Readers’ Rides: Dan’s Banshee Prime

What are you all riding? This is where we find out! You send us your submissions, and then we cast our judgemental expert lustful eyes over them and bring them to the world to ooh and ahh over. We’re picking the prettiest, the most curious, and the ones with a good story for you to appraise, praise, and maybe look wistfully at. This week’s bike comes with our most detailed write up yet: it’s Dan’s Banshee Prime.

Why this bike?

New bike desire was strong this year, my 2015 Chromag Rootdown hardtail was showing her age and to be honest it was making me show my age too as everything was starting to ache after long/rough rides*. I decided I needed something 29er, middling travel, sturdy, not eye wateringly expensive.

Buying new bike off the peg in 2021? Yeah, good luck with that! Thankfully for me, I have never been one to buy a bike off the peg.

To keep the budget vaguely in check and to minimise the amount of time I would spend fruitlessly hunched over a laptop searching for the right or even just acceptable parts it was decided I would get a new frame and maybe forks and move over the good stuff from the hardtail with a few bits from the spares bin.

Many frames were considered from the likes of Transition, Bird, Geometron, Pipedream, Starling, Stanton, Guerilla Gravity…some discarded based on cost, some on availability, and some just lacked the WANT. As it’s a replacement for a Chromag, something Canadian or PNW based would be nice, the Banshee Prime ticked all the other boxes, some nice sound engineering and manufacturing going on there too which got the Enginerd in me frothing…

I have liked Banshee bikes since the early 2000s and their, in retrospect crazy, freeride bikes. Not many reviews out there for the Prime, but there are a few for its sister bikes, the Titan, Phantom, Rune and Spitfire. All positive. User reviews, for what they’re worth, all seem to be positive.

Go for it.

After a flurry of communication with Pedals Bike Care in Edinburgh, a new Banshee Prime frame was heading my way. (Seriously, big high fives and sloppy Covid secure hugs to the guys at PBC).

New forks were justified based on the fact that old ones were a bit short in the steerer and I could hand them down to the eldest, which means we would have a spare pair of forks for the youngest when he inevitably outgrows his current bike. #trickledownbikeonomics in full effect. New forks were perused, not a lot of choice out there at the moment. Even less under £1000. Manitou Mezzer in very shiny silver? Bit garish, questionable Pinkbike review. DVO Diamond? Look alright, spares might be an issue, offends my mismatched suspension OCD. Marzocchi Bomber Z1 with 10% off – sold! Fox own Marz now so that’s the OCD placated and it’s a BOMBER! Just seemed right for a Banshee.

A bargain 150mm Brand-X dropper was grabbed with the same 10% off. Small parts like adaptors, longer hoses, frame protection and the like were ordered. After a flurry of parcel deliveries, the Chromag was stripped unceremoniously of her bits and hung on the garage wall.

The build went smoothly (despite me forgetting to order a different front brake adaptor) with only the internal routing proving to be a bit of a learning curve and one of the tiny internal routing cover screws disappearing down the chasm of the routing port into the frame, necessitating removing the forks to retrieve it. I don’t believe I’m the first to do this…

*MRI on knee confirms a torn meniscus, everything else is just wearing out.

• Frame: Banshee Prime
• Fork: Marzocchi Z1 Bomber 160mm
• Shock: Fox DPX2 Performance Elite
• Suspension Set Up: I’m a manly 95kg. Fork – 3 Tokens, 85PSI, Comp = wide open, Rebound = 6 Clicks from closed. Shock – Medium Token, 280PSI, 6 clicks of rebound, 6 clicks of LSC (both from closed
• Wheels: Superstar Hubs with Alex Supra 35 Rims (were DT Swiss E1900)
• Tyres: Onza Ibex 2.4 (were Minion DHF F&R then Specialized Butcher BLCK DMND)
• Chainset: SLX (was Zee)
• Rear Mech: SLX
• Shifters: SLX
• Cassette: Deore 11-42
• Brakes: XT 4-Pot (203mm F, 180mm R)
• Bars & Stem: Chromag OSX 780mm & Chromag Ranger 40mm
• Grips: Race Face Half Nelson (were SDG Thrice)
• Seatpost: Brand-X Ascend 150mm
• Saddle: Chromag Trailmaster
• Accessories: One Up Bash Guide, French Supermarket Bottle cage, Mudguard: RRP Bolt On Mini
• Size and Weight: Large, approx 35lbs

I’m very happy with it, first full suspension bike in about 20 years having been a fully paid up member of Team Hardtail. It’s longer, slacker, lower and obviously cushier than the Chromag. 135mm travel at the back feels like enough for bigger rougher terrain with the 160mm fork up front whilst not being complete overkill for my local NW Leicestershire (it’s almost Derbyshire you know) trails.

That being said, having had the bike for 6 weeks or so there have already been changes!

Wheels – DT Swiss E1900 -> Superstar Hubs with Alex Supra 35 Rims (30mm internal width) boosted with Velo Solo kit. I wanted to try a faster engagement hub with this bike, the cheap DT Swiss hubs on the E1900 suffer from slow engagement. Probably leaving the Superstar/Alex combo on for now.

Tyres – Maxxis Minion DHF EXO (MaxxTerra 2.5 on the Front, Dual Compound 2.3 on the back)-> Specialized Butcher BLCK DMND Gription 2.3 F&R -> Onza Ibex 2.4 FRC

Minion DHF have been my “standards” forever but I was intrigued by some non-Maxxis options. I got the Butcher’s in for my kid’s new bike build but didn’t realise they were the 1200g DH spec units. They rode exactly how you expect they would, heavy and but with all the grip. They are too much tyre for most of my riding but they will go on the back of this bike and the kids bike next time we go to a Bike Park Wales/The Alps. Currently trying the Onza Ibex FRC RC255a, which looks very similar to a Maxxis Highroller. Not the softest compound but based on a couple of rides they seem a decent allrounder.

Cranks – Shimano Zee w/Superstar Components 30T NW ring -> Shimano SLX w/ Shimano Direct Mount 30T ring.

Dropped some weight and allowed me to fit the Bash Guide as the 104 BCD arms foul the chain guide with a 30T ring.

Grips – SDG Thrice -> Race Face Half Nelson

The Thrice gave me sore hands from the flange on the outside, back to a worn in pair of the old favourite Half Nelsons.

Fork Tokens – 2->5

The fork felt a bit too linear with 2 and my previous approach (on hardtail) of adding all the tokens so the fork ramps up a lot probably dictated this, 5 is probably too many as the fork now feels to progressive. Gone to 3 – feels right.

Pedals – Saint Clips -> DMR Vault Flats

Knackered knee dictated a Big Change for me as I had been using clips for the last 25 years. Thought I would hate them – I don’t. I occasionally get caught out, generally when I get into a situation that’s “new for flats”, and slip into bad SPD habits.

Moved the flip chip back to Low/Slack – In a fit of stupidity/tiredness I managed to swap the position of the flip chips to the Neutral position when retorqueing/adding Loctite. I have been riding the bike like this for last 5 weeks, I did sort of notice but as I was setting the rest of the bike up to my liking, I put it down to this. That being said a slightly higher BB was probably a good thing on the super tight, rutty and pedal grabby singletrack I rode this weekend.

Things I have added:

• One Up Bash Guide – Lost the chain on one ride, it weighs so little it seems silly not to run one.
• Pipe lagging for pixies – adding to dropper and gear housing inside the frame, has helped quieten down the bike.
• Fuzzy Velcro tape on chainstay/seatstay – makes the bike a bit quieter.

Further changes:

• Change volume token in shock – it has the middle token in there currently apparently. I have a full set of tokens to try, will probably try a small token next and see how that feels.
• One Up 180mm Dropper – I’m almost certain I have the space for a 180mm One Up dropper, I can hand the 150mm Brand-X unit down to a kid.

Will Dan ever be done with his build?! Are you the kind of person that just has to keep on tweaking and swapping, or do you build and ride and then barely do more than pump up the tyres? Do you think he’s made good choices? Head to the comments!

While you’re here, we’d like to draw your attention to our World Bicycle Relief fundraiser. If you’ve experienced the joy of a new bike day, you’ll know how great it is. Now imagine you get given a bike, and it changes your life, giving you and your family access to education, employment or healthcare. Through World Bicycle Relief, you’ve got the power to make that happen, and if you can spare a little, we invite you to make your donation here.