Alan on his new Rampant

Alan sent me this video of him riding some of his local spots in Aus on his new Rampant. He claims that this is taking it easy... ha yeah ok then!



Click here to see the vid on pinkbike

Nice skills as always! Oh man I want to hit those berms!

Banshee on Pinkbike

Did a couple videos with Tyler and Radek from Pinkbike check'm out

Legend


Rune


Also should have some Mtbr.com stuff up as well. YOu can check out our new virtual mtbr.com tradeshow booth here http://www.mtbr.com/TRD_16_373crx.aspx

Colorado Banshee Fully Loaded!

The Colorado Banshee Demo Center (otherwise known as the gear exchange) is now fully stocked with bikes. With sizes in the Rune, Rampant, Wildcard and Scythe we are sure to have something for you to rock out on. Come take a look, come for a ride!

Scythe feeback

Guillaume sent me some sweet pics and a nice vid of him riding his Scythe. I was lucky enough to get a few laps in with G while out in Whistler this summer, fun times!



The Gambas Trail - France from Razor Images on Vimeo.

For more photos as well as some really cool content check out www.razorimages.com

Nice looking trail you guys have built there! Good work!

Review of Amp (first impressions)

Colin sent me this link to a quite review of the first impressions of his new Amp frame. Just thought I would share.

Check it out at street-steeze.com

Interbike 2008

I didn't do a very good job posting up about the Eurobike show but didn't want to make that same mistake with Interbike 08 so here is the first few days and the trip down.

Thursday night saw us getting all the bikes ready to go for the demo and John did a cool decal job on the Amp that we built up. We had forgotten to put Devon's Rune and the Legend on the paperwork so we had to get it shipped to the demo, but at least we'd be able to show them cause we knew alot of people wanted to see the Legend up close and personal.
Greg from Straitline had a Wildcard that he was demo'ing but we needed it back so he shipped it to us... anyone who knows Greg will know that he's a bit of a prankster and our box showed up with a couple of pics on the inside cover... like Kevin Fed., New Kids on the Block, and Borat ... pretty funny Greg.

We left on Friday about 5pm but thankfully the border was quick and painless to get through and before we knew it we were on our way to the Gorge in Oregon to show a Rune to Dave -owner of the Windance Boardshop - who was interested in checking it out.
We rolled into Hood River around 11pm and headed straight for the bar to have a few before staying overnight there and heading for the next push straight to Vegas. There was a pretty awesome band playing called the Bandfish Band and I know Keith would have been totally into them as they play the same kind of music as his old band... check'm out here.

Next morning we were off to see Dave who was a super cool dude and invited us all to come back for a little kite surfing when we headed back home - hopefully we have time.

Hood River is this super laidback town with a great vibe and it totally reminded me of small town BC like Nelson and other places that have a good biking scene.

With everything packed back up in the trailer we were ready for the 18hour drive that laid ahead of us. I do love a good road trip, and when you're traveling with your friends it makes it alot easier. Dalen and John from Trident Sports were the drivers on this trip as I accidentally got a speeding ticket last year and wasn't able to clear it up in time for me to be "legal" to drive in the USA. Apparantly I have to take traffic school even though the fine had been paid... oh well.

At 4am we rolled into Las Vegas and made the wise choice to go to Boulder City and see if we could find accomodations there. Boulder City is at the base of Bootleg Canyon where the demo is and it seemed alot of people had the same plan as next morning we ran into Hoots [Jay Krantz], the dudes from Mavic, Ventana, Norco... etc were all in the same hotel. Normally we'd stay in Vegas and then travel out every morning but this was way better this year.

After a couple hours of sleep we were up looking for food. If you're ever in Boulder make sure you go to Mels Diner... food was freaking awesome and the service was great.

Now it was off to the dirt demo area to set up. We found our spot and start building. Since we didn't show up that early it was pretty late before we were finally finished. Then off to dinner and then to crash for the busy day we'd have over the next couple of days.

Linden, Devon, Darren, and Rachel showed up the next day to help out which was really cool to have them around, not just for work but just to chill with them. The booth was setup and looked pretty good. We brought down about 20 or so bikes so there was plenty and Linden brought his prototype 29r, and Devon had his Viento Xtra cycle with him which was awesome to see.

I had a couple media things i had to do with Radek and Tyler from Pinkbike, and I haven't checked to see if its up yet. I still have a lot to learn being in front of the camera but hopefully someday it will come off ok. We did a video of the Legend and the Rune but if you read the blog you'll probably already know about everything i talked about in the vid.

I also did a thing with MTBR.com and it looks like they've already got our new virtual tradeshow booth up. Rachel took and awesome pic with the Legend and she gave me this awesome pic that Devon took of her racing the Mountain States Cup series and she told me she won the championship which was totally awesome. Check out the virtual tradeshow booth here.


Linden won a pair of sick Skull Candy earphones for doing a wheelie on his Banshee 29r single speed all the way to the Oakley Truck and back again. That dude has some skills as we found out later when we all went out on a MOB session around Vegas.


After I took of the media stuff it was off to get beer and the Legend and Devon's Rune. We took his Viento Xtracycle as he assured me we could get everything on it... which to my surprise it was no problem and had room for more stuff. You can see Devon even used it to tow around the Amp which was pretty cool.

I was suppose to go on a couple runs with Dalen and Tom from WTB but for whatever reason we never hooked up so I just took the shuttle up and did a run before the demo closed. I took the Scythe which was a blast but only got 3/4 of the way down before I double flatted which left me walking down to the tent. So that sucked but I felt great cause my knee seems to be back in the game after i tore my MCL at Crankworx weeks back.

With the demo over we all got on our bikes and decided to do a little urban session. I was riding Lindens 29r and it was a blast, I definitely will get keith to do the final small changes to the V29 and it be good to go. Well here are the pics. I gotta run to the show at the sands but i'll try to take some more pics.

The Fall Sessions

by Ryan Kuhn

As Autumn settles over the Kootenays, the days get shorter and we builders get squeezed out of the productive weekday evening sessions. Right now we’re in a bit of a transition mode, digging from after work to about 7 p.m. when we strap on the bike lights for a wild rip down the latest creation in the dark.

Ryan hits Flogopogo on a recent ride on Oasis. Pic: Nicola Kuhn

On the other hand, with the hectic summer pace behind us, we have more weekend time to gather folks and focus on specific projects. These day-long sessions are full on and we almost always have a ride-able feature by nightfall, capped off by more night sessions and camera flashes blinding riders mid-air.

While I’m going to share a product resulting from these fall building marathons, I first want to comment on how the Scythe’s performing. It took a little while to get the suspension dialled, but now that it’s settled in I’m blown away by this frame. I’m now comfortable with the single-pivot action and have come to appreciate the stiffness of the rear end. I can slam into and sprint out of corners with the utmost confidence. I’m riding it in the slack setting and in the 7” travel mode which is great for what we’ve been riding lately, which has been primarily DH oriented – fast, steep and gnar. I planned to “freeride-ize” with my 66 fork and dual e-thirteen chainguide, but the Fox 40 and other race bits are so dialled on this rig I can’t bring myself to change anything. The dual ring up front will probably happen soon as we pedal a lot in the Koots. Anyway, on to the stunt:

We call this feature “Flogopogo” in the spirit of the infamous stunt that burned at Gillard in Kelowna in the wildfires of 2003. This was a complete rebuild of a stunt built by the boys from Gerricks in Trail. The old stunt was getting rickety and, without asking anyone, was torn down by an overzealous individual. This upset many riders and was one of the sparks that helped galvanize our RFA crew in Rossland. So, late last fall we put our shoulders to the wheel...

Chris and Isaac build the framework - we devised some fancy notches to link the spans.

The tranny boxes were filled with a nice cache of dirt nearby.

Isaac trimming the ends on the easier line.

Flowgo was an obvious name - Rory celebrates the final product with a "I didn't cut my foot off with the chainsaw" dance.

The final product was well worth it. Ryan sends it in the dark - the remote flash blinded you so you were pretty much landing on faith. Another great shot by Vince Boothe.

Well, that’s it for now…more soon on the new Par 5 line – it’s BIG baby. Until then, keep diggin’…

Banshee at Interbike

Banshee will be at the dirt demo in Bootleg Canyon on the 22nd and 23rd in booth D3745 near Niner and across from KHS.
Unfortunately its not a consumer demo so you'll have to be creative if you want to poach the show and sneak in if you're not part of a shop or other industry type.

Sorry I didn't make a Eurobike post this year... I was pretty slammed and didn't have much time to stop and smell the roses so to speak.
I did see some friendly faces and managed to squeek in lunch with Chris Canfield... that guy is always fun to hang out with. Saw Kyle and Sam from Transition which was cool but missed Kev as he was still working the booth.
Greg and Dennis from Straitline were my drinking buddies and I gotta say you need to watch that Greg... he's evil.
I also met some really cool new people and stayed a week after the show, did some work, and got to eat up the German culture a little, so it was a real treat.

All in all it was a great show, lots of interest in the bikes and some great feedback on the Legend.
I'll try to get a little powershot camera for Interbike so i wont drag around the big camera gear and get a good story from Interbike. I know there's gonna be some mayhem... I'm just gonna have to stay away from the Spearmint Rhino as it has a certain affection for my hard earned cash.

The Good, the Bad, and the Matej

Just a small report from National cup Finals:

The last race of the National Circuit took a completely new track – near to north border of country – a small ski resort called Bournak.

The course there is really steep, about 2minutes long, fun to ride because of many natural bumps...

I didn’t feel pretty good that weekend, but I tried to push hard in Semi. I did a huge mistake and finished 3rd. I wasn’t satisfied, you know..so I decided to try to concentrate as much as possible and try to do safe but supersmooth run. I did my best, It wasn’t supersmooth, but it rolled and my time was the fastest ... I WON!! I won 2 of 4 races in national series and it set me to 2nd overall!

Now I have also bad news..

One week ago I was freeriding and hurt myself. I broke a scaphoid on my right hand. I was on surgery next day. Doctor told that it’ll be completely ok in about 4-5weeks, so we will see. I’m happy that this happened in the end of season. For fun, you can check my x-ray J

Cheers

Matej Charvat

www.charvatbros.com

Asilvertouch Rune Review

Mythic at Esher Shore

Anyone that keeps an eye on this blog knows that Esher Shore is pretty much the base of Mythic's UK operations with myself (Rob C) running Freeborn's Esher store (www.freeborn.co.uk) where alot of our Mythic enquries are directed, and I also manage the Esher Shore bike park (www.eshershore.com)

We also have a hard working, dedicated trail crew who also happen to ride Mythic bikes...apart from Hot Carl but he is a legend in his own right, and you would have to pry his beloved Demo 7 from his cold, dead hands...so we will let him be ;)

After the shop closed tonight, we had our usual private riding session in the bike park, although we got a big carried away riding and forget to take any action photos until we realised it was getting dark (we are moving into Autumn here in the UK)

The main thing tonight was checking out my new Rampant and comparing it against "Jesus" John's Wildcard and Toby's Scythe

Its always awesome riding different bikes back-to-back on the same trail, you really get an instant feel for the differences

Check out the picture below showing Toby's Scythe, John's Wildcard and my new Rampant - kinda reminds me of the 3 bears going from big bear to middle bear to little bear



And here is the requisite photo of the happy new owner of a Rampant, showing off the fine Mythic T-Shirts available from Freeborn for a mere GBP£12.99



Regarding all the bike swapping, it seemed somewhat incestous so that's best left for another time....

cheers!

Rob C

Rob goes Rampant

It's all work, work and more work these days, which means less time to get out to further flung sites for proper "freeriding", and since freeriding in the UK has become pretty tame due to health & safety litigation, I have not really missed the burlyness of my Scream V2 or Chaparral

I'm way more likely to ride at Esher Shore (www.eshershore.com) after work, or go dirt jumping and mess around on the streets of London, than be hucking off big drops like 'back in the day

The Wildcard was an awesome bike that I really enjoyed riding in 2008 and if I lived in Whistler it would be my #1 choice....

....but I started to realise over the Summer as we constantly rode the new Slopestyle park at Esher Shore, that it felt a little "big" for taking my BMX moves onto a mountain bike

Now don't get me wrong, I would strongly recommend (let's rephrase that...URGE) anyone looking for a mid travel freeride bike to go for the Wildcard rather than the horrible "bike not to be mentioned", but as the '08 season draws to a close, I found myself riding my BMX all the time (even in the slopestyle park) and it was clearly time to re-evaluate my ride ;)



Here in the UK we are a little behind with the "trends", people are still getting their heads around giving up their 8" travel hucking bike for a "mid travel" bike...the short travel bike has not caught on yet, despite Doddy from MBUK raving about his 4" bike to me the past couple seasons

The Rampant has not penetrated the market in the UK like the Wildcard has, so Freeborn freed one up for me to ride and start promoting the Rampant into the UK scene

We have arguably the best Dirt Jump scene in the World, and its time for riders to realise you can ride the right kind of well-designed suspension bike on dirt, and its going to let you go bigger and try harder tricks with the increased safety net of rear suspension

The coolest thing about running a short travel suspension bike is that it opens up all the bike parks, public forests and downhill runs which are very uncomfortable and often downright dangerous on a dirt jump hardtail

I've built up my Rampant (short size) with a Rockshox Lyric coil u-turn fork which allows 115mm-160mm travel in 5mm increments, so it can be run on 115mm for Dirt Jumping and around 130-140mm for freeriding

My Rampant is lighter for sure (not weighed yet) than my Wildcard, feels very nimble, jumps forward under power (even with pro pedal off) and can be thrown around with total ease - its basically a sprung BMX with bigger wheels, and has the same precise handling that an experienced rider can make the most of

I had some runs in Esher Shore's Freeride bike park today, and it feels like an awesome bike park choice, and great on tight singletracks, drops and stunts

I will report back more when I have gone to some proper big dirt jumps (Woburn Sands) but i am very stoked to be on the Rampant for '09

huge thanks to Freeborn Bikes, Mythic and Banshee

cheers!

Rob c

Banshee riders on point

More banshee riders being featured! Check out Mountain Flyer Magazine for more! check it out here: http://mountainflyer.com/news.cfm?itemid=147

Alan Hepburn's New Ride

Alan got his new Rampant earlier this week, and has wasted no time getting used to it!


I'll get him to write some feedback about the frame after he has had a bit more time on it.


As you can see from the photos, this bike suites his style well, and I know he is loving it.


Not many people flip off drops days after getting a new bike... NICE!

Props to Jason Headley for the sick photos!