Banshee Phantom - Review
If you were to picture a short travel, full suspension 29er, what comes to mind? More than likely it's an image of a race whippet, a bike where the wearing of spandex is a prerequisite and installing a dropper post would be sacrilegious. Well, erase that image from your brain, because the Banshee Phantom is a bike that defies convention. Yes, it only has 105mm of travel, and yes, it rolls on 29” wheels, but that's where the similarities to an XC-oriented steed end. The slack head angle and 120mm Pike on the front of the bike are the first indications that the Phantom is built for a good time, a bike that's meant to be able to take on trails far burlier than its modest amount of rear travel would make you think is possible. The Phantom is available as a frame only with a RockShox Monarch RT3 for $1800 USD, a Cane Creek Inline for $2050, or with a similar build to the version we tested for $5025. Sizes: M, L, and XL.
Banshee Phantom Details
• Intended use: trail / all-mountain
• Wheel size: 29''
• Rear wheel travel: 105mm
• 7005 aluminum frame
• KS Link suspension
• RockShox Pike RCT3 120mm fork
• Sizes: M, L, XL
• Weight: 29.5 lb (size M w/o pedals)
• MSRP: $5025 USD
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 The Phantom was built with stiffness as a top priority, and a bevy of clean welds are found on the bike's hyrdroformed aluminum frame. |
Frame Design
The Phantom's polished 7005 aluminum frame has an industrial look to it, with big beefy welds along with seat and down tube gussets for additional strength. Like many of the bikes in Banshee's line, the Phantom has a dropout system that uses interchangeable chips to allow riders to adjust the bike's geometry. We ran our test bike in the middle setting, giving it a 68° head tube angle, a 13.45” bottom bracket height, and a 17.4” chain stay length. The Phantom is chainguide compatible thanks to its ISCG 05 tabs, and there is also a spot for a direct mount front derailleur, just in case the idea of a 1x drivetrain doesn't float your boat. The bike's brake and derailleur housing are routed externally on the top of the down tube, and an exit hole towards the bottom of the seat tube allows for a stealth routed dropper post to be used.
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| Two short aluminum links connect the swingarm to the front triangle, with sealed cartridge bearings used at all pivot locations. |
Suspension Layout
The Phantom uses Banshee's KS-Link suspension design, where two short links attach the swingarm to the front triangle. The swingarm has an upright on each side that joins the internally ribbed chain and seat stays, and two braces connect the drive and non-drive sides of the swingarm for additional stiffness. One of the benefits of this suspension design is that the orientation of the short links minimizes the amount of room they take up, making it possible to use shorter chain stays. The main pivot rotates on two large cartridge bearings housed on each side of the frame, and the lower link is sandwiched in the box-like opening just above the bottom bracket. The rear shock, in our case a RockShox Monarch RT3, is mounted directly to the swing arm rather than to a separate link, a design Banshee says helps limit the amount of side loading on the shock body.
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 | There's still a bit of a stigma remaining when it comes to 29ers, one that arose due to the poor handling of the first wagon wheelers to hit the market, but for the most part those awkward, unwieldy rides are a thing of the past, and if you're planning on riding the Phantom be prepared to throw any remaining stereotypes out the window. |
Climbing
Based on its travel and wheel size it'd be reasonable to expect that the Phantom would be better on the climbs than the descents, but it's actually the inverse that's true. Weighing in around 30.5 pounds with pedals, the Phantom's weight is reasonable given its all-mountain intentions, but when you combine that figure with the slower rolling Maxxis Highroller II tires, trying to snag those hillclimb KOMs might be best left to a more sprightly steed. Still, even though it may not be the snappiest climber around, the bike's geometry, particularly the relatively steep seat tube angle, made it quite comfortable on extended climbs, the kind where it's best to just put your head down and try to think about anything other than how many more miles there are to the top. The Phantom has a longer front center, and is designed to be run with a shorter stem, but it never felt unwieldy, and typically as long as I could get the front wheel far enough around a sharp turn, the rest of the bike would follow suit with minimal coaxing.
Despite only having a touch over 4 inches of travel, there was enough rear shock movement when pedaling that I still found myself flipping the Monarch's blue lever into the middle 'pedal mode' on smoother climb, whether it was a long gravel logging road or a relatively obstacle free section of trail. This firmed the shock up considerably, and made it seem less like my pedaling efforts were going to waste. When things got technical, and toothy rocks and sinuous roots tried to halt my forward progress, I ran the shock fully open in order to take advantage of the additional grip the reduced compression damping provided. This helped keep the rear wheel glued to the ground, and that, combined with the tenacious bite of the Highroller II made it possible to scale tricky climbs without losing traction.
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| Once gravity takes over the Phantom truly comes to life. |
Descending
The first ride of many that I took the Phantom on was a local loop with a little bit of everything, from steep, chewed up sections of singletrack full of wheel-sucking holes to smooth, bermed ribbons of dirt with perfectly sculpted jumps. It's a ride that can quickly expose a bike's strengths and weaknesses, but the Phantom handled it all with aplomb. Quite frankly, I was blown away by how maneuverable it was, not just for a bike with 29” wheels, but for any mountain bike. There's still a bit of a stigma remaining when it comes to 29ers, one that arose due to the poor handling of the first wagon wheelers to hit the market, but for the most part those awkward, unwieldy rides are a thing of the past, and if you're planning on riding the Phantom be prepared to throw any remaining stereotypes out the window.
I constantly found myself trying to find the edge of the bike's capabilities, my curiosity piqued by how well it handled technical terrain. Of course, there are limits to what it can do, but those limits were much harder to reach than I imagined, and believe me, I tried. Whether it was flying down extremely steep and rough trails, or hitting larger jumps and stepdowns, the Phantom proved itself over and over again, and I rarely felt handicapped by the amount of travel on hand. The margin for error is certainly narrower when compared to a 160mm bike, and committing to a line and being prepared to hang on tight if things start to go south is key, but the big wheels do help to cushion the jolts that come from straying off track, or diving into a rough section of trail with a little too much speed.
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The 120mm Pike in the front was an excellent match for the bike, and the reduced stanchion height creates a flex-free front end that begs to be pushed hard into corners. Cornering was quick and precise, likely in part due to the stiff frame, and while there are a few 29ers with shorter chainstays than the Phantom, those extra couple of millimeters didn't seem to be holding it back in the slightest when it came time to slalom through the trees. In the back, running the tiny Monarch RT3 shock with 25% sag did well to keep the bike from bottoming out in most instances, although it occasionally reached the end of its stroke with a solid 'thwunk' when pushed too far, a firm reminder that I was on a bike with only 105mm of travel. A little more ramp up would be nice, although the times that the suspension bottomed out were all well deserved, whether it was a large rock drop to a not-so-steep landing, or stuffing the back wheel into a hole after airing over a section of roots. Banshee is now offering Cane Creek's new Inline shock as an option, which looks to be a good choice for riders seeking a little more tunability.
The Phantom is in a category of bike that, at the moment, is still sparsely populated, especially compared to the burgeoning 160mm 27.5” all-mountain class. The advent of 27.5” wheels effectively curtailed some of the innovative design work that was occurring related to the larger wheel size, so it's good to see that the potential of a short travel, slack angled 29er hasn't been forgotten. Kona's Process 111 deserves credit as the bike that helped draw attention to this genre, effectively setting the standard with its downhill capabilities, but the Phantom's performance certainly makes it an excellent addition to this group as well. The 111 and the Phantom have two distinct personalities - the Phantom is a little livelier, and feels slightly more playful, while the 111 has the edge when it comes down to outright stability at speed, likely due to its longer front center, but both bikes succeed at being highly capable, and versatile rides.
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Component Check
• Avid X0 brake: SRAM's new Guide brakes will be spec'd on the 2015 version of the Phantom, but ours arrived with a set of Avid XO two piston stoppers on it. After having an exciting (read: frightening) experience while riding in the midst of a rain storm, I swapped out the organic pads for a metallic set, which greatly improved the wet weather performance, although the brakes still didn't have enough power to match the bike's capabilities, and on steep trails with extended heavy braking they had the tendency to wail like, well, a banshee.
• Kore Durox wheelset: The fit between the Kore Durox rims and the Maxxis Highroller II tires is rather loose, and I did manage to pull the rear tire completely off the rim after a slightly sideways landing. The wheels themselves held up just fine to all the mileage I put on them, but if this were my personal ride I'd likely opt for something a little stouter and wider.
• Race Face Atlas bars / Turbine stem: No changes are needed to the Phantom's cockpit - the dropper post remote is located under the bars on the left side where it should be, and a 50mm stem paired with a set of 785mm bars means that this bike is ready to rip right out of the box.
• SRAM X01 drivetrain: Our test bike came with an X01 drivetrain rather than the X1 gruppo that will be in the Race build kit for 2015. Other than needing to tighten the clutch mechanism on the derailleur there were no issues, and the 30t Race Face narrow wide ring up front ensured that the gearing was low enough to get up the steepest climbs around.
Pinkbike's Take:
| The Phantom is difficult to classify - it's a bike that can't be neatly slotted into a preset category based on its geometry and amount of travel. Is it a trail bike? All-mountain? Free-trail? I don't know, and truthfully, I'm not worried. This is a mountain bike through and through, and an extremely well rounded one at that. If you're looking for a bike that deviates slightly from the norm, but delivers a ride experience that's sure to leave you smiling from ear to ear, the Banshee Phantom may be the answer. - Mike Kazimer |
www.bansheebikes.com
Mentions: @Banshee-Team @builttoride
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All they really need to change IMO is start producing some of these things in carbon!
I owned a number of Banshee's and loved those bikes. Last Banshee was my raw Rampant which was the most rowdy 100mm bike on the market
Keith and Jay @ Banshee are solid guys, its great to see Banshee have turned things around after the plastic bushing problems and are back on track with the new K.S. Link ball bearing frames, and solid distrib. in the UK from ISON Distribution
she'd "wail like a banshee!"
Scythe was a rad frame and a solid choice for extreme freeride. Have fun, happy trails!
Snarky digs aside, I really like this new "XC+" category of light trail bikes; it's an intelligent and efficient philosophy. I remember an article around here that left a strong impression on me a while back - talking about 12 year olds learning to ride on S-Works Enduros and never developing any technical skill because they could roll over everything. Granted, there are still situations in which even the most skilled rider will benefit from a few extra inches, but the REAL joy of riding isn't always out and out speed. That's just adrenaline. Isn't the best thrill the one you get when you finally clean that line you've been ironing out for years... finally figure out exactly how much brake you need to weave between two rocks or nose wheelie around that switchback or what have you? Any hooligan can go fast on a long-travel bike if he's got the balls. The rest of us take satisfaction in our SKILL. And that's what these bikes are all about - after all, the absolute smoothest line shouldn't require any suspension at all...
I also hope that, in time, bikes such as the 111 and this Phantom will wear away the 29er stigma and show that big wheels are fun for some applications. I like wagon-wheelers, personally (go ahead, crucify me) - I live in California and think the trade-off they present is fair, and again, I take more satisfaction in cleaning something with a 29er's slower handling than I do on my old 26" bikes. Sixfifty's nice too, but just as the 26er diehards scream and rage at their favorite bikes and brands going midsize, I have cause for sorrow as well - niners are being eaten up, too. I still believe that EVERY wheel size has an application - every bike, no matter how outlandish, is perfect for some trail on this planet - and bikes like this give me hope for a world with the freedom of choice.
That's what he means by having a reverb under the left side of your bars, it was a joke, he even said "Snarky digs aside"
Looks like a fun bike, but something like the transition scout is more appealing to me, similar objective to this bike but with smaller wheels! hope Reviews of that start popping up soon
Or will I?
Sweet looking bike. I love the colours all Banshees come in. Almost so much that I wouldn't be able to decide which to go for! It's bad when that's te hardest part about choosing a new bike..
My TB LTc weighs considerably less, with an extra inch on both ends.
Back to songs - short travel bikes have different characteristic, they force you to work harder in up&down plane, and so you get better gratification for doing so in form of more acceleration. This is about TASTE not convenience. Then there are many terrains on this Planet (hilly areas) where such bike is just a better choice because running a 7" rig like Nomad or Enduro29 gives you nothing more but an incentive to sit more on your butt, while 5" bike is still rideable on harshest tracks in the world, with big enough fork.
So relax, not everything in this world must be measurable and put into a box. The "trail" genre gets more and more popularity anyways, I remember being ridiculed for buying a Nomad in 2008, which was qualified by then as XC bike in the extremely open minded, chilled and relaxed world of Downhill and Freeride.
Please do take my advice: bikes presented here are like songs on the radio: some tunes get into your ear some don't, you can always turn off the radio. Just do as if you were in a car, so if you kept your doors shut and windows up, nobody can hear your "i hate that fxxx Rihanna bxxx, they're playin it again". It is just better than rolling down the window and shouting through megaphone: too expensiveeee! 29er! Too Short chainstays! USD superior (until DVO and RS-1 announced pricing buahahah) Gearboooox bllere fakabaaa bleeeeee!
Oh @deeeight: I thought the smartest of the breed (you being THE male Alpha in it really) buy stuff from ebay and classifieds? You know, guys who know so much must know the channels in'it? And how exactly are you motivating picking on me being moronic while it seems that there is something moronic with "free" trade regulations in the land of the free. How is that my problem? As usual you must project your anger caused by incompatibility with anything that isn't in your retro, old junk style on someone here. Loneliness is a btch, I know and I mean it, I share your pain.
I hear what you are saying - for me it was different. I saw a picture of the bike a year ago, had a Stumpjumper FSR (26) 2012 at that time.
Don't know why exactly - I just ordered the frame this year and have been riding the Phantom since Juli.
I went from a well-known brand (and 26) to a niche brand and 29 er.
Doesn't sound sensible - but guess what? Excellent decision, I am still stoked. This bike is just so much fun to ride.
@baph3 that's interesting... glad that worked out for you. Just curious, what exactly makes it more fun to ride?
Some also say Banshees are ugly - that is just a subjective opinion, just like: your kids and will be ugly too, because they take genes from their grandfathers, that means your mom!
Take my Blur TR with Pushed Float CTD and it will fk the sht up from most 150mm bikes. Take well setup and customized Stumpy Evo 29 and it will mess up most "playful" 26" bikes out there on a tight twisty singletrack. Gravity folks think that they can setup the bike right and they also think that days of people setting their bikes up too soft, tyres pumped up too hard are long gone. NOPE! They are as arrogant about it as XCers are about their fitness level and lockout switch. So they go out and project tons of crap they read and heard on the hottest latest trend.
Finaly "bang for the buck" is extremely narrow minded look at things.
When talking about individual autonomy it can be defined in different ways. The most common would be that you as individual should not have to bare encroachment in your private economy, i.e taxes, right to life, free speech, free thinking etc. A lot of the big theorists whom defined it this way was working during the time USA was founded, so it was and still is how a lot of americans would define it.
Another way to look at it is to be an autonomies individual you need to just not the right to life but health, just not the right to free speech but the education to use it it properly etc - the one without the other is useless.
Canada would be something in-between USA and the Nordic countries in regards of their policies. Though living in Canada I have experienced that there is a much higher suspicion towards taxes among the population than there is over here, which I think is healthy.
This is not me saying one way is better then the other, just a trying to make a few thing clear.
In case I will mention Robin R.I.P Williams quote: A-hole deserves to have his last word
So just because someone(Hitler, WAKI, hamncheez, Mendel) says you should buy a certain type of bike does not make it right. You have entitled to a free mind and should therefore make up yourself what bike you should buy.
Not knocking capitalism, but let's not pretend that one is morally and ethically superior to any other, when history doesn't agree.
I think that will be too much for a healthy discussion, but please give me your view on point 3.
@MendelMu My background comes from a degree in Economics. Granted, I wasn't a star student, but that degree is pretty hard and my Asian genes can only take me so far. My background also comes from many failed entrepreneurial (an even one that was a success) attempts. What I have seen in my brief time on earth is that competition, not monopolies, provide the best outcomes for society at all levels. Government is a monopoly. When it provides services, it does so as a monopoly, and every time it does you get the exact predicted monopoly results- a few getting very rich at the expense of everyone else. This is true for healthcare, retirement planning, war, mass transit, food regulation, and anything else.
In all seriousness, though, anyone who has a hate on for socialism should really think twice about their position. Anyone living in a developed "western" society benefits daily from some level of social spending. We all like roads, and laws that are protected, and agencies to make sure our food isn't (totally) toxic, and some level of free medical care... As a Canadian, my country straddles the middle between more socialist countries in Europe, and the less socialist countries further south, and I have to say that from my experience the level of happiness of the average citizen seems to increase with greater social spending as opposed to the inverse. Also, those Nordic folks make some hot chicks.
PB for life!
Anyways, about your comment on socialism I couldn't disagree more. Roads are falling apart and would be better if they weren't provided by a monopoly. Government regulations make food less safe, not more safe. Socialized medicine hurts everyone, but the poor the most.
Socialism is forced monopoly that is enforced by violence.
The bigger the government, the more corporate interest there is in it. People/groups with money lobby governments to get special favors to increase their power and income. If a government is small and has no ability to effect an economy, then there is no incentive for special interest groups to lobby. In the 80s and 90s the US government had virtually no role in regulating the computer/internet industry, and Microsoft, the largest tech company at that time, spent exactly $0 lobbying for the first two decades of its existence. Then in ~1999 the FTC started to try and regulate Microsoft, and now Microsoft spends millions upon millions of dollars lobbying every year.
The FDA (food and drug administration) is one of the agencies that regulates certain foods and nearly all pharmaceuticals in the US. They have prevented many bad drugs from coming to market, and saved many lives. However, they have also prevented/delayed many good drugs from reaching the market as well. When a new drug is approved by the FDA, they hold a press conference and say things like "This new drug will save 5,000 lives a year", then pat themselves on the back. However, doesn't this mean that for every year this drug was invented but prevented from being sold by the FDA then 5,000 people we dying needlessly every year? Some economists (like Milton Friedman) ran the numbers, and to the best they can tell, the FDA has caused MORE deaths than it saved. You can say the same thing about the Department of Agriculture, the TSA, and other comparable agencies in other countries.
As for happiness, how do you define it? When you say the richest countries aren't as happy, how do you get to that conclusion? By taking a survey? Economists measure the well-being and happiness of an area by how people vote with their feet. Where they immigrate to. The USA, with all its taxes (highest corporate tax rate in the world), police brutality, oppressive unions, etc has a fence around it. Which way to people jump over it? To get in, or to get out?
With regards to microsoft, is it possible that there was little regulation of a company and an industry that was virtually non-existing 10 years prior (not being fecitious)
And as for the FDA and good ol' Milty, how many deaths would be the result of no government oversight? 18th century England and asian industrial economies give a pretty good idea of what unfettered capitalism looks like. Left to their own devices public companies will do whatever is necessary to maximize profit - it's their imperative.
Good debate! Sorry to all the guys who just wanted to talk bikes.
@JesseE I'm glad you have a measure for happiness for yourself, but what if others have a different opinion? As for a "limited Government", thats what Canada, the USA, and the Nordic countries had through the 1800s till the 2nd world war. During this time in these countries, you had the greatest change in the standard of living for the ordinary man that had ever happened. Life expectancy doubled. Infant mortality nearly disappeared. This feat of human progress was then topped when the same transformation took place in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, and Taiwan in only 3 decades, with Hong Kong as the most shining example. That small rock with 0 natural resources went from just as poor as the rest of Asia to having a standard of living higher than most places in the West. It did this while mainland China got poorer. What was the difference, Hong Kong had the most limited modern goverment in the postwar era.
On trail rides with allot of up and downs they keep their momentum, corner like slalom bikes and never cease to amaze on the downhills.
My sample size may be small (process 111 only) but I literally can't put the thing down.
If your from a downhill background and are looking for a trail bike, get past the wagon-wheel mental block and start having some serious fun.
I say more of this kind of bike please, definitely under rated and over negged, mainly by people who have never tried one!
Erm. How?
I can see how the exact opposite would be true....
This choice of frame packaging allows for a substantial connection between rear end and front end, with less leverage and pivot rotation (additional link acts as longer lever and increases pivot rotation) producing less flexure under load = less side loading of shock.
When you design a frame its a compromise and less parts means you can increase the diameter of pivots and cross section of frame components without weight increase. Doubling diameter of a tube increases resistance to flexure by 16x
If not sure, drop email to keith@bansheebikes.com
If they really wanted to reduce side loading, they could just fit rose joints to the shock. I am not saying their current design is not a good one, it just don't see how their reduced side load claim can be true.
A 125mm of rear travel is a lot if you have a right shock that is well setup but it still provides good connection with what you ride on, there is this primal feeling, while a 160mm bike needs world Cup track to get out of it's depth. 160 that everyone is after these days is freaking a lot. 100-130mm segment will only be growing.
Why would I pick an 'all mountain' 29er that weighs 31 pounds, only has 105 mm of travel and doesn't climb particularly well - when I could have a Specialized Enduro 29, Trek Remedy 140, Niner WFO, Transition Smuggler, etc. that is also going to be in the 30 lb range but offer me 120-160mm of travel and climb just as well?
Not trying to be an ass - I am genuinely wondering why I would want less travel if it offers no benefit for climbing? I've never once wished that I had less travel while descending.
There are individual XC races in the US that have more participation than all of the Big Mountain Enduro races combined. Similarly, check out Roc d'Azur and compare to that the big enduro races. It's not even close.
You may not like it, and you may not find it fun, but WC XCO racers would blow your doors off going uphill or downhill. It is still the event that attracts the most spectators, by far.
Even if what you said was true of competitive events, how many recreational riders wriggle into spandex, strap on the heart rate monitor and crunch their 22lb '9er hardtail for four hours, as opposed to those of us who ride bikes for fun?-Oh wait, I just realized that I don't care what the answer was to that question, cause I gotta go ride my bike. Going to go grind up a hill, then turn around and see how fast I can ride down it. Repeat.
Euro Cross: www.cyclingnews.com/races/superprestige-zonhoven-2014/elite-men/photos/327572
That way all my bikes have interchangeable tires/wheels (xc, am, dh).
I'm thinking the same here.
I've just cracked another of the same model of the "big brand" carbon fibre 29'er hardtail frame I ride, this is the 3rd frame in 2 years and I'm only riding XC on it!
Though the big brand warranty dept. has assured me they will warranty the frame in the New Year when they have some stock, I might be selling off the "new" warranty frame and going FS.
Perhaps its time for a nice Banshee Phantom?
And the weight? Mine is probably at least half a pound heavier than the tested bike, but it doesn't matter at all when riding.
The Honzo is only a "20 inch" frame, but is considerably bigger than most 23" frames.
Bro?