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!

Alan on Pink Bike – spoiledgoods blog

http://spoiledgoods.pinkbike.com/blog/alan-hepburk-bike-check-2009.html

A cool little feature

Technorati Tags: banshee,rampant,alan,hepburn

Armstrong, Bauer top podiums at Snowmass mountain bike races

by Catherine Lutz, Aspen Daily News Staff Writer
Monday, August 10, 2009

While a certain seven-time Tour de France winner was celebrating his first fat tire victory in Snowmass Village on Saturday, Aspenite Rachel Bauer was steadily defending her lead on the dusty mountaincross course.

A few rounds later, Bauer edged out five other pro women to take first place in the Blast the Mass mountaincross finals — one of two pro-level racers with an Aspen address to earn the top spot in the four-discipline mountain bike event.

“I wasn’t the strongest rider, but I had the best descents,” said Bauer, who got fourth place in the pro women’s downhill on Sunday. “I was able to defend the lead and hold off the other girls.” (Jackie Harmony of Tucson, Ariz. and Martha Renn of Avon took second and third places, respectively.)

The other Aspen racer was Lance Armstrong, who smoked the field in the pro cross-country race with a time of one hour, 51 minutes and 18 seconds — completing two laps of the course which entailed 11.4 miles and 2,346 vertical feet of climbing.

Along with some local cross-country pros, Armstrong had spent a few days before the race riding the course to familiarizing himself with it, said a race organizer.

“And he was familiar,” said Keith Darner with Bigfoot Productions, which puts on the Mountain States Cup race series. “On the road climb from the start/finish to the singletrack he was at probably double the speed of the next pro.

Darner said Armstrong has visibly improved his technical riding since last year, when he placed second in the Leadville 100 endurance mountain bike race.

“I thought this race would be considerably closer because he’s a roadie,” said Darner. “This course had some challenging technical climbing and descending.”

Armstrong finished a little more than three minutes ahead of Jay Henry of Avon, who is the points leader in the eight-race Mountain States Cup.

Len Zanni of Carbondale finished third, nearly 6 minutes off Armstrong’s time.

Darner said an estimated 300-500 people thronged the start of the pro cross-country race, and about 450 people stuck around to see Armstrong receive his award.

“Normally you can hear crickets at a cross-country start,” said Bauer, “but it was lined on both sides. Lance brought people out.”

Far from feeling overshadowed, Bauer said it was boost to the semi-obscure sport of competitive mountain to have Armstrong show up at a regional race.

“He’s definitely brought a lot of people to the sport and to the weekend.”

Darner credited Armstrong with being gracious for staying 45 minutes after the awards ceremony to sign autographs and talk with fans.

“All we can say about Lance attending our event is that is was very positive and his sportsmanship was amazing,” said Darner.

Several other locals had podium finishes in the weekend events, which also crowned the state champions in cross-country, downhill, super D and mountain cross.

Snowmass Village’s Bryce Gordon won the 15- to 18-year-old division men’s category 1 cross-country race, and Mike Scanlon of Snowmass Village took the top spot in the men’s category 1 40-49 class. (Categories denote levels of skills, with category 1 corresponding to the old “expert” class. Category 2 is the former “sport” class, and category 3 is beginner.)

Jason Lapointe of Carbondale and Joel Mischke of Basalt took second and third places, respectively, in the cross-country race for category 1, ages 30-39. Lauren Ziedonis of Aspen took second in the women’s 19-29 category 1 race. The podium in the women’s category 1 40+ race was dominated by locals: Aspen’s Anne Gonzales in first, Aspen’s Pam Seidler in second and Carbondale’s Jacqueline Wood in third.

Steve Valenti of Basalt took first place in the mountaincross category 1 race for 30- to 39-year-olds. And Aspen’s Christen Boyer took second place in the category 1/2 women’s division for mountaincross.

Full downhill results were not available on Sunday, but no locals placed in the top three spots in the pro division on Sunday afternoon.

lutz@aspendailynews.com

Center Of Gravity

So I have been in Kelowna all week having a blast at the beach everyday and riding with some of my best friends every night. But I was also staying their to try to get in a Dirt jump even called Center Of Gravity that Steve Romaniuk was putting on down at Kelowna main beach. Went down their with Casey and seen the size of the landings and had to get in so I called steve up lucky for me he had heard my name before and was stoked to have me ride the jumps.
Superman seat grab

The event was vary chill not a major comp which was amazing cause we just got to show people what we do on two wheel. But what I was happy about was everytime you would do a run through you could see all the little kids just be in aaawwww and dont forget about the chicks to right.
I was loving the new trick i learned all day sunday Superwhip


My weekend in kelowna was so much fun because weather we were riding up the in run or riding the jumps Casey was right beside me sometimes to close but we were killing trains all day on both days.

Those of you who watch me and casey ride will no nothing is ever chill when we ride together we always learn something new and its always like x-games but way more fun
Casey Groves Twhip


Casey groves 360 table


360


Superwhip


Tuck no hander

At the end of the day Casey come out with the win which I was really stoked about we both agreed if one of us wins that we would choose a kid and give him the winning bike

Kid was in aawww and we were stoked to make the kids day

Banshee riders represent in [R]evolution mag.

Alan Hepburn gets a sequence shot on the contents page (P2-3) of him doing a backflip drop / step down on his rampant.

Chris Soininen talks through doing a flip whip (with sequential pictures) on P18-19 in the jump masterclass section.

also should shout out to their mate Tim who grabbed the cover shot this month.

Great work all round guys! Check out the shots here...

Banshee day on Pinkbike?

Seems like we might be taking over Pinkbike.com!



Today our rider Alan Hepburn has Photo of the day, (props once again to jason headly, he has serious skills behind the lense!)

AND... there is a long term test review of the scythe.

check em out!

PB POD goes to who?

thats are boy Heppy [alan hepburn]
http://www.pinkbike.com/photo/1723763/

off/hot season

Hey everyone just writing a little update on what's been happening down here in Australia for me.

Right now where faced with constant 35-40 degrees days and the ground is getting super dry but at least we can still ride.
Here's a little ride day me and a mate had today.

First we start at my foam pit which is now working sick:)

Then we hit up the roost track for a bit which is super fun.

Its pretty short but fun to drift and link the corners up and

go over the handlebars when we get to eager:)

Then its of to the dirt jumps which are very close

by.

Alan's Wildcard weighs in at 32.12lbs

I want to confirm the weight so I've asked him to take a pic of the bike on a proper scale. Even still, if it was embellished a little 33 or even 34 is a respectable weight -I did make sure he weighed it with the chain on.

Alan took pics of himself building it up and is that a hammer I see on the table? ...always a good sign of a quality wrench -the only thing missing is an axe.

Some really awesome features that really show this is a TRUE slopestyle machine and not just a freeride bike posing as a slopestyle ride is its single speed ...check out the sic Yess chaintensioner.
Alan did mention that he got to rip on it and said its noticably lighter, saving weight on the rear derailleur, shifter pods and on the rear cassette. He also appreciated the lower BB height and was really happy about how well it pedalled. Overall I think his game has just stepped it up a few notches.
Expect to see a complete review from him soon and less video clips of his flipwhips and corks to leatherarse hahaha.
Really cool thing is that the components on the frame are all really strong and meant for some big air riding so its not that Alan screwed around and threw a bunch of XC stuff on there just to hit the weight... oh and the frame is a medium size and there is still room to go even lighter with this thing and still have it slopestyle worthy... Sub 30lbs slopestyle bike?

Oh and Chris is still killing the same prototype hes had since last spring so its plenty strong, although he's due for a proper production one in the next few weeks.

Alans new Wildcard

Finally Alan Hepburn just got his new Wildcard. I like to do something for the factory guys and Alan's got Grant Allen painting him a Troy Lee Carbon in a similar color and paint scheme. Kinda like how Chris's helmet was white and black we did his Wildcard to match his helmet.
I think it turned out pretty great. I told Alan to send me some pics of him building it up... and then the final bike finished.

Alan and Chris

Chris and Alan did some filming with Christian and Nick from Sullivanvizual. I'll get some more details as soon as I talk to them again. I'll find out when the DVD will be released and where you can get it.
As Grant Allen would say it looks like they got the the corkflip to leatherARSE figured out in the clip they sent me.


Alan just got his new ride and as soon as he takes a pic of it you'll be able to see his new Wildcard. Grant is going to do a custom paint on Alans TLD carbon helmet - provided he gets one for christmas - that will match the bike.

The guys are also featured in the Aussie magazine Revolution and there is a wicked shot from the Pirate aka Stephen Hillenbrand but i don't see it posted on the pirates site yet... other eye candy to look at tho

Matt Brooks on his 2007 year

Hey everyone, I thought I would post a bit of a season end blog since the snow has begun to fly in my home town. Although I never had a full season due to injury it was still a good summer and a great time to be on Banshee Bikes.

As some of you may already know I had a minor back injury and also tore my ACL (among other things) in my left knee. The back injury occurred down in Colorado at Crankworx. Nothing to major, but the x rays revealed that I had broken a piece of vertebrae probably a few years ago. After having a few Doctors check it out back home, I was deemed fit to ride and promptly crashed again while filming a section for a TV show. Hahaha what luck! That was the crash that destroyed my knee. Since then I have been hitting up the physiotherapy, and waiting on surgery. The knee is feeling good, and a complete recovery is expected.

Before the crash however, I luckily had a little time building and shooting for New World Disorder 8: Smack Down. I got a solid 5 days or so in with them and a section on the bonus DVD. Considering the limited amount of shooting I had, I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. Make sure you check out the movie if you haven’t already.

After the crash I spent some more time doing light building at our local bike park the Kamloops Bike Ranch to help out NWD. Cam Mcaul and Ben Boyko ended up coming in to shoot on the new hits and it was sick! It was 3 days of tail whips, cork flips and tons of other gnarly tricks. In the end I think they got some of their best shots in the Ranch so it was quite a success.

I was also lucky enough to be invited down for the Red Bull Trail Crew even at Silver Star Resort. It was a sick event. The premises was 3 sets of builders create a section of trail each and once it was done the invited pro riders come up to ride and judge sections. I believe the winners won season’s passes and a bike. When I got on the trail I was amazed. Those guys did a lot of hard work and it showed. While were riding the new trail sections we were joined by some ripping groms whom we also judged. The winners won new bikes as well. Red Bull pulled together an excellent riders list for the event including: Robbie Bourden, Wayne Goss, Kurt Sorge, Steve Romaniuk, Shaums March, and myself. One of the best parts was that I got to really test out the new Wildcard prototype and see if it could stand up to the kind of abuse that lift access tends to put on a bike. The Wildcard stood up beautifully, and was actually a great bike for some of the tight/jump trails. It ended up being an awesome couple of days, and I would suggest riding at Silver Star to anyone.

Unfortunately I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked to but there is always next year I suppose. Hope you enjoyed my pics and my little rant. Perhaps I will bust out the GT noma and get a snow blog going. Rock on!!!

My NWD 8 section:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fg0bSR5I3-Q
www.freeride-entertainment.com
Make sure you buy the DVD its well worth the $ and you'll be watching it over and over again.

Matt B

Here are a couple of words on progression.

from Chris Soininen (who has been riding one of the wildcard prototypes for the last 6 months or so)...

"Deep down in all of us, what pushes us to the next level is the satisfaction of progression. There is nothing like riding out of a big road gap or learning a new trick, knowing that any little slip up could lead to a very painful afternoon and a dent in the confidence. After riding for many years and enjoying many accomplishments on the bike you begin to hit a new level of riding. It is the borderline obsession where crashing doesn’t slow you down. It hurts but makes you want it even more. It makes you practise harder and riding on this fine line can be pretty scary.

I don’t really want to know how many times I have crashed doing back flips and tail whips. Crashing doesn’t mean you’re a bad rider, it means you are pushing your own limits and that’s what progression is all about.You may not land it first time but being persistant pays off. I am not saying go out there and ride till you crash because that is just stupid but you know when you hit that fine line of pulling something off and that is the sweetest victory of all.

Don’t be harsh critics as these are some photos that a young mate of mine took while I was practising a few new tricks. We will get them out to you when I have them dialled.

Thanks for reading,
Chris"

There you have it! Straight from inside the head of a crazy rider!

Camp of Champions

Banshee has been confirmed as sponsors of the 2008 Camp of Champions at Whistler Mountain.
Camp guest will get to access to Wildcards, Rampants, and Scythes. We've gotten together with TSG to offer an all custom finish just for the camp so the bikes will look totally sick.

Also what's really cool is Alan Hepburn will be coming over from Australia to coach, unconfirmed still is Chris Sonienen whose not sure if he'll arrive in Vancouver in time for the camps. Long time team rider Brent Floyd is the camps head coach and arguably the best riding coach going. He's worked for both the Schley and Shandro camps and he's very experienced, helpful, and knowledgable.

Ken Achenbach has put together possibly the best camp in the world. It offers tons for the guests to do on and off the mountain and with Brent managing and coaching you're guaranteed the best results in improving your riding.

I'm still in discussions with them regarding a camp seminar on how to setup your suspension and other mysterious in your bike. So not only do you improve as a rider you also get to dial in your ride to acheive its top performance when you get home.

One other treat [that we'll try to include] is time for the guest to take out a Legend Mk1. These will be very rare as we plan to do only 50 units for 2008, and then only 100 for 2009.

Anyway we're totally stoked. Check out the camps website if you're interested.

Alan practicing at home

Alan Hepburn just sent me this. Looks like he was really bummed that he didn't qualify for Crankworx this year and has no intention of having that happen next. It'll be cool to see him stomp a flip whip in the comp, but we'll see what they do to the course next year. There were a lot of complaints from the riders about it and hopefully they'll build it more like the Bearclaw invitational.


Alans the second guy in the vid and he still needs a little more practice to get that stuff nailed.

Scott Alleyn let me know that he got 2nd at the Harvest Huckfest. He's on his way up to Nelson with a Wildcard to scope out the new jumps they've built. I can't remember the name of them sorry, maybe someone from Nelson can help me out and put it in the comments section

It's good to be home, but better in BC!

An update from Alan ... (with photos of both Alan and Chris)
'Hey everyone, here's a little write up on what I’ve been up to for the past few months. Back in July I found myself ripping countless runs in the Whistler bike park riding everything I could from Joyride (best trail ever) to the Redbull elevation jumps (best jumps ever) to the foam pit. Then crankworx came around and the crowds got larger and the hype got louder, it’s pretty intense when all your used to, is riding with a group of 3 or 4 other riders back at home and then going to Canada and seeing thousands of riders everywhere. For myself crankworx’s was a mixed bag I wasn’t liking the slopestyle course that much but was happy to just jam some sections that I did like, and doing runs on the mountain. My friend Chris (who also rides for Banshee) rode solid as and made it to the semi finals getting 17th overall so that was cool. Once crankworx was over the village went back to normal and the runs on the mountain got more fun.
The weekend after crankworx Chris and I found ourselves on a ferry heading to the Bearclaw invitational, This whole trip to Mt Washington was so un planned we didn’t even know where or what we were going to do for food, accommodation or even a way back to whistler. The only thing semi organised was how we were getting to the ferry, Thanks Kelly and Sha for the lift. In the end the whole trip turned out perfect, we stayed in the riders lodge for free had these awesome BC burgers for dinner and ended riding the Mountain which was better then we expected. Oh and the slopestyle course was mad fun to ride, we weren’t allowed to compete (because we weren’t on the list) which sucked but Bearclaw was kind enough to let us ride the course in practice, and we became the course guineapigs.
2 weeks later and I was back home in Australia looking at my local jumps that looked mighty small compared to the jumps I had been riding for the previous 8 weeks. So I decided to do a major digging mission moving around 200tonnes all up to make 2 bigger sized jumps, was pretty stoked when they were finished and dialled. So now all I’m doing is riding when I can and learning new things. Had an interesting experience the last couple of days when I took a hard slam and smacked the side of my head on the ground (Full Face helmets are awesome). Anyway I woke up the next morning and the whole room was spinning like crazy, got myself checked out and it seems I bruised my inner ear and had some swelling. Wasn’t that bad but in your ear is where the Cochlea is and that controls your balance and tells your brain which way is up and down, lets just say its like being very drunk when you have swelling in that area. Anyway the dizziness subsided pretty quick and 24hours later and its all good, and I can ride again yay.
Anyway summers rolling in here and there’s lots more riding to be had. Catcha later!'

and now some photos of chris doing crazy stuff to add to alans story and photos...

If you ever get the chance to ride with these guys you will join me by saying that they have great attitudes, and are just down to earth guys who share a passion for riding (oh and they are a bit crazy too!)