XXIV Factory Banshee Scythe Race Bike - 17.5 Kgs

Well it has been a while coming, but we now have our factory race bikes rockin’ and rollin’. Pictured is Dave Hetherington’s XXIV Factory Banshee Scythe Race Bike. It is tricked out in a custom Banshee team paint job, Industry 9 DH Wheelset, Gamut P40, Straitline Levers, Straitline Wedge Stem, Full SRAM / Rockshox / Avid / Truvativ kit thanks to our mates at Monza Imports (SRAM Australia) and Maxxis Tyres.

It obviously hasn’t been ridden yet, but Dave will be riding it non stop this week to get everything dialled in for the National Series Finals in Mt. Beauty. We will let you know his thoughts when he has got some miles down on it. We will be up at Mt Beauty for Saturday and Sunday in the little yellow Marquee, come and say hi, especially if you want to check all the sexy fresh produce. For any non-racers…or just guys who don’t care…come have a drink (or 20) with us on Satdy night.

This is an interim bike for Dave, who will be racing on the Legend frame as soon as it has been produced, likely within the next couple of months. But the Scythe has built up to be a worthy DH Race rig with an awesome weight and some great geometry for racing, so we are expecting it to perform well.

Click read more to check out some more pics.

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Straitline have introduced a new colour into their range this year; Bronze. It looks fantastic as you can see and will definitely work great with colour schemes, especially the colour schemes we are seeing in the DJ / Street market. We have levers and barcaps in stock in the Bronze colour, with pedals and stems on order. Get in touch with your closest dealer if you want to get your hands on this brand new colour.

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Ryan Denehy from BNQT.com has interviewed Jay and Keith from Banshee Bikes, which has an in depth look at Banshee; which is still a relatively new company on the scene. It is a great article which give you an insight as to what goes on behind the scenes on a daily basis at Banshee bikes.

We hadn’t heard of BNQT.com before, but after going there have realised it is a pretty cool site. It is a news and style site which covers most extreme sports, so there is something for everyone. Check it out.

Well our mate James Maebus, a little XC whippet from Melbourne is getting a sponsorship through VIS / BikeNow. His product sponsors are Bianchi, SRAM / Rockshox / Avid / Truvativ, Industry 9, Straitline Components, Michelin and OzRiders.com.au .

OzRiders.com.au is James’ new venture into manufacturing and distributing products within Australia. He is off to a cracking start with his current highlight product being his high density foam grips. They are a hexaganol shape, ergonomically designed and best of all; cheaper than the competition…and they come in white too, currently these are the only white high desnsity foam grips on the market! He is also working on a bunch of new and innovative products that are bound to put a smile on like minded lightweight XC whipper-snappers.

Jeff Lenosky has been riding for Straitline for a while now and he has been helping them develop and test their already fine tuned products. For 2008 Straitline are bringin out a Jeff Lenosky Signature Edition set of pedals that have been colour matched to his STP frame. These will be available soon, but will be in limited numbers so pre-orders will be essential if you want to gaurantee grabbing a set of these.

Straitline has also revised their pin design. The pin now features a hexagonal shape rather than being round, which will provide more grip…even though they were grippy enough! They have also changed the tooling size for the pins to metric, so now a 5mm socket will fit perfectly onto the pedals rather than having to source an imperial socket.

Well our good mate Matt “Zigger” Zagorski has just finished building up his brand new Banshee Rune and I have to say, I think that I like it better than my own. He has done an absolutely fantastic job of speccing it out and it looks amazing! The plan is for it to be a true do it all bike. He primarily riders alot of XC / Trail, plans to race Enduros and possibly the odd Downhill race on it.

Specs: 

• Banshee Rune, Ano Black 14.2kg [31.2lbs]
• Fox 36 Talas
• Fox DHX Air
• Shimano XT Cranks
• Shimano XT Mechs
• Shimano XT Shifters
• Shimano XT Wheels
• Avid Juicy 5s
• Thomson Stem
• Time Atac Pedals
• Easton EA70 Monkey Bars

Yet again another exclusive sneak peak at the new gear coming out of Straitline Components. The guys have kindly given us a sneak peak at the new pinch clamp stem coming out early this year. The main difference between this and the wedge clamp stem, apart from the clamping mechanism, will be the weight. We are expecting these bad boys to come in on the scales in the 170/180g region, which will be great news for all your weight weenies that are keen to get your handlebars on a Straitline stem. We are expecting the price to be similar to the current stem, but with less parts we are hoping for a reasonable price drop and difference from these too.