not the same as having a nice ramp up from a spring that is designed into the linkage.

Summing up, it's a very very pleasant ride. The best way I can put is that it lacks all those little annoying things that will make a great suspension design a mediocre one. It just quietly goes about doing its job with out complaining.
At the student champs, cant say the bike held me back.
At the student champs, cant say the bike held me back.
Stiffness:
At 7.2lbs with shock claimed weight, it is a very light frame. I certainly wasn't expecting it to be as stiff as it is. I did feel some flex when I was running a QR in the rear, but that was only where I was forcing a drift to square off a berm in very grippy conditions. Now that I am running a 10mm bolt on, it has become a non issue. Guess those internal ribbings really do get the job done.


Issues

Bushings:
Two issues I had with the bushings. First one was the bushing between the top link and rear triangle had some play in it. The bushings there seem a bit small, and talking to other rune owners, they are the first to show any wear. Took 5 minutes to change them out and so far after 3 months of muddy UK riding they still are going strong.

Second one was on the bottom bushings, when I took them apart to clean and re-grease them I noticed that they have developed a thread on them, an imprint of the grooves from the axle which is there for the grease to flow. Of course this probably came about from me casing a few jumps that the average trail rider won't be doing anytime soon. I have been told that the legend has done away with the grooves on the main pivot axle so wont have this problem.

As a test of the bushing system, I rebuild them 3 months ago, and haven't touched them since. Banshee does recommend that you squirt some grease in the grease ports every so often or after wet rides, but I wanted to see what it would be like in a 'worse case scenario'.

They did get a bit sticky, probably due to some fine mud caking them up from a previous ride. But that went away as the ride went on. This is only being anal as I could only feel the difference pushing down on the saddle. Besides the two small bushings that I replaced, everything else has been going for two seasons already. There was some wear on the anodizing on one of the axles when I rebuilt them, otherwise, still going very strong. Banshee does include a care package which consists of 4 spare bushings, two bolts for the suspension and a spare hanger. Annoyingly, the only parts I have needed so far were the two sets of smaller bushings that are not included. Overall, they have been very impressive.
life is better horizontal (or as closely you can get to horizontal)

life is better horizontal (or as closely you can get to horizontal)
Mud clearance:
With 2.5 wet screams on the back, there isn't much space left there. With most tracks, its fine, but it just so happens I have a local track which is hell for bike with little clearance. With 2.5 high rollers on, it's not a problem. Not that this is ever going to be a problem for any trail riders.

Dhx:
Well, no surprise here, tuning range of the rebound damping goes from fairly fast to insanely slow. Of course most of that range is useless and going to be way too slow anyways. It's at full open already, but I want it faster. It does pack down on very fast sections with fairly big bumps, will probably crack it open and reshim it when I have the time. Again, a non issue for most riders.

Geometry:
IF and that's a big 'if' I had it my way, I would drop the bb just a bit, and slacken the head angle a degree or so. I have raised my 40 crowns an inch to slacken the head angle and raise the bars up a bit and that has worked very well. I might try out some offset inserts to slacken the head angle out and will see how that goes.
doing my share of shady overtaking manoeuvres in the xc sport race at the student champs, its all about getting the loudest cheers from the crowd.
doing my share of shady overtaking manoeuvres in the xc sport race at the student champs, its all about getting the loudest cheers from the crowd.
Conclusion

The RUNE, set up the way I have is not going to be replacing a full on dh set up anytime soon. Big tracks require big bikes, simple. Where it does come in is in not so 'manly' tracks, and maybe tracks that lack elevation. I have been on a few xc rides, along with a xc race, and already know of its all mountain capabilities, my experience on it for the past few months goes to show that it also shines when you are ready to take it down hill. What I can say for sure is that it's a very fun set up, a very light bike which is easy to throw around, yet still very capable. I for one am not going to be replacing my RUNE anytime soon.


BRAAAP!!
Adam.

Fakawi | Banshee





Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Dean does it again!

Our friend Dean who is one of the legend test riders, and well as a very active and hardworking trail builder from the woodlot, sent me this:

Hi Keith,

I remember you telling me that you would like to see the linkage of the Legend in action on a trail. This past weekend I mounted a camera and shot some footage with 2 cameras. One on my helmet and the other watching the linkage.

I synced them and the result is the following video on Pink Bike.

The video also has some regular helmet cam footage as well and me sessioning a jump. I just thought you would be interested in seeing the linkage in action on the trail. I found it interesting to see all the compression in corners and not just in the rough stuff.

Have a good one.

Dean



http://www.pinkbike.com/video/69372/


Thanks a lot Dean. Thats a really cool video showing how the legend works on the trail. It shows how hard you are railing the berms, as the suspension compresses then shoots you out. I also like how it shows how little the bike bobs while you are cranking it.

Monday, April 6, 2009

Muzzler's AMP

the guys at Freeborn hooked up this Scottish dude Muzzler with a great promotional deal on an AMP frame, he is going to be helping to represent Mythic in the UK during 2009, and onwards!

Here's his new AMP build, expect to see some pics and videos from him during this season



Cheers!

Rob C

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Sickining news

Pavel Řežábek lost his fight with Cancer.
He had battled so hard and so long and it looked like he had turned the corner but Jirka, his father and our Czech distributor informed me via email that the fight was over.
My heartful sorrow and support goes out to him and his family.
Jirka is not just a customer but is also a good friend and to lose a son is unimaginable and I hope that he finds strength from those around him to get through this terrible time

RIP Pavel I'm glad i got to know you just a little

Friday, April 3, 2009

Guillaume Bossu helmetcam

Guillaume sent me a couple of links to some helmet cam footage of him riding his local trails on his Scythe that he made with his new camera. Looks like a lot of fun G! I also like the different camera placement, gives you a bit of a better feeling for the trail I think.

The very known Gambas from guillaume Bossu on Vimeo.

The phenix from guillaume Bossu on Vimeo.

Keep ripping!