Spitfire

Cooch

Likes Dirt
Here's my take on the Banshee Spitfire - basically a light, fast, slammed downhill inspired bike. Just finished building her up a couple of days ago and have been riding her hard over the past 2 days.

Buildkit:

Forks: Fox Talas 36s for the 100mm to 160mm adjustability to match the frame
Headset: Chris King's inset top cup and 1.5 bottom cup
Wheels: Hope Pro II's to match the Team Blue/Polish and MTX Grey Camo for toughness
Brakes: Avid Code Mags
Shifting: SRAM X9
Cranks: Gravity Lite with 24/36/Bash ;-)
Cockpit: Straitline Pinch Clamp blue to match, Gravity 777s cut down to 737 to match the polish





 

J@se

Breezeway Bandit
Awesome bike. I'm looking at getting one of those as well, I was thinking what headset to get and you've solved that for me. How's the clearance between the fork crown and downtube?

Have you mucked around with the different geo settings yet? I'd be interested in a ride report when you have.:)
 

Smacks

Likes Bikes and Dirt
That's very very very pretty! I'm usually abhorrent of camo MTXs, but those suit the bike beautifully!

Is that a Holy Roller on the back? Interesting choice if so.
 

Cooch

Likes Dirt
Awesome bike. I'm looking at getting one of those as well, I was thinking what headset to get and you've solved that for me. How's the clearance between the fork crown and downtube?

Have you mucked around with the different geo settings yet? I'd be interested in a ride report when you have.:)
This is the headset I got:



I've only played with my fork travel - 100mm to 160mm - not the setting on the shock mount as yet. It climbs really well in 100mm mode, but I will try out the steeper setting soon. Will let you know.

With the forks in 160mm mode and using the external bottom cup CK headset, I have a head angle of 65.4 degrees, which I'm absolutely stoked with. Really kind of is in a 'downhill-lite' category, if there is one... ha ha ha :p But you can still sit down and ride it up everything.

Plenty of clearance between crown and downtube - rather the problem is that my bars are so low the levers hit the top tube! I won't be x'ing up but still heaps of turn for moto-whips etc.
 

Cooch

Likes Dirt
That's very very very pretty! I'm usually abhorrent of camo MTXs, but those suit the bike beautifully!

Is that a Holy Roller on the back? Interesting choice if so.
Thanks man! Yeah, we're on the same page with camo, but i thought the chrome MTX's would be too much shiny shiny. The grey works well. I'm also waiting for a FUNN camo grey saddle to arrive, which will hopefully be a good match too.

I do a lot of commuting to the trails (22k round trip) and I was just shredding trail tyre after trail tyre. The Holy Rollers are perfect for pavement thrashing and then have enough braking on the trails to be able to still go fast :eek:
 

nitrous to burn

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Sweet little bike you got there, looks very versatile. IMO I think some silver 721's would have suited it very well and would maybe be lighter depending on the wall sizes you have chosen.
Tom.
 

Cooch

Likes Dirt
Sweet little bike you got there, looks very versatile. IMO I think some silver 721's would have suited it very well and would maybe be lighter depending on the wall sizes you have chosen.
Tom.
Yeah, I thought long and hard about silver/chrome rims. In the end I thought to much blingy shiny stuff, given the polished rear end. I didn't think black would work either... hence grey camo was something 'so last year', but really seems to work. With the blue hubs they look tough and ooze manliness :eek:
 

r.ayres1

Likes Bikes and Dirt
That,s awesome man,how do you rate this rig compared to others you have ridden? It looks pretty light - yeah?:)
 

Zyphryss

Breaker of the unbreakable
Very very awesome. Didn't you used to have an old Banshee Chaparral?

I much prefer this too all the similar Bottlerocket builds etc..

You've done well :cool:
 

USJ

Likes Dirt
Is it just me, or is there a missing front derailleur/shifter? Are you doing manual chainring shifting? How do you get it to not drop the chain down all the time? Curious, because if you have found a way to be successful at this, I might do the same to my Highline.
 

Cooch

Likes Dirt
Is it just me, or is there a missing front derailleur/shifter? Are you doing manual chainring shifting? How do you get it to not drop the chain down all the time? Curious, because if you have found a way to be successful at this, I might do the same to my Highline.
Not knowing, a front derailleur I had lying around when ordering everything was top-pull. This frame needs bottom pull. I'm actually installing the just arrived front derailleur and XO grip shifters today.

Yeah, I was manually shifting it :p which is ok for a day... I don't know, with the bottom roller and chain tension, it didn't drop off once. So with the top derailleur in place I'm virtually certain of no dropped chain.
 

Cooch

Likes Dirt
Very very awesome. Didn't you used to have an old Banshee Chaparral?

I much prefer this too all the similar Bottlerocket builds etc..

You've done well :cool:
Thanks man! Yeah, that was me - had a Chaparral for a couple of years then went to a Scythe! Still have the Scythe for downhill and now this rig for trail riding!
 

Hellyeah

Likes Bikes and Dirt
Hey champ nice rigga,

I like the way they discribe this frame, a downhiller's xc bike and a
xcer's dh frame ....hehehe

It's quite odd it looks like a xc bike but the head angle is that of something
else, how do you think this frame would handle rough treatment of
jumping and 4X or aggressive xc :)rolleyes:)???
 

smoothwakey

Likes Bikes
I look at your bike and it makes me smile:D it looks so dialled, I have always hated camo but somehow on your bike it works, you did a really good job man
 

jazza_wil

Likes Dirt
looks like pretty good build there, pretty solid to. looks like a build possible better suited for a rune?? i have been tossing up between a spitfire and a rune over the last month. the whistler, squamish and pemberton trails can be pretty full so im thinking a bike that can get me up there and feel more like my dh bike on the way down could be the better option. could be a bit of overkill once i come home but i might as well enjoy it while im still living over here.
enjoy the ride!
 

DHdreamer

Likes Bikes
Yep I like your work. Similar thoughts to others above about camo. I'm particularly a fan of your choice of the 36 TALAS up front, though I'm biased - I did the same recently on my 2010 Reign 0 and love being able to raise and lower the travel on the fly.
 

Cooch

Likes Dirt
...so im thinking a bike that can get me up there and feel more like my dh bike on the way down could be the better option. could be a bit of overkill ...
The Spitfire is your weapon.

My really quick review after about 100ks over the past few days is that it climbs as good as any XC dually and descends like your DH bike. 65.4 degree head angle with 160mm forks and 68.5 degrees with the forks at 100mm. Full length post allows me to get full leg extension (exactly the same as my roadie) and with the seat slammed, it's as low as my DJ rig ;-) Farkin Happy Times!!

Overkill here in Brisbane - NO WAY! ;-)

Thanks to everyone for all their cool comments!!

I'm absolutely loving the way this bike feels! Banshee VF4B (virtual floating 4 bar) suspension seems to actually accelerate the bike through the rough stuff. It's hard to explain, but it just eats rock gardens, roots etc. and you don't have to pedal through it. You just "pump and go"!!

Just one thing, the BB is low and in 100mm fork mode, the bash guard is hitting on the higher/harder log roll overs. With the forks on 160mm and descending, no issue and I guess you have momentum to hop and jump over things too.

DH'ers XC bike - ABSOLUTELY

XC'ers bike for going gnarlier and riding more aggressive - YOU BET.
 
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