https://m.pinkbike.com/buysell/1565612/

14 year old xc bike that had a habit of snapping head tubes back then iirc.

Can you hear the head tube whimpering?

I once saw a boxxer plugged in to a 00’s Spesh hardrock…

I bet someone can outdo that first pic!

Waits with glee…. 😁

Most inappropriate fork has to be Northwind’s upside down effort on his C456!

Pah! Amateurs!

That’s a hardtail with a foot of front suspension, right there folks.

3 inch tyres too…

Braap, braap (beaten by Tom by a matter of seconds! )

Bender probably deserves a mention too…

Ok, so you have me on size.

However, those frames are ‘sturdy’ built.

Skinny XC + Bombers = new teeth on order.

Bender total legend.

Clearly doesn’t understand dynamics in any way, but still…what a hero

It’s clearly time for Raleigh to re imagine the chopper.

Stick some BMX handle bars on that bad boy!

I’d love to try riding some of these up a bit of a hill….😉

IIRC, @wysiwyg of this parish had the evil, a long, long, time ago. Not sure about the super monsters though.

Any footage of these bikes being ridden off-road?

If you search josh bender on you tube you’ll see him riding/throwing himself off cliffs on that Karpiel.

A thread I started 6 years ago. 6 years!

Owing to the unique way this forum work, the original post is about half way down the page!

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/when-mtb-went-badthe-huck-it-years/

If you search josh bender on you tube you’ll see him riding/throwing himself off cliffs on that Karpiel.

He’s not very good is he….

Seriously though, watched a few vids. His jumping technique looks so awkward compared to today’s Rampage stuff and this must be down to the bike*. It’s heavy and seriously lacking in suspension damping, buckarooing him off most of the time.

Edit: *or its just him, after watching the vid below 😀

Back peddling faster than Theresa May on a 12 speed cassette.

Josh Bender was before I started watching mtb videos. Just watched this, LOL:

^^ Just watched that and to be honest (sorry!) hadn’t really heard of him.

After watching that (with the volume down) I have got to admit, he has balls.*

*Well, if they are still there…. he must have hit the top tube/stem so many times in that vid, his under carriage must resemble a pizza! Too much suspension really can be a bad thing from the look of it. Hat off to him though!

Unfortunately Josh ended up getting a bit of a bad rep. Mainly because he would happily throw himself off/down anything but he’d very rarely land it and I think it got to the point that many of his fellow pros thought he was making a mockery of the sport. I’ve always had the utmost respect for the guy and the fact he really didn’t concern himself with outcomes. He was probably about 15 years too early, but then I guess he’d just be going twice as big as everyone else is now.

Crikey – that video – one bloke ! Don’t know about balls , maybe a few loose screws.

Very brave and crazy imo.

It does him a disservice to say he wasn’t a good rider, he was, he was just going waaaay bigger than everyone else, hence more hits. There’s been an interview with him recently, can’t remeber where, but he definitely doesn’t come across as nuts in that, or he’s certainly mellowed out.

That evil is supposed to run a turbo fork!

I once saw a hardrock with triple crown forks and a 24inch front wheel to “balance” the geometry at PORC.

At the other end of the suspension silliness spectrum, I once saw a bloke in London pedalling a Specialized Demo 8 fitted with 3” travel RST forks.

That evil is supposed to run a turbo fork!

Deaigned for 180-200mm (I think, was a long time ago now). That’s a 300mm travel Super Monster T fitted to that one