queensland was good ay, track was so wild! dhhh was pretty dissapointing though, ahd a good qualyfying time, just cruising and qualified 17th, so thought i would be able to get top 10 easy, was pinning m race run, then came into the forest (this tree section that lasts like a minute, full of roots, rock and mud like crazy) and yeh went into there bit too hot and hit trees and shit, regaind myself and then lost it into this corner and just got sent sliding down the hill through the bunting, ran backk up but then it wasnt enough ay, was just all sloppy from there, and finished 20th, not a really good result, i believe i could of done better! but ay thats raing! then 4x even better story hahaha was going all goood, got to the quarters, and yehhh i was put in one of the hadest heats of the day! it was me, jared graves, alex lloyd, and cody eichorn, all aussie team boys, snapped out in fropnt of alex, i went inside on him on the turn, but then he hit gravesy from behind which sent him flying into me and i just got sent straight over the handlebars lol wasnt good,i was pised off, but hey wha can i say i tried, and holy shit it was a hard heat!
This Chiang Mai biking vacation of sorts was planned back in march 2008. A couple of other riders (Raymond, Cougar and gang) who have joined a few downhill runs in the mountains of Chiang Mai with a tour operator were to be our tour guide this time around.
Imagine holding our breaths in anticiption of this trip over the months and then almost turning purple when we read about the unstable political situation in Bangkok where the P.A.D protesters stormed and took over the airport.
Lucky for us, we were flying AirAsia, direct from KL to Chiang Mai. We did however hold a little protest of our own at the Kuala Lumpur LCCT airport at the check in counter. Air Asia ground staff for some reason decided to write their own rules on the day, and refused to check in our bikes as sports equipment and charging us 500 bucks per bike.
The supervisor told us the only sports equipment they recognise were golf stuff... He even challenged us to prove to him that bikes were categorised as sporting equipment. Jun then whipped out his laptop, got online and showed the guy the AirAsia page that specifically stated that we bikers are sportsmen too...
We couldn't have asked for more beautiful biking weather in Chiang Mai. The temperature was at a comfortable 22+ degrees celcius and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. The mountains to the west of Chiang Mai beckoned us and as soon as we got settled in, we headed there the very next day.
The trailhead at the Doi Suthep national park start at 1600 meters elevation.
We did cycle past a quaint Hill Tribe village. There were snotty little kids lined up along the dusty village road to check us out. Jun the the cliche cycle tourist thing where he waved and greeted "Sawadeekap" at the children. Maybe it was his accent but what he got in return from the little children were middle fingers and hip thrusts...
An average downhill run goes on for about 10km. The trails were super fast, flowy but very technical.
There were a mixture of rooty and steep sections, flowy single track, some fast fireroads and damn gnarly rocky sections with loose rocks that outrun you on the way down. There was no time to get distracted and one had to focus on the trail all the way down. We had 4 full days to do this over and over again!
Everyone brought along spare brake pads but as the trails got faster we were not braking as much.. Flat tyres were the order of the day because of the rocky sections. My Banshee Rune was running on fat 2.5 Maxxis Minnion tyres and it seemed to flow down the mountain without a fuss.
We ate like kings after the ride at the Chilli Bell.. and after calling for more taxis we were on our way up the mountain again for another run. The second run finished in the middle of nowhere.. We were out of the trail at sunset and had to bike 20km back to our hotels.. RESPECT to the guys who biked all that distance on your DH bikes with lowered saddles..
A big shout out goes to Raymond who showed us the trails (all from memory! No GPS needed!) and the rest of the gang: Cougar, Keng, Jun, Robby, Vinodh, Siew Kai, Siew Keng, Louis, Wei Perng and Jimmy! Hope to see you guys again next year!
Bow Cycles (Calgary) hosted their 09 bike expo last weekend to show their customers the great products that they will be offering next year. For those of you who don't know, Bow is one of the biggest bike shops in the whole of North America, and offers a HUGE range of products.
This year Banshee got to join the party!
Banshee's were present in the business end of the shop, where the real magic happens (bike building!)
And also around the showroom.
It says something, when during the event one of the staff members of Bow built up their very own amp for customers to admire.
However, it must be reported that things went somewhat off the rails... I think the following pictures best represent the downwardly spiraling chain of events!
Argh!
Factoid: Back in 2001 Bow cycles approached a certain bike component designer, and asked him to design a bike that was capable of taking several seasons of hucking abuse, as all other frames were snapping and failing back then. The bike was to originally be called the Sideshow Bob, however things took a slightly different direction, and the bike became known as the Scream, and Banshee Bikes was born.
Things have evolved a LOT since then, but it is good to see banshee back in its original place of conception, although its place of birth remains the shore!
A customer sent me this video of the suspension working on his Rune.
It is really cool to see from this angle how the suspension works under pedaling and cornering. He starts off by bouncing around and bunny hopping to show the plushness of his suspension settings.
In the second half of the video you can see how it preforms under hard acceleration, as well as how it compresses in the corners to give stability and a nice low effective BB.
Just listen to that Hub whirr!
Hopefully we can get some footage like this of the bikes on the trail sometime to show them really going through its paces.
A very good friend of mine, Dave, is currently pedaling for all he is worth up South America. He is riding 7000miles across 7 countries with his friend Tom in aid of a charity called Ali’s Dream who fund research into childhood brain tumours.
Check out their website for updates and photos. Feel free to show your support and donate to the cause.
Dave has been one of my biking and climbing buddies for years, and it is great to see him having such a great adventure. (He is also a solid mountain biker and rides a Scythe!)
Keep going guys! Only another 3.6 millions pedal stokes to go!
When I was over at straitline they wouldn't let me take a picture of this but I see Greg posted it up and so I'm stealing it from the Straitline blog. If your a production geek like me then you'll find this cool. BTW I went over to see our forging company a couple days ago... again cameras were off limits but I really wanted to show you the giant presses that were squishing aluminum. The reason it was off limits is they also do military stuff and you know how those guys get when your selling stuff to the enemy. What i really wanted to show you was the EDM. Basically to get a forged part you take a hunk of aluminum and squish it under pressure to the desired shape. The desired shape comes from the mold which is two big hunks of steel that are the female part, top and bottom, of what you're trying to make. The cool part is how they create the mold. First they make a copper "male" part. They run current through it over a giant block of steel and basically the Arc starts to wear away the steel. It may take days to finally get the final mold as the copper is slowly pushed deaper as the cavity gets dug out by electricity. It looks something like a spark plug arcing but imagine a giant spark plug. Anyway I'll keep bugging them... maybe eventually I can get a pic or video!!! In the meantime here is pedals in process at straitline.
Greg i think beer can turkey was invented in a Nascar parking lot so I don't think we can claim it as ours. Cheers to our friends to the south!!! hope you have a good one.
Im posting a video from my local trail filmed at last weekend before starts snowing and freezing. No matter if you are pumping the bumps and railing the corners or if you go big on some gaps. Wildcard is still in the game.
Hey guys... need you to do me a favor. If you have a Banshee and it has a Domain on the front of it please check to see if its a steel steerer and if so look for the serial number. If its one of the affect numbers please give me a holler at info@bansheebikes.com so I can let SRAM know where you are so that it can be replaced. Please don't ride it anymore as it could cause you serious injury.
To follow are a list of the affected serial numbers.
16T80006741 thru 16T80006754
16T80006801 thru 16T80006802
17T80008291 thru 17T80008300
17T80008341 thru 17T80008343
AND 09T8XXXXXXX to 42T8XXXXXXX
We have taken steps on this end to inform all our distributors and for them to check down to the dealer level but I think this needs to be hit from all angles to make sure no one is left with a potential hazardous fork. If your friend is riding another bike brand and also has a Domain. Tell him to come here to check his serial number as well. This is not confined to just Banshees but affects all Domains on any brand and model bike. They may also contact me... I will help any customer on any brand with getting in touch with the appropriate person at Sram to deal with this.
So wow... pretty stoked on all the interest on the Paradox. Seems people are digging the direction we're taking. We've had a little wager put on whether or not we'll have a few 29r companies taking notice and changing their hardtails to incorporate what we've done to get the shorter chainstays. The other way was like the Sinister Simon bar with the S shape... but we've gone with a slight bend as it looks less drastic but still gives us the classic look of a hardtail while getting that tire as close in as possible. Again we've got a 2.4 Schwable in there to check for clearance and it is a big fat tire... if it fits everything else should also fit. You can see by the pics how we're doing for clearance.
One issue however was with the front derailleur. With the tire so close it leaves little room for some FD's as they tend to stick alot of junk between the seattube and the tire. I have confirmed that the SRAM X9 top pull will work with this bike and I haven't decided but may include it with the frame, or at the very least have it as an option. Sometimes you have to make compromises but I think the shorter stays will make up for having to use an X9. If you want to do it on the cheap you can always take your X7 and hack off the down pull arm and then you'll have no issues, but that is a last resort.
We also have made sure our ISCG is rotated in the proper plane to account for the BB drop. This will insure good alignment on all chainguides and the Hammerschmidt. We've got an order in with Sram so we can try all these parts to make sure when our riders get the frame everything will fit. I do need to check with Crank Bros about getting a Joplin to try. We have 4 cable guides along the top tube. Joplin, Front derailleur, Rear derailleur, Rear brake. Also one guide along the downtube for the Hammerschmidt. Thats alot of cable guides!!! Oh just remembered... gotta figure out how to get 2 bottle mounts in the triangle considering the bent seattube.
We've also got enough room for the 203 rotor, and check out that sexy sweep in the seatstays. Only thing left to do is add one more cable guide on the non driveside seatstay, get it into the oven for T6, then the alignment table, drilling of the BB shell, then.... anyway theres still lots to do. Even a hardtail requires alot of work.
Anyway i'm super stoked on this bike... yes its just a hardtail but I can't help but be super pleased with how its going together.
then 4x even better story hahaha
This Chiang Mai biking vacation of sorts was planned back in march 2008. A couple of other riders (Raymond, Cougar and gang) who have joined a few downhill runs in the mountains of Chiang Mai with a tour operator were to be our tour guide this time around.
The supervisor told us the only sports equipment they recognise were golf stuff...
