I have already put in a review & at first THOUGHT Carrera Banshee bike was SOUND...be warned, i have 07 model & has constantly broke down...Don't know if latest model any good?...Wish i went back to GIANT...Also HALFORDS in STIRLING are a DISGRACE.

for the price, i think the Carrera Banshee Mountain Bike is very good well worth the money , sram gears are as good shimarno gears

i have a Carrera Banshee and it is a superb downhill mountain bike.

Solid bike. The Carrera Banshee has handled my weight (heavier than the average biker) very well. Others have failed me over the years.

I have always been a bit weary of Halfords own brand products, this however has been a really nice surprise.

I was looking to upgrade from from my Hardtail XC as I was starting to get into free-riding. I originally planned on getting a Kona Coiler or similar, but after a chance visit to a halfords store, I saw the Carrera Banshee Mountain Bike. I double taked as I read through the spec, and couldn't believe that I could pick this up brand new for £499. Not believing what I was seeing, I carried out some research online, bikeradar and a few other sites rated them, however there are a few mixed opinions out there.

I decided to go for it, the coiler was £999.00 and what with the credit crunch and all, I went for the cheaper Banshee.

First impressions were excellent, being a four bar linkage with 6" suspension travel, it is pretty bad at uphills, however after re-adjustment and re-assesing my riding style, you get used to it. It has a really laid back almost chopper style sitting position, which means that it loves the downhill sections, and boy it does!! Traction is excellent, it comes with Tioga DH 2.3" tyres as standard and the relatively wide rims make the most of the tyre width. The brakes are more than adequate, being Tektro Auriga Hydraulic jobbies, they do heat up on the long descents (as do most other brakes) and can fade (might be something to do with me being 17 stone and riding DH at 36mph), however for the type of rider this is aimed at, they are more than adequate.

I have now done over 200 miles of hard offroading, it has been a joy to own, and have only had a couple of problems which were dealt with under warranty by halfords. In short the problems encountered were:

1. Original rear wheel cone races failed ( standard wheels are pretty shoddy to be honest). However Halfords replaced with their "Bikehut XSD-3" wheels which are excellent.

2. Pedal axles bent (think this is due to me being a bit on the large side), I upgraded myself to DMR v12 copies.

One thing I will say, and this is only based on my experience at the local Halfords store, My experiences with Halfords customer services is pretty bad, they took three weeks to sort out new wheelset.

The bottom line is: If you want a credit crunch beating all-round bike (biased to DH) then this an excellent choice, and worthy of serious consideration.

Ive had this bike for less than a month but it already feels like the bike Ive had since I was a kid. It performs on both the road and the roots and I havent felt like Im out of my depth once. My last bike was an Orange downhill machine but i really would have this over it 9 times out of 10. I have put a fox clicker rear shock on it (personal preference) and a set of DH forks and it handles just as well as it did out of the box.
With bikes in this price range I am usually a little nervous of riding them too hard, but the Carrera Banshee Mountain Bike just inspires confidence and within a week I was tackling 5ft drop offs and rocky DH trails. The spec for the money is incredible, especially when you consider that the frames are built in the same factory Kona use, with the same quality of tubing and the same frame builders. Make of that what you will.
The only real grumble I have is that the back end can feel a little disconnected and the wheelbase is a little too long for jumping, but these are minor gripes as I have alrwady compensated for this and changed my style to accomodate.