Bargain Bin Banshee

buddy_club

Another cheapo build thread from me.
Picked up this Carrera Banshee for £50 from a mate who'd had it sat in his garage pretty much since he'd bought it and ridden it a few times and damaged it on the last time he rode it. Drive-train was pretty rusty and manky, one of the crank bolts rounded off, rear dérailleur busted (i cant even work out why/how), mech hanger bent and just all round in need of some TLC. Aim of this build is to keep the budget as far under £100 as possible. This will be an intro to riding full sus for me and maybe sell it on at some point (hopefully for a small profit)
First was to clean off cassette - full disassembly and clean. Same with chain and also crank-set. BB will need replacing in the not-too-distant-future but it will survive a little while yet. Removed the crappy SRAM shifters and dérailleurs. Going to be 1x8 drive-train so granny and big ring also removed. Turns out the rear shifter was busted also (god knows what happened to that) so will be converting to a full shimano set up front and rear - got an Alivio shifter free from a friend and looking to sort out a mech. Also ordered some cheapo eBay grips to replace the crappy slip ons the bike had had since new.
Anyway some pics of how it stands now (apologies i have none from when i first got it) :

buddy_club

Just picked up a set of El Guapo Ancho 760mm from the classifieds on here, also found an ancient Alivio RD which i will use to get the bike going then change as soon as i sort out something a bit better. Annoyingly i have lost the Deore RD that came off my VooDoo when it was swapped for XT. Would have been just what i needed

hantstooflat

Nice work...

Enjoy, my first MTB was a Banshee X and it did everything. You'll get fit riding it up hills though!

buddy_club

Currently rideable, got a bash guard and a shifter free. Running the really old mech but the drivetrain is pretty rough and have had to bodge a chain guide from the outside edge of the front derailleur. Its a pretty crappy setup and without the front mech the chain is thrown off the inside of the ring so i have ordered a new cassette, chain and narrow wide ring. Depending on how good the narrow wide is will decide on whether i use the bash guard. Also still on the lookout for a nicer rear mech, but the shifting from the Altus RD on there is actually pretty smooth considering its A) Very old and spent at least half of its life on a bike sat under a tree.

Riding it has at least showed me that im still not so sure on Full Sus, probably doesn't help that the rear end is much more supple than the front. Need to fiddle around with the fork settings not quite happy with them at the moment.

buddy_club

Well aside from fitting the new bars when they arrive - shes finished.
On-one ringmaster 30T, Shimano cassette 11-32 and sram PC580??? chain arrived this morning. Bought some crankbolts as well just so they matched the crankset and had a full set all the same colour!
Rides pretty sweet now the gears are quiet, messed about with the forks as well so they are more to my liking now. Not put the bash on yet, although i will do if the narrow wide isn't up to much without a clutch mech. Full test ride possibly to come tomorrow.

buddy_club

New bars now fitted - bike feels so much better with the bars at 760mm. Also bought a 60mm stem for it which well get on it in a couple of weeks after holiday. Bike's been thrashed a couple of times now at the local DH/Jump spots, all handling nicely bar a few creaks and groans coming from the crankset. Cant work out where its from, have greased pedal threads and ensured chainring bolts are all greased and tight. This bike is giving me more confidence to hit bigger jumps, and a few times now i've gotten away with things that my hardtail wouldn't let me get away with. Overall spend now is £115 now with new rubber. The Avid Elixirs are pretty poor compared to the Acera's on the Voodoo so ive picked up a bargain par of Aceras for £10 off a mate, they just need a bleed and then they'll be going on this unless the ghetto bleed i do on these makes a large improvement.