Banshee Darkside - Review

Chris has been trying out the Banshee Darkside for the last few months, from the natural rolling moors of North Yorkshire to the sculpted and gnarly mountains of Snowdonia.

Once I heard I’d be getting to try out the Darkside, I was excited. The recent downhill bikes I’ve had have been big bruisers from the world of racing world cups. This is aimed more at playful riding and having fun.

Going back to the reason for this bike, taken straight from the horses mouth –

“Named after a local DH trail network, I designed the Darkside to be the bike I always personally wanted for tearing up the Whistler bike park where I am lucky enough to ride most summers. It is the ultimate park bike. I’ve waited a few years for this bike, but good things come to those who wait!”

Bike parks can be harsh places, rough on bikes and components. I took the Darkside to one of my favourite riding spots, the old slate quarries of North Wales. These quarries, with their big drops and many square edged boulders, contain some routes that can be as brutal on bikes as anywhere else I’ve ridden. To ride some of the lines in this slate you need to be riding with confidence and on a bike that inspires that confidence. Any weak bike will soon start to show it’s true colours, new creaks, parts coming loose, warped wheels. The Banshee got a good pasting through the best of what the old quarries could give and it didn’t miss a beat. Always ready for more, for bigger trails, higher drops, longer jumps.

This Darkside frame offers many options to help you tailor it to your need. Not fully convinced by the recent development of 27.5 inch wheels? Swap out the rear dropouts and it becomes ready for 26 inch wheels. 180mm of rear travel too much for you? Run a shorter shock to squat the bike down and reduce the travel to 164mm. Personally though, I’m very impressed with how it comes as stock, 180mm travel and 27.5 wheels.

Features –
• Sizes – Small, medium and large
• Travel – 180mm, optimised for playful DH and park riding
• Headtube – Tapered 1.5″ zero stack bottom allows angle sets and tapered steerers
• Security – Integrated fork bumpers
• Warranty – 2 years with original owner
• Crash Replacement – Lifetime with original owner
• Dropouts – Replaceable rear dropouts to change between 26″/27.5″ rear wheels

To describe this as just a park bike though, doesn’t do it justice in my book. With 180mm of quality travel on tap, the Darkside is a very capable downhill bike, specially on the majority of UK courses. Some would argue that 200mm of travel or more is possibly too much for the large majority of UK trails. Does one really require a fully fledged world cup racer for riding or even racing local UK trails? Opinions on this will certainly differ but what I am sure of, the Banshee Darkside is more than capable of handling the UK race scene.

The replaceable dropouts allow a change in wheel size, while upfront the ODI bumpers keep the keep forks from impacting the frame.

Geometry (based on a medium running 27.5″ wheels) –
• Seat Tube – 395mm / 15.6″
• Effective Top Tube – 597mm / 23.5″
• Reach – 410mm / 16.1″
• Wheelbase – 1186mm / 46.7″
• Head Angle – Low 63.5 / Neutral 64.0 / High 64.5
• BB Height – Low 349mm 13.7″ / Neutral 354mm 13.9″ / High 363mm 14.3″
• Chainstay – Low 435mm 17.1″ / Neutral 431mm 17.0″ / High 432mm 16.8″
• Rear Hub Spacing – 135x10mm / 142x12mm / 150x12mm / 27.5″ 142x12mm
• Seatpost Dia – 30.9″
• Bottom Bracket – 82mm ISIS Drive 128mm

The Darkside has numbers that aren’t too dissimilar to that of it’s bigger brother, the Legend. This will go someway to explain why it feels so stable and confident at speed. The frame is very stiff with very little flex, this helps the nimble feel of the bike. The bike’s stiffness and seemingly bottomless travel is down to the suspension design. Banshee wanted a bike that had the lively feel of a single pivot design but with all the benefits of the virtual pivot link system. The benefits of this linkage system over the single pivot are increased braking performance, increased lateral stiffness, improved axel path and direct actuation of the shock. All this adds up to a very supple suspension feel at the beginning of the travel but it ramps up towards the end. I’ve had quite a few downhill bikes in my time, ranging from smaller travel, playful bikes to fully slacked out world cup winning monsters. This lies somewhere in between and I like it, a lot. It’s a bike that inspires great confidence and provides huge smiles.

If you want a bike for riding DH in the UK, I can recommend the Darkside for sure. Very capable and playful bike that can take big hits all day long while still having that playful feel of a shorter travel bike.