Carrera Banshee

I purchased my Carrera Banshee from Halfords on-line, the bike was priced at WAS £579.99 but being a bike coming to be replaced you can save £145.00.
When I ordered mine there was a further 10% of online orders so I ended up with a brilliant bike worth £579.99 for £365.00.
Although I was sent a 19 inch bike instead of the 20 inch I ordered apparently this is a mistake on the website.
So if you order there is no actual difference being a suspension bike.

Bike specs: -

The bike frame is all mountain 6" travel bar linkage 19" aluminium frame
With robust Suntour Epicon 140mm travel fork with lock out.

This lockout system is a must if you need to go on roads as well as off road; this is due to the bouncing in the lock position for off road.

You need the bike to act as a hard tail on roads as it can be quite a handful if the suspension is to soft this can also be done for the rear coil to.

The rear suspension is X-fusion Glyde RL rear coil shock with lock out a robust set-up that gives you 5 inch of travel, a brilliant spec for a none pro bike.

The gearing system SRAM SX5 27 speed gearing with trigger shifters is soft and sublime and for a start tricky to fathom due to the 2 button system.
When you get topside of this the bike is a smooth dream to ride.

As for stopping with the large diameter and Powerful Tektro IO disc brakes with 180mm front rotor (non hydraulic) this stop you like running into a wall.
They are tort brakes but not to a dangerous uncontrollable level where you could hurt yourself they are probably the best idea for bikes in than last 15 years.

To get you moving and take the hammer of the offloading you would inevitably do on a bike like this the running gear Truvativ Isoflow chain set with powerspline bottom bracket allow smooth momentum to be gained from fractional effort.

This said for a 27-speed bike it is amazing how high and low the gears actually are; you would not off road in the highest gear as you reach what seems like supersonic speeds.

The wheels DDm1 disc specific rims with Tioga Factory Extreme tyres give you a classy look with strength and grip.

Granted you can purchase more bubbly tyres for offloading but this is a happy medium for road and off road, this bike if you so desired cry's out for tuning.

It would be easy being made at the same factory as Kona Bikes you can see the class of this bikes beginnings, You can do pretty much whatever with this bike given the price and the spec.

Although I'm not convinced you would need to as this bike is aesthetically pleasing a value price tough as nails.

Granted you can spend hundreds on replacing forks and tyres wheels etc but why would u need to if you see this bike you will see my point.

I cannot recommend this bike highly enough.