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[Bike Build] Banshee Viento

BCBorn

Cruising
May 11, 2011
25
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Some history...
The last time I bought a frame and built a bike up was back in the mid 90's. I went from a chromoly Specialized rockhopper (bright orange) to a GT Zaskar LE frame. About a year after that build I went from the Zaskar to a Trek OCLV 9900.

I was fully involved in riding at the time. I would go to school once and a while, but would usually blow off classes to head to the local trails, and then hang out at the bike shop for a few hours to help fix some wheels, repack some hubs, etc. Life was about riding and living MTB.

After hauling the Trek to Japan and back, I sold it so I could buy a plane ticket for a third trip. Was married a few months later. A few months after that we found out a baby was on the way. A new bike fell out of the picture. Eventually I bought a Schwinn Moab in '99 or so. It was cheap, already built, and all I did was ride it now and again. No upgrades, no part swaps, fully stock. I drifter further and further away from riding, and eventually the bike was collecting dust and rust. When it was stolen about a year ago, I actually laughed to myself. The thief actually saved me the hassle of disposing of it. Don't know how s/he managed to ride away on it; flat tires, rusty chain, blown fork seals, all the signs of being abandoned. I know, how could I!

About a month ago I realized how much I missed riding, and decided it was time to get back into cycling. Not sure what the catalyst was, but I would hazard a guess it was the guys in the office all starting to commute into work. They now had an excuse to stink and be sweaty, and I didn't :mad:

So I bought a frame. For the first time in almost 20 years I was going to build a frame up.

But guess what, things have changed! What the hell is "free ride" and "all mountain?" What happened to the simple cross country hard tail and the downhill full suspension?

I think I am going to need some help with this build :eek:

Hopefully you will join me as I make some mistakes and try to navigate through the seemingly over complicated world of modern day MTB.

Thanks for reading. I promise future posts will be less story and more build!

Viento.jpg

VientoHead.jpg
 
OK, my first question.

Would you guys suggest getting all parts from overseas retailers? I have seen posts on here about wiggle, and I also found chain reaction, merlin bikes, and Jenson USA.

Would you buys some items overseas, but others local? Was thinking that things like grips, handle bars, saddle, tires (sorry tyres), and other non drive train related items I would get overseas, and then buy the more essential items locally.

Are Japanese shops willing to install parts that weren't purchased from their shops?

Here are the frame details. I bought the large.

VG.png


This is what a store bought build looks like, but I will make some changes.

VB.png
 
Do you have a LBS that you go to ? If so I would ask them to do the fork and BB installations and then you can do the rest I think, bikes are pretty easy things to put together and if you are unsure there are plenty here on TCC willing to help. Do you have a fork? I would buy my parts overseas BUT be sure of your sizing. I would then be prepared to pay the LBS to do the jobs that need specialist tools.
AM and FR are just marketing to get us to spend more money. Oh nice looking frame!
 
Thanks for the advice.

I haven't purchased any of the parts yet as I am still browsing shops, auctions, etc, for the best deals. It has been very educational. I used to run a Girvin vector fork with about 2.5 inches of travel, had a syncros ti BB, etc. Seems all the gear I used to think was the sh!t is no longer being made, is out of business, or was taken over and had the name smeared (poor syncros).

I am thinking of some rock shox Reba forks, but am open to suggestions.
 
Well you havea hard tail... so basically you are building a XC MTB.

Don't mind the new fangled words..... there really is still only 3 types of MTB.

Cross country (Hard Tail)
DownHill (Full Suspension)
Hack Bike (Trial Bike)

Yes there is some bleed over now between the hardtail and Full Suspension but to be honest I wouldn't worry.

You have a hard tail designed for XC so build that bad boy up as you would any other XC bike
 
That's a nice looking frame. I was pretty close to buying a Banshee Spitfire before I found a great deal on my Titus.

You've got a few options for building it up....light racer style XC bike or you could put a longer fork on it and build it with tougher parts for more technical trails.
Since the Girvin fork days, most bikes have got more travel. 100mm is about as short as you'd want. The Reba is a good fork.
There are a couple of things you should definitely try to get on your build. The first is a 15mm or 20mm thru-axle fork and wheel. This is a relatively new standard but more and more bikes are going with it. So don't get stuck with an old style QR front wheel/fork as it will be expensive to change both later. The through axle is a better design as it is stiffer (steers better) and is not vulnerable to the front wheel being pulled out of the dropouts by torque from the disc brake.
MTBs went 10 speed within the last couple of years so if you're buying new kit, get 10 speed as high end 9 speed will become harder and harder to find. New M980 XTR is very nice and blingy but XT and SLX will give you almost the same performance with a little more weight.
Other modern stuff: short stems and wide bars work a lot better with modern geometry frames than old-style flat narrow bars and loooong stems. Tyres tend to be wider than back in the day...almost nobody rides less than a 2.1 now and even that is considered quite narrow. Tubeless is good but another thing to learn.

Look forward to seeing the build.
AW.
 
That frame is AMAZING.

Two-tone colours on metal, with a straight line between both colours, welding like an ugly thick scar, bit of head-tube machining, extra plate on the downtube / head tube area to solid it all up. Square stays too!

Aggguyiuyiurgh!

Fantastic.

Really looking forward to how you build it up, mate.

Alan knows what he is talking about when it comes to MTB, so heed him.

>edit... And that colour is bloody glooooowing! What a frame.

Where did you get it from, and how much did it cost. I want one!
 
AW,
Thanks for the info on some of the new standards. I am researching the different hubs and forks to try and get a sense of what is best. Initially I was going to build this as an everyday ride, but as I looked at more and more parts I realised that I couldn't skimp on this this build. So Ibought a complete bike the other day and will build this thing to be a light race spec bike over the next few months.

I was thinking that a 120mm Reba would be a good option. I will start looking at a 20mm version instead of the 9mm based on your advice, thanks.

Do they still make internal bottom brackets or all they all external bearing now. I used to have a Race Face ti BB and a set of White Industries cranks back in the mid 90's and it was an great set up (at the time). Everything seems to come as a set now, with the cranks and chain rings as a unit with the bb axle. Any recommendations? i was thinking RaceFace (cdn frame, cdn parts) but they seem to have had some troubles recently and I am worried about lack of support.

Also, would you recommend 3x10 or 2x10 ring set up?

Owen,
I replied to your PM, but for everyone's info...

Getting the frame was a bit of a run around. I found a place in Taiwan that had it at a good price, but Banshee wouldn't let them ship to me because there is a Japanese distributor. I contacted the Japanese distributor directly and he tried to gouge me for 65,000. When I told him it had been 48,000 direct from Taiwan he went to 55,000. Not the best price, but I figured the extra 7,000 was worth it to be dealing with the local rep. When the frame arrived it had been shipped to the JPN distributor via EMS from Taiwan and then to me. Maybe he bought it from the same place I had originally tried to :)

You are right though owen, the frame is bad !

Thanks again for the feedback guys.
 
There are some internal BBs but they are a dying breed. External BBs or press-fit (BB30, BB92) are much more common now. Your frame has a threaded BB so look for external.
Race Face went bust about 2 months ago, and I have heard that their bearings were not that great (no personal experience of these).
The best one I have direct experience of the the Hope BB. Super smooth.
Shimano external BBs are fine. Be careful not to put too much preload on when you install the crank - I wrecked my first external BB by doing that. It needs only to be nipped up then the pinch bolts take the load.
I'd go 2x10 drive if you want a light bike. Something like 11-36 on the back and 26/40 on the front. You will need the low gears for Japan - the hills here are steep!
AW.
 
Race Face have alwayshad a poor reputation and one of the reasons why they went bust.

Shimano is the Toyota of bike parts and although not the most amazing I'vebeen running an XT external now for 2 years without need for replacement.

As Alan says the hills here are super steep so I opted for 3x10 drive train as the soil here also get super slipery especailly if there is a layer of bamboo leaves on the ground.

Also a lot of the trails I've ridden here in Kanagawa and out and about have a lot of drop offs or small flights of those strange concrete stairs made to look like logs so the 120mm travel is a good option to go for.
 
Wow, that is a shame about RaceFace. Back in they day RF and Syncros were good quality, and a local maker as well.

Thanks for the gear and ratio suggestions.

The majority of my riding back in the day was on Vancouver Island, and we used to do some pretty crazy single track! We used to cut an inch or two off each side of the bars just to get through the trees :)

I think my Girvins were about 2 or 2.5" and the big drops never seemed to phase it. Just the opposite, I used to be able to get up over some pretty big trail obstructions, but my big ring teeth always paid the price. 120mm would almost be double of what I used to ride... but I think I probably weigh double, so that might be a good idea :eek:

Thanks again for the solid advice.
 
but I think I probably weigh double,
Thanks again for the solid advice.

in that case instead of a super light component mix, build strong. Being in Japan I think Shimano XT or Saint would be a good option. Personally I like cane creek headsets and Easton stems, bars and seat posts. Looking forward to seeing build pics in the future.
 
First Set of Parts

I purchased some kit for the front end over the weekend, and hope that it will be arriving soon. I purchased from Wiggle and Chain Reaction about 5 minutes apart from each other so it will be interesting to see which company gets things to me first. Anyone wanna place bets?

From Wiggle I bought:
- Thompson Elite X4 oversized stem. 90mm, 0 degree rise in silver.
- FSA XC-282 low riser handle bar. 660mm wide in white

From Chain Reaction I bought:
- Manitou Minute Pro. 120mm travel with 20mm axle in white.
- Crane Creek 110 headset in red.
- Answer grips in black with red caps.

I am going to go with a red, white, and silver look for the bike.

Looking forward to the parts arriving :)

Need to start looking at wheels and drive train.
Anyone have any experience with MTB tubeless tyre set-ups? I was looking at a Fulcrum Red Metal 3 wheelset, but the only one that comes with a 20mm axle is the Fulcrum Red Fire. Can anyone make a suggestion about a good set of 20mm wheels?

Thanks!
 
I purchased some kit for the front end over the weekend, and hope that it will be arriving soon. I purchased from Wiggle and Chain Reaction about 5 minutes apart from each other so it will be interesting to see which company gets things to me first. Anyone wanna place bets?

Wiggle.

- Manitou Minute Pro. 120mm travel with 20mm axle in white.

Out of interest, why did you go for them? I have no idea about recent forks, so any info on your finds (seems we are in the same boat!) would be very welcome.

Cheers.

Owen
 

You might be wrong. I got a "shipped" notice from CR when I got home this evening.

Out of interest, why did you go for them? I have no idea about recent forks, so any info on your finds (seems we are in the same boat!) would be very welcome.

Cheers.

Owen

I was initially looking for some Rock Shox Reba SL, but I was having trouble finding some at a good price and with the 120mm travel and 20mm axle. Fox seem a bit expensive, and the manitou had some good reviews regarding it's build, suspension, and tuning capabilities. The stock Banshee also has 120mm so I thought that was a good starting place. They seem to be a good trade off of travel, weight, price, and looks.

I had a pair of Marzocchi way back that I thought were horrible! Never rode rockshox, and my brother destroyed countless fox units when they were just doing rear suspension. Couldn't find any Givins. I did find some Amp Research forks on Yahoo Auctions, but decided to pass :)
 
You might be wrong. I got a "shipped" notice from CR when I got home this evening.



I was initially looking for some Rock Shox Reba SL, but I was having trouble finding some at a good price and with the 120mm travel and 20mm axle. Fox seem a bit expensive, and the manitou had some good reviews regarding it's build, suspension, and tuning capabilities. The stock Banshee also has 120mm so I thought that was a good starting place. They seem to be a good trade off of travel, weight, price, and looks.

I had a pair of Marzocchi way back that I thought were horrible! Never rode rockshox, and my brother destroyed countless fox units when they were just doing rear suspension. Couldn't find any Givins. I did find some Amp Research forks on Yahoo Auctions, but decided to pass :)

Cool. I never broke Marzocchi, despite riding them very hard, including a load of stair drops. I had the Bomber Z2 and the Z1.

I broke Rock Shox, and Fox (like you say, rear shock).

What are you doing for cranks? Middleburn still make stuff, you know! Middleburn would look soooo nice on that frame (and they are wicked cranks too)
 
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