Blog still under some changes

I wanted to make some changes but it'll take me a bit longer so please be patient.
mutha f'r this is a pain... for some reason theres this freakin white window that shows up when you hit one of the flags to translate the blog... anyone know whats happening?

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.

carlson wedding

this past saturday i was lucky enought to see my close friends marry eachother. linden and danyelle are now husband and wife. it was a great time and very memoriable time!
-d


Congrats Linden and Danyelle.
For those of you that haven't seen previous entries Linden is currently our rep in Colorado and will be the team manager for the Banshee Mountain States Cup team. We'll have 3-4 DH and 4X racers and are still looking for that rider whose got the lungs and legs to represent us as our XC guy... but I digress... this is about the Carlsons and I hope both of your dreams come true. Cheers guys! wish I coulda been there - but you didn't invite me - probably cause you knew I'd drink all your booze hahaha

Karls 69r

I've been bantering back and forth with Karl on his Viento 69r and thought it would be cool to share his thoughts on the bike, and his setup.
Living at the base of the North Shore Mountain I don't get an opportunity to different setups like this because its go up... and then go down... theres not much roll in our part of the world. I really want to try one of these out next time I go to Bootleg and I'm going to make sure Linden [our Colorado rep] has a 69r in his aresenal of demo bikes.
Basically a 69r, for those of you who don't know, is a bike with a 26" wheel in the back and a 29" up front.

Anyway heres what Karl had to say

Jay,

I think this is the best pic from last week, it definitely emphasizes the larger front wheel. As for a bit of history...

Until 2007 I raced Xterra Triathlons, with my best finish being 6th amateur over-all at the 2006 World Championship in Hawaii. I also was racing singlespeed cross country and endurance events. I always have had amazing support from my wife and kids, however, this year there are too many other activities and responsibilities, so racing has taken a back seat.

This is why I was looking for an 'all-mountain' bike in the spring and decided upon the Banshee Viento. After riding it with various amounts of travel on the front end I finally settled on 115mm as the best feel and performance for my style of riding. As for my style, I like to take smaller (up to 3 or 4 foot) drops and climb and descend as fast as my conditioning and skills allow. That is where the 29er front wheel comes in. While on a ride with Terry Pitman, the owner of the Bike Shop in Henderson, Nevada, Terry recommended the larger wheel size because of the terrain that I typically ride and the way I ride. We talked about all of the benefits including the larger footprint, the beneficial angle of attack that is created by the larger wheel when rolling over obstacles on both the climb and the descent, the faster rolling tire at speeds and the greater control that the larger wheel provides.

That is when we put the 29er wheel on with the Reba 29er fork with 85mm (or maybe 80mm) of travel. Because of the larger diameter wheel paired with less travel of the fork the overall head tube angle barely changed and did not cause any adverse handling affects for 'cross county' riding. Plus I still have the quickness and acceleration of the 26 inch rear wheel. I have definitely noticed the advantages of the larger front wheel, especially on steep rocky descents where the 26 inch front wheel gets 'knocked around' by the larger rocks, the 29er wheel rolls right over. One more benefit that resulted form the larger front wheel is a higher bottom bracket (it is now 12.5 versus 12 inches with my previous setup), however, my center of gravity in relation to the entire frame is lower. It is similar to the models of the compressed suspension and how the frame sinks between the wheels. If you look at the added height of the front hub in relation to the height of the bottom bracket you see that the frame is 'sitting' within' the wheels.

Of course, this whole experiment would not have worked without the right frame. Because of the the geometry of the Viento, primarily the standover height and headtube designed to accommodate forks from 3-6 inches it worked.

I know I said racing has taken a back seat, but this coming weekend, Oct. 20th, I am going to test the setup at the 12 Hours of Bootleg hosted by All Mountain Cyclery. I am going to race the solo category which will give me plenty of miles on the 69er, many more at one time than I have had a chance to do so far.

Anyway, when I am ready to invest in a full-suspension frame I want to do the 69er setup on a Banshee Pyre. After looking at the geometry of the Pyre I think it would work and result in the same benefits and provide the perfect all mountain bike for both trail riding and racing.

Thanks,

Karl

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.

Other colors of the Rune, Rampant and a Mythic rampant

Mythic is our brand in the UK.


rampant comes in two flavors.... team red/white and team black/white


and the rune comes in white, black, gold, and the team polish/black which you've seen

Some other colors for the hardtails

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

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