Not sure if this has been posted before, but I just came across this vid of the Mammoth National Championships circa 1990. These guys were nuts!
Old School!
- Thread starter rideagainst
- Start date
ouch man . . .
that's the most retarded **** i've ever seen in my life......the funniest part is that they made more money than people do now.....
wow total waste of 4 mins of my life. can i have it back please.
although it was nice getting in touch with my roots.
although it was nice getting in touch with my roots.
Ride Kamikaze and get back to us.
Hey, I'm not saying it wasn't hard. Just wondering what they actually rode down back then, couldn't really see any corners or tight singletrack or tech stuff.
yeah liek the one missy jsut outright missed and went off a 20 or 30 foot cliff and broke her leg....dont remember year or anything, but think she was still riding for Cdale....there are some brutal wrecks on the kamikaze, I remember watching it on ESPN and a guy crashing so hard his helmet was removed from his head by the ground.
Damn...The crash like 97% through where the guy got messed up, and went up onto the hill on the side, then almost hit the person sitting there, before flying off his bike 15-30' back onto the road.
That was crazy.
1990 was a year after I was born. I started mtbing in in about 1996-7. After school, when I was about 8-9, I went up into the trails and fireroads of chairy canyon. I climbed up for 40min and then pedaled down the fireroads or singletrack as fast i could (w/o getting too out of control).
At the time, I had no idea about downhill racing or suspension. At that time, I was riding a Gary Fisher ridgid tyro (24" wheels).
About 4-5 years later, I got a bmx bike and sucked at it. Then, I got a freeride bike, a level betty with a Judy XL and a RS Superdeluxe shock (old school). Then, it broke and I got a Hardtail. I got a bullit recently and the hardtail broke soon after (Bjanga thinks the bullit was jealous...
).
Damn, sorry for my mtb life story.
That was crazy.
1990 was a year after I was born. I started mtbing in in about 1996-7. After school, when I was about 8-9, I went up into the trails and fireroads of chairy canyon. I climbed up for 40min and then pedaled down the fireroads or singletrack as fast i could (w/o getting too out of control).
At the time, I had no idea about downhill racing or suspension. At that time, I was riding a Gary Fisher ridgid tyro (24" wheels).
About 4-5 years later, I got a bmx bike and sucked at it. Then, I got a freeride bike, a level betty with a Judy XL and a RS Superdeluxe shock (old school). Then, it broke and I got a Hardtail. I got a bullit recently and the hardtail broke soon after (Bjanga thinks the bullit was jealous...
).Damn, sorry for my mtb life story.
i love watching the old school stuff. i think that the kamakaze run should still be races. i know its open and fast but damn if it takes alot of skill to get down the thing fast. also the wrecks on it are always classics.
i like this video.
i just don't understand why "slalom" looks like some sort of 3 stooges cyclocross.
i just don't understand why "slalom" looks like some sort of 3 stooges cyclocross.
reminds me of my first dh on blackcomb mountain (circa ~1989). the race started at the roundhouse & dropped to the blackcomb base primarily on the access road. course length was about 15k. can't remember if i was on the new (2") rockshox rs-1 yet or still running the rigid switchblade (on a hardtail with cantis of course). i do remember the full lycra gear (including lycra covered xc lid), no armor & spinning out my 48t ring, though. scary fun.
The Kamikaze was actually the first "real" downhill race (other than the grasroots ones held in Marin). They originally planned it as a mass start race, but realized that would mean certain death for some.
They also had the Ezakimak hillclimb (kamikaze backwards.. clever).
Even on todays bikes, that trail is still pretty challenging. Insane speeds, drifty corners, braking bumps, blind "no brakes" corners that if you hit the brakes, you will slide off a 30-50' rock strewn cliff.
It's a classic.
Three stooges is exactly what it looks like!
Two years ago they re-raced it at nationals (this year it was snowy and moved to Sonoma).
Tomac won.. again. Even against top world cup competition.
That is awesome.
There are more spectators at that dual than in present day.
There are more spectators at that dual than in present day.
So why are the guys running around carrying their bikes in the slalom races? I get it that it's probabally faster to get off and run around that little loop than it is to try and ride it and loose your momentum in a few spots, but the way it looks is more like cyclocross than slalom. I was about 12 years old when this race was going on, I read about it in magazines but I never saw the race. Someone tell me that this was the carnage and gag reel not the best of or highlights. I'd have expected a lot more skill from the worlds top pros. (Except on the Kamikazee, that's just nuts, anybody could crash hard on that one.)
I did the kamikaze a few times. The actual "racing line" was no more than 6-8" wide in most spots. As soon as you got off line, you were "in the marbles" to use a nascar term. You don't want to be in the marbles on a bicycle at 60mph. This is especially true when your left hand side is a 60ft, near vertical cliff.
There are plenty of corners as well. 50 mph, loose, switbacks without brakes. Long sweeping 55mph corners without brakes etc. Blind corners, in a tuck, on loose stuff, with a 60ft cliff to one side and nothing but snowfence between you and it. It was a hell of a race.
tomac
jumping in the snow in michigan i believe. if i remember correctly he's wearing workboots and a really ugly flannel shirt?
Speaking of Tomac, even with the crappy compression on that video it was super easy to pick him out in both the slalom and Dh footage.
Such badass style.
Such badass style.
yeah man with those whips and no footers I have so much respect for the old schoolers thats nuckin futs.
Thats frieken sweet! I kinda wish that I was racing during that era, I'm totally stupid, I would ride down that shiznit in spandex!!!
I remember the two up races on the Kamikazi. Think it was called the Eliminator or something. That was fun to watch. It became a match race to see who would take the front, as the second guy in second would stay there and jump out of the draft at the second to last corner and sprint for the win.
Was a lot more fun the first time they ran it because no one had figured out that strategy so it was crazy passing in and out of the corners all the way.
And Bob Seals racing down the Kamikazi on a beach cruiser with a basket on teh front, while wearing a speado and a helmet and nothing else. That guy was the last truly wacky dude in the business.
Was a lot more fun the first time they ran it because no one had figured out that strategy so it was crazy passing in and out of the corners all the way.
And Bob Seals racing down the Kamikazi on a beach cruiser with a basket on teh front, while wearing a speado and a helmet and nothing else. That guy was the last truly wacky dude in the business.
If only we could travel back in time with a sunday world cup and a set of 2.7 tires.
We'd be such pimps. Although losing a race would be seriously demoralizing.
We'd be such pimps. Although losing a race would be seriously demoralizing.
in 1990 I was 10 years old and went with my dad to mammoth for the first time. I rode Kamikaze on a specialized hardrock with a rack and saddlebags on the back and a white and neon green Etto helmet.
It was the first time I ever got my big ring spinning so fast that it was useless to pedal. We got to the bottom and and both my dad and I decided our hands were too tired to hit it again. The next time I hit Kamakazi I was 10 years older and had disc brakes.
It was the first time I ever got my big ring spinning so fast that it was useless to pedal. We got to the bottom and and both my dad and I decided our hands were too tired to hit it again. The next time I hit Kamakazi I was 10 years older and had disc brakes.
Yea, that was the "Rebok Eliminator" with TV coverage and everything.
Thats when the sport had big money.
Not only TV, they had helicopters to shuttle the winner back up to the start to keep things moving.
I remeber buying a really dumb pair of Reebok light hiking boots because Myles Rockwell wore then in a Cannondale Ad. They were saweet! I then won a seyvlor inflatable Kayak for winning a trivia contest at the Reebok-V/C booth at a national 2 months later and felt vindicated for my stupidity. Still have the kayak, and I regularly use it.
I didn't know that the ds participants were also required to
be drunk when they raced!
I know mammoth soil is loose I've went down myself but
these guys were stugglin'
be drunk when they raced!
I know mammoth soil is loose I've went down myself but
these guys were stugglin'
We've got that same ad at my shop!
Awesome post! I used to have that Cap d'Ail vid on tape, and i must have seen it so often that i still remember it shot by shot; got to ride the track the next year and loved it.
Worlds were in Kirchzarten in 95