Running my Phantom with a longer shock (190/50), Pike at 140mm, a -2 deg headset and in the slack setting of the dropouts.

Measured HTA is about 65 deg.

Love it.
More stable and capable than with 130mm fork and regular shock and no angleset.
Pushes the bike even more towards enduro. Loved it in the more standard configuration also though - was more nimble and playful, easier to lift the front etc. ...

(Complete specs on the previous page)

 

Running my Phantom with a longer shock (190/50), Pike at 140mm, a -2 deg headset and in the slack setting of the dropouts.

Nice. I've been wondering if long-shocking would balance out the 140mm fork. Did you have to use any offset bushings when installing your shock?

I took a few rides on 29 inch wheels, but now I'm experimenting with 27.5+ and dropouts in the steeper position. One ride but I like it so far.

 

My 2019 Phantom build:
Large frame boost w/ FOX DPS Kashima
FOX 34 120 boost FIT4 Kashima
Spank Oozy rims on DT Swiss 350
Maxxis DHRII 2.4
Straitline 50mm stem
Deity 780mm bars
ODI grips
Banshee headset
XT brakes w/ 203mm rotors
Hope collar
9point8 150mm dropper
SDG saddle
Raceface Turbine cranks w/ 32t ring
XT drivetrain w/ 11-46 cassette
KMC gold bling chain
Straitline Defacto pedals

Bike has been really fun to ride n looking forward to more ride time.

 

The raw just looks killer!

 

Short lived

Doing some maintenance today on the fork, spotted this. Is this bad? Underside of the top tube just behind the head tube (frame is upside down in the picture). I've never broken a frame before. No crashes on this one, normal mtb, fairly rugged though here in the Southwest.
I love the way this bike rode. Now what? Just throw it in the trash?

 

I'd drop Banshee an e-mail with pics, they might hook you up with a decent discount on a new frame. You never did tell us "the story" the original owner told you about the bike, but from the condition you said it was in and the fact it was resprayed.w who knows. What length fork did you have on it? Were you regularly hitting 3ft> drops on it?

Doing some maintenance today on the fork, spotted this. Is this bad? Underside of the top tube just behind the head tube (frame is upside down in the picture). I've never broken a frame before. No crashes on this one, normal mtb, fairly rugged though here in the Southwest.
I love the way this bike rode. Now what? Just throw it in the trash?

 

Thanks, I'll look into it. Worth a try, anyway.

 

Fo sho hit up Banshee. I had the same crack develop on my spitfire and warrantied it. Not sure what the backstory of the bike is, e.g. you the original owner? Good luck

Sent from my Pixel using Tapatalk

 

I sent them an email. Who knows, maybe they'll be kind. WTB sure treated me well when I cracked one of their rims; sent me a bunch of swag along with the new hoops. Some companies really want your business, and know that they live or die based on their reputation.

The original owner (a local firefighter, seemed pretty straight up) said he bought it raw and had it powdercoated. He claimed he rode it a couple times in the two years he had it, couldn't keep up with his buddies, hated riding uphill, put it on pinkbike, along with the fox 34 140mm. In the six months I had it, it got a bunch of miles. No big drops or big crashes, but some pretty rugged riding.

I'm beginning to see the value of legit sellers and warranties. Yes, it costs more but right now I'd be shipping it in instead of biting another bullet...
Looking at another Banshee, or for a bit more an alu Tallboy with lifetime warranty. Any thoughts? I suppose it would help to get out and try one...

 

When I was considering re-finishing my Phantom I asked about doing PC and was told it would have to be low heat, below 400F or it could affect the heat treatment of the frame. Being that I could not guarantee this, I opted not to and instead just stripped it and left it RAW with polish to keep the finish bright.

I sent them an email. Who knows, maybe they'll be kind. WTB sure treated me well when I cracked one of their rims; sent me a bunch of swag along with the new hoops. Some companies really want your business, and know that they live or die based on their reputation.

The original owner (a local firefighter, seemed pretty straight up) said he bought it raw and had it powdercoated. He claimed he rode it a couple times in the two years he had it, couldn't keep up with his buddies, hated riding uphill, put it on pinkbike, along with the fox 34 140mm. In the six months I had it, it got a bunch of miles. No big drops or big crashes, but some pretty rugged riding.

I'm beginning to see the value of legit sellers and warranties. Yes, it costs more but right now I'd be shipping it in instead of biting another bullet...
Looking at another Banshee, or for a bit more an alu Tallboy with lifetime warranty. Any thoughts? I suppose it would help to get out and try one...

 

Hello, and thanks to everyone that has been contributing to the Banshee Bike Forum.

I just picked up a 2014 Phantom at the end of the year. I had been riding vintage bikes - '91 AMP, '91 Valkyrie, '96 Flying V, and, last summer a 2012 Lynskey Pro 29 SS. The Lynskey was my first taste of disc brakes.

We move a lot, so, I ride what I can, where I can. My riding style would best be described as "apprehensive," in that I need to work on skills. Love climbing, but, feel no need to charge down boulders. I am 6'1", turning fifty, and weigh 192lbs with pack, gear and 2+ litres of water.

That all written, the Phantom has been a real treat and very forgiving. I have lots of work to do on my skills, but my fitness is not too bad I think. In fact, my first ride on the Phantom saw PRs over my Valkyrie and Flying V from a week before.

Here are the specs -

Frame- 2014, Large
Fork - Rockshox Revelation RTC3 130mm at 115psi
Rear shock - Rockshox Monarch RT3 - at 195 psi
Bar - Spank Spark 777
Stem - XLC 70mm
Post - Rockshox Rerverb Stealth with Wolftooth lever.
Cranks - Sram XO 170mm
Front chainring - AbsoluteBlack 32T oval
Shifter/Rear derailleur - Shimano XT
Cassette - Sunrace 11-42 10spd
Pedals - Hope F20
Wheels - Funn Fantom
Dropouts - 142 x 12 mm
Tyres - Front - Michelin Wild Rock'R 2 2.35, Rear - A rather tired Michelin Grip'R 2.25 (F/R tubeless at 28/31 psi)
Brakes - Shimano XT 785 M
Discs - Shimano XT 180 Front, 180 Rear

I really enjoy riding it, but, as I have not ridden any other modern bikes, I am not sure how much better it can be. I would like to get some new wheels and Fox Kashima bits on her, but, I am not sure if I would notice the difference. So, for the moment, I am just riding, working on skills and fitness, and trying to keep up on the maintenance.

It is just such a fun bike to ride. But, if anyone has any tips, or advice, like, running the 27+ dropouts with 29" wheels, I would be grateful.

Thanks again, and best to you all.

H

 

Welcome. They are great bikes, normally more bike than most can actually use One bit of advice I might give is if you truly are under 200lbs fully geared, then try dropping your tyre pressures some, those seem way high, although not accustomed to those tyres. FYI, I weigh about 180-185lbs geared to ride and with my Maxxis EXO 2.3" tyres on i25/i29 wheels, U run about 23-25 in the rear and 19-21 in the front. I'd suggest if your gauge you're using is accurate (i.e. a separate, not one on the pump), then try letting out a few blips/couple PSI and ride and see how it eels, keep doing that until you start to feel squirm or bottom out on the rim and then ad a few.

Hello, and thanks to everyone that has been contributing to the Banshee Bike Forum.

I just picked up a 2014 Phantom at the end of the year. I had been riding vintage bikes - '91 AMP, '91 Valkyrie, '96 Flying V, and, last summer a 2012 Lynskey Pro 29 SS. The Lynskey was my first taste of disc brakes.

We move a lot, so, I ride what I can, where I can. My riding style would best be described as "apprehensive," in that I need to work on skills. Love climbing, but, feel no need to charge down boulders. I am 6'1", turning fifty, and weigh 192lbs with pack, gear and 2+ litres of water.

That all written, the Phantom has been a real treat and very forgiving. I have lots of work to do on my skills, but my fitness is not too bad I think. In fact, my first ride on the Phantom saw PRs over my Valkyrie and Flying V from a week before...............................It is just such a fun bike to ride. But, if anyone has any tips, or advice, like, running the 27+ dropouts with 29" wheels, I would be grateful.

Thanks again, and best to you all.

H

View attachment 1242864

 

Many thanks LyNx. I will do as you have suggested and try it out tomorrow. Thanks again.

 

Specs changed again.

Long dropouts
Carbon rims with 46mm ID
Minion DHF 3.0 front, Vittoria Bomboloni 3.0 rear
back to stock shock
Pike 29+ @130mm

Words fail to describe how this rides

Thank you Keith and crew for creating such a versatile masterpiece of a frame!

 

Damn, that thing must feel Monster Truckish now, no need to be too careful with line choice Got any pics of those tyres on those rims? Thinking going from my experience with i39 rims and the DHF, that the profile is pretty flat on those i46 rims.

Specs changed again.

Long dropouts
Carbon rims with 46mm ID /Minion DHF 3.0 front, Vittoria Bomboloni 3.0 rear / back to stock shock
Pike 29+ @130mm

Words fail to describe how this rides Thank you Keith and crew for creating such a versatile masterpiece of a frame!

 

Got no tire pics at hand, but I can take some once I am back from traveling.

Maybe you can see a bit more of the profile here until then:

Above was only a test fit. Could not corner hard with the Minion in the back because of rubbing, so I switched to an Aggressor 2.5:

Have ridden the above setup in a park for one day and it was perfect. Was also concerned about the Aggressor being too stretched and not round enough, but it felt nice actually.

Now with the Bomboloni it is very monstertruckish indeed - messes with my head sometimes, but I will get used to thinking "damn I screwed up, I am gonna crash" in techy sections and then not crashing

Also hard to get my braking points right sometimes since I carry so much speed.

 

Built this up last week; thanks DirtMerchant for the nice sale on Banshee frames! I was looking to step into my first full-sus and one that wouldn't be overkill for trails in DC, which are mostly short, flowy loops without many drops or tech. I'm coming from a Canfield EPO, which has been awesome, and I'm strongly considering keeping it around as a back-up/fun hardtail. That said, all the parts swapped right over without any drama:

- XL Phantom frame, raw/blue
- Pike RCT3 @ 120mm with Debonair (lowered from 140 on the EPO)
- Monarch RT3 shock
- Mercury X3 Enduro wheelset
- Ikon 3C 2.35" front/rear
- Mix of XT and SLX 11-speed group
- Renthal Fatbar Lite
- KS Ether 50mm stem
- OneUp 150mm dropper
- Thomson seatpost collar
- Gobi saddle

Set the sag on the fork and shock but haven't had a proper ride yet. Immediately noticed the shorter stack height on the Phantom; the saddle sits a couple inches higher than the bars after adjusting to my inseam, which bugs me a bit aesthetically... but shouldn't be a big deal. Will be swapping out the Renthal/KS combo for 800mm Spank Spike bars/Spank Spike stem.

Will post back after shaking this thing down at Wintergreen over the weekend.:thumbsup:

 

Built this up last week; thanks DirtMerchant for the nice sale on Banshee frames! I was looking to step into my first full-sus and one that wouldn't be overkill for trails in DC, which are mostly short, flowy loops without many drops or tech. I'm coming from a Canfield EPO, which has been awesome, and I'm strongly considering keeping it around as a back-up/fun hardtail. That said, all the parts swapped right over without any drama:

- XL Phantom frame, raw/blue
- Pike RCT3 @ 120mm with Debonair (lowered from 140 on the EPO)
- Monarch RT3 shock
- Mercury X3 Enduro wheelset
- Ikon 3C 2.35" front/rear
- Mix of XT and SLX 11-speed group
- Renthal Fatbar Lite
- KS Ether 50mm stem
- OneUp 150mm dropper
- Thomson seatpost collar
- Gobi saddle

Set the sag on the fork and shock but haven't had a proper ride yet. Immediately noticed the shorter stack height on the Phantom; the saddle sits a couple inches higher than the bars after adjusting to my inseam, which bugs me a bit aesthetically... but shouldn't be a big deal. Will be swapping out the Renthal/KS combo for 800mm Spank Spike bars/Spank Spike stem.

Will post back after shaking this thing down at Wintergreen over the weekend.:thumbsup:

View attachment 1252319

Nice! I'd bet you're going to love it, and it sounds like a perfect choice for the trails you describe.

I've had 25mm riser bars on mine since day one, and my saddle looks about even with the bars. Course I do have shortish legs and I'm on a size medium.

Don't let these guys on here confuse you with talk of "middle position" for the dropouts, we only have two positions on the Gen 2 frames and I've gravitated to the slack one when running 29ers and the steeper setting when running 27.5+. We also get the sexy tapered top tube.

All in all looks like a great build, congrats on the new bike!

 

Solid looking build!:thumbsup:

 

Snuck in a quick gravel tide today to check out the shock settings. Very smooth! Also changed the white fork decals to stealth...

 

First real ride today. Lovin' it. Lots of rocky uphill here and this thing just ate it all up. Definitely easier on the body than a carbon hardtail! The big Ikons seem to be a nice fit for general trail riding.

 

So, curious, how accurate are your pics of the blue decals on the frame? Looking to pick get a new version Phantom and trying to decide on what colourway to choose and liking the looks of the blue decals in yours - always have had RAW finishes, but was maybe thinking of going for a full colour frame.

First real ride today. Lovin' it. Lots of rocky uphill here and this thing just ate it all up. Definitely easier on the body than a carbon hardtail! The big Ikons seem to be a nice fit for general trail riding.

View attachment 1252922

 

Beautiful bike. I rode mine at Thunder Mountain in MA yesterday. It's a lift assisted downhill park with a mix of gnarly old school DH trails and new school Gravity Logic built berm/jump lines.

I swapped my 29x2.5 wheelset on and flipped my axle inserts to low/slack. The bike handled everything I could throw at it and performed perfectly!

 

I took those with a Sony mirrorless and bumped the exposure up to compensate for clouds... so the blues are probably a tad lighter in the images than in person. I just installed a Spank Spike bar/stem combo, and Spank's blue anodized finish is pretty close as far as I can tell.

 

I'm really interested in this bike. The few professional reviews I've found have said it's not a very efficient peddler for a short travel bike, and it's a slow climber. This doesn't seem to be the experience of most owners though. Having no experience with ks link suspension, I'm not sure what to make of this discrepancy. Do you think the pro reviewers are maybe feeling the weight more than the suspension design?

 

https://www.bikemag.com/videos/banshee-phantom-2015-bible-bike-tests/

I still find this review pretty relevant and spot on.....

 

Nice, thanks! Don't think I've seen that one. So that reviewer seems to agree it's the weight and not the suspension that slows it down a bit. "She's big boned." That's pretty funny.

 

I switched over from an aggressive carbon hardtail and didn't notice the weight difference on my usual hour-long ride. What I DID get a sense of, however, was how much the hardtail was beating me up. The Phantom is smoooooooth.

 

Around the 2:18 mark: "It's the shortest travel, just shred it into the face of death bike on the planet". Haha.

These guys do seem to get this bike. I noticed the same thing as you, that most "pro reviews" were kinda lukewarm, but that most owner reviews have shown a lot more enthusiasm for the Phantom. You just gotta know what you're getting into, a super-fun but not big travel, fast but not light ripper that pedals and climbs well. In my amateur opinion.

 

We have definitely struggled with a lot of reviewers who seem unable to look beyond the amount of rear travel. Had one guy in Germany doing a review in full Lycra!! The phantom was just ahead of it's time, and only a handful of open minded reviewers 'got it'. Most of the rest compared to XC race machines and rode it so conservatively that they didn't even wake the phantom up. It is designed to be a great trail / al mountin bike that feels confidence inspiring while remaining efficient and 'in touch' with the trail for a fun ride.

 

I hope you have a picture of that German dude hanging somewhere! That's awesome. I think I'm starting to understand this bike. Sounds like you designed it to pedal/perform like a trail/all mountain bike. And the reason you went with short travel was for a more connected to the trail feeling than a longer travel, not necessarily for efficiency. I think what was lost on me was the context when the bike was launched. People used to complain about that disconnected feel with longer travel 29ers. I just haven't heard that complaint in a while, so I wasn't getting the problem it was trying to solve.

 

- double post -

 

I have definitely never owned an XC race bike, none of my bikes have ever weighed less than 30lbs, the Phantom with full 2x XT build, Trace, Pro4/Asym i29 wheels weighed around 31.5lbs. Yes it was not light, and yes I did use the compression switch on the shock when climbing long, smoother climbs, also when climbing not quite smooth climbs, that's why I bought a shock with a 4 position switch, so I could use it and have subtle adjustments to how the shock felt, but at no time would I say the Phantom climbed poorly, but then again I wasn't expecting it to jump up climbs like a 25lb XC wippet.
Sadly I somehow managed to crack the BB on it with a very nasty rock hit/strike 4 years in and am waiting on funds to replace it, the replacement will be another Phantom, the newer V1.1 Phantom before Keith gets antsy and redesigns it to follow the sad modern trend of too low BB, too slack HTA and too steep STA. Right now the Phantom is a great all rounder that you can pedal all day long on terrain from flat, to rolling, to long sustained climbs or nasty punchy ones and then absolutely slays the descents if you're willing to push it and not just be a passenger aboard.

 

Sadly I somehow managed to crack the BB on it with a very nasty rock hit/strike 4 years in and am waiting on funds to replace it, the replacement will be another Phantom, the newer V1.1 Phantom...

Man, I'm sorry to hear that, I hope you do get another one, and soon. As one of the original if not the original proponent of Phantoms on this board, your reviews and responses to questions and comments have been invaluable, to myself and many others. Props.

 

Thanks man, really do miss it, but have gotten a lot of skill and body work riding the rigid since AND really enjoy the challenge of it. Yeah, my Phantom was actually a pre-production, just like the Prime. The Phantom was exactly the bike I wanted, can rip anything you've the cahones to try, but requires you to ride the bike, not be a passenger relying strictly on lots of suspension, with just enough edge taken off that you can ride all day. Build two sets of wheels with 2 different sets of tyres and you've got a very capable XC bike and then a serious Trail slayer. Hopefully things will pick up and I can swing the new frameset before summers end and I hit the half century mark

Man, I'm sorry to hear that, I hope you do get another one, and soon. As one of the original if not the original proponent of Phantoms on this board, your reviews and responses to questions and comments have been invaluable, to myself and many others. Props.

 

So I decided I need to try this bike for myself and picked up an anodized black frame from Dirt Merchant. Wow! What an absolutely gorgeous frame. Pictures do not do it justice! It'll be a while before I get it built up, but I will enjoy staring at in the meantime .

 

Nice! I have the black frame myself, love it. I did recently add a couple red banshee stickers which brightens things up a bit, but I think the black frame looks sharp. (all my components are basically black with a touch of white, unintentionally murdered out).

Let us know what you're planning for the build.

 

Nice! I have the black frame myself, love it. I did recently add a couple red banshee stickers which brightens things up a bit, but I think the black frame looks sharp. (all my components are basically black with a touch of white, unintentionally murdered out).

Let us know what you're planning for the build.

Sweet. I bet that looks good. Going for a light trail build on this to complement my burlier 130/130 bike. Have just about everything except the fork. Thinking about a MRP Ribbon SL. Lightish and supposedly easy to adjust the travel from 110-130. Here's what I have so far:

Xtr 11sp shifter/derailleur with gx cassette
RF Next 760 bar
RF Turbine cranks
Xtr 9020 brakes
Dr swiss xm 1501 25mm wheels (29er)
Vittoria mezcal 2.35 f/r
Ks lev supernatural 150 dropper
Some fancy Italian carbon saddle

I'm the ultimate online bargain hunter so I got all this stuff cheap. Don't know what it will weigh but should be pretty reasonable. Can't wait!