It's black, long, low and slack - my 2013 Banshee Rune V2

Re: It's black, long, low and slack - my 2013 Banshee Rune V

Cheers chaps. Maiden voyage tomorrow night and I've also realised that I should have an early finish from work on Wednesday, so hopefully it'll be out again. And then again Saturday.

AJ; I can't say enough good things about the tyres. They're lighter than the single ply Maxxis DH tyres that I was running, have a bigger volume, easy to set up tubeless and they grip really well in pretty much all conditions. They seem to be wearing well too. I wouldn't pay full price though because I'm tight, so I'll keep getting them from Germany.

Raging Bulls; it is pretty slack and that's the neutral setting. I doubt I'll use it in the slackest setting because we don't have mega steep terrain. If it ever makes it to the Alps then it will and maybe for uplift days. It doesn't feel ponderous to ride despite the slack angles which is good.

Re: It's black, long, low and slack - my 2013 Banshee Rune V

The bike has had two rides now; last night was just mucking about on jumps, drops and short DH runs and tonight I went for a quick blast round the Monkey trail at Cannock.

So far, I'm very pleased with it. It grips like no mans business when you pedal, it climbs pretty well and actually jumps really well. I had great fun on a rythm section of table tops last night. For a long, low, slack bike it's pretty poppy and easy to get airborne. It felt good round Cannock tonight if a bit overkill. It was anti more of a handful in the tighter sections but I think I just need to be a bit more aggressive with it, which will cone as I get more used to it. The happy bunny theme continues!

Re: It's black, long, low and slack - my 2013 Banshee Rune V

Glad to hear you're enjoying it! Totally different beast to the SX?

Re: It's black, long, low and slack - my 2013 Banshee Rune V

It's not totally different in the fact that it's great fun on the descents it just feels a bit more stable due to the slacker head angle and longer wheelbr and it climbs better due to the grip and steeper seat tube. With the SX I had to get down really low over the front end to stop it wanting to wheelie.

The SX was easier to chuck about being shorter but the Rune pedals better. I guess the best way to look at it is that the Rune is a development of what Spesh started with the 05 Enduro and SX Trail.

The Cane Creek shock feels pretty damn good, I think a bit more tweaking is needed but it's not far off what I want it to do. I think I may fit a small reducer ring at some point to give it a little bit more support in the mid stroke without having to run loade of compression.

Re: It's black, long, low and slack - my 2013 Banshee Rune V

Very nice!

Re: It's black, long, low and slack - my 2013 Banshee Rune V

Cheers Josh.

This is me done with buying bikes for a long while now! It's a bit OTT and I probably should have bought its baby brother the Spitfire but I couldn't get a demo on one. I reckon it should last a long old time.

Re: It's black, long, low and slack - my 2013 Banshee Rune V

I want a spitfire too on my long list of nice bikes.
These are getting a bit of a following. I found the benefits of longer and a bit lower outweighed any negative effects that I found on one of my bikes. Just seems to give you confidence knowing that its stuck to the ground. This sounds the same?

Re: It's black, long, low and slack - my 2013 Banshee Rune V

The Spitfire is lovely, there were just no demo ones to try and I didn't want to buy what to me is a very expensive frame without trying it first. The 2014 Spitfire comes in a lovely blue.

I really like the extra length in the top tube...after years of riding mediums the large does feel better. The length in the wheelbase is nice too as is the lower bb...it feels so stable at speed and on the steep stuff. With the slack head angle, it encourages you to let the brakes go. I don't think the low bb is much of an issue; just don't pedal through rocks and you'll be fine.

Banshee do see to have some good bikes at the mo, it's nice to have something a tad different. Hopefully they can put the bushing issues of the older frames a d crack on. It was also nice to be able to email Keith who designed the bike and ask questions etc.

Re: It's black, long, low and slack - my 2013 Banshee Rune V

Speaking to the person who designed your bike is always great. I am surprised you went from mediums to large, but at least you tried first to test. Will you be changing the angles at all?

Re: It's black, long, low and slack - my 2013 Banshee Rune V

I've always been boarder line but have gone for mediums because most large frames look like gates, but I think the Rube hides its size quite well. The other thing is that a lot of bikes seem to be getting shorter tope tubes these days and combined with a steeper seat angle, the effective top tube gets even shorter.

I think I will fiddle with the angles at some point. The neutral position feels pretty good for most stuff. I doubt I'll use the steep flip chips because the bottom bracket gets pretty high but I'm quite inclined to try the slack ones at some point, especially for uplift days.

It was a nice touch been able to fire an email to the gut who designed the bike. It makes the company feel very small and personal.