New Trail edit

A few friends and I wanted to build a pump track style trail, utilizing as many natural features in the forest as we could. As we walked the line we found rocks perfect for step downs and drops and our pumptrack style trail started to ride like a really tight freeride trail, perfect for my Wildcard. Here is the edit from the trail complete with cable cam and dolly shots. Filming and editing done by Taylor Lougran of ArtBarn Film



http://www.pinkbike.com/video/129872/

Banshee Nano

THANKS JAY!!! We received our prototype nanotech carbon fiber Banshee Nano yesterday and everyone here is just going gaga over it!

This baby is so light it feels even lighter than my Viento in my hands. Our medium frame with fox RP23 weighs just 3.86lbs (minus seatpost)!

We have started building the Nano with some weight weenie KCNC components and a carbon fiber DT Swiss EXC 150 fork up front.. just in time for our upcoming XC race this month.

I'll post up more pictures of the bike when it's built on FakawiTribe.com soon!

Woooot!!

Nick
fakawitribe.com

Straitline Components Launch ‘Quickie’ Stems!

Canadian based CNC firm Straitline Components  Launches the first ever DH QR Stems into the demanding and competitive Gravity Market. 

With the new innovated design inspired by the demands of two Canadian Champions    Andrew Mitchell -2 time National Champion and current Canadian Junior Champion Kyle Marshall, Straitline Quickie Stems will be seen all over the race circuits in the coming months.

Andrew Mitchell

 

Kyle Marshall

Designed to be ridden on the infamous West Coast terrain found in British Columbia Canada, the Quickie Stems have already been a huge hit with the locals with pre orders hitting just shy of the double digits.

Check out the link to the video to see the Quickie in action:

http://vimeo.com/10424857

For more information on the Straitline Quickie Stem visit www.straitline.blogspot.com

For more details on the Quickie and other Straitline products, please contact Hotlines on 0131 319 1444, or email sales@hotlines-uk.com.

www.hotlines-uk.com

www.straitline.blogspot.com

Were going to Sea Otter

April 15-18 come by booth 546.

Keith is flying out from Scotland so if you want to geek out on bike tech talk make sure you grab him. Rob is coming in from Taiwan and Ryan is flying in from Oregon. If you see us we're all approachable so don't hesitate to grab us and ask a question or make a comment - thats why we're there.
I can't make it unfortunately as I have a production coming through and have school.

We will have Banshee's Team Geronimo and MCL Racing as well as part of the Canadian team contingent competing at the races.
Trident Sports will also be there helping to organize everything and will be managing demo bikes for people to try.

We will be showing off the new Legend MkII from the Taipei show - Rob is dragging it with him.

Its going to be a great time, and we're really excited to meet all the riders and racers. This is really why we do what we do and I so happy that we're part of the Sea Otter Classic again after too long of a break.

Remember booth 546!

Fogelsode #21: Jumps in the Afternoon, Trails in the Evening

Another advantage of longer days: riding dirt jumps in the afternoon and trails in the evening!  David, Jeff, Kevin, and I cruised out to Post Office for a fun little ride.  Kevin was steezin up a storm with big smooth whips, and Jeff was styling through, throwing some sick 3’s!  David and I had a good time messing around with the different lines, trying to jump over each other and cross each other’s lines as close as possible.  It ended up being an awesome time, just taking it easy and having fun at the jumps. David had to go to work, so we dropped him off and continued into the mountains where we met up with Cob and Iggy.  Dan joined up a little later and we had a cool little session on some fun sections of trail.  Cob and Iggy were getting sideways off a nice high-speed triple, killing it as always.  Eventually we ran out of light, which nobody complained about as we were all pretty tired.  Solid day!

Enjoy!

 

Oh and earlier in the week, I met up with local photographer, Connor Luther, to help him with a project for his photography class.  Actually I don’t really know if “help” is the right word.  I just rode and he nailed some sick shots!

He did a cool write-up on it here.

-Jack

MBUK at Esher Shore Pump Track

MBUK (Mountain Biking UK) magazine visited the Esher Shore bike park in Surrey, England, UK on Tuesday to shoot an article on Pump Tracks for a forthcoming issue of their print magazine

We had huge fun riding the pump track with Doddy from MBUK and the legend that is Rob Warner!

John rode his AMP, I rode my RAMPANT and our buddy Marius rode his Ticket, Doddy and Warner were riding some "other" brands we won't mention except to say Doddy's bike was very yellow, and Rob Warner's bike a lovely turquoise blue

Doddy rode my Rampant and was somewhat surprised how quick it was on the Pump Track compared to a hardtail; John and I think the rampant is actually quicker due to better tire traction and the ability to pump the bumps and berms harder and use the return action of the suspension to generate speed...!

We are not allowed to release any of the high-res images that Steve Behr (stockfile) shot on the day including lots of RAD images taken from the roof of a nearby building, so shown above is a photoshop tweaked image of everyone riding at once, and shown below is a photoshop tweaked image of me riding my Mythic RAMPANT



The mag will be out pretty soon...more info coming soon!

the PUMP TRACK at Esher Shore won't be open for a while yet...news will be put up on the Banshee / Mythic , Freeborn, Esher Shore and Hampstead Bandit blogs once its open

cheers!

Rob C
Freeborn Bikes / Mythic Bikes / Esher Shore

2 Guys 1 Bike

No one has ridden our jump line in almost a year. When we got back to Taiwan after four months of being in Canada there was so much grass that nothing could be ridden. Every spring someone lights a fire that burns up all the grass. This year it burnt up all the grass and most of our tools. But on the bright side we do not have to fight with the grass anymore.

James has been rebuilding … We took my Wildcard out today and took turns on the bike and camera.

James:

Rob:

  

    

I would like to thank my new trainer “Kesuke Miyagi”. His style and influence really show in this last picture.       Keep Riding.

Rob Dunnet

2010 Team Geronimo Pit Preview

Here's a sneak peak at our race pit setup for this year. Thanks to Jay and Keith, we'll have a huge Banshee tent to top things off.

Stop by if you see us! - Full race schedule


Trailer: (click for higher res versions)


Pit Banners:


Pit Flags:

Brighter Movie Premiere was a Hit!!!

Well, the night has come and gone now, and boy what a night it was! When I first got to the Commodore at 7:30pm I was shocked to see people were already coming in, seeing as the doors were supposed to open at 8pm .Within no time there was standing room only and the party was on. There were lots of drinks being had and the Commodore did an excellent job on catering to our every whim. I hope that we will be able to do more events together in the near future. We decided to start the show a little late. I think somewhere around 9:15 or 9:20. When the movie started a big roar went out and then everyone was captivated by Tam's work. The movie was great. If you like any of Tam's work on the NWD series or Stripped you will be a huge fan of this film. Of course, once the movie ended, the fun part came...the toss out and raffle. There were so many awesome prizes that it seemed like almost half the crowd walked away with something. We had packages from Adidas Eye wear, Race Face, Giro, The Bicycle Cafe, and of course copies of the movie from New Wave Cinema. Cheryl from the Bicycle Cafe came up and helped me out with the raffle, and got the crowd pumped up. We even had a push up contest for the last copy of Brighter. In the end I would say the event was a huge success, and I hope that not to many people had to call in "sick" for work today. Have a good one.

Follow Team Geronimo/Banshee Bikes!

We're on facebook and twitter! Become a fan or follow us to see what we're up to. As the season picks up we'll have some great content. See you at Sea Otter!

Two Cool Videos

Buy a banshee … Save Money

How can buying a 2010 Banhee Legend MKII save you money? Banshee is teaming up with EKla Suspension to save Legend owners money. This card will be in the box with all MKII’s shipped after today.

If you are one of the lucky ones to already have purchased a Legend MKII and you want to take advantage of this offer email info@bansheebikes.com and we will send you one of these cards.

EDIT: Actually Rob, I set it up with Elka so that these vouchers are for all 2010 banshee full suspension frames, not just Legends. - Keith

Keep Riding,

Rob Dunnet

Fogelsode #20: Enjoying the Long Days!

Daylight Savings Time is upon us, and what can I say…it ROCKS!  Nothing like getting the chance to ride everyday, regardless of work or school schedules!  So it’ll be of no surprise to you that there’ve been seshes at Post Office everyday of the week.  It doesn’t get any better than that!

Well almost.  It could have been better if our buddy Brad didn’t break his ankle.  There’s this cool new transfer off the new wood lip onto the landing to the right.  Brian Miller has been killing it, throwing huge 360s and tailwhips over it.  Brad wanted to try to ally-oop 3 it, which would be super crazy because he would be turning left off the lip, but have to transfer over to the right.  He went for it, transferred over perfectly, but ended up over rotating and over clearing.  He landed on his feet, but the way he landed caused his left ankle to break in 3 places.  He handled it like it wasn’t a big deal at all, and ended up driving home later that day!  He’s going in for surgery on Monday to get it reset, so hopefully it won’t be too long before he’s back in action!  Get well soon Brad!

Towards the end of the week we realized that with a new berm and a few rollers here and there, we could have a little pumptrack that would weave through parts of the existing lines.  By that evening it was done, and after a classic sundown sesh on the jumps, we turned it over to a big pumptrack session.  It ended up being a great (and tiring) time, finding new lines and racing friends.  With the warmer weather, the longer days, and events like Sea Otter around the corner, the “off-season” is beginning to transition into the on-season! 

Enjoy!

 

 

-Jack

Aeron Learmonth Bike Check

If you ride a Banshee and want to see it posted here on the Banshee Blog send me an email … rob@bansheebikes.com. You can be creative like Aeron and send me a link to a video or do it the old fashion style with pictures and a short write up.

Banshee Amp Bikecheck from Aeron learmonth on Vimeo.

Keep Riding,

Rob Dunnet

Eagle on the hill

A couple of days ago Jason and I went to the dirt jumps at our local mountain bike park to see how they were running and if we could get anything going of them. With a little bit of grooming to get the jumps running this is what we managed to get.

Alan,

some new AMP goodness...

Anyone that has been following the Banshee / Mythic blog for a while will be familiar with John "Jesus" Holme, who is a big part of the Esher Shore bike park here in Surrey, England, UK

John works for a big chain bike store, but has an eye for quality and has a long relationship with Freeborn Bikes who import Mythic into the UK

John has owned 2 Chaparrals, a Wildcard, currently has a Viento and now has replaced his K*na with a brand spanking new AMP frame in the "long" size



It's a sick build, working in the bike trade has its advantages which includes killer dealer on pimp parts at good prices- witness the Fox 831 fork on the front of his bike!



It's a simple build, running 1 x 9 with E13 / Gamut hybrid chain device, the Fox 831 forks, Stan's ZTR Flow / Pro II wheelset and Stan's no-tubes on a SBC Control Fast Trak and Maxxis Larsen tire set

There is some Shimano SLX, a Saint shifter, XT derailleur and RF Atlas bars with Thomson X4 50mm stem, FSA 45/45 headset and Pivotal saddle / post

John seemed very stoked on the new, long AMP as his previous frame was simply too short - the long AMP fits his lanky size and lets him ride the bike from the middle to get a proper weight balance

We literally built his AMP in about an hour, and he took it straight out onto the new Esher Shore Pump Track - then we had the brainwave of building this wallride so you can gap over 2 pump bumps



MBUK magazine are coming to Esher next week to try out the Pump Track and have a good look at John's AMP and my RAMPANT and see them in their true element!

cheers

rob c
Mythic Bikes

Vital MTB Launch user review center

Head on over and check it out here!

Please write some reviews on all your gear including Banshee, We would really appreciate it, and it will build up this resource for other riders to benefit from.

Good work Vital MTB!

Legend Show Bike

Unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of months you have seen pictures of the Banshee Legend MKII. The first time I saw pictures of the Legend MKII I thought it looked pretty much like every other race bike out there. After seeing it in person a month ago I started lusting over the thought of getting one. In the span of a work day my lust turned into love and then heart break.

Today my task was to build the Legend MKII show bike. When I showed up at the factory there was a medium Legend in the Team Red color scheme waiting for me. After raiding Jay’s office and desk I had the parts ready to start building.

Usually after building up a bike, even if it is a friend's or customers I will take it for a little spin to make sure everything is good to go. This is first bike that I did not go for my ceremonial ride ... and that is when my heart was broken.

We would like to thank Cane Creek, Manitou, Hayes, Straitline, WTB, Race Face, Funn and Crank Brothers for helping out with this special build project. I'm not much for reading, so check out the pictures ...

The pictures are not the greatest, I did not have much time to take pictures, we had to prep the bike for the show tomorrow.

Keep riding.

Rob Dunnet