Old School Throwback: 1996 DH World Champs

Apr 21, 2013 at 2:05
by Matt Wragg  
This weeks, it's some classic racing for our throwback. With Shaun Palmer making an appearance at Sea Otter, it seems a great time to relive his epic battle with Nico Vouilloz for the 1996 downhill World Championship in Cairns, Australia. As the commentator says, "expect to see speeds in excess of 55km/h!" Enjoy 17 minutes of a time when men were men, chainrings were large and Aussie commentators tried to desperately to sound enthusiastic about a sport that clearly confused them.



Author Info:
mattwragg avatar

Member since Oct 29, 2006
753 articles
Must Read This Week
Thank You For Everything, Pinkbike
75568 views
Pole Bicycles Has Filed for Bankruptcy
52503 views
[UPDATED] Final Elite XC Results & Overall Standings from the Mairiporã XC World Cup 2024
41958 views
First Ride: The Sub-$600 RockShox Domain and Psylo Forks
41773 views
Staff Ride: Matt Beer's NZ MTB Rally-Spec Ibis HD6
40200 views
Tree Root Pierces Harriet Harnden's Foot at Round 1 of the British National Downhill Series
37720 views
Review: Race Face's Era Chainring Uses Steel, Carbon, & Aluminum
27821 views
First Ride: Fox's New Transfer Dropper Post - Adjustable Travel, Up to 240mm of Drop
26431 views
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup

65 Comments
  • 22 0
 Anyone remember the ps1 NO FEAR downhill game ? It was based on those bikes .
  • 16 1
 I learned everything I need to know about downhill racing from that game, like throwing water bottles at people is a legitimate strategy
  • 2 0
 The only computer game I've ever owned.
  • 1 0
 pretty sure i should have been world rank #1 on that game
  • 1 0
 I still have a copy of it! Of course I can't play it on anything now...
  • 1 0
 Is he using Fixi handlebars!?
  • 5 0
 Throwing Water bottles was actually from Downhill Domination for the PS2 I would believe. Below that was hitting people with a branch
All legitimate strategies, of course. Wink
  • 1 0
 Dat nice V-Brakes...
Definatly you would not survive a "downhill domination" run in real live. Who does NOT do a quadruple 2000 feet frontflip every day?? That´s just my daily way to work lol
  • 1 0
 Ah that's right, the water bottle thing was the PS 2 game.......I always wanted to figure out how to hook up a game like that to my mag trainer. I would train way harder in the winter that way.
  • 2 0
 I put my PS2 and a small TV in front of my mag-trainer for the winter season. Just pretend you're in the game. It worked for me and it makes working out fun.
  • 2 0
 To relive the glory:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJADF4yH2bY
  • 1 0
 Cheers (ampa ) that vid brings it all flooding back
  • 1 0
 When's Downhill domination 2 coming out?
  • 1 0
 No idear .
  • 1 0
 Probably never, even though it kills me. Incognito (the developers) split up a long, long time ago.
D.D came out riding on the success/hype of early extreme Mountain biking. It'd be hard to sell such a game nowadays when kids just want Modern Borefare style games.
  • 19 0
 I bet the on-board camera weighed more than the bike.
  • 2 0
 lol that´s the "goPro Prewar"
  • 1 0
 epavichthesavage you are correct . NO FEAR classic . For the time the game was really realistic .hours and hours of fun . Making myself feel old now . MATT HOFFMANS 2 another game ps2 way ahead of its time bloody good games not like the crap you get now . Old fart rant over .ha haaaa old school rule
  • 5 0
 Rumors say, the world champs are coming back to Cairs in 2016 for the 20 year anniversary. Should be a much better track than Canberra. Hope Mick and Tracy Hannah are still there at their home.
  • 2 1
 I reckon stromlos good
  • 2 0
 Looks pretty decent:
vimeo.com/63622882
  • 1 0
 Stromlo is actually a lot better now there are three different options for people to ride the top part. You can hit the track used for worlds, the new rockgarden or the new jump section. Its a pretty good track and its fast in the top and the bottom.
  • 1 0
 True, it's much better now than when I went there about 5 years ago.
  • 1 0
 Yeah theres been a lot of work put into the track. I think they need to make a new bottom section that's full of rocks because its a bit weird how they have at most 1km of rocks then its all smooth and pedally down the bottom.
  • 3 0
 Wow, the sport has come a long way since then. Riders and their bikes are ludicrously faster now but those guys pushed it to the limit just as we do now. It would be fun to take Gwinn and his bike back in a time machine... People would go ape shit.
  • 3 1
 The bars would of been maybe about 600mm wide :-) who remembers the kamakazi downhill at big bear? I'd like to see that. 50tooth chain rings! Dh Judys 4inches of travel. Does john tomac still hold the speed record there? About 60mph
  • 2 0
 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammoth_Kamikaze
  • 7 1
 Palmer is a fucking animal.
  • 2 0
 I'm 14 so this looks alien to me. It's like looking at cars from the 1920s. I'm still amazed at the fact that they did those courses with those bikes. They really pushed there limits. I hope we still have a while till we reach the peak of dh bike design
  • 6 0
 v-brakes rulezzzzz :-)
  • 1 0
 That's what I refer to as the 'old days'. Started riding downhill in '98 on cantilever brakes, quickly got v-brakes. We had Bromont and Mont Sainte-Anne already running bike parks and hosting world cups in Quebec. There was much less people doing it.
  • 5 0
 check out bas de bever rocking the single crown bombers! boom!
  • 1 0
 I originally used to ride in the late 90s when riding still looked like this, then started again 2 years ago... So it was like stepping into the future seeing 7'' single crowns, slopestyle, Sam Hill, hydraulic discs as standard, rob Warner (racer turned tv personality), am bikes etc etc. One thing that hasn't changed is Steve peat!
  • 1 0
 True but for almost 5/6 years he rode for orange and got them where they r now.
  • 3 1
 at like 9:10 the guy has only like 100MM travel, and i think to myself, Do i really need 180 for the trails i do. I love seeing the old throwback
  • 2 0
 Big difference between a 100mm shock made in 2013 and one back in 1996 lol. I couldn't even imagine how noisy and clunky these bikes would feel going over roots, rocks, and ruts. Ill keep my 200mm thanks
  • 2 0
 Oh God I feel old... I still have a Dianese jacket just like the one Nico is wearing. 1996 huh? I don't want to do the maths...
  • 1 0
 And I had the same Fox elbow pads as Palmer, though they are long gone.
  • 4 0
 That jacket is nearly old enough to vote
  • 3 0
 "You can clearly see the importance of suspension on a course like this one," he says.
  • 5 1
 Somebody give me an Orange Five and a time machine.
  • 1 0
 Lol how bout i take my 223?? Smile
  • 1 0
 A 223 would be overkill and would only slow you down..
  • 1 0
 True. Id take a patrior with fox float 160s on
  • 2 0
 i rode and raced bikes in that era , 4inch,s of suspension , v-brakes and 2.25 tires , that,s downhilling when full suspension designs and the sport where in their infancy .
  • 1 0
 I'm pretty sure that atypically 'aussie' commentator is Mike Tomalaris (who is a road cycling/general sports commentator on our current SBS channel)
  • 5 1
 look at those bars
  • 2 0
 Napalm on the Infamous Intense M1 with a Rock Shox DHR with Magura DH hydraulic brakes , state of the art for that era !!!!!
  • 1 0
 SOOO rad. Has anybody here seen pulp traction? It's like this. Look it up, the whole thing's on youtube
  • 3 1
 Biking has really evolved since the 96
  • 3 1
 Nico looks like Justin Beiber in those shots
  • 1 0
 Being meaning ride this track. Supposed to be fun. Just have to watch out for wait-a-while vine.
  • 2 0
 They're actually pretty fast, considering the bikes back then.
  • 2 0
 watching wc downhill just isnt the same without rob warner commentating
  • 1 0
 The Old School Cannondale's...like them!
  • 2 0
 12:24 onwards !!
  • 1 0
 Thanks goathead that Wikipedia link was real good :-)
  • 2 1
 Yes i'm Looking at the bars,what's the special
  • 1 0
 The rider who beat Nico in 1995? Cedric Gracia of course!
  • 1 0
 There sure was a lot of pedaling.
  • 1 1
 this trail looks like a rough xc track of today lol
  • 1 0
 LOBO!
  • 1 0
 NOT A LOBO
Mike´s its a STS DH Carbon
I had one in 1998, amazing bike ¡ ¡ ¡
  • 1 0
 Needs more Rob Warner
  • 1 0
 Cullinan D......#69







Copyright © 2000 - 2024. Pinkbike.com. All rights reserved.
dv56 0.030144
Mobile Version of Website