I am nearing the end of my tether with all the bushing/pivot issues on my Banshee Rune and I’m thinking of replacing it.

These days I mainly use my full-suss for dh duties, and I’ve found my 6 inch Banshee to be perfect for most things down here in the south.

Anyone use their Mega for this purpose?

I haven’t yet, although taking it to hamsterley next month. however, with a coil on the back i reckon it’d play the game well.

2 lads were up at rheola last week with fully blinged up megas (xtr, brand new 36s, hope v2s, dropper posts etc). One of them broke their arm on run 2.

I’d say they’re a bit compromised (towards trail riding\xc) for mini dh. I think something ‘bigger’ would be better.

I recon it would be perfect with a set of totems up front and a coil out back as a mini DH bike, to be fair most places in the UK proberly dont warrent a full on DH rig.

Ive just popped a CCDB out back on mine although my Mega is more built towards AM than DH I like to ride back up too. Its fairly long for an AM bike so it suits the downs really well as its very stable at speed.

I would say without the Monarch that comes as standard and popping either a coil or very good air shock out back it would be perfect.

Dave.

Here’s a mini DH Bike for you.

http://shop.18bikes.co.uk/products.php?plid=m22b0s538p1196

As Boxxer said, a Mega should be fine as a miniDH bike.
But..

to be fair most places in the UK proberly dont warrent a full on DH rig.

other than all the DH tracks up and down the entire country? 🙄

I wouldn’t really class a TR250 as a mini DH bike tho, just a 7″ travel DH bike.

I think the day I turn up for a race somewhere and most people aren’t on massive bikes, is the day I’ll start believing in the “UK DH bike”. No sign of that even starting to be the case yet though, even at those innerleithen races where they tape out a track you could ride on a rigid.

OTOH a Mega’ll be perfectly capable of riding UK downhill trails, like most decent bikes. What’s your idea of DH? Are you racing, or wanting to ride at race pace?

just from my own experiance, I recently went from a gemini running 170mm rear travel, so a wildcard running 130mm, so a bit smaller than the mega. The angles are pretty similar. I found the gemini felt a lot more comfortable going down rough stuff, as the rear end was set up way softer, felt like you could just plough through everything (same shock on both bikes). I’m not sure how much a mega ramps up through its travel (might not do it much through design, with the air shock at the back). If you want to ride it up the hill as well, a mega’s not a bad choice. If you don’t, I’d go for something more focussed at decending

Funny you mention inners NW I saw a mega being raced at the SDA there yesterday and the Senior men’s Cat was won on an Orange 5. 😆

Aye, a Blood won one of the winter series as well did it not? I didn’t see the route for the SDA but someone was telling me they ran part of it down make or brake? Bit of a drastic change of direction after wanting to use the IXS course

What’s your idea of DH? Are you racing, or wanting to ride at race pace?

Not actual racing, just trying to ride down as near to race pace as I can to improve my riding and push my limits…. Oh, and trying to have fun too ;0)

to be fair most places in the UK proberly dont warrent a full on DH rig.
other than all the DH tracks up and down the entire country?

I wouldn’t really class a TR250 as a mini DH bike tho, just a 7″ travel DH bike.

I was expecting someone to shoot me down on that, however I think it really comes down to, yes there are many DH tracks up and down the country but most are very short (proberly sub 2.30mins).

Many suit more aggresive trail bikes as the DHs are tight and techy rather than long and very fast such as fort bill or some of the welsh tracks like MTN ash which i would say is a DH track where a DH bike is needed.

Its my own personal view on the question asked and from my experiences (used to race) I dont want to say that im right and you wrong beacuse everyone has there prefrences but I think the NP will do the job fine but proberly not at its best with the air shock. 😀

I’d say that so far, the only UK dh track where I’ve turned up and thought “I need a bigger bike” is probably Gethin.

I still rode it on my Banshee though, and had fun.

I do currently have an Elka coil on my Banshee so I could swap that over and sell the Monarch. I think they are the same e2e and stroke.

Boxxer do you mean sub 2:30 for Gee Atherton or the average privateer?
because I can’t think of anywhere other than the SE of the England in the UK that’s not within 2hrs of a 2:30 + track for anyone but World Cuppers. funny thing about DH bikes is you actually have to be a fairly strong/fit rider to be able to push hard enough to get the best out of them for more than about 2 minutes in a oner and if you’re not pushing them to that level anyway, yeah, you prob don’t really need one. 😕

I’d heard it has changed a bit but last time I raced Mt Ash, I’d gladly have had a lighter shorter travel bike as there were 2 horrible pedal fests in it.
There are plenty tracks rougher, steeper, faster and more difficult than Gethin IMO. but, yeah, there’s not really one you couldn’t ride a 100mm hardtail down if you really wanted to.

Cant really think of anywhere in the south that has any tracks any longer but obviously Wales and Scotland have some really long tracks for us mere mortals.

Didnt even realise mtn ash was still going, does anyone run uplifts there anymore?

shock is 200×57 Mikey74 🙂

cant comment miself,as ive only rode mine once so far 🙂

having ridden mine quite thoroughly in a proper test this weekend (lac blanc bike park), instead of the ususal AM riding I would have to say that it is rather spiffing. Slack enough, very manouverable, and felt amazing when it started pointing seriously down and techy. Stiff. With good forks it’s great. 😀

Not sure what difference coil would make out back, my monarch seems OK and it is kinda tricky to compare.

Had seatpost slammed for the weekend (dropper post pointless for DH only duties!), but at AM height in these piccies. It’s a large BTW, and I’m 6’4″ (just big enough. 😯

HTH!

Boxxer: That is the same size as my ELka. I might0 look into getting myself one 😀

mikey74 – Member

Not actual racing, just trying to ride down as near to race pace as I can to improve my riding and push my limits…. Oh, and trying to have fun too ;0)

Fair dos… Well, tbh it’s exactly the same sort of bike as my Hemlock and though it doesn’t always make things easy, it’s never give me any bother at all for dh use. But then I’m way off competitive pace and that’s not likely to change. I think it’s probably a question only you can really answer.

Well i managed to keep up with people on dh bikes down the rough stuff in whistler on my banshee so i`m use to handling a shorter travel bike on dh tracks.

I have 1.5 lyriks on mine
i reckon a 1.5 totem would make it a bikepark capable weapon of choice.
although NP dont seem to make an internal headset lowercup to keep the head angle roughly the same as it might be a serious chopper otherwise.
they seem to make one for 1&1/8 steerertubes though?

freeridenick

The head tube is 44mm on the mega, it would be impossible to make an inset headset capable of taking a 1.5 fork.

sounds like you’ve already decided? Whistlers not nearly as demanding on sus as a lot of trails elsewhere. If I was only using a bike to go down I’d have something bigger myself

Are you kidding? The Whistler bike park is a graveyard of bikes and parts.

I havn’t made my mind up yet, but the NP is looking favourite at the moment.

If you’re after a cheap 1.5 totem drop me a line!

Rusty mac – that will be why then! thanks..