I scored a Banshee Paradox frame last year to build as what I "thought" would be just my spare hard tail parts-bin bike that I'd have when my suspension bike was down or as a spare for friends. It ended up becoming my main ride all last fall until the end of the year with the arrival of my new full suspension sled. The damn thing rode so well, I ended up putting nice parts on it. So much for parts-bin savings, D'oh! I have owned many steel bikes and the Banshee has a better ride feel than most of them. As for aluminum bikes having a harsh ride I believe like most things this is relative. If you are big human and/or ride aggressively it is not going to be an issue. Hell, I will extend that point out to alloy bars. I've owned and ridden notable carbon bars with claims of more compliance, but none of them provided enough of a difference for me to use them on the regular. As such, I've ran Race Face Atlas bars since they first appeared.
May 26, 2023, 6:15 a.m. - Raymond Epstein
I scored a Banshee Paradox frame last year to build as what I "thought" would be just my spare hard tail parts-bin bike that I'd have when my suspension bike was down or as a spare for friends. It ended up becoming my main ride all last fall until the end of the year with the arrival of my new full suspension sled. The damn thing rode so well, I ended up putting nice parts on it. So much for parts-bin savings, D'oh! I have owned many steel bikes and the Banshee has a better ride feel than most of them. As for aluminum bikes having a harsh ride I believe like most things this is relative. If you are big human and/or ride aggressively it is not going to be an issue. Hell, I will extend that point out to alloy bars. I've owned and ridden notable carbon bars with claims of more compliance, but none of them provided enough of a difference for me to use them on the regular. As such, I've ran Race Face Atlas bars since they first appeared.