The Careera banshee is a good bike after putting my mongoose brawler frame on it with a profile backwheel and a ring piece,and 100 meter high bars

I like the Carrera Banshee, and have had mine for a year this Christmas. I have broken it a few times, but that's not down to the quality of the bike, it's down to my uncarefulness.

If you know about marketing, then you understand the premium you pay for a brand name. Carrera don't advertise much, don't have an overpriced team, and don't really have a name like Kona or Orange, that's why they're cheaper. If you so bothered about brands, take your Carrera to a spray shop, and get it resprayed...

I love this bike, I used to have a Kona Coiler, and it is pretty much identical.

After 50 miles my shifters packed up and the rear derrailer was sticky so I've replaced with xt. The frame and forks are the best I've had and, I've had Marin Mount Vision and i still prefer the Banshee. The bomber air forks are well up for big drops and hard trails.

pmj sumo

Not a bad bike, when i got it and after changing the Manatou Kingpin forks. Hayes 180 hydraulics, short stem 2.3 tyres, Asonic DH bars it's now and amazing bike. This bike now is a really good example of what can be done to a mass production bike if you have the will and your wife doesn't see the price!

Overall I think the Carrera Banshee bike is good value for money ( I got mine in the sale £365)
The spec from purchase is pretty good too. It does perform quite well no matter what your doing, light dh/free ride/ long xc I think is what the bike is built for and comfort.but defenatly not for dirt jump.
It will soak up light jumping as long as you dont land hard hehe!

The only problems are the forks. The seals on them dont last too mins and before you know it there is OIL EVERYWERE. Also there too soft for my liking. I upgraded to some 04 marzzochi bomber the bike is now compete.

The bike is a great bike and you can use it to ride pretty much any where, if you are a beginner i really recommend it to you.

I have a banshee and found after having it for a few months it became a bit annoying to ride, didn't feel nice, However, in my world 500 quid is a lot of money so i took it to my local bike shop and had it serviced, what a difference! I'm not one to slag off anybodys ability on bikes but 17 year old saturday workers at halfords aren't the best at building and putting bikes together. I live on the edge of 64000 acres of salisbury plain and have covered most of it and have only changed the tyres and pads twice. I think a lot of people are into big labels rather than getting miles done and lets be honest why spend three grand on something that gets filthy, wet and lives in the shed.
Happy bike riding.

I used to have a 1999 Kona Stinky which I considered to be the best bike in the world!! (I would, it was mine) However the arrival of kids etc meant I no longer had time for biking. Now the kids are a little bit older I decided to get back into it. A cycle to work scheme forced me to buy a bike through Halfords. I was in looking at Kona hardtails knowing that the budget I had would mean a full susser would be pretty poor. In the corner of the shop was the 2007 Carrera Banshee it looked very similar to my old stinky hmmm I thought. A few hours on the internet and I had found the banshee's frame was near identical to the 2001 Kona Stinky and various forums told me that Carrera's are now made in the Kona factory. So I figured that there is a chance that carrera are just using old kona designs (I could not confirm this). So I took the chance and bought the Banshee and I think I might be right, the bike is an absolute joy to ride, it rides and feels just like my old bike. I know frame technology has advanced dramatically since I was riding, but my riding ability has not, and the rocks/mud I ride on hasn't changed either. The bike has a few budget components such as cable discs, unbranded wheels, etc but as yet they all work, and work very well. On writing this report I have probably only done less than 10 miles but I have had a stupid grin on my face for every one of them

The Carrera Banshee is a reasonable entry level bike and its components reflect that. I've used it for down hill and also long distance dirt track riding with no problems. My one criticism is that i bought this bike to replace my old Carrera Kraken which i got in a sale for £280 a few years back and i don't think the difference is price is justified, but perhaps that is more because the Kraken was a great deal as opposed to the Banshee being too expensive. Anyway, its a good entry level bike and is serving me well.