Banshee Rune V3 (and a Husky!)

Shredden

Knows his goats
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This is my 2020 Banshee Rune. The frame came up for a decent price lightly used second hand and I swapped the parts over from my 2019 Kona Process. Swap cost me $600 including buying a new BB. I really like the frame, the build quality is great. Feels like there's much more attention to small details than with the Kona. Reach is also 20mm less - felt like the 515mm reach on the Process was a little too long sometimes and this feels perfect now.

For the build kit I tried to toe the line of price vs. performance quite diligently. Stuck with cheaper consumables (chain, cassette, BB etc) so it doesn't hurt so much when I replace them, and can do it fairly early to keep it running perfect and smooth.

Spec:
  • XL Frame with Fox Float X2 Shock.
  • RockShox ZEB Ultimate 170mm
  • DT350 hubs to Stans Flow MK3 rims with brass nipples and sapim double butted spokes.
  • XT 12 speed drivetrain with SLX chain and cassette.
  • XT 4 piston brakes.
  • 210mm dropper with Shimano lever.
  • Spank pedals and Renthal grips.
Spec details:
  • Cables inside the frame running through neoprene tubing to keep it quiet.
  • Clear gorilla tape on the downtube, chainstays, seat stays, and back of seat tube.
  • Got rid of the Ice-Tec brake pads because they rattle, running normal metallic Shimano ones now.
  • Centre lock rotors because its fast to remove rotors for cleaning the wheels more thoroughly.
  • M8120 cranks in 165mm.
  • Built the wheels myself and had Riley at Hardtail Havoc tension them, have been awesome.
Have to include the "other" enduro bike - recently picked up a 2019 Husqvarna TE250i. Great for scaring myself.

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The Reverend

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Lovely looking bike! Well done on the build, especially so without too many $$$ involved. Things get out of hand real quick on bikes.
 

yuley95

soft-arse Yuley is on the lifts again
Looks hot and I reckon your nailed the quality/price equation. Cant really go wrong wrong with raw banshee
 

dazz

Downhill Dazz
100% agree..they feel sublime.
Quite a simple design too! No shims, it looks like an old school Vanilla RC with a spring loaded high speed blow off valve added.
I feel like maybe if the HSC valve was changed to some kind of cone valve, it could provide some benefit by smoothing the transition between LSC and the HSC kicking in, some pretty extensive dyno time would be needed to get the geometry right. I think it's what modern 'cone valve' moto stuff has moved towards.
380183
 

komdotkom

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Quite a simple design too! No shims, it looks like an old school Vanilla RC with a spring loaded high speed blow off valve added.
I feel like maybe if the HSC valve was changed to some kind of cone valve, it could provide some benefit by smoothing the transition between LSC and the HSC kicking in, some pretty extensive dyno time would be needed to get the geometry right. I think it's what modern 'cone valve' moto stuff has moved towards.
Slow down egg head, that's waaay to complicated for me!

100% agree..they feel sublime.
What did you do for your other bikes? I've got a set of Pike Ultimates that I hate now....
 

dazz

Downhill Dazz
Slow down egg head, that's waaay to complicated for me!
Hahaha, 'spose I am a bit...
If anyone's actually interested I can try to explain it with some arrows showing flow paths and stuff for LSC vs HSC? It's not actually all that complicated. Designing it to all fit inside a fork leg AND be somewhat easily manufactured is where it gets complicated.
 

komdotkom

Likes Bikes and Dirt
There's a very indepth thread/shit fight over on MTBR about how it works/doesn't work depending on which side of the debate you are on.
The hardest part about high end suspension (to me at least) is knowing what it is you don't like and then making appropriate changes. I keep a diary of what I'm doing so I don't forget, it's something that I've carried over from racing cars.
 

The Reverend

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Slow down egg head, that's waaay to complicated for me!


What did you do for your other bikes? I've got a set of Pike Ultimates that I hate now....
Interestingly I went with Suntour Durolux RC2 36. They're really good. I am considering a Zeb + HC97 though so if I do that I'll sell one of them.

The 29" HSP monster I have is using the Lyrik at 170mm.
Prime and Paradox are on Durolux at 150mm travel.

I really must stop fiddling with bikes. :oops:

What's wrong with the Pike Ultimate? I found RS damping is like a volume knob and does nothing to affect how the fork rides.
 

The Reverend

Likes Bikes and Dirt
There's a very indepth thread/shit fight over on MTBR about how it works/doesn't work depending on which side of the debate you are on.
The hardest part about high end suspension (to me at least) is knowing what it is you don't like and then making appropriate changes. I keep a diary of what I'm doing so I don't forget, it's something that I've carried over from racing cars.
Is that the one with Dougal from NZ in it? He's been poking people in there for ages. Apparently thinks the HC97 is more compression damping than anyone needs.

It's very entertaining. :D
 
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Jpez

Down on the left!
Is that the one with Dougal from NZ in it? He's been poling people in there for ages. Apparently thinks the HC97 is more compression damping than anyone needs.

It's very entertaining. :D
The dick swinging on those MTBR suspension threads from engineers and people that think they are engineers and just people that think they know it all is hilarious. I check in to those shit fight threads every once in a while for a giggle and 3 months later the same same guys are still arguing about the same shit.
 

komdotkom

Likes Bikes and Dirt
What's wrong with the Pike Ultimate? I found RS damping is like a volume knob and does nothing to affect how the fork rides.
In comparison to the HC97, the standard Ultimate feels both harsh and soggy at the same time. I run less pressure, same number of tokens but it's got terrible small bump and then smashes through the travel and ramps up hard at the end. Would 100% swap them for some DVO's or maybe send the cartridge to Dougal in NZ (he's an engineer you know, just ask him) for his magical tune so that I can do a back to back.
 

kten

understands stuff moorey doesn't
In comparison to the HC97, the standard Ultimate feels both harsh and soggy at the same time. I run less pressure, same number of tokens but it's got terrible small bump and then smashes through the travel and ramps up hard at the end. Would 100% swap them for some DVO's or maybe send the cartridge to Dougal in NZ (he's an engineer you know, just ask him) for his magical tune so that I can do a back to back.
Has anyone ever heard feedback on one of his damper tunes?
 

The Reverend

Likes Bikes and Dirt
In comparison to the HC97, the standard Ultimate feels both harsh and soggy at the same time. I run less pressure, same number of tokens but it's got terrible small bump and then smashes through the travel and ramps up hard at the end. Would 100% swap them for some DVO's or maybe send the cartridge to Dougal in NZ (he's an engineer you know, just ask him) for his magical tune so that I can do a back to back.
I wasn't sure what he did, he seems very quiet and demure on the whole topic. :D

Personally, I don't see how a fork can be better than the HC97 but would love to find out what is better. DVO comes out with good reviews due to their OTT system...
 

Oddjob

Merry fucking Xmas to you assholes
HC97 is brilliant, it's ruined other forks for me though.
Raw frame looks hot.
I haven't got a HC97 but I've got most other things under the sun.

-The best is the Avalanche HSB, but Craig is a bit hard to deal with and you need a special tool to make adjustments to the compression.

-Best out of the box damping is the DVO D1 cartridge. I really like the OTT negative spring system too.

-Next best is the Fox Grip2 which is a less sophisticated Avalanche. Avoid the vvc version. The plain Grip is really good too. But then you have to deal with creaky csus etc.

-Equal next best is the Manitou TPC+ in the Mezzer. It's a a racier damper though, with the blowoff between the low and high speed being higher than other dampers. The Mezzer is easily the best value of the big single crown forks.



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