So I just hooked up a buddy with an older Chaparral. He's not a great rider by any stretch and is pretty much new to the whole sport. He comes back from riding and he's all stoked that people were checking out his bike and commenting about it. The whole time he's talking about it he's got this huge grin on his face.
If you ride and have a pretty nice bike you've probably been there and felt that same feeling... doesn't necessarily need to be a Banshee.
I was talking to Gab from Brasil and we were discussing his upcoming trip to Taiwan... We then talked about when his sponsored rider, Kheblinho, went to the downtown Lisboa [Lisbon] race and how Sergio and Miguel treated him like royalty when he was there.
I can probably guess that if you roll up on someone anywhere in the world riding a Banshee they'll acknowledge you. We are all connected in a certain way, and share a common outlook on life and things... its what drew you to want a Banshee in the first place. I've yet to meet a Banshee rider that didn't, at their core, completely rebel or have contempt for the pretentious bullshit that sometimes accompanies people who are riding for all the wrong reasons - I know you know the type.
What my buddy felt that day was Pride.
The H.A.'s have "support your local 81" where H = 8 and A = 1.
So Banshee will have its
I'm gonna get some stickers, clothing and stuff made and put them in all the frame boxes and get a bunch to give out to help you show your colors.
Most people won't know what it means but if your core then you'll know and if you see someone wearing a T or other clothing with the 22Pride on it you'll know they've got a Banshee and are part of the Banshee Pride [groups of lions are called a pride].
It's too soon for 2007 but I'm hoping to start laying the ground work, once we finish all these bikes, to start focusing on a team. We've always been about the product first, and that will never change, but a lot of people like to see the company have some high level riders. We have some great riders outside of North America but we need to bring it home and get some local talent on our bikes again.
Think we'll be looking at a few different categories and not just freeriders as we'll have some race bikes coming down the pipe. No details yet but you'll hear about it first here.
We do plan on sponsoring a few firefighter/riders for the Policemen/Fireman world games held in Vancouver in 2009.
My bros a figherfighter in Surrey, BC and I know a couple of great riders that work there, that will clean up the medals - yeah Perry, I'm talk'n about you Rothy and Deli-sandwich [if you're a FF they never use your real name].We'll do some special bikes with Surreys logo and colors which will be pretty cool.
