Banshee Factory riders Markolf Berchtold and Marcelo Gutierrez have both claimed victory at the 2008 Pan-American MTB Championships held in Venezuela. They claimed wins in Elite Men’s and Junior Men’s respectively, which will secure them positions to race at the World Championships in 2009 for their federations; Brazil and Colombia respectively.

They both piloted their new rides to victory, 3 seconds clear of their 2nd place counterparts. A solid victory over some very fierce competition. Marcelo rode with a spring that was 150 lbs too heavy, so well done for even getting that thing to turn Marcelo!

Well done to both of them from us here at XXIV and everyone involved in Banshee in Australia. A great result by both and a fantastic result for Banshee, proving that they are producing not only fantastic, well engineered bikes; but bikes that will pin it and take the victory!

Results:

Downhill - Male
1 - BERCHTOLD, MARKOLF - BRA - 02:20,593
2 - FRANCO NAVARRO, JUAN FERNANDO - COL - 02:23,543
3 - MIRANDA, WALACE - BRA - 02:24,053
4 - ARAYA, CRISTIAN - CHI - 02:24,149
5 - BASCUÑAN, PABLO - CHI - 02:25,550

Downhill - Female
1 - MARGGRAFF, DIANA - ECU - 02:44,840
2 - MIRANDA, VERONICA - CHI - 02:56,337
3 - RODRIGUEZ, KATHERINE - VEN - 03:04,623
4 - LASSO, JULIA - ECU - 03:20,999
5 - FIGUEROA VERGARA, GRECIA - VEN - 03:49,136

Downhill - Junior Male
1 - GUTIÉRREZ, MARCELO - COL - 02:25,364
2 - LEON, JOHAN - CHI - 02:28,049
3 - KUKULIS, ANDREAS - CHI - 02:35,780
4 - ZESCHAU, BRUNO - BRA - 02:35,110

Downhill - Junior Female
1 - DROMUNDO, DIANA LORENA - MEX - 03:02,818
2 - ANGULO, ANDREA - VEN - 03:25,709
3 - TORREALBA, IVONNE - VEN - 03:45,736

Jeff Lenosky is under review by the Guinness Book of World Records for his records after it has come to light that Lenosky may have been using performance enhancing products when he set the world record for side hopping 48 inches.

At the centre of the controversy is a Precision Engineering firm; Straitline Components. It appears Straitline has been manufacturing illegal performance enhancing products for Mr Lenosky for some time now, so we set out to dig up the dirt on this spiralling relationship.

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Well here is take 2 at getting a Banshee reviewed in Australian Mountain Bike Magazine. The last attempt (Banshee Rune) got “lost” by TNT en-route, never to be seen again! This is the Banshee Pyre, a 4.5″ VF4P; cross-country / trail weapon. It’s for the guy / gal who likes to race occasionally, do a bit of exploring but most of all have fun and go on some epic rides with mates. That is really what this bike is all about; having fun and absolutely demolishing some single-track and your mates.

We have built the bike up with a pretty solid build up, no weight weenie parts to be seen. But definitely some sensible choices have been made and we have generally chosen reasonably light products without having to sacrifice any durability as we want the bike to just keep going and going. Unfortunately our Manitou Nixon lowers broke and we had to chuck on the only other 20mm single crown forks we had available; Rockshox Pike - Coil U-Turn (95-140mm). Now don’t get me wrong, these are still fantastic forks but they carry a good 500g+ extra than the Manitous we were running on it. However they provide great adjustability and travel tunability which is great for this kind of bike depending on what you want to ride.That being said, it still weighs in at a respectable 13.8 Kg complete.

Most of the components have already had a good old thrashing over a number of bikes and are all still going strong. The frame itself has been ridden a heap and the new bushing design is absolutely bombproof. Still smooth as butter and no play what so ever. We tried out the servicing ports in the bushing axles today for the first time and they work great. Basically you have a little set screw you remove from inside the pivot axle and then you inject grease into the port, this the comes through some designed channels which push out any dust or grit which may have worked its way in there. A great system and really easy way to regularly service your pivots and keep them rocking on for ages.

The new additions are obviously the Pikes, but also some Straitline Components bling in the way of gold lever blades and bar end caps to match up the VF4P links and frame decals. The newest addition we are most excited about are the Industry Nine All Mountain Wheelset; we are running the Enduro hubs (more axle conversion options) with 0.100″ Spokes and DT 4.2d Rims which provide a nice chunk of extra strength for minimal weight gain over the 4.1s. We are running the DT Swiss tubeless kits with Maxxis Crossmark UST tyres; this is our first attempt at running the DT Tubeless system and we are very impressed. They were extremely easy to set up and we had no issues what so ever. The best thing about this Industry Nines with tubeless is that the rotational weight is second to none (except to light i9 and tyre combos!), so they will accelerate like a rocket and make this bike feel a few kilos lighter. Plus the tubeless allow you to run lower pressures, they deform better over they ground and thus provide much better traction as well as no more pinch flats.

This bike will be reviewed in the next issue of Australian Mountain Bike Magazine (AMB) so make sure you check it out when available.

Here are the specs:

• Frame: Banshee Pyre, Large - VF4P, 4.5″ Travel
• Shock: Fox RP23 - 200mm eye to eye
• Fork: RockShox Pike, Coil U-Turn 95-140mm
• Wheels: Industry Nine All Mountain (Enduro Hubs, DT Swiss 4.2d Rims, DT Tubeless Kit, All Black)
• Tyres: Maxxis Ignitor UST
• Cranks: Shimano XT
• R Der: SRAM X9
• F Der: SRAM X7
• Shifters: SRAM X0 Gripshift
• Brakes: Avid Juic 7 w/ Straitline Upgrade Levers (Gold)
• Bar & Stem: Truvativ Team
• Seat Post: Thomson Elite
• Seat: Fizik Gobi
• Bar Caps: Straitline Components (Gold)

Read more for more pics!

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 PRICES NOW SLASHED TO 60% OFF RRP. ONLY 1 UNIT OF STOCK LEFT IN EACH PRODUCT! GET IN QUICK!

Soul-Riders.com have just done a feature story on Straitline Components. Andrew Day from Soul-Riders caught up with Greg Parish from Straitline to find out what drives the company and where they are headed in the future. It is quite an interesting read and an insight into a company who are still the “new kids on the block” in high end MTB components.

Check out the article: Straitline Components Feature

Well I have just jumped on the BlackBerry band wagon in a possibly fruitless attempt to bring my mobile phone bills down in price. They have been sky-rocketing due to the amount of email I send and receive on the go. But to be honest I had pretty much destroyed my old phone in the space of 6 months, much the story with every phone I have owned.

So there were 2 main issues with my previous phones; durability and water resistance. Now water resistance was mainly due to me making a lot of calls while on my bike and with a cruddily sealed screen next to a sweaty oily ear and cheek you know what the outcome is going to be. I have decided the solve that problem with a BlueAnt Z9 bluetooth headset which will also keep 2 hands on the bar and get rid of sore necks from holding the phone with my shoulder. Now the durability issue was another thing…I don’t want to get boxed into buying some phone because its “durable” because they never have any features I need. That is when I stumbled across OtterBox Cases.

I purchased a OtterBox Defender series case for my BlackBerry 8310. It comes with an inner splash proof cover, a polycarbonate shell and a silicon rubber holder which absorbs shocks. I had a go at putting the thin, clear, splash and scratch proof membrane on. But I just couldn’t work all the air bubbles out of the screen and the feeling of the membrane over the keyboard wasn’t to my liking; so I binned it. Besides I have solved my water resistant issue by using a bluetooth headset and I don’t plan for it to get doused in water (Otterbox make some fully waterproof cases too though!).

The main reason I bought it was to basically ruggedise my phone. Now I can just chuck it around, just like it normally would but it won’t get dented or scratched. The silicon rubber holder absorbs shocks too so will make any larger than normal falls (which are regular) less of an issue. I have given it a few test throws and drops and very happy with how it works, rock solid, phone doesn’t blink an eye. It also comes with a magnetic belt clip holder which holds the phone extremely securely and has a rotatable clip so I can put it on my belt, bag or whatever takes my fancy.

You can get this particular case in 2 different colours for the polycarbonate, yellow or black. I chose yellow because it looks Tonka tough, plus it is company colours and it is easy to find if I can’t remember where the hell I put it.

I bought my case and headset at the same time to cut on shipping costs from CrackBerry.com but you can just buy the cases alone at OtterBox.com . They make a range of different cases offering varying ranges of protection for a larger amount of phones, PDAs, iPods etc. Check ‘em out!

 Well here it is finally, the first ever complete Banshee Legend Mk 1. Enjoy!

Well the frame is finally complete! Sicklines.com have been granted exclusive access to finished pictures of the frame for the first few days, so make sure you keep an eye on their site; although we will mirror what they receive on here too.

Well here it is, the first Banshee Legend Mk 1 Prototype. This frame is only available to 50 pre-selected riders for the first year and will possibly still have a pre-selection beyond that for future years. It has 8.5″ of V4FP (Virtual 4-bar Floating Pivot) suspension and all the geo has been dialled to create hopefully the fastest DH bike in the world. Production weight is aimed to be at around 10.5-11lbs with all bolts, including shock! And going by the prototype weight (which still has a lot of meat to come off it), it is well on target to being a very light frame indeed, without sacrificing strength, stiffness or longevity. The bike is built to be a long lasting race bike, not a 1-Season-Wonder throw-away. It’s pivots run on iGus bushings and are around 20mm big to provide plenty of stiffness as well as serviceable grease ports for ease of cleaning.

Check out the Banshee Blog for all your technical info to be satisfied!

Pinkbike.com has just put up a stellar long term test review on the Industry Nine wheelset. Check it out: Industry Nine Review

Well we have some more pics that Jay from Banshee has taken at the factory in Taiwan. The front triangle is complete and so are the links and rear triangle. Welded parts are now being heat treated and we should have pics tomorrow of a complete frame and not long after that a complete bike!

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