I don't speak the Francais but Guillaume did a little
translation for me and said he would provide a complete translation when he gets sometime.The magazine was very impressed with the bike.
They liked the fast acceleration, said it felt much like a hardtail but provide good grip when the course started getting rough.
From the sounds of it, it wasn't just a luke warm, feel good review but a pretty kickass one.
Normally I wouldn't poach a mags review because I want you to go out and support the magazines and buy them. However most of you guys can't read French and don't have access to the magazine so you probably wouldn't be buying it anyway. Those of you who can get it, should. Patrick from XCYTT / IGNIT forgot to give me a link to Ride-It's site and be sure I'll throw an up an update when i get it.
Thats Simon Cardone our French rider in the pics. That boy has got mad skillz and can get the most out of this bike. When you consider he placed 4th in the Belgium DH championship on a 4X bike when everyone else was running DH race bikes you know he must. Don't worry Simon the Legend Mk1 it on its way.
Again I'll have an update when I can get some of this translated a little bit more.
Update: Guillaume translates the review... big thanks to him for doing this.
Banshee rampant
Stealth aircraft
For 2008, the Canadian brand is offering more and more in racing options.
As it shows by the brand new Rampant, a energenic frame for 4 cross
Page 76 :
A lot of things are happening in 2008 for banshee. With the arrival of Keith Scott, the brand new designer and engineer, the Canadian brand he has been given a breath of freshness due to two reason: a huge amount of work done on CAD and a lot of work with their riders.
Banshee stamped its name on the freeride market but is now turning to focus on competition with a range for every kind of riding.
The rampant is a full suspension for 4x. Some would say 4x
is dead but this frame is more than a 4x it’s an ultra compact frame with reduced travel which will offer a use range wider than 4x.
The new rampant has been developed in collaboration with Simon Cardon who tests the first prototype during French championship in Montgenèvre. For his coming out the new banshee put a mark on spirit because Simon won every series and finish 5th after winning the semi final. The potential of that frame is not making any doubt. A few months later Simon made it happen again by finishing 4th at Namur DH in Belgium, on a 100mm travel bike against rider equipped by big DH bikes. Respect!
Before the distribution the rampant made sensation with a very good pilot. Then this gives envy to know more about the rampant. The only difference with the serial frame is about the diagonal tube which will be hydro formed. In every case we can be stucked in front of this bike and his aggressive look. The frame is definitively compact.
With a seat tube of 350mm in small size the rampant has the size bmx cruiser.
For 2008 banshee has developed a new rear suspension called VF4B (Virtual Floating Four Bar). How it works? The back end is linked to the front triangle by two linkages. The first one is over the bottom bracket and stays at the bottom of the rear end. The second link the upper part of the rear end to the seat tube and the shock . IN clear it’s a floating pivot suspension .
On the rampant, the rear wheel go backward when the suspension works . For more efficiency banshee used a suspension ratio to have more progressive suspension. That was the important point of the development of this frame
P 78
The rampant has explosive acceleration at the start and out of curves. That’s why the trajectory of the wheel is going backward. It allows to keep a good chain tension something really important on this kind of bike; This is only true when we have a reduced travel because over this there too much interference between suspension and chain tension. The pivot are made by Igus Iglide bearing. This decision was made after a lot of testing . Why using these bearings? It allows to increase the lateral rigidity and kill some weight by reducing the maintenance. Keith Scott continue his idea by saying that a ball bearing is built to do a 360° rotation like on a bottom bracket and did support angular rotation under 90° of rear suspension: the forces are integrally supported by just few balls in the bearing. Which is not the case of polymere bushing.
Let’s talk about sensation? We have been lucky to test Simon’s bike. We say it right now this bike is really well designed. First about the geometry: the rampant is easy and safe at high speed. The gravity centre is very low and allows a lot of movement front to rear and has a lot of room for the legs. The rampant is easy to manual. Technical riders will love it by rolling obstacles without losing speed and bouncing from a turn to another on. It’s clear the compromise stability/ easiness is optimal! The most impressive is the acceleration it’s like a hard tail. The grip is good and the suspension keeps the contact when the terrain is rough. With this rampant we can see us taking part of a local DH race. No doubt banshee made his turn really well. Until now banshee was more about hardcore freeride bikes but now it wants to touch a racer public which looking for something efficient and sharp
P 79
We liked
Agressivity of the frame
Flickable and safe behaviour
We dislike
Price
