Denmark's Legend and Amp

Claus from Denmark sends us his thoughts on the Legend

Hello Jay

Hope you are doing great “over there”, I am sorry to hear about Keith. Please send my regards and “get well soon” wishes to him!

I was going to make a small story on the Legend I got from you, I said. So here it is, hope it is good enough for the blog.

Legend “Some time ago when Jay announced that the Legend’s were done, I got very excited. We had been waiting for this for some time. But then he sends some pictures from the factory, and horror struck. They were all painted! “But but Jay”, I thought, “you said that they were: “any colour you want, as long as it is raw” so quickly I Skyped him and he said “cool it now Claus, I did get yours out from painting in good time”. So here is the result, I do not know how many came out raw but I sure am very happy about the looks of my new DH rocket. With the help from the ISON clan headed by Lloyd, I got it kitted up with Halo Tornado wheels – Gusset stem and crank and new DH specific chain– DiaTech Anchor Sport brakes, not the most fancy brakes but they are very powerful for the price and one of the best to get rid of heat build up. Fork is by White Brothers; Grove Race 1.8 at 2,2kg / 5,2lbs. for weight fanatics it is hard to beat, but the damping does not quite fit the Cane Creek damper so I might change to a Boss soon.

I have been riding my Rune for some time and just love the way it feels, doing about the same stuff on that as I did on my Chaparall – but when I tried out the Legend on the same trails I was bored stiff J, the way the rear just floated over the ground gave me time to think about groceries for the evening dinner J – effort less riding it was great!! The BB height is just between the Sunday and the Chaparell and fits just right I think. On the Sunday I tended to hit the ground when pedalling out of corners, not yet on the Legend. Also I like that the Legend feels slightly less slag making the steering smoother, less prone to “over steering” and again effortless. Finding my local terrain too “boring” I went to “Monk mountain” (“Munke Bjerg” in Danish, if you are interested) about 1hours drive from my house where I met up with Bo, on of my team riders, he is also lucky enough to have a Legend. Here we have the gangliest track in the flat country of Denmark with a rock garden that I always did have some problems with. After testing the old “known” lines I found that I could push the Legend much more and it came out very much faster with me taking much straighter lines – I really can’t wait to go to a proper track very soon. Thanks a lot Keith & Jay – Kieth! get well soon!!!

AMP
“I got the AMP from Jay so long ago, it has been sitting in my work shop waiting for the Pilgrim signature wheel set from Halo (ISON Distribution). They were supposed to be here long ago, but the boat from Taiwan had to turn back to port with a fire onboard. But finally they are here, the result got very pimp but I think it came out great and was worth the wait. All parts (except the FUNN F2 brake, Spank chain and the Goodridge cable) are from ISON Distribution where Lloyd is the farther of many great parts. Halo SAS wheels and Twinrail tires. Gusset stem, handlebar, grips, pedals. Society Xeon fork. All in all a great little “packets” but as our local DJ spot is still under water I did not ride it properly yet. Just wanted to show off my new ride J

Cheers
Claus

Another VOD with Dean Wilkes

this is actually a very nicely shot video.
Dean enters at the 385 second mark riding the Legend.

Alan and Chris PB VOD

Pinkbike Video of the day


dipped 360 unlookback is the last trick if you wondering

Scythe and the Hammer

Andreas sent me this from Bali and I thought I'd throw it up so you could get a look at what the Scythe looks like with the hammerschmidt
Hi Jay,

attached a couple of pics from our Scythe/Hammerschmidt setup done over the weekend.

The installation of the Hammerschmidt is pretty straight forward on the Scythe frame. It took around 1 hour to remove the old crank and install the new Hammerschmidt on the bike.
Even the existing cable routing tabs work great on the frame, so everything really looks factory installed.

Since the Scythe has a 68mm BB shell you need to use the supplied spacers between the ISCG tabs and the Hammerschmidt base plate.

Initial testing this morning was fantastic, just on the flat. The shifting is instantaneously, you can even shift while paddling backwards.

The weight increase over the previous single chainring/bashguard set-up is around 350 grams, but you are basically getting a whole new bike, since you have now a 22/36T chainring setup.

Andreas

Come join the GJ Jump Jam

Get well soon Keith!

As some of our regular Banshee / Mythic followers may know, Keith has been in hospital recovering from some heavy duty surgery....I had a couple of texts from him yesterday and he seems in good spirits, despite some complications

Healing vibes to my buddy Keith, here's a great photo from a trip Keith and I took to Woburn Sands (Milton Keynes, UK) last summer to try out the AMP and Wildcard on some proper dirt jumps and freeride terrain



Hope to see you riding strong again soon Keith

cheers!

Rob C

Banshee Rider is Named to Pan American MTB Championship Squad

Banshee rider, Rachel Bauer, will be competing in both DH and MX events at this year's Pan American MTB Championship in Santiago, Chile, March 20-23

"An eight-person gravity contingent will also wear the Stars-and-Stripes in Chile while contesting downhill and 4-cross events. All discretionary picks, Curtis Keene (Fremont, Calif.), Heikki Hall (Durango, Colo.), Chris Van Dine (Park City, Utah), Ethan Quehl (Grayson, Ga.), Graeme Pitts (Nevada City, Calif.) and Chris Heath (Durango, Colo.) will compete in the men’s downhill event, while Kathy Pruitt (Santa Cruz, Calif.) and Rachel Bauer (Aspen, Colo.) will race women’s downhill.

Hall, Van Dine, Pruitt and Bauer will also race in their respective 4-cross competitions.

2009 Pan American Mountain Bike Championships
March 20-23
Santiago, Chile"

Read more about others who made it and the Pan Am Games here!

Aussie Nationals Rd 5 - Hobart

Aussie Nationals Rd 5 - Hobart

Well guy's, the Aussie National Series Round 5 has been run and won which winds up the series for 2008/09. It is a long way to travel from Brisbane Queensland to Hobart Tasmania even by air but Dad & I got there on Thursday afternoon last week in time to walk the track which runs off the side of Mount Wellington.

I am racing one of the 2 Banshee Scythe's painted in World team colour red & white. The series has been a mixed one for me as I crashed in round 1 at Adelaide South Australia but still placed 15th, then onto Illinbah Queensland for round 2 where I placed 3rd but suffered a grade 2 tear of the calf muscle which put me out for 8 weeks. I missed round 3 and headed into round 4 at Mount Buller Victoria (close to the bad fires) very much lacking fitness but managed to finish 7th which had me placed 10th overall leading into the final round last Sunday. Practice at round 5 Hobart was going great until late Saturday afternoon when I suffered a severe mechanical and it seemed I was unable to race the next day. Many frantic phone calls and my good mate & Banshee racer, Ryan Hunt offered me his Legend to race in the Under 17 men division. I managed to get 2 practice runs in on Sunday morning whilst swapping number plates with Ryan so that he could get some practice runs and his seeding run in. I then went up for my race run and whilst I was very conscious of not wanting to damage Ryans bike I placed 5th which placed me into outright 6th for the series - I am as happy as a pig in sh*t and cannot wait until next weekend when our State Rounds (Sunshine Series) commences. My sponsor, Darren Bowman (Brisbane Boutique Bikes) is building up his own Banshee Scythe for me to ride until mine is fixed (thanks Darren - you are a champion!!)

On a final note, it was a great National Series and I met some awesome guy's out there riding Banshee Legends such as Ryan Hunt and Ben Nylen and I hope I can return the favours to these guys in years to come when they have a problem.

cheers all,

Benny Power

You can follow Ben on his own blog here http://benpower-racing.blogspot.com/

From Russia with Love

Mike sends this in

The Aussie Crew Vid

Check it out.

These guys just keep getting better