Of the Banshee bikes that have featured on these pages before we’ve been impressed with their durability. This comes as no surprise given the master of smash himself – World Cup rider Adam Brayton – has driven said bikes hard to much success. 

DIRT ISSUE 132 – FEBRUARY 2013

Words by Steve Jones. Photo by Steve Jones

Banshee say the Rune is a bike that can handle anything – the bike you should be looking at if you could have only one. The Rune is engineered slack for aggressive riding although it features adjustable geometry from 65º to 66º head angle, and 13.4” to 13.9” bottom bracket. I’m wondering why there is a need for such minor changes, probably more to do with the wheel change option (from 26” to 650b), but there you go, it’s there if you need it by way of simply flipping some dropout chips.

Featuring a KS link (designer Keith Scott’s take on pivot arrangements), the Rune is a short link virtual pivot. Like many bikes it’s said to be lighter and stiffer than the previous design, with lower pivot loads and oversized fully sealed bearings. Banshee say it is considerably suppler in its actuation than the old VF4B design with more traction too – stiff and responsive with one–piece forged linkages. The Rune is said to come with custom tuned shocks, although I wonder how a bike’s suspension can work for both wheel sizes. Surely it can only be ‘optimized’ for one size? I put this to Banshee who simply said “the suspension anti–squat varies very little with the dropout change…so it’s not really necessary to make any adjustments for the different wheel sizes.”

We spoke to Holly at Cane Creek and she mentioned that they prefer the bike with the higher volume can on the rear shock, so we’ll be working on this and crucially we’ll be weighing up how much the change in fork length between 26” and 650b (about 20mm) alters the ride characteristics. As mentioned, the three types of flip chip provide the adjustability.

We’re pretty excited about this bike as it will give us a very real idea of the performance differences between the two wheel size options.

The frame is £1489.99 with a Fox CTD and £1574.99 with a Cane Creek DB Air.

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