banshee bikes industry insider

This week's Bike of the Week goes to 18 year old Peter Haugland from Oslo & this is his Amp...



If you want to be considered for Bike of the Week, 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!

Up-and-coming Photographer Michael Overbeck took these great shots of Mike Montgomery at Crankworx last week...









Check out Michael's Facebook page for more info.

Looking for somewhere to stay in Whistler? Well look no further than Bear Back Biking.

Photo by Rupert Fowler

The guys at Bear Back were kind enough to accommodate me whilst I was in Whistler for Crankworx last week. Not only is the accommodation top notch, they also dish up some amazing cooked breakfasts & evening meals courtesy of their incredible chef, Wallace & chalet host Sophie. The guiding team of Casey, Jamie, Toby & Paul will show you all the best trails that Whistler & the surrounding area has to offer, but don't even think about trying to keep up with them!

The lodge is kitted out with secure bike storage & all the tools you'll ever need, so it really is home away from home for the keen mountain biker.

Photo by Rupert Fowler

If this wasn't enough, they've just taken delivery of 2 Banshee Amp bikes for their guests to use at one of the increasing number of pumptracks that are popping up all over Whistler - there's a great one 500m from the lodge.

Make sure you give Bear Back Biking a call next time you're planning a Whistler trip.

Thanks again to Mark & Jonny for a great week.

Up-&-coming Aussie wild-man, Benny Phillips wins Teva Best Trick at Crankworx Whistler on a Banshee Amp...



I think we'll be seeing more from this guy very soon...

Benny Phillips - Bike Check from Tom Brown on Vimeo.

Mike fills us in on his Rampant set-up for Crankworx...



Read the full story on Pinkbike.com

Every year on Keith Scott's birthday, the Banshee fanboys here in Malaysia run amok.
This year's Banshee AMOK (Absolute Madness Of Kiara) Downhill race was held at the Kiara downhill track- the same track as our last Banshee KIARA RAGE 2010 race.

The race marks the final round of our local 2011 Malaysian DH Super Series.

We had close to 90 eager racers from Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, NZ and Australia racing this year.

Our Fakawi Banshee Team had a pretty good race season, with our rider Adam winning the overall series winner (on points) in this race.



Big shout out to Banshee Bikes for sponsoring the prizes in our little AMOK race!
Enjoy the video and pictures!
Race website: BANSHEE AMOK

Banshee AMOK Downhill Race 2011 from Fakawi | Banshee on Vimeo.

I've had to use google translate on this, so the turn of phrase is sometimes a bit funny, but you should be able to follow it. Basically Benny destroyed the field on his Banshee legend MkII by nearly 7.5 seconds to win his first german Elite DH championship.

Photo credit to Christoph Laue

Trip started on 27th June, when I flew to Montreal. I met my teammate Adam Brayton and Matt Scoles(Trek Cingolani) at the Airport. We were picked up by Elka Suspension's Patrick T. who helped us a lot. We had a drive to the races with a big Elka trailer equipped by a workshop, expotents and all what we needed. We packed up and went to the first WC in North America this year.



Mont Saint Anne (CAN)
The track was very simillar to the last years World Champs. We did some testing with Elka on Thursday on a different tracks to pre-setup the suspension for the race. It started to rain really heavy when the practice started. The track was almost like a river. I had a few crashes in my training runs. I didn't feel the best, but I made it in qualification on Friday. I slightly corrected my lines on Saturday for the finals. The weather turned to a bit sunny for Saturday and Sunday and the track started to dry. It was really fast for the finals.

I put a solid run together with a few mistakes, but still good for a long track like this one. I also did a famous nosedive on the last jump, but I saved it in the last moment.

I finished on 33rd - good result for me and we could move happy to cca 700km far Windham (USA) for next round of WC.


Windham, NY (USA)
This track was also almost the same like last year WC. It was also a bit wet at the beginning of practice, but it started to dry fast.

This track is one of the shorter ones on the circuit (maybe the shortest). Times are really tight and every hundred of a second counts. I was really confident in training and in Fridays qualification. I qualified on 26th. I knew that I can do top30 in the finals. Sundays final was a really tough battle.

I did a solid and smooth run with just a few operatively changed lines. I finished 32nd at the end of the day!!! Just for fun - there were 12 riders in my second, which proves a really tight field.

You can also watch a GoPro video from Mont-Sainte-Anne:

Banshee does Mt St Anne World Cup from Jacob Gibbins on Vimeo.

Follow Antoine Dubourgnon for 5 days as his shreds his Scythe & Rampant, en francais...

Something a little different this week... Kevin Sands from the UK takes the glory with his Mythic Paradox. Very sharp looking.



If you want to be considered for Bike of the Week, 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 last 2 weeks have been a BLAST. Camp of Champions is back and is bigger and better then ever. This year Camp has improved the compound with new box jumps, bigger mulch jump and again the big airbag for campers to learn and land new tricks that they have always wanted to do.

The mountain has been a little slow to open up completely due to the insane amount of snow this year but the trail crew are doing amazing work on the lower mountain with new trails and constant maintenance. The campers are having a blast punching out 10+ runs a day then hitting the compound afterwards till dark.

For myself i'm just stoked to see Camp get better and better every year and more kids sign up to have a good time and learn a lot. Not only that but Camp lets the coaches progress there riding like never before.

So since I'm currently in whistler, and have a GoPro... I figured it might be a cool idea to do some filming of runs as I cruise (I ain't no racer!) down them. So I'm starting off as many people start their days here by going down Crank It Up.

Keith riding Crank It Up on pinkbike.com

Me and the rest of the Locs on Spokez crew started a trail in the winter, took a break as things picked up in the spring, and banged out the rest of it in May.  We named it “Miss America” and couldn’t be happier with how it turned out!  Justin and Devin started their new media group called “Root One Media”, and we all worked hard to shoot what we had dug so much on.  I’m really psyched on how it came out, enjoy!

This week's win goes to Kim Tore Baardseth & his custom black Legend. Very pimp...




If you want to be considered for Bike of the Week, 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!

German Paradox review:

That´s what I have heard from various sides until I couldn´t close my ears for that cry any more. After tried out some different 29ers the picture of “my” Bike appeared more and more clearly in my inner eye – and since some month I am a part of the steadily growing 29er-fan community.

The bike

From the very beginning some points were crystal clear: my bike should be real no-brainer, a good and solid piece of art, reliable, versatile, trail-eating and without any gimmicks. Everything set up for maximum fun and maximum reliability. After a deep rush through the pertinent web sites the decision for “my” frame was easy: Banshee Paradox – man-size XL! The Banshee bikes have been noticed ever since for loving trails, offering endless reliability and a very unique look and riding style – that´s what I want!

The Parts

White Brothers Fluid 29er fork – with 140mm travel

I like the WB-forks when I fist saw them – and 140mm for a trail hardtail are really cool! Due to the super solid 20mm axle, all the cool CNC-machined parts, the excellent working adjustments and the super smooth working this fork seemed to be the best value to get. Sure that long fork may put an extra degree of slackness to the frame – if you don´t like it add maybe a 120mm-Reba – but I wanted it that traily way!

Shimano XLX Trail

As mentioned the key points are fun and rigidity – and so I came to the trail-version of Shimano´s SLX group. The new 3x10-speed with a 12-36-cassette to fit the gear ratio to the bigger wheels seemed perfect for me – and the look of the SLX is perfect for me. Not too shiny but very valuable. I also took the SLX disc brakes and combined them with a pair of XT-discs – due to the fact that this ones are available in international 6-screw-standard.

MRP XCG Crank protection

The perfect and most effective protection for triple crank sets you could add to you bike – just in case of hitting something!

WTB 29er wheelset with ST-Hardride-hubs

Solid WTB Laserdisc-29-rims offering the right mix of rigidity with some needed flex. Combined with a set of super-duty ST-Hardride-hubs – both held together by a set of Büchler 2.35/2.0-DB tandem spokes. A perfect combination for every trail in this world.

WTB Bronson 2.2 – 29“ – Tires

This new all round-tires directly from American MTB pioneers WTB are being called my all-time companion on every trail – I don´t want to change tires, I want to ride!

WTB Bronson 2.2. 29“ – Reifen

WTB Vigo saddle

Simply spoken because it is comfortable, offers a good length for variable riding positions and because it is not too heavy – and good looking. Perfect for my trail bike!

Easton EA-90 Monkey-Riserbar with matching stem and seat post

American knowhow for trail riding, design and rigidity – perfect match!

Adding some lock on grips and minor parts – ready, steady, GO!

After assembling the whole bike in an over night session – and after some hours of sleep – it was time for my first real 29er tour. Living in the middle of Germany, January means lots of snow or rain, rather cold and wet conditions. OK, all the advantages that have been mentioned in various articles and reports. Things like good rolling capacity, the feeling of more sitting in the bike, advanced safety, better grip – have heard about all this several times – but what´s the truth and what´s just marketing rubbish?

So I entered the bike, clicked into my Shimano SPD pedals – wow, look at the front tire, how near! Short head turn – jep, rear tire seems to be very near too. But anyway – let´s ride! After some minutes on a fire lane I use the first piece of grassland with some trees on as a perfect training field to get used to the bike. When does the rear start to slide? When do I loose grip while standing up and pushing? How narrow can I turn around a small tree? Things like that.

After the first minutes I am really stoked! Ok, position is sure some inches higher from ground than on a 26er – but you don´t really feel this. I felt very comfortable after the very first few meters! Ok, front tire seemed to be real near by – but no worries. Due to the relatively long-travel fork I had to get used to a slightly different way of cornering – blasted some turns and I got it: short haul off to the other side, add some speed – that all! But what´s about the saying that 29er can´t do switchbacks? Ok, next try, go for a real tight radius – speed and go! Cool feeling – ready for the trails!

Starting with a transition over fire lanes and some old paths to the woods I ended up in a cool trail meandering through some tries, some rocks, roots and nice little clearings. Paradox rolls like being nailed to the perfect line – my previous training session pays back. So I could really enjoy the bike-ride and left all the technical bla-bla behind. Some steep uphill ramps make me smile. Ok, the Paradox is no super lightweight race bike – especially not in this spec – but the WTB Bronson tire shows real phenomenal traction. Even slippery roots can´t turn him into sliding and makes me saving power by passing them. The 3x10 Shimano SLX works perfectly – even for an old “Grip shift addicted” like me. Thanks to the constant rain we had the days before the trail gets slippery and muddy the more I follow them into the woods and so I start collecting mud, leafs and needles all over the bike – but not at the tires! Very good mud extraction here – and the SLX even works when you couldn´t even see the derailleur in all that mud….very brave!

After two hours playing with the Paradox I got to one of my favourite woods, covered with lots of small narrow trails, cool corners and fast sections. The wet track allowed constant rolling and the Bronsons did their job. The mixture of this tires and the 29er traction advantage allowed a smooth ride even in sloping sections. Ok, so turn right into the corner section….roll from the outer side, short cut in the opposite direction with the front, back on the track with added speed – yeeeehaaa the Paradox turns like hell. The sun set makes me roll home – covered with mud, big smile on my face and really proud of my bike. Cool Paradox with superb parts – seems there is another 29er fan born!

The following weeks could see a big guy on a big 29er Paradox rolling along on the home trails – but the Paradox has also become my constant companion, sitting in my van every time I travel, being the perfect bike for an evening rollout with my dogs in the woods, relaxed, speedy and with all those small details only a good 29er can offer.

OK, so you might not see any of our bikes in this video, but that is because summit has only just become a Banshee dealer, the only one in Whistler. From this video you'll get an idea of the size of the shop and what they can offer, as well as the location. I'm personally friends with most the guys who work there, and it has always been my go to shop if I need anything.

PLUS they are running a special deal right now, that if you buy a Banshee in the shop, you get 25% of anything else you buy in there the same day... so you could grab a new D3 and Gopro + much much more at a 25% discount at the same time.

Summit life. on pinkbike.com

banshee Wildcard info

Banshee Scythe info

Although this is PDF is specifically for the Rune, the information is identical for Spitfire and rampant also since the pivots are the same and require same maintenance and care.

Banshee Rune info

Legend

leogangWMV von Irvine78 auf MTB-News.de

Mike Montgomery's World Record Plans — More Mountain Bike Photos