Fogelsode #17: Rain Rain Rain

After a long week of school and rain, I was craving to get out and ride!  It was an overcast morning, so I got ready, opened the garage, grabbed my bike, and BAM!  It started pouring!  I almost just went back inside, but really wanted to ride, so I set off into the storm!  Riding down the street towards the trail, I thought to myself “Man, this is the worst idea ever, I’m already soaked.”  It improved in the woods though, and once I got going it got better and better.  There were some corners that I stopped and sessioned because they were so fun drifting around, hoping the tires wouldn’t slide out.  It was also my first ride on my new Straitline pedals!  I am impressed to say the least with them; that ride was in some of the worst possible conditions for pedals, yet my feet didn’t slip once!  All in all it was a great time bombing some fun trails in the rain!

At another point in the week, I met up with Justin Brantley to do a photoshoot in some dryer conditions.  We spent some time on this particular corner, where he was seeing how close he could get with his new wide angle lens!  I set up the camera just to see, and switched the angles around a few times after that.  Of course, Justin nailed some bangers!

Enjoy!

 

-Jack

Aeron Learmonth - Banshee Bikes - February 2010

Written by Aeron Learmonth

It can't get much better then this, Tee shirt weather in February. Especially doing it all on my 2010 Banshee Amp, tricked out with Gamut and Wellgo components. Built and tested at outbound cycle, were I spend my off hours making a little money. I have been wanting to start up monthly blogs for a while, so why not start now. This is if the first of many blogs about my 2010 riding season.

A great weekend:
Day one
On Friday we all had a day off school so we met up at Harrison's house for a sesh.
Just kept it pretty chill because It was first time on the new jumps

 

I have been wanting to do a little Banshee Amp video ever since i got my 2010 bike. This is not exactly what i had in mind but it will do until i make a real one.

This is my 2010 Banshee Amp, I just started riding, It has been amazing so far, but it is still not 100% done as you can see with no back purple wheel. I would like to thanks wellgo for hooking me up with blue pedals and gamut for getting me that bashring. Most of all i would like to point out that frame, huge thanks to Banshee for making such a nice Dj frame.
Day 2
On sunday we went over to the local sand jump and tried some tricks.

You can't see it but I am testing to new Atomlab Hydrotwist Gryo. It has been good, and I am stoked to get barspins on lock.
With the Amp being so light and nimble I can throw things like Tailwhips! Also the gyro helps so i don't have to pre-wrap my cables

Most of the time I can 360 what ever I want, but thanks to how low and light the Amp is i can do it with style, Here is a peak of what my new flat 360s look like.

Looks like thats all for this month, check in late March of a update.
Thanks to Everyone
Aeron!

Presenting the Complete 2010 Team Geronimo DH Bikes

Team Geronimo is pleased to present our complete 2010 DH race bikes.
Major thanks to all of our sponsors - especially Jay and Keith at Banshee Bikes for helping make this possible!

(Click for a larger version)

For more about Team Geronimo, visit GeronimoRacing.net

Fogelsode #16: Big Hills and Fast Jumps

Max, David, Christian, and I got invited out to a spot that I had no idea existed!  After a long mission of getting lost, seemingly endless freeways, and techy dirt roads, we made it!  The guys that invited us took us on some shuttles to show us the trails they had built.  When we got to the top, we looked around to see nothing but rolling hills with a trail snaking down into the abyss!  It was like being on another planet!  We dropped-in and were immediately overcome with jumps, step-ups, drops, hips, step-downs, wallrides, and roadgaps all woven throughout some crazy highspeed single-track!  I probably went the fastest I’ve ever gone on a bike out there, so it was a blast to say the least!  We seshed the trail many times throughout the day, and then checked out a new zone.  It was a massive hill into a smaller hill that we saw as a potential hip step-up.  We grabbed the shovels and quickly dug in the lip.  Unfortunately, it didn’t work quite as we imagined, but it was still fun nonetheless!  We weren’t able to get the speed to clear to the backside of the hill, so everyone just kind of landed on top of it.  You were going so fast that it felt smooth anyway.  After that, we checked out a cool little jump that the local guys made.  It was a lip carved into a small hill, that you could easily clear to the backside.  Everyone threw down on that until the sun started to set.  We made the best of the light and seshed a big hip and this “dirt skatepark” type line that they built inside of a big sinkhole.  I had never seen anything quite like that, so it was rad getting to ride something so unique.  At the end of the day, they showed us a canyon gap that they had made.  The canyon was pretty gnarly, being 15-20 feet straight down with nothing but muddy clay at the bottom!  Christian and I jumped across and made it no problem, but soon encountered a new problem—getting back!  We must have rode alongside that canyon for over half a mile until reaching something that looked possible to cross.  It meant getting muddy, but we were so desperate to get back that we didn’t care!  Sure enough, when we got back to the jump, we found out that there was a place to cross a few yards in the other direction!  Knowing that, we hit it a few more times, loaded up the truck, and called it a day!  I just want to thank Bert and all those guys for inviting us out there and for showing us around!  It was a great time riding something totally new!

Enjoy!

 

-Jack

Riding with Roger and Kyle at Blackrock

Riding with Roger and Kyle at Blackrock Feb 21, 2010 from ryan daugherty on Vimeo.

Legend Spy Shots

I have been hanging out with Jay in 中壢 (zhong li) for the past couple of days. On Friday I got my first view of the 2010 Legend. I can honestly say I did not want one until I saw the finished product.

Today Jay made the big mistake of taking me back to the factory, giving me a tour of the Legend production facility and then asking me to take some pictures of the finished white and black Legends for www.bansheebikes.com. That is like showing a crack addict where the crack is made and stored and then leaving the crack addict with the crack to take pictures of it. Or maybe it was more like being left with a camera and two swim suit models.

When Jay left me in the studio with two Medium Legends and his camera so many things flashed through my crack head mind. I could call a cab and be back home in Kaohsiung before he even knew I had made off with the frames. But then I did what any straight Canadian man would do with two swim suit models …

(Medium Legend with two bands on seat tube.)

Medium Black Legends will have two green bands on the seat tube. Small Legend frames will have one band and the Large frames will have three.

EDIT by Keith: Props must be given to Aaron Neumann for both of these colour way designs. Great work Aaron!

(Large Legend with three bands on seat tube.)

Large White Legends will have three red bands on the seat tube. Medium two bands and Small will have one.

I hope it was as good for you as it was for me.

Rob Dunnet

for more go to Cycle Taiwan and Pinkbike

Random Nonsense from India, Thailand and Laos

I was not in India with Morgan and James, it looked like they had a lot of fun while waiting on the side of the road. You will see what I am talking about …

In the last clip James is pushing me and the Xtracycle up a hill. They actually had to do this on some of the steeper climbs. There was so much weight back there that I was climbing at a snail’s pace.

Rob

Brighter Official Trailer

Here is the Official Trailer for the movie Brighter featuring Banshee rider Matt Brooks.

Video is available for pre order at pinkbike.

2010 Banshee Amp

2010 Banshee Amp from Aaron Larocque on Vimeo.

Fogelsode #15: Woodward Round 2

Cob and I left early Saturday morning to road trip down to Woodward West.  It was pouring rain when we left, and thinking we would drive out of the storm, it got worse and eventually started to snow when we got into Tehachapi!  We met up with James Visser and hurried into The Hanger to stay dry!  We warmed up by pumping around the park for a bit, and started seshing the foam and resi!  Probably 10 minutes into being there, my bike got away from me on a trick into foam, and made a loud snapping noise when it hit the ground.  I climbed out of the foam pit to see my fork snapped in half with oil puddling up around it!  Thankfully I had my Rampant, and rode that for the rest of the time!  James started nailing some dialed double flips into the foam, and decided to take them to resi.  He dropped in and everyone went silent as he yanked back off the lip.  He spun the whole thing but landed to flat and fell!  He got up and tried it a few more times until he nailed it!  The trip was off to a great start!  Later he did his first tailwhips to pedals over the resi!  I was stoked to learn no-foot-can flips and one-foot-x-up to barspins over the resi, plus I ended up tailwhipping the resi superpipe!  We all took a break from the resi/foam and seshed the park for a while.  Cob had some crazy lines going, blasting out of the quarters and boosting tricks over the box!  He dialed in some techy manual and tire tap lines as well!  Cob and James ripped it up in the bowls, doing some sick lines like the bowl-to-bowl wallride transfer!  We seshed the box jump a bit, and did some trains through the park and on the resi.  I was really surprised how well the Rampant did in the park!  I thought I wouldn’t be able to do anything, but it was almost like riding my Amp!  We did this quarterpipe to bank transfer that was really fun, and I ended up downside-whipping it after a few tries, so I was really stoked on that!  Everyone threw down and left with at least one new trick learned on the resi!

 

Enjoy!

 

 

-Jack

Thailand and Laos Pictures

I have just uploaded over a hundred pictures from our bike trip to Northern Thailand and Laos. Check them out on pinkbike …

Keep riding,

Rob

Urban DH Racing in Brasil

Gabriel sent this into me from SessionBrasil (our distributor down there).

Hi Jay and Keith,

It’s cool to tell you Kbelinho’s news about 2010DHU Race in Brazil, He won this epic competition some years ago, and this year he got hard players like Mick Hanna, Polc, Markolf, and many other good riders....Kbelinho took 6th with 1:01 min, riding his Scythe very fast down the big stairs, you can check the vídeo that was live last Sunday during the main sport program in Brazil, Globo Sport. Enjoy!

Polc won with the time 59 sec.



Gabriel Napole

Summer trails

So last night jason and myself decided to do a quick little project and some trails while the light was golden. We wanted to do something different instead of the normal webedits. We wanted to show just normal relaxed riding instead of the banger tricks you see in web edits all the time.

Legend Update

I'm getting swampped now with guys wondering when the Legends will start arriving.
Well the good news is that we're only couple weeks max. Packaging has arrived and looks pretty cool, Ti hardware didn't arrive today but should arrive tomorrow but we've already started pressing in bearings, threaded inserts, and other things that can be done before putting in the axles. I'm down in assembly with the guys hand chasing every thread, reaming holes, and just watching over everything just so we all get a good feel on how the fit and finish is. Its very much hands on and we can feel how every bearing fit feels pressing in and how every pivot bore diameter feels as well. I know that this is Taiwan and I know people think that means mass produced but the attention these bikes are getting is very reminiscant of handmade. For me it feels great getting on the floor and putting these together and knowing that the frame some of you will be getting will be 100% dialled because i've personally either gone totally over it or assembled it myself.
I'm pretty happy how everything is going together and I think the time we spent working on it has definitely been worth it.

The other thing people have been asking is when are we going to get to see the Black/Green and the White/red.
As soon as i get the hardware I will build them up and snap off a bunch of pics.
The team red was pretty sweet looking, but personally i'm loving the white and red. The red is kinda of that coral neon red so it just pops off the white. On the right you can see it on a color tube sample. Links will be black so it will tie in black parts on the bike.
The Black/green has a black upper link with the green lower link that will match the decals. It also looks super nice to.
I know that some people don't want something as flashy as the team but still want to subtley have people notice their bikes. I think the Black/green and White/red do that quite nicely but still look very racey.

Ok thats it from me for now

Sixty Seconds with Aeron Learmonth

I am sitting on the train platform in the South of Thailand. I had some time to kill so I was checking to see what was new around the internet. I found this on www.pinkbike.com about one of Banshee’s grassroots riders. Check it out …

http://www.pinkbike.com/news/sixty-seconds-aeron-learmonth-2010.html

Matt Brooks and Friends Riding in February

Hey all! I got a chance to take out a friend on the Banshees and hit the bike park over the last couple days. It's been unseasonably warm for quite awhile here in Kamloops so I thought it might be a good chance to shoot a couple pics and spread some 22 pride. My friend Lance and I took out the Wildcard and the Rampant on the first day and got a little dirt jumping in. The trails are in awesome shape right now, and there is some building happening, so obviously we weren't the only ones peeking out noses out side to see what's up. When we got there, there was about 10 others already dirt jumping, and another few building. It looks like a new DH track is nearing completion and it's got some real nice features. I hope it will draw lots of people for the race the ranch event this year. On day 2 we decided to pull out the big bikes and shred some DH trails, so I got on the Scythe and Lance stuck with the Wildcard. All the trails were in great shape with no mud at all. We put in a bunch of laps and called it a day after a couple beers. All in all a great riding day for the beginning of February. We snapped a bunch of pics so I thought I'd share them with everyone on here. Hope every ones winter is going as well as ours.

VitalMTB Bike Check with Graeme Pitts/Team Geronimo

MTBGeartech.com interview

If you want to get some background info on the Legend MkII and us here at Banshee, then have a read of the interview we had with the guys at mtbgeartech.com

E-mail Problems

Hey Guys,

I'm afraid that both Jay and myself have been having serious e-mail issues for some time. Neither of us were really aware of the extent of the problem until the end of last week, but we are pretty certain we have not been receiving all e-mails for possibly several weeks. It is hard to say for sure.

We are in the process of trying to address this issue and going through the nightmare of changing servers etc, so please bear with us.

If you sent an e-mail in the last few weeks, that was not answered, then the chances are that we never received it, so could you please send it again? make sure that anything technical is sent to me at keith@bansheebikes.com to save time.

Hopefully we will be back up and running as per normal ASAP. Thanks for your patience!

Keith

I've signed up to Twitter, so feel free to follow me

Thredbo, Australia Update from Team Geronimo

Well, it is already Tuesday, Feb. 9 down under. Graeme is at Thredbo, getting ready for the big race this coming weekend. He is staying and training with 18 year old Oz rider Danny Lavis - a pinner, from what Graeme says - and Josh Button, a top-ranked Oz rider.

Get this - in order to practice during the week, lift tickets are $70/day! And from what we understand, there are no qualifiers, just the race run. This event will be have way better attendance than Shepparton - that was Shepparton's first go round, it didn't seem to have a good reputation, and so a lot of riders didn't show for that one.

The course: 6+ minutes of gnarly, steep downhill. No uphills, no flats. Sounds ripe for arm pump . . . An initial report from Graeme said the Legend Mk II handles it all with ease! After 4-5 days of race training with Button and Lavis, expect Graeme to know the course like the back of his hand (and all the pinner lines). Watch our twitter feed for more race updates as the week progresses.

PS - Cody and Graeme recently met up with Damian Breach for a photo shoot and interview. Look for the exclusive Legend MkII bike check on VitalMTB.com soon!

Fogelsode #14: Flowy Trails and Big Drifts

We got hit by a small storm this week, making for lots of digging.  The rain was pretty light during a few days, so Max and I went out for a trail ride!  The dirt was great, so we sessioned a fun set of s-berms.  We continued down the trail to a cool little line that I built last winter.  It’s a berm into a hip step-down followed by a straight step-up.  Max was hitting it dialed, but the time we filmed it he overcleared the step-down and nosed cased into the back of the step-up landing!  Luckily he was all good!  I threw a few tailwhips over it and we moved on down the trail.  We reached a fun flowy section with some turns that drop away at their exits.  They’re super fun because you can lean into them and go weightless as you fall towards the next corner.  One has a fun high speed jump after it, that we ended up hitting a few times!  The rain started to pick up, plus it was getting dark, so we got out of there!

My buddy has some property up in the mountains that we’ve been building on every now and then.  The rain loosened up the dirt quite a bit, so we spent a day digging out there.  Near sunset everyone was pretty tired, so we busted out the dirt bikes and Rhino to moto around a little track that’s up there!  Matt was doing some crazy drifts in the Rhino, one time almost flipping it!  Everyone else raced around on the dirt bikes, which was tons of fun because it was the first time riding them for most of us!  Definitely a great way to end the day!  Just good times hanging out, building, riding, and messing around with friends!

Enjoy!

 

Jack

See the MkII and lots of other stuff on the new site

WWW.BANSHEEBIKES.COM

Spitfire Headset Options

I've had a bunch of people e-mail me to ask about Spitfire V1 headsets recently now that the frames have started shipping out.

The spitfire V1 has a head tube that is tapered between 1.125" ZS top (44.0mm diameter) to 1.5" traditional bottom (49.61mm diameter).

So depending on your fork there are 3 options depending on the setup you want.

If you are running a 130-150mm travel fork with 1 1/8" steerer I would personally recommend the following:


If you are running a 130-150mm tapered fork something like this would work:


If you are running a 150-160mm travel fork with 1 1/8" steerer then to keep the geometry in line I would recommend running a zero stack lower cup setup like this:

Same top cup, but a flush mount bottom cup like the bottom part of this (you can buy this separately from cane creek, don't worry!)
So with 150mm forks with 1 1/8" steerers gives you the option depending on what geometry you are after.

These are the geometries you will get with the different setups.


I picked this style tapered head tube, as I felt it gave you guys the most options with regards to headsets and geometry in the tapered package.

Luang Pra Bang to Koh Phangan

          

The plan was to ride from Luang Pra Bang to the Thai border crossing in Nong Khai. It would have been four hundred kilometres through one of the most mountainous regions in Laos. We were going to stretch it out over seven or eight days and try to enjoy it as much as we could. Due to an urge to get to the beach and limited time James was going to take the bus to the border. Morgan and I were then going to meet him in Bangkok before he flew back to Taiwan. While discussing our plan James suggested that we all take the bus to Vang Vien which is half way to Vientiane. Then he would spend a couple of days there with us and when we started riding for the border he would take the bus onward. When we got to the bus station the next morning the price for a ticket to Vang Vien was the same as the price to Vientiane. James did not want to have to pay for two bus tickets so he purchased a ticket to Vientiane. It did not take long before we talked ourselves out of riding to the border and into sitting on a beach in the south of Thailand.

We boarded the bus at 2pm and did not arrive in Vientiane until two or three the next morning. The border is 25 or 30 kilometres outside of Vientiane and does not open until 6am. We rode around Vientiane looking for something to eat and then decided that we would just start out for the border. Arriving an hour before the border opened we tried to fall asleep on the side of the road.

 

We crossed the border and booked a ticket on the night train to Bangkok. We biked into town and booked a hotel for the day to try to get some sleep. The train we booked did not have any sleeper cars so we were stuck trying to sleep in what turned out to be the most uncomfortable train seats. Not as bad the the third class wood benches, but pretty horrible. And in third class there is always the option of sleeping on the floor.

 

 

James and I had to apply for Taiwanese visas so when we arrived in Bangkok we got a hotel room, showered and headed for the Taiwanese Visa Office. What is usually a painful experience turned out to be pretty easy and we were back at the hotel asleep in no time.

After another night on a train (sleeping car) and a boat ride we arrived on Koh Phagan. For the time being we will be trading the lycra bike shorts and helmets in for swim trunks and snorkels. I forgot my speedo so there will be no speedo shots this trip. We all have to leave Thailand before the 14th of February. James is going home, Morgan and I are not sure what we will do.

We will be using the bikes on the island for transportation. But it looks like the bike adventure maybe over. If we find anything worth riding I will get some pictures and post something.

I would like to thank:

Jay for the Viento frames. Some may argue that they are not touring bikes, but I think they worked out pretty amazingly. The roads in Laos are not in the best shape and I could not imagine riding on them on anything other than a mountain bike. Sure if I could do it again there would be things I would change on my bike … but I would still want to be on a Viento.

Gavin and Mike from Spank Industries. The Vomax rims are probably the lightest weight rims I have ever used and they have stood up to the abuse of riding day after day for the past couple of weeks.

 

Fritz from Kail Protectives for keeping my head safe. I did not think a dirt jump helmet was going to be the best choice for a touring helmet but, I was surprised at how comfortable and cool it really was.

My brother Morgan for being on camera duty for most of the trip. Any of the good pictures were probably taken by him. Derek from Race Face, the guys from Xtracycle and Thai Customs for the memories.

It has been a great adventure,

Rob Dunnet