Readers’ Rides #7

Sometimes it takes a while for the industry to catch up with what riders really want. In my case this was a short travel suspension bike with the right geometry and toughness for aggressive freeriding, but well engineered to keep it light enough to be fun to ride!

First of all some transparency, I ride for Mythic Bikes here in England, UK. Mythic Bikes is a ‘sub-label’ of Vancouver based Banshee Bikes, its re-labelled to avoid a trademark conflict with the UK equivalent of Canadian Tire, enough said about that!

Having felt somewhat ‘overbiked’ in recent years, as Mountain Biking went through growing pains where overbuilt, big rigs ruled, I believe I have finally found the perfect little rig which suits my style of riding.

  Throwing down at the 2008 Esher Shore Showdown.

It’s really tough to find one bike that you will let you session the stunts and jumps, but also climb and flow the singletrack without feeling like you’re on a tractor.
 
Having owned two Screams, a Chaparral, Wraith, Morphine, Scirocco and Wildcard, its fair to say I’ve got some experience with the brand. I spent last season riding the mid-travel Wildcard, until we built up the short-travel (100mm) Rampant as a demo bike at Freeborn, and I commuted home one night on it out of sheer curiosity.

The next day, feverish plans were made, and within 1 hour Ihad found a buyer for my Wildcard frame, which paid for a short Rampant frame. The Rampant may be a little bike in terms of travel, but its got a strong heart and is really jam packed full of engineering and manufacturing details.

  Rob Cole’s Mythic Rampant custom build

Hydroformed 7005 front tubeset, ribwall rear tubeset, cold-forged and cold-form extruded components, all TIG welded and heat treated by the nice people at Pacific Bikes in Taiwan (these guys make other boutique brands like Niner, Astrix and Canfield, and not GT / Mongoose in case you were wondering)

The Rampant uses Mythic/Banshee’s own take on the virtual pivot suspension system, which their design/engineer Keith Scott tailored for each frame they produce. It’s safe to say that Keith is anal retentive about his work and he sweats the details. Having a Masters Degree in Engineering with a thesis in suspension frame design also helps.

  Steering setup – Thomson X4, EA-70 and Lock-ons

The Rampant frame comes in light, under 7lb including the Fox RP2 air shock, shock hardware and seatclamp, for both the short and long sizes (the short is a touch lighter than the long). The Rampant uses short, forged virtual pivot links, which rotate on IGUS polymer bushings, which are self-lubricating and they allows the use of lightweight aluminium axles. I rode my Rampant through some filthy weather over the Fall and Winter here in England, and the bushings /axles had no sign of wear, so the system definitely works!  

  Seating – Thomson Elite and Specialized Demo saddle

I only use Thomson seatposts, and their Elite 350mm was ideal.  A light but comfy chromoly-steel railed saddle from a Specialized Demo 7 bike that one of my customers gave me was the ideal match for the Thomson post, and it was white too! 

Race Face’s Diablous headset is my favourite tough headset for regular 1.125” head tubes. It’s well sealed, stupidly tough and the long cups gives great support to the head tube on bikes that get abused.

Up front I chose Rockshox’s awesome Pike 454 Air U-Turn for its light weight (4.5 lb with uncut steerer), supreme adjustability, 20mm Maxle, lowcrown-to-axle height and general burliness.  The lower crown-to-axle height allows me to use more of the fork’s 110mm-140mm travel adjustment range without ending up riding a wheelbarrow.

  Rockshox Pike 454 Air U-Turn and Diablous headset

Like the rear Fox RP2 shock, the Pike can be locked out, which makes road sections or smooth climbs on fireroads a breeze, especially when standing up.

To drive the bike forward, I chose Shimano’s SLX HT2 crankset, which has been their sleeper hit. You can hardly get SLX cranks for love nor money in the UK at the moment.  Shimano didn’t anticipate the huge demand for these.

The dual chainring / bashguard version is a little tougher due to the steel pedal inserts. SLX feels very similar to the Saint cranks I had the previous season on my Wildcard, but they are considerably lighter and great value. Unless you are leaping off cliffs on a regular basis, Saint seems like overkill.

For pedals, Syncros’s Mental Magnesiums were the perfect choice; I’ve used their Mental Alloy pedals for several years and found them very robust, light and stupidly grippy in all conditions. With the Rampant, I wanted to get even lighter parts on there, and being white in colour, the Magnesium’s were a perfect match.

For a chain device, I chose E13’s SRS MTN-X ISCG 05 backplate and combined this with their alloy Guide Ring in 38T as the Rampant is often ridden standing up.

  Shimano SLX HT2 crankset with custom E13 setup and Syncros Mental Magnesium pedals.

The rest of the transmission was a no-brainer: Sram short-cage X-9 derailleur, Sram X-9 shift pod topped off with a Sram PG-951 chain. You can’t run a front derailleur on the Rampant, but it seems to work great with a 1×9 setup so its not something I have ever missed.

Hubs are Hope Pro II, with the special option ‘screw-in bolt’ 135mm x 10mm rear and the 20mm front both in black, 32H drilling to suit Sun Singletrack rims in 26”, which I built myself using DT Swiss competition black double-butted spokes and brass nipples. The Sram PG-990 in 11-32T made sense and its got a trick red alloy spider which looks great with the Rampant’s red paint work.

Brakes are super reliable, 3-year old Avid Juicy 7s with Straitline levers, titanium bolts and Avid G2 rotors in 185mm front and 160mm rear; these gives great stopping power in all conditions, and with the pad contact adjusters allow fine tuning for tricks and stunts.

  Hope Pro II hub, SRAM transmission and Avid Juicy 7 brake

Working for a Specialized dealer (Freeborn), I noticed tire models on some of the higher end bikes, and got myself a set of their low profile Fast Trak Lk tires in the high-end ‘Control’ version which means Kevlar bead, dual compound and 2-bliss casing, ideal with tubeless conversion.

Once the Rampant was put together, I took it straight into the Esher Shore bike park and put it through its paces, its awesome having a 3 acre, 4km bike park behind the shop! After only a few minutes of riding, I knew I had made the right choice, and could not stop grinning for the rest of the week. I still get that grin every time I ride the Rampant, even just when commuting to work through London’s heavy traffic.   My buddy brought his digital scales up the shop a week later, and the Rampant scored 28.1 lb with pedals and the Fast Trak tires, which is about what I was aiming for when I built it up. 

  The Rampant non-driveside showing Mythic/Banshee’s take on the virtual pivot suspension system

Its definitely like nothing I have ever ridden, and I’ve had the experience of riding a couple of short travel bikes from other leading brands, only one of which used a virtual pivot suspension system.  The feel of the Rampant is simply…faster…faster!

I’ve found with the other short travel bikes I’ve tried, you have to run very high pressures in the shock to stop it blowing through the travel on drops and jumps, which makes it all a bit pointless as you might as well ride a hardtail. 

  Rampant in XC setup over a cold, wet, snowy winter

The Rampant has a very dialled suspension system which gives a surprising amount of grip and control for a short travel bike, and seems happy taking some big drops and nasty landings without flinching. It’s got low pedal feedback and the first half of the travel gives active braking before some squat is felt, which is nice going fast over tree roots or rocks.

The frame feels rock solid under power, when being leaned over in fast corners or when landing tricks off stunts and dirt jumps, which gives a razor sharp ride feel and boosts confidence no end. 

When you land a drop, or pump the transition of a dirt jump, it actually pushes the bike forward, which takes a little adjustment time if you are coming off four-bar or faux-bar bikes; on my first couple of proper dirt jump sessions I found it a real handful due to its small stature, light weight and tendency to boost all take-offs. I kept overshooting landings.

Session on the hip line at Woburn Sands, England, photo NRS

After some sessioning, I soon got used to the way the Rampant rides, and find myself constantly htting everything in my path, even on commutes home on the road; see a kerb edge, set of stairs or ‘something’ on the street and its got to be hopped, manualled or tricked, the only other bike I’ve had this experience on is my BMX.

  Downhill run at Woburn Sands – photo J&J

On the dirt it’s a hard charger and rewards you the faster you push it into corners and jumps.  It also has a beautiful feel for long manuals as the suspension sits just right in the manual position and the short wheelbase (41.5”) and top tube give a great balance even with 26” wheels.

Being a long-time BMX rider who is used to riding a little bike with a 75 degree head angle, I definitely feel at home on the Rampant as the fast handling lets me exploit my BMX moves, with the rear suspension doing more than just taking the ‘sting’ out of bad landings like on many shock travel bikes.

  Old School no-hander on the dirt jump step-up at Woburn

I wondered what the Rampant would be like on bigger terrain and spoke to Mythic / Banshee design engineer Keith Scott who spent a season in Whistler riding the hell out of a prototype Rampant. Keith basically told me it handled everything in the bike park with no problem, but the fast handling means you have to pay attention or it will dump you on your face. Definitely not a bike to ride when you are tired, he told me.

The Rampant is a keeper. Everyone that rides my Rampant comes away grinning, and its starting to get noticed in the Mythic line-up. It makes a lot of sense for skilled riders who like dirt jumps, bike park and slopestyle.  If you need a classification we would say it’s a short travel freeride bike or aslopestyle bike for a competitive rider. 

Happy trails!

Rob Cole
London, England

Is the Rampant enough bike for you?  In search of a short travel duallie that likes to get off the ground?  Talk to us here…