Martin gets the cover

Martin just sent me this so I thought i would share. Its him on his Pyre bombing around the trails in Fernie. I get a ton of Wildcard, Amp, Rampant pics but when I get a Viento or Pyre pic is extra special cause I rarely get them. I guess dudes just wanna ride their bikes not take pics of themselves riding.

Thanks to the Ferie Fix for letting us post this up

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.

Virtual pivot maintenance

The Rampant, Rune, Pyre and Legend have virtual pivots which are very easy to maintain using the clever axle and grease port system

From time to time, its good maintenance practise to flush the grease through the bushings on the axles, to keep everything running 100% sweet.

The IGUS bushings are made from a self lubricating polymer but since mountain biking is a dirty, wet environment it makes sense to do a little preventative work from time to time

Its very simple to use, and you can re-grease your bushings in less than 5 minutes using simply a 2mm allen key, grease gun and a rag



Stage One - remove the plastic cover from each of the grease ports, as seen in the image above

I have labeled the main pivots 1,2,3 and the smaller pivots 4

The main pivots have the grease port flushing system as these pivots take most of the load and have axles running through the frame.

The smaller pivots 4 do not need a grease port but its probably a good idea to disassemble it from time to time to clean it up and check everything is 100%



Stage Two - remove the set screw. Each pivot has a small set screw which is removed using a 2mm allen key - in the image above I am using a Park AWS-10 multi tool but in the workshop I would normally use a seperate 2mm allen key as its easier to rotate in a confined space

Before you get the grease in there and make things messy, its worth checking the pivot bolts and axle head are tight, take your allen keys and snug them up just to be sure

Once the set screw is removed from the pivot, you are ready to use the grease gun



Stage Three- greasing the pivot. I am using a Dualco grease gun with high quality waterproof bicycle grease. Push the gun tube into the pivot and pump the gun a couple of times, until you meet resistance and grease starts backing up

Replace the set screw, wipe excess grease with a rag and replace the plastic cover

Repeat this procedure for each of the main pivots 1,2 and 3



After the procedure, you will see dirty / old grease working its way around the pivot axle edges, this is normal and means your new grease has flushed your pivots clean, give this dirty grease a wipe clean otherwise it might end up on your nice riding pants :(

happy trails!

Rob C

Long Term Pyre Review

We have finally started uploading some reviews to the website, expect to see a lot more popping up. Here is a detailed pyre review by Jason Boone.

Short Pyre Review

Thanks to Aaron for sending me this link to a quick Pyre review that Bikemagic made after riding the bike at the interbike dirt demo.

Susan's Custom Pyre

I just got an email of this beauty and I thought I'd share... Wow!! is all I can say.



Hey Guys,

Here are a few pics of my friend's (Susan Thomas) Banshee that I painted for her. I mostly paint helmets and motorcycles but thought the bike frame came out pretty good. By the way, you guys produce nice bikes.

Take care and ride safe,

Sandy Fulk
Airbrush Designs
www.airbrush-designs.com

9/10 AMB Pyre review

Wow... we got a great review in Australian Mountain Biker Mag.
Pick up a copy of AMB for more info but here is a page on the Pyre and what they thought of it

Pyre to AMB mag

Check out Kens sick ride...
Since the Rune got stolen by someone at a courier company {that will go unamed} we've got another bike going for review now. Its the Pyre and shes a beaut. ... check out those sweet SL levers; almost makes you want to just put it on a shelf and just look at it instead of ride it.
So make sure you pick up a copy of Australian Mountain Bike Magazine and check out the Pyre

For more details and additional pics look here

Riders rigs

Just poking around on our Malaysian/Singapore distributors site and found this beauty.There are more pics here on the Fakawi Tribes website

If you have have a freshie, and want the world to see your pride and joy send me a link and I'll be happy to post it. I know me and Keith are totally stoked when we see how people have built them up and each one is unique so its a real treat for us to see them.

Nickland.org artwork

Check out the poster art Nick at Freebike has done.
http://www.free-bike.net/photo/offroad/banshee/
If you want one now fire off an email to him for the hi-res. Hopefully he can do one for each bike and he can offer them as wall posters or desktop backgrounds.
I'm talking with him to see if we can get some of these as well... be cool to have a poster of the bike you ride.

Is Banshee turning into weight weenies?

Nick from Freebike sent me this link to pics of some of the bikes built up. I'm particularily fond of the black and gold Pyre. Not for everyone of course but is that gold braided cable housing or the light? If so I think it really works on this bike.

• Banshee Pyre: 12.8 kg - 28.1 lbs
• Banshee Rune: 14,9 kg - 32.7 lbs
  
• Banshee Wildcard: 15.87 kg - 34.9 lbs

Very respectable weights and right on target where they should be.
Check out the rest of the pictures here http://www.free-bike.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=67
and thanks to Nick for posting up the thread

UPDATE: Nick mentioned in the comments that they had more pics of the Scythe... and yeah its built up and looks great. Hit the link and scroll to near the bottom.

The weight is 18kg or 39.6lbs which is respectable for an extreme freeride bike with 7" or 8"of travel. I'm not sure which kit they have on it... it looks like our journeyman package so the ultimate one would be lighter slightly. I hope Nick takes more pics of the drivesides of these bikes too.

The Pyres first

Like a Lays Potatoe Chip... you cant just have one. I can't decide which one i dig the most. The mercury silver looks so uber tech, the red and white looks fast, the black and gold looks super pimp, and the white looks so clean and smooth.
Check out the bottom pics of the axles with the little cap that keeps the gunk from getting anywhere near the grease port. Its a nice little touch that really finishes the peice off [i say it like they're artworks]

Some new foshizzle fo my nizzles

Ok so heres the Pyre and Scythes in all thier glory. What you've seen previous for some of the Pyres and Scythes were show samples... so here is the first full on dialed stuff. Pictures worth a 1000 words so I'll shutup now.

Demo Banshee's thru RBikes.com

We've been talking with Mike at Richards for awhile about finally getting this going and we are
very pleased to be to have it available for the 2008 season.

Currently we only have the Rune to demo but as the 08 bikes arrive we should have more available in a range of models and sizes. The fleet will be around 20-30 bikes and in a few months they will have them all.
The cool thing is Richards will ship anywhere in the USA for a customer to try before they buy.
A nominal fee [$200] will go towards the purchase if the customer decides to keep it.

Make sure you check out their site if your interested to learn more. Rbikes.com

Pyre mrkII Changes

As a result of your feedback I have made a couple of changes to the pyre mrkII, the main one being increasing stand over! The geometry is all remaining the same, as I got nothing but good feedback regarding this, so other than a change in cab;e routing, and a couple of tiny tweaks, the only thing that has changes is the top tube slope and the addition of a brace for larger sizes, this increases stand over and improves the aesthetics, whilst only adding very minimal weight to the larger sizes.

I hope that these changes will be very beneficial to a lot of our riders.

Thanks again for your feedback, I really do listen to it and make changes!

Bushings are they all the same?

So I was in visiting On Top Bike shop and the wrenches up there were having a look at the Legend. I informed them that the Legend was pegged to have all bushings rather then bearings at every pivot.
Now these guys have seen just about everything, and so their opinions really count because its knowledge from experience. They had some reservations considering they felt bushings wearout faster then bearings.
I have also spoken to a few other engineers and we do agree it is possible with a poorly designed system. It is however just as likely that a poorly designed pivot, using bearings, will also have a very short lifespan... I know of a few but won't mention any names.
I also know of a few poorly designed bushing systems and again will keep my mouth shut.
You'd be surprised to find out how many company's out there are making bikes and don't have a single engineer on staff... and again I won't mention any names.
So it basically boils down to the designer and if he has a clue what he's doing. Luckily our Masters of Mech. Keith knows a thing or two about engineering and something called tolerances.

Basically the bushing should not be able to be tightened beyond a certain point or else they will drag on the shoulder and prematurely wear. When a bushing prematurely wears, play develops and the rider tries to tighten the pivot further which only causes more wear. The way our axles were designed they will tighten to a certain point maintaining the correct tolerance for the bushing and you won't be able to overtighten them.
We've honestly been riding the same set of bushings on the Rampant, and Runes that we've had since early last spring, they've not been greased and have seen almost daily runs at whistler all summer, been to all our demo days, and have booked what must be thousands of miles by different riders. The pivots are as tight today as they were when we first got the bikes... I'll keep you updated on the exact date I notice play in any of them and how long it will be until we have to swap them for a new set.
So basically not all systems are created equally. I know its hard for the rider to wade through the BS, but I'm happy to report riders are so much more informed then they used to be and it will serve them well in their choice for their next ride.
Of course we welcome comments and the chance to discuss the principles of what makes a decent design.

Mtbr.com virtual tradeshow booth

Got a sweet virtual tradeshow booth at mtbr.com
check it out as there are some very nice pics of the bikes... the lighting at bootleg canyon really sets off the bikes nicely.
Should have some more information going up on the site as well.

http://content.mtbr.com/TRD_14_348crx.aspx

Sicklines at dirt demo

Jason and Justin from Sicklines dropped by to check out the bikes. This is the first time I got to meet him so it was cool to sit down, have a beer, and just talk to someone like myself who loves bikes. We always seem to blab on and on about the industry, different designs, what we thinks cool and what we're not sure about, and spend more time talking trash about Greg from Straitline hahaha... oh and his mom too [all in good fun and he definitely can throw it back at us].
Anyway check out the site there's always good stuff on there.
Direct link to the banshee stuff http://www.sicklines.com/interbike2007/banshee

Prices

Some people have been asking what are the prices of the new bikes...
We also have a kickass employee purchase this year too so if you work in the shops, then we recoqnize you probably work damn hard, don't get paid that much, and love bikes so we'll help you out.

Ok so here they are
Frames: retail: USD/CDN
Morphine .............................691usd/755cdn
Scirocco ..................................590/691
Viento ......................................590/691
Viento 29er ..............................590/691
Scratch .....................................396/372
Pyre w/ Float RP23 .................1645/1831
Pyre w/ Swinger X3 .................1510/1703
Rampant w/ RP2 ......................1618/1742
Rampant w/ Swinger X3 ...........1510/1672
Rune w/ DHX 5.0 Air ................1813/2035
Rune w/ DHX 5.0 Coil ..............1760/1969
Rune w/ DHX 3.0 COIL .............1593/1805
Rune w/ Evolver X4 Air ............1618/1835
Rune w/ Swinger X4 Coil ...........1535/1735
WildCard w/ DHX 5.0 Air ..........1855/2056
WildCard w/ DhX 5.0 Coil .........1800/1999
WildCard w/ DHX 3.0 Coil .........1619/1812
WildCard w/ Evolver X4 Air .....1694/1877
WildCard w/ Swinger X4 coil ....1575/1598
Scythe w/ DHX 5 Coil ...............1800/1999
Scythe w/ DHX 3 Coil ................1619/1832
Scythe w/ Swinger X6 Coil ........1640/1817

Guillame has posted up the EU prices for France... thanks for posting that up its definitely appreciated
http://bansheefrench.blogspot.com/

I'll post up prices of the completes next but i need to also post up the specs or you'll have no reference.
These prices are the MSRPs for North America, dealers can sell for less.
The price difference between USA and Canada given the parity of the dollar is due to many factors that are outside our control and have to do with duty and taxes and things like that.

VF4B Pivots

All the VF4B (Virtual Floating four bar) frames are equipped with entirely new pivot assemblies for 2008.

By reducing the complexity and part number I have made the pivots far easier to maintain, whist also reducing weight and increasing lateral stiffness.

For 2008 the Rune, Rampant and Pyre will all be using iglide polymer bearings. This decision has not been made lightly. We have considered all the pros and cons as well as done a substantial amount of field testing (actually I would say that hardcore BC trails are far better than fields for testing to the limits!)

what are the benefits?

• Increased lateral stiffness


• Reduced weight


• Reduced maintenance


• Cheaper for customers to replace


• Self lubricating

I realise that there are a lot of die hard bearing fans out there... but what you have to realise is that bearings are designed to take complete 360degree rotations like you get in bottom brackets, and not angular rotations (less than 90degrees) like you get in suspension pivots. This means that the whole load in bearings is constantly wearing out just 2 or 3 of the ball bearings in a conventional bearing, whereas the polymer bushings wear evenly due to the design.

You can find more information on the bearings here.. http://www.igus.com/show_iglide.asp and you can also order replacement bushings directly from them quickly and at a low price.

Axles:

The axles for the main pivots have been specifically designed for performance, simplicity, and ease of maintenance. This has been achieved by:

• Direct grease injection ports with set screw grease zerk


• Grease injection can be done in under 30 seconds, just unscrew the set screw, inject grease, screw in set screw. (obviously the area MUST be clean when you do this to stop grit getting in to the pivots)


• 3 parts to the axles... axle, bolt and zerk ... that's it, why over complicate things?


• Double helical groves on the axle surface to allow the grease to push under the bushings.


• Hard anodised finish to axle surface improves the life of both axles and pivots. (not seen in prototype above)

Basically the you inject the grease in through the end of the axle and it feeds through into the gap in the pivot between bushings due to the machined grease path. (you can see the grease paths in the following cross section picture).

Yes the bushings are self lubricating, so if they remain clean then there is no need to even grease the pivots, however if you suspect there is some grit in there then injecting grease can force out the grit without harming the bushings.

After spending months testing and abusing the prototypes that all had the new pivot assemblies we are very confident that they will help improve your riding experience.