Shore Showdown video

Chris Seager Smith put together this fine quality, HD video short of the 2009 Esher Shore Showdown

good work fella!!

http://vimeo.com/5379027

Healing Vibes to Kenny.

DH ripper, Legend test rider and my good mate Kenny Howard, has just been chatting to me on this amazing invention called the tinterweb.


At the weekend he took a spill on a supermoto bike while practising in Seattle area. The bike crushed and twisted his leg when the front wheel washed out on him and, but typical Kenny thought nothing much of it and rode back to the pits where he figured he had dislocated his Knee, so drove himself to hospital.

Turns out that he had a tibial plateau fracture (break just below the knee, but close enough that it has likely affected the joint), so he is now stuck with a full leg (crotch to toe) splint awaiting more scans from the doc. It is likely that he have to go 3 months without walking, then 6 months before knee surgery as it is likely he has a lot of ligament damage as well. So will be out of riding for a year or so.


Tough times bud! I'm sending you healing vibes, and I'm sure lots of the Banshee family will be doing the same when they read this. I hope that things turn out better than originally thought and that you do your normal super fast healing.

2009 Shore Showdown

Just got back from the 2009 Shore Showdown at Esher Shore bike park here in England, UK

It was a pretty chilled out affair this year, with 40 riders and about 60 spectators, and lots of drinks given out by Monster Energy, plus swag from 661, DMR, Freeborn, Devinci and Specialized

the weather was shady last night, with a torrential rain storm; but the bike park benefitted as it made the dusty trail tacky, providing great grip which was useful for a "transfer session" on the Pump'R trail



We had a best trick session on the big kicker, which Tim Webb won with a huge superman air, and all the riders had great fun sessioning all the different trails in the bike park

Adam from the southern freerider website showed up on his super light Wildcard, a couple of other Wildcard riders showed up and I did my best to ride my Rampant with its blown Pike forks (Winterberg!!)

it was a hot and humid day, but good fun and everyone went home with lots of swag...

huge thanks to all the riders, sponsors, hard working trail crew and Marius the DJ for making the 2009 Showdown a chilled, but fun event!!

Rob C

Winterberg helmet cam video on Pinkbike

the old saying is "a picture is worth a thousand words"

perhaps the new saying is "a video is worth ten thousand words"

here is the helmet cam footage from my recent trip to Winterberg bike park in Germany

http://www.pinkbike.com/video/82785/

I am riding the red/white Rampant and Jesus John is riding the black Wildcard

cheers!

Rob C

Mad Trapper Panorama

Off to the next leg of the BC Cup.
Invermere and Panorama resort for the Mad Trapper race.
Should be there for practice on Saturday and hopefully the weather is a lot nicer then it was last weekend.
I should have something up on the blog by Monday.
Look forward to see all whose going.
For more information on the race
http://media.intrawest.com/panorama/pdf/Mad_Trapper_Downhill_2009.pdf
and here
http://www.panoramaresort.com/index.htm

Banshee Wildcard tested by Andy!

To have a start on Wildcard in a race you have to be a newbie, but for all, you have to rock!

Banshee Wildcard isn´t a newbie for this year, but the name is on a place.

Low frame, rider position in centre of gravity, seat between your knees, proper rear frame triangle, changing suspention travel, 1,5head tube, that´s a few specifics, that´s put the bike a great potential.

Read the rest here http://engram-bikes.blogspot.com/search/label/News%20in%20English

Banshee Week on Pinkbike

Yesterday in the POD, Today in the VOD ... I am pretty sure Guy French is riding a Banshee Wildcard just before the 4 minute mark. link to video I tried to embed but it will not show up, I think maybe I am a little bit slow or my computer is a little bit slow.

Check it out.

Rob

Arduum or Ardoom depending on how your race went

It was wet it was dark and it was knar.

It was however a lot of fun, very well organized… so much so that riders were only a few minutes behind when their official times to start were. So huge thanks to all the organizers, time keeper, commisares, first aid guys, and sponsors for putting on a great event.

Now lets get to some pictures.

First was the Trident Banshee Industry team. Thanks Michelle for you 3rd place finish.

As well as Dean Wilkes [Legend] and Tom Thorton [Scythe]

Tom placed 1st in Citizen senior and Dean placed 3rd in the same sandbagger class. EDIT: Dean actually came second to get a Banshee 1- 2! Not sure how they placed overall but those guys are fast so don’t let the class fool you.

Left: Michelle after the rock drop Right: Dean hitting the rock drop

Dalen and Zac were also racing and although podiums we’re not in the cards they were happy with their runs and to have survived Ardoom.

Left: Dalen eating shit before a hip gap. Can’t blame him as it was really greasy and finding traction was the order of the day. Right is Zac taking the chicken line. I guess his bike’s to pretty to get all dirty. You can see the white splotches in the pictures were rain drops and at times it was coming down real hard.

My cousin was one of the smart ones with golf umbrella put to good use on Sunday .

Some guys weren’t so lucky and I saw a few mangled bikes and bodies coming down the mountain. I hope this guy is ok and is healed up for next weeks Panorama race

Taking pics was not easy, everything was soaked, it was dark, and the amount of red eyes I had to fix was insane. So if you see your pic and your eyes look all f’d I tried my best.

Here is the rest of the riders that I managed to get. There was quite a few racers competing but I managed to get a few of you… enjoy.

View Full Album

Tyler from Pinkbike giving out the awards and prizes.

Banshee Scythe Pinkbike POD

Today's POD at pinkbike is a picture of Ryan Kuhn testing a Scythe in Rossland on a trail called Whoopidydo!. If you are ever in the Rossland area check out this trail. I rode it last summer and it is a blast.

Spares kits avaliable.

Spares kits are already, or will soon be, avaliable globally from dealers and distributors for all Banshee frames.

To see what kits there are check out the Freeborn website, where Jim has put up a complete list.

Typhoon Day/Bike Check

Typhoon Day:

A typhoon is just south of Taiwan. The weather network has predicted it will arrive sometime on Saturday or Sunday. There was a lot of wind here this morning but no rain. James and I decided that we would take our chances with the weather and head out to the jumps. We ended up taping the camera and tripod up in a tree and got some cool shots.

Bike Check:

Here are a couple of shots with me and my Wildcard. I built up my medium sized Wildcard with parts that came off other bikes and will be slowly upgraded. The fork is a fox talas 36, the rear shock is an xfusion H3 (testing for www.cycletaiwan.com), the wheels are halo sas rims built on tank hubs (not the lightest wheels, good enough for now), the cranks, pedals, stem and bars are all from Deity (hope to get some upgrades soon). I have been running Avid Juicy 7's on my past couple of bikes and I have no complaints, so I am running them on this bike too. I am not sure what the weight is as I have never put a bike on a scale. I go more on feel than weight.



Here is a shot of James with his medium sized Wildcard. We were trying to get a new X Fusion Vengeance, but the Taiwanese distributor will not have any stock until we have already left for Canada. He ended up going with a Rock Shox Lyric 2 Step Air. His rear shock is a Fox DHX 5.0 and we spent a good part of today getting his suspension some what dialed. He is running Race Face Atlas cranks, a Gamut chain guide and a combo of XT and Juicy 7 brakes. If anyone wants to donate us some brake hose for Juicy 7 brakes or do a rebuild on a set of XT brakes we will not turn you down.

Keep riding, be safe.

Rob Dunnet

P.S. Jay gave me a couple of blog rules a couple months back. One was no man ass ... this is as close as I can come to breaking that rule.

Edit: Jay has four simple rules for the blog (see his comment), as I was testing my version of the UCI skin suit yesterday I came pretty close to breaking the one I hoped to never break.

Camp of Champions starts this weekend

Its gonna be another great year at Camp.

Why is it going to be so cool?

We’ll Alan Hepburn will be coaching again this year and I think Dustin Greenhall will be doing a couple sessions as well.

I’m trying to see if Rob Dunnet - whose flying in from Taiwan and Banshee/Straitline spono’d rider- can also tag along for a couple sessions. What he lacks in riding he makes up for in personality so the kids will love him.

There are still a few spots open in camps B, C, and D.

In addition to learning mad skills from the pros you’ll also get a whole bunch of other cool things to do.

On the Banshee side of things we’re going to have Wildcards, Scythes, and Rampants to play and learn on as well.

I’ll be going up hopefully a couple times each week to give away Amp frames and when the  camps are all over. We sell off the bikes for cost so imagine getting a 4K bike for around 2K… basically if you need a new bike you might as well get a camp out of it since you’d still be ahead in the pocket book.

So if you’re interested check out the link here http://campofchampions.com/whistler/whatyouget/default.aspx

Public Service announcement for BC

Dear mountain bike tourism stakeholders:

On behalf of Tourism British Columbia and the Western Canada Mountain Bike Tourism Association (MBTA), we are pleased to provide you with an update on the progress of the Mountain Bike Tourism sector stakeholder meetings. The decision has been made to hold six (6) different meetings in key regions of the province so we may seek input into the development of the marketing plan province wide. Blair Baldwin is the facilitator who is also actively involved in the development of the rail trail network in BC branded the Spirit of 2010 Trail.

At each regional meeting we solicit a broad cross section of stakeholders which include:

1) Lift-access Bike Park Resorts

2) Commercial Tour Operators and Events

3) Destination Marketing Organizations

4) Industry Groups (such as MTBA)

5) Mountain Bike Tourism Services (hotels, bike shops/rentals, F&B, etc)

6) Provincial Govt Agencies

7) Regional and Municipal Govts

8) Mtb Clubs and Trail Stewardship Groups

At each meeting, we review Experiences BC; update all on the BC Recreation Trails strategy; ask for input to define the main mountain bike experiences that we want to market; what makes them unique; identify key targets and their characteristics; validate the current situation analysis for the competitive environment and our own internal assessment of the industry. We finish the meetings seeking input for objectives for the marketing plan. From each meeting, we update the information internally so that subsequent meetings have the benefit of others knowledge when we meet.

We have held meetings in Kelowna, Nelson and Nanaimo this month, all of which were well attended. We will be holding meetings Williams Lake and Prince George before the end of June. A meeting in Vancouver will be held in the early Fall.

Once the regional meetings are held, we will form a volunteer committee comprising one or two representatives from each region that will meet to consider all input and which will validate the findings and recommend strategies; budgets; sources of financing and timelines. The goal is to have a plan completed prior to Christmas. We hope this update is informative and if you have any suggestions as we work through these meetings, please let us know.

To read the official Tourism BC announcement, please go to the following link: http://www.mbta.ca/assets/pdfs/Mtn-Bike-Announcement-May-2009.pdf

Happy Riding!

Martin Littlejohn and Donna Green, Directors

Western Canada Mountain Bike Tourism Association

Heather Boyd, Coordinator, Sector Development

Tourism British Columbia

Trail Bikes Demo Day July 11th - 12th

Trail Bikes in Courtney is having a demo day on Saturday July 11th – 12th.

We’ll have a bunch of bikes you can take out and try and I hear Trek and Gary Fisher will also be letting out demos. So come by and try all the bikes.

This is their address

1999 Lake Trail Road
Courtenay, BC V9N 9C3
(250) 334-2456

And here’s how you’d get there

If you haven’t been to Courtney you’re missing out. The place is freaking awesome and has some great mountain biking. Its been a few years since I’ve been there but it struck me as being one place I wouldn’t mind living. So much outdoor activities to do and they have a great mountain for skiing.

Anyway come out if you can make it!!!

Banshee at the Arduum Challenge Mission BC

Ok this is what it is http://www.arduumchallenge.com/

So the Industry Team Banshee/Trident will be racing and I’ll be doing the boring picture taking and manning o the booth again. Yeah I do ride a bike but am getting c*ck blocked on this because someone has to do the PR stuff and I didn’t sign up for the race series cause i was in Taiwan so …

Anyway taking pics is still fun and I think from all the views everyone liked my crash photos.

There will probably be many more this time as Arduum is steep, technical, and not a very forgiving race course. Lets hope crashes high, but carnage low… we want everyone to get home safely.

Here’s how you get there.

 

We’ll also have a couple of bikes with us to demo so if you want to try one bring a creditcard and picture ID.

Trident will also have some service parts for Manitou or can have a look at your fork [for a can of beer fee]… ok I made that part up.

Hope to see you there

What's Next?

Aaron Larocque (the talented young film maker from BC), has been busy filming and editing recently. Check out the trailer for his latest creation which features 3 of our up and coming riders (Alan Hepburn, Mark Mathews and Matt Brooks).
Jay chimes in Keith how could you forget Dustin Greenhall... the guy throws it down large. Make that 4 riders.
Keith: Oh man, sorry Dustin, didn't see your name even tho I thought you would be in it and was a bit suprised when I didn't see your name... but there it is! Sorry bro! Sweet, this is just the Dustin on the cake! haha, man I'm so funny!

This is going to be Aaron's first full length film, but I think you'll agree that it looks like he has a great future and will hopefully be making many many more.

What's Next? Trailer from Aaron Larocque on Vimeo.

Crap on MY desk... has gotta to go

I know raceface already does stuff on my desk or "crap" ... not sure but something like that. Well there not the only people that have crap on their desk.

So I want to give back to our Banshee riders with some free stuff.

I know they're a bit old but I have 4 copies of NSXVIII [8] and hope they can find a good home.

I'll also be getting rid of other stuff as time goes on.

So to get one do the following.
1] tell me what is the guy who made the videos -Todd Fianders- nickname. What do most people call him besides Todd Fiander [hint: starts with a "D"]
2] tell me which bike you have
and lastly
3] write a review of your bike on http://www.mtbr.com/mfr/banshee-bikes/MPR_12866crx.aspx and send me your mtbr.com user name.

Thats it.
Just send an email to info@bansheebikes.com subject line "Contest" I'll pick 4 winners at the end of this week.

To start is videos but i have other bike part goodies that I will be giving away as well in the future

More shots from today

We have been riding our wildcards a lot lately... Getting ready for a summer of riding in Canada. I have been riding my wildcard more than my gal. And I don't mean that she likes to ride my bike. She's a beauty!


People always say " words cannot describe..." the thing they are trying to describe. And maybe saying " words cannot describe..." is even better than a really good descriptive word. Well if so then, words cannot describe how awesome, rad, cool, sexy, sick, dirty, epic, amazing, extraordinary, magnificent, the wildcard rides, handles, looks, and jumps. If you know of any words that might help me describe the wildcard better... please let me know.

Penny

Taiwan is known for bikes not for bikers … This being said there are not many people who ride with us. There are people who come out to our trails and watch us ride, watch us jump and watch us shovel. And most people are amazed by at least two of these things. Most watch and wish that it does not take progression to hit step downs, drops, dirt jumps or just ride a corner with some speed. There is one Taiwanese rider who comes out to the jumps a couple of times a month. Her balls are bigger than all of the other riders who have come out to ride. If we tell her that she can hit something. Nine times out of ten she will hit it.

She rocks …

Penny launching 20 - 25 foot step down. (left)

Chasing James down the step down (right).




Today was the first time she ever dropped a wood bridge. Training for the bigger drop.

Banshee 2009 Catalog

Sweet.
I finally found a program that works well for showing off the catalog.
Once this post moves on into the archives you'll still be able to access the catalog from the very bottom of the blog page where i've put it also.

Open publication - Free publishing - More catalog

Legend

summer time

finally got a short enough brake in the rain last night to do a little shooting with Linden. Enjoy.

MUZZLER - AMP action

Got a mail from our Scottish Mythic rider MUZZLER - who is currently riding the new AMP

"Hey dude, Jim wanted some more pics and stuff and I haven't been able to get too much since i've only been riding once in the last month as i fractured my hand but its getting better! Here are some new pics of glentress so you can put them on the blog".

"Currently riding with 80 mill forks too adn its amazingly snappy and jumpy best hardtail ever!"

"Thought you'd like to see man it sits at 24.5 pounds now even with heavy wheels!"