Banshee Darkside Prototype - First Ride
FIRST RIDE
Banshee Darkside
Prototype
Prototype
WORDS Mike Kazimer
PHOTOS Amy McDermid
| A Look at Banshee's Darkside Banshee had two prototypes of their Darkside, the company's new 180mm travel rig on display at this year's Crankworx Whistler. In development for the last year, the Darkside will be replacing the Scythe and the Wildcard as Banshee's freeride / park bike, and is expected to be available in the spring of 2014. When asked about the inspiration behind the new bike, Keith Scott, Banshee's engineer, frame designer and part owner of the company, simply said, “It's the bike I want to be riding.” Although final pricing isn't available yet, Scott stressed that he wanted to create a bike that was a little more affordable than other offerings currently on the market, but without skimping on any features. | Details • 180mm travel • 26" wheels • 63.5 - 64.5 degree head angle • 16.5" chainstay length • Sizes: S, M, L • Colors: black, raw, bright (final color TBD) • MSRP: TBD • Available Spring 2014 |
The Darkside is constructed of hydroformed 7005 aluminum, and features a tapered head tube, threaded 83mm bottom bracket, and integrated bump stops on the frame for riders who choose to run a dual crown fork. The bump stops are easily replaceable – ODI's bar end plugs fit into the hole in the frame, giving riders a myriad of color choices. The prototype frame uses Banshee's interchangeable dropout system, but this probably won't make its way into production in order to keep the frame costs down.
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 The Darkside prototype's features include a tapered head tube, integrated, replaceable fork bump stops and adjustable dropouts. |
As far as the Darkside's geometry goes, the head angle of the prototype Darkside can currently be adjusted between 63.5 and 64.5 degrees using the adjustable dropouts, but the final head angle number has not been decided on. The bike's chainstay length is 16.5 inches, with a 13.5” bottom bracket height, numbers intended to create a quick handling bike that can still handle the steepest, roughest terrain. The final weight is also not certain, but Keith Scott's large prototype with a Marzocchi 888 and flat pedals weighs in at 37 pounds, so it would be reasonable to expect the final version to be somewhere in this neighborhood.
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| The Darkside uses Banshee's KS-Link, which rotates on sealed cartridge bearings, with the majority of them sitting directly inside the frame. |
Suspension Layout
The Darkside uses Banshee's KS-Link suspension design, which uses two short links to attach the rear swingarm to the front triangle, with the rear shock mounted directly to the rear swingarm. A shorter stroke shock should could be used to reduce the amount of travel while at the same lowering the bottom bracket and slackening the head angle. The Darkside's suspension is intended to have a neutral feel, with a very slightly rearward axle path and a progressive suspension curve to prevent harsh bottoming out. The bike's suspension curve works well with either a coil or air shock, and the bike we spent time on was equipped with Cane Creek's latest version of their DBAir. Banshee has been working closely with Cane Creek to come up with the best possible base tune for the bike, which will help simplify the initial suspension setup.
Riding the Darkside
Our sessions on the Darkside were spent in the Whistler Bike Park, alternating between long, rooty and rocky trails starting up in the Garbanzo zone and machine built, berm and jump filled classics like A-Line and Dirt Merchant. Banshee's bikes have a reputation of being solid, flex-free machines, and the Darkside was no exception. The solid rear swing arm and stout short links meant that the bike held its line no matter how rugged and chewed up the terrain was. We recently spent time on the Legend MKII, Banshee's downhill race bike, and it's evident that the Darkside shares similar DNA. Both bikes exhibit exceptional stability at speed, with the Darkside feeling a bit more maneuverable and playful than the Legend. The top tube length provided enough room to shift our weight where it was needed, while the short chainstays meant that direction changes were quick and snappy. Where the Darkside seemed most at home was decimating berms and blasting into orbit off of jumps, and the dry, dusty conditions in Whistler meant that we left a constant smoke screen behind us as we two wheel drifted around the countless corners in the bike park.
Pinkbike's Take:
 | The Darkside would have been called a freeride bike a few years ago, but that terminology seems to have fallen out of favor, replaced instead with 'mini-DH' or 'park bike.' Whatever you'd like to call it, the Darkside looks like it may be a good choice for the rider searching for a bike that could be ridden hard for multiple seasons of lift or shuttle assisted riding. Sure, it's not carbon, and you probably won't see it on any World Cup podiums, but we'd be willing to bet that countless riders will be pushing this bike as hard as possible for years to come. Keith Scott set out to create a bike that he wanted to ride, basically a bike with the stability of a downhill race bike but with better cornering ability, and our first impression is that he has succeeded. Our time on the Darkside wasn't long enough put our theories on its long-term durability to the test, but once we get our hands on a production version we'll be sure to give it a thorough thrashing. - Mike Kazimer |
www.bansheebikes.com
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I gladly will. This bike is badass.
To counter your points.
1. Suspension is not getting longer. It is getting shorter. Not so long ago frames with over 8 inches of travel were common. Now 3/4 of the market have settled for 8'' in dh.
2. Learn to time your pedals and pick your lines and it will flow even where you ride. The terrain you ride is an excuse not to learn to ride better. I've done my share of bike tourism and the only trail where my legend's bb was too low even when I used too much sag was on one AM trail on MTN of Hell qualifier. On dh trails it was never a problem because a 0.3 won't save you. People blame their bb height for pedal strikes but in 90% of the cases they would have grinded in that place anyway even if their bb was higher. Well that's unless you want a 2003 geo with a BB somewhere around your knees..
I know it could have been badly set up, but I also tried a DBair and found the small bump sensitivity to be poor compared to a coil shock. I could be wrong, but I believe coil will always be better than air if it has the right spring weight and you don't care about the extra 500g.
Let's say you design the bike as 26". What you need is new swingarm or replacable drop out to move the rear wheel axle 12mm up and 12mm back. Then you have a high stack headset for 26", which you change for a zero stack one for 650b. Now the BB goes down in relation to axles. Now you remove 1deg offset bushing from 26" mode and install normal one. You can use offset seat post or just slide your seat back to compensate for seat angle. You might end up 5mm off the ideal reach forbotj bikes but c'm on, people have bigger differences in their bodies.
It sounds complicated but a company can save lots of money by making two types of drop outs and an offset bushing, instead of making two completely new bikes. As a sociopath I can only add that for most eager 650bers it is the wheel size alone that matters. Just give it to them
"The prototype frame uses Banshee's interchangeable dropout system, but this probably won't make its way into production in order to keep the frame costs down."
Just kidding. But it IS refreshing to see a new 26er coming out. Looks pretty fun. Maybe the new "bottlerocket"?
All the other bikes in the Banshee line up that use this suspension layout use what I assume is the exact same drop out pieces, including what is in the frame? Switching it out on one bike would make it more expensive, no?
I think the new "no seat tube" trend is a step in the wrong direction. I'm stoked Banshee brought back the seat tube!
On the topic: Would like to see how the shortened chainstay will affect the reach if there is any change. Quite positive about the geometry updates on brands new products. I suspect the actual working science keeps the same feeling through the travel, and remains a top pedaler like its predecessors. There is something that tells me brake isolation is improved with this design. Positive expectations only.
Look at the Cove Bikes web-site, you will see that the linkage is very different.