Down Under Up Date...

'Hello banshee world!

We had a new photographer out taking some happy snappies of our trail sesh. Cheers Simon Williamson for coming out. we got some cool footage at the moment and alan is in the process of making another short film. Before Alan releases that i thought i would drop a few photos to show what the lads down under have been up to.

As per usual Hackham has been under construction by leading shovel man Alan hepburn putting in countless hours giving the jumps a face lift while the rest of the crew have been testing the structual support of the shovel.

A few riders the right weather and some business tricks made for a good day last sunday. basically we had flips and flip combos, tailwhips, supermans and crazy leg extension tricks. Arms and feet flapping about in all directions. Alan Hepburn testing the waters of flipwhips and Chris Soininen testing the prototype Banshee Amp hardtail. The small size and light weight of the bike allowed for easy spin tricks with double tailwhips coming out of the bag.

A lot of fun and not to much damage was done except a few bruses and a couple small cracks in ribs. didnt stop Alan thou, can of tough n up and he was up for some more trail action.

Thats it for now guys, catch ya later,

Aussie Crew'

Woburn Sands

My good buddy John "Jesus" Holmes and I took our Wildcards on the train to Woburn Sands in Milton Keynes today, here in England (Woburn is about 45 miles North of London)

Woburn is a very cool forest site managed by a trust, that is bike friendly and has a freeride area set aside - above an equally cool dirt jump area

Woburn is predominantly sand based terrain with slabs of ore, and the riders have carved out numerous fast, bermed downhill trails, gap jumps and drops all over...


"Hey, its hot here in England for once!"



Sessioning the rebuilt bombhole step-up jump


John's Wildcard with new Lyric Coil U-Turn forks = dialled



Here is a picture sent to me from a guy called Andy Wetherell who was down at Woburn Sands shooting some photos - huge thanks for the photo Andy

This is the Woburn road gap, which then leads down into a big bombhole with a 25 foot drop into a 15 foot step-up jump that John and I spent most of the afternoon sessioning and trying out some tricks on


Who says you can't teach old dogs new tricks, eh?

X-ups, tuck no-handers, whips, no footers and lookback one handers were all flowing off the step-up today...a hella lot of fun, and a chance to give the Wildcards some proper airtime

cheers!

Rob C

Mini Rune review from Italy

http://www.free-bike.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=84

Scrole down for English Translation. Thanks for the e-mail Andrea!

Banshee's new bearings

This is my friend Jay. He told me not to post up this picture, so of course like a good buddy....

Anyway check out the size o those bearings WOW. I don't know what they're for but Jay is a materials engineer and works for a company that does testing on all sorts of stuff - we've used him a few times - so its probably something that he has to start working on.

He's also is the guy that I used to ride Whistler with until he had his new son, but hopefully I can get him up a few times for a rip. He currently rides a Wraith, bought my custom painted Chaparral off me and his 08 Pyre should arrive pretty soon.

Hey Jay if your reading this... "look at me!, I'm standing in a giant bearing!!" hahahaha!!!!

Freeride comp

This weekend! In Grand Junction Colorado. More info on pinkbike.com

Alan Hepburn has been digging up something different...

http://www.vimeo.com/931739

In Alans words:

'So we recently finished building this pump track and had our first day riding it in. I was curious to see how my wildcard being dual suspension would handle the need to pump and gain speed. Pretty much it shocked me a little, dam this thing can get moving in very little time.

It pretty much felt like a hardtail on the corners and held its line like it was on rails. The low geo design made it great for pumping each roller hard on the backside and getting into the corners fast.

I can't wait to find out how fast and nimble the amp and rampant must be!!!'

Wildcard on Bikeradar.com

Here is the Mythic Wildcard test which recently appeared in MBUK magazine, but edited for their website bikeradar.com

check out the link:

http://www.bikeradar.com/mtb/gear/category/bikes/mountain/product/wildcard-08-31369?_brc=1

Getting you out there

Banshee Bikes, getting you out there.

Rabbit Valley Rally

First race of the season kicked off this past weekend at Rabbit Valley CO. Team Dead Bros kept it real by representing Banshee and having TONS O' FUN on our bikes!

Rabbit Valley Rampage

The 2008 mountain states cup has officially kicked off for the season. The first event in the series was held on the weekend of april 12-13 in the beautiful area known as Rabbit Valley. It's about seventeen miles from the mountain bike mecca of Fruita, CO, and has some spectacular trails. The area has long been responsibly used by four wheel enthusiasts, hikers, equestrians and mountain bikers, but for the weekend it was all bicycles.
The team and I pulled into Rabbit Valley around four o'clock friday under cloudy skies. The wind was blowing and sand was everywhere, but everyone was still happy to be there. The race is definetly the excuse, but the ride is why we go to these places, and ride we did. The first thing after camp was established was grab the bikes and hit the time trial course, my designated venue for saturday's race. It wasn't too long, about 5.5 miles, but the route opens with a challenging climb. I knew I needed to get some rest and eat for the ride tomorrow.
The next morning I was up and riding before the first cup of coffee was brewed. I pedaled a few miles to where I felt warm and then hammered out some sprints. After a cup of joe, I was ready to rock and went to the start line. That's when I found out that there is no sport single speed class. There was no label before any single speed class, it was just men 19-29 single speed. I had been pitted against some of the stiffest competition in the msc, and start time was now 12 noon. The race was awesome, I had a great lungbusting ride through a fun trail network and found out how much a 29" wheel helps. All the 29ers passed me up, and I ended up with an eleventh place finish. I don't feel bad about it, the top finish was a hair over seventeen minutes compared to my twenty-three. These guys are incredibly strong, and I'm not one to give up. Me and my roadbike are getting aquainted rather well, and have even become good friends despite our rough start.
After the races were over, I had found my finish, decided to start packing some smaller gears for the races(a 36x18 doesn't cut it on the climbs), and decided that the V29 will be a single speed. The team and I decided at this point that a little ride would do us good, and went out the xc course, known as the west rim trail. The ride was so good that when we saw the signs saying short loop and long loop, we just couldn't pass up the full circle and headed out on the 18 mile course. Sometime after dark, we rolled into camp under a bright half moon and clear skies, bound for food. We went to Fruita, 17 miles east, and found a mexican restaurant and gorged ourselves on spicy salsa and fish.
The next day, we rode the xc course again, this time with Devon lugging thirty pounds of camera gear on his Scirocco. We got some action shots of the racers and had a rock fight. The rocks won, and we headed back to the base camp. The awards wrapped up with the pro classes having a reportedly $2000 split among them, not a bad deal for doing what they love so much. The weekend was a blast, I learned a bit about the world of single speed racing, and we had fun cruising the desert. The next race will be held on Colorado soil once again, in Nathrop. We hope to see all the Dead Bros/Banshee friends out there, and maybe even meet a few more. Keep your eyes out, we'll be under the Banshee banner. pedal on pedalers, Linden Carlson

PanAmerican Championship Vid

Some Vid of the PanAm championship.
Note, that some of the riders in the vid are not Marcelo or Markolf and some are not sponsored by Banshee. It was basically a video put together by Gabriel of Session Brazil so he also was documenting the Brazilian national team.
What was really cool is watching Doron kill the course on the Rampant 4X bike. He broke his fork on his DH bike and had to race the 4X bike. I think Gabriel said he placed 4th which just is an amazing feat.

A little somethin'

Time for a Laugh

Greg from Straitline Components sent me this link. Its pretty damn funny so if your sitting at your desk at work they all seem safe for work.
Anyway its a little break from your boring work.

MBUK All MTN BIG HITTERS GROUPTEST

Mountain Biking UK (MBUK) magazine finally hit the newstands this morning, and issue 224 (may 08) has the long awaited "All Mountain Big hitters" grouptest, which included my Mythic Team Wildcard, which is now safely back in my hands


The slopestyle orientated Wildcard was put into an odd grouptest which also featured a mini DH bike (Specialized's SX Trail I), and 2 confused freeride bikes with pretenses of being all-mountain bikes (Norco Six Two and Iron Horse 6Point4)

To further blur the test, my Wildcard was a high-end custom build with Rockshox Lyric 2-Step forks, SRAM X-9 transmission, Shimano Saint cranks, E13 STS chain device, Thomson and Easton finishing kit, Hope Pro II hubs on Singletrack rims with Maxxis High Rollers fitted with Stan's No-tubes conversion; the other bikes were all low-mid range production bikes....

After 3 weeks of testing, the Wildcard came joint runner-up with the Norco, both bikes scoring 8/10. The Iron Horse scored 7/10 and came last, and surprisingly the Specialized SX Trail I scored 9/10 and came first...

We all had a chance to test the 4 bikes and the SX Trail was least "freeride" favourite due to a stretched out and low front end riding position, but as simply the photo stunt people we weren't writing the test, that was down to the editorial test team who had finished testing the bikes about a week before our photoshoot at Swinley Woods




Not having ridden a Mountain bike in nearly 4 months, I felt a bit sketchy on the photoshoot but managed to throw down some shapes on a big step-down, a tree root drop into a fireroad and we sessioned a fallen tree which was fun...Jim was riding the SX Trail and was pleased to borrow my Wildcard for some high speed runs through the forest to get a good comparison between the two bikes


MBUK concluded that "Mythic's Wildcard is a far more sorted complete package, and in frame terms its good value if you want a tight, light and responsive playbike that'll handle the biggest forks. As a complete bike, though, it just isn't competitive at £2,000 so budget nearer £2,700 for the Pro."


As well as getting a photo in the article itself, I got a photo on the contents page, as above, and one randomly in the fork grouptest at the back of the mag...MBUK often use photos for random stuff so expect to see me popping up here and there in the next couple issues

We were initially worried about how the bike would fare in what we were told was an "all mountain test" where the Mythic Rune would have been at home against other true all-mtn bikes like the Specialized Enduro SL and Santa Cruz Nomad; however MBUK decided to test a range of bikes that are burlier than true all-mtn bikes, and they mention this at the start of the test article

But in some strange mixed company the Wildcard held its own and got a positive test result, although it would have been more interesting to see it go up against the Transition BR, Kona Bass, Intense SS and other slopestyle specific rigs

As they say, any publicity is good publicity, and with a positive test we will get more people to sit up and take notice of what we at Freeborn believe is a wicked little bike, and our big seller for 2008

big thanks to Steve Behr for the photoshoot, and Jim Fisher for driving us out to Swinley

all images and text copyright of MBUK / Future publishing (www.bikeradar.com)

cheers!!

Rob C

Legendary Wins - Marcelo and Markolf

Words by Session Brasils, Gabriel Napole

Good News!!!


Markolf is 5X Pan American champion of MTB DownHill and Marcelo Gutierrez is Junior Champion, both on board their new bikes the Banshee Legend Mk1's!

Markolf Berchtold and his Banshee Legend.

Marcelo Gutierrez and his Banshee Legend.

Brazil has won gold for the fifth time in Pan American, DH 2008, with Markolf and his Banshee Legend gaining first spot on the podium!

For Session it is a double win because Markolf and Marcelo, both Championships come aboard the first two Banshee Legend built. This is a project which aims to integrate the rider, factory, engineers and distributors. We were in the factory to watch over the whole construction of the first two prototypes of the Legend, then hand deliver the two prototypes to be tested by riders, Markolf Berchtold Brazilian Elite DH racer and Marcelo Gutierrez Colombian Junior DH racer. This was the first appearance, of the Banshee Legend in a proven downhill race format, and without doubt the design has been proven!

Both Markolf Berchtold and Marcelo Gutierrez are exceptional athletes both on and off the slopes. The love of the sport and for their countries, as well as being good sports with their fellow racers and always being open and friendly with all the other riders in the public - they are true professionals.

The Pan American championship, downhill happened on the hillsides of Pan De Las Vacas in the city of San Juan De Los Morros about 180 km from Caracas, capital of Venezuela. The athletes [Brazilians] Markolf, Doron, Neni, Bruno and Walace, arrived one week before the competition in order to climatize with the place, climate, track, culture and food, and it seems the strategy was perfect! Monitoring of the training runs you could see the Brazilian adaptatiing to the Venezuelan course, with the passing of the days they were getting faster and more comfortable on the track. The Tereno the runway of Pan De Las Vacas was very dry (very same!) And a layer of dust mixed with gravel covered the whole circuit, requiring experience, technique and lots provision of athletes. Another factor was the climate of the place that was with temperatures ranging from 30 ° C to 38 ° C, muy caliente!

Truck of the Venezuelan exécito was regate, cortezia, Ivo Morales.

Proof happened on Friday starting with drills in the morning from 8:00 AM as 9:30, qualify at 11:00, and start making the official time 14:00. In qualify the sovereignty brazuca already despontou, Markolf did the first time followed by Walace with the second best time, Bruno Zeschau Brazilian athlete in the Junior category was also first - he is showing to be very talented and fast on the track. Everyone then paused for a quick snack and then came the taking of official time; the climate was somewhat tense in anticipation of the final results.

Markolf made a clean run a pulled ahead of all the other riders with a time of 02:20593, followed by the Colombian Franco Navarro - 02:23543, and then Walace Miranda - 02:24053.
Already in the athlete category Júnior brazuca Bruno Zeschau not had the same fate and suffered a fall during the race, ending at fourth place with a time of 02:35110.
First was the Colombian Marcelo Gutierrez on board his Banshee Legend time of 02:25364 (fourth time in overall), followed by Juan Leon - 02:28049 and Andreas Kukulis - 02:35780, the two Chileans.

Walace, Bruno, Neni, Doron and Markolf.

Neni and Doron, suffered falls and didn't place well in the final standings, a mishap fell Dorn where he destroyed his front suspension on his DH bike during training and ended up competing on board his 4 Cross bike, the Banshee Rampant. He still walked away with a very fast time in the DH circuit.
Congratulations to all the athletes Brazilian claw and determination committed to the Pan American 2008.
Congratulations particularly pilots Markolf, 5X Pan American champion -Elite, and Marcelo Gutierrez Pan American Champion -Junior!

Elite Mens Podium

Week have more adrenaline to come with Markolf and his Banshee Legend. The next challenge will be in the International Championship of St. Vedelino in RS, Good Luck and Go Fast!

Bochnia Salt Mine Downhill

Hallo ! (first sorry for my English) I have Just back from Bochnia Salt Mine Downhill ,third ever dh in Mine ( over 300 meters under the ground level). Event was 3 days long but i couldn't make it on friday and saturday only on sunday.
Track was extremly xc almost up hill. And i havent seen course before my racing run was my first run on that course.
I cant still breathe 100 % becasue of oedema and i have problems with sprints but i wasn't there for racing.
It was great event , huge media cover , i did few interviews ( they were astonished that i'm riding heheh)
But I must tell You that bike racing isn't something for me i'm MOOOOORE into freeriding.
Thanks for SPY optics for paying me for high enter payment.
SZWED
BANSHEE FOR LIFE
ps Photo Credits Sylwia

Factory stuff

I just had this footage kicking around on my camera and figured I'd make a little video.

First Legend race

UPDATE: WE WON!!!!!
I just spoke to Marcelos father and the news came back that both Markolf and Marcelo [jr. class] won the DH Pan American Championship.
So congradulations guys from everyone here at Banshee!!!

Not only are we super excited for the guys but we are pretty happy that the first competition the Legends were ever in they took home the gold... not once but twice and also in a major competition that saw racers come from as far away as Canada.
I have to admit we were pretty nervous that we may not have had a world class race bike... you never know when you build something that it will hit the mark but I guess we've got a good start, and after we spend the time with all our next batch of Legend riders we'll have it totally dialed.

Pictures and video will follow as Gabriel from Session Brazil was there to support them and when I talked to him on thursday he had gotten alot of pics so you'll see them here soon


March 24th
I dropped Gabriel from Brazil off at the airport today. His precious cargo is Marcelo Guiterrez's and Markolf Berchtold's Legend Mk1's.

It was a marathon session getting these things together and making sure everything was there for their long travel back.
The Legend will debut under both the Latin American DH Champion [Marcelo] and the Brazilian DH Champion [Markolf]. Both will be racing at the Pan American Championship in Venezula on April 2nd and unfortunately they'll have enough time on both bikes to do a couple training runs before the races.
We'll definitely let you know how they perform.

We also have an official weight without shock... if you wanna calculate it with shock go to your favorite shock company and find out what the weight is and add it to 8.73. Like I had mentioned before, this is just a proto and there a spots that were missed in machining so expect the weight to come down for sure.

Jay and Keith Italian Interview

Nick at Freebike.net interviews us for the Italian site.
Oh and don't rag on me for wearing that shirt... I have a Norco shirt too. I am so confident in the quality of our bikes I can even wear a competitors T-shirt !!!! No??!!! Ok I wake up in the morning and look at the shirt to remind me who the enemy is... hahahaha

Here are the links
Keiths interview ... scroll down for english
Jays interview... again scroll down for english