New build – Mythic / Banshee Spitfire

29.2lbs for mine, here’s the build:

Spitfire ano black frame (medium)
Fox 32 Float 150 RL QR15
Hope Hoops (ProII and Flows)
Maxxis Advantage / Crossmark tyres (2.25″/60a)
Hope headset
Hope stem (70/0)
Easton Lo-Rise carbon bars (685)
Ergon grips
XT brakes (180 / 160)
Saint shifters
Saint rear mech
SLX front mech
Raceface Deus XC cranks, Middleburn rings (22/36) and Blackspire bash.
Eggbeater SL pedals
XT cassette (11-34)
Superstar hollow QR Rear skewer
Superstar seatpost clamp
Joplin 4L seatpost
Selle Italia SLR XC saddle

I wouldn’t worry about the front end, I went from a med Cove Stiffee to the large Spitfire so a radically different set up. You just adapt your technique for getting the front end up and don’t notice it after a while. The long low setup means it’s utterly stable like a DH frame on descents and oddly enough really nice to climb.

here’s a mate

bigger

bigger

toons – that’s looking very nice indeed. Here’s a few of mine from today.

First ride on this frame, and it was excellent!

I spotted one of the Brethren on Saturday!

It was a grey one on the back of a car in the Kirroughtree car park.

It’s the first one I’ve seen in the wild 🙂

Can you buy them with different colour rockers as ive seen one of the brushed/dark grey ones with anodized red rockers before

Out of curiosity-

What size spitfires are you all riding, how tall are you and what were you riding before? Any other opinions on sizing gratefully received!

Cheers,

P

I’m 5′ 9″ with quite a long reach, and ride a medium Spitfire with a 70mm stem and a bit of layback in the post – this is spot on for me, although I do like a bit of stretch. My previous machine was an Orange 5 (18″) also with a 70mm stem and my other bike is an Intense 5.5 FRO (medium), this time with an 80mm stem.

Given the long, slack, low nature of the Spitfire, it doesn’t particularly lend itself to long stem lengths – plan to run something about 50mm to 70mm, with a decent width bar.

dlr – I don’t think you can pick and choose rocker colours (yet). There’s been some talk on the MTBR forum that this might be forthcoming, but I don’t think it’s happened yet.

Thats a shame as I do like my red bits heh. There was one on the MBR stand at the recent cycle show in London, that was teh grey with red rockers. They said it would be in the next issue but it wasnt, perhaps it will be in the one out in a couple of weeks.

I am thinking of a large one (18.5), my only concern is that the TT and front centres are quite long on them and thats my main issue with my current Zesty even with a 50mm stem. Are you able to measure the horizontal TT on yours (centre of stem to centre of post where it crosses) to see how it compares to Mythics figures, 23″/590mm according to the tech on Banshees site for a medium

Sure, I’ll measure it for you tonight – but as I recall the official figures were spot on.

If you check out the Banshee Forum on MTBR, there’s loads of size questions posted up there. It would be worth scanning through a few of the Spitfire threads for some sizing info:

http://forums.mtbr.com/forumdisplay.php?f=155

I spotted one of the Brethren on Saturday!

It was a grey one on the back of a car in the Kirroughtree car park.

It’s the first one I’ve seen in the wild

that was me! that makes two of us then.
twas a cracking day at kirroughtree, really felt like the spitty was built for that type of trail.

dlr – checked the effective top tube for you, 23″ exactly as it’s supposed to be. So now you can be confident that the quoted figures are actual figures.

Hi, thanks for that. Ive been through the mtbr forum before, quite a lot in there heh. The large is what I would need for the seat tube but the reach is just to long, Rune is an option but I dont really need/want that much rear travel

I am 6ft and ride a large Spit with a 70mm stem. The top tube does look long but when riding it feels perfect to me. The long/low set up makes the frame ride like a mini downhill bike on descents and the low bottom bracket is nuts through corners. This is not a mass produced bike to suit the masses though, it’s quite specialised and will not suit all riders. Like all the Mythic bikes, it really works best when being ridden very aggressively and hard.

I’m 6’3″, ride a Large with a 50mm stem. I bought a Thomson 410mm post, the 350mm that came with the frame was pretty much useless. dlr you could probably go for a medium with a longer post.

Im 6’3 as well but long legs hence why I would need the large to get full extension for normal pedalling but my worry is that the bike will feel too long in relation to my shorter upper body especially when dropping off things which is where I struggle at the moment. I think freeborn only have a medium built up but may see if thats changed and they have a large as they are only 30 miles from me. From what ive read it certainly sounds like what im after riding wise though, ie dh singletrack caining

You should be good on a Large, I have pretty long legs and it is the best-balanced bike I have had. The boy who designed it is around the same height and rides the Large.