Throwback Thursday: Kranked 5 Turns 20

May 4, 2023
by Mike Kazimer  

The freeride movement was in full swing in 2003, back when huge hucks and tall skinnies were all the rage. Kranked 5, filmed by Bjorn Enga, captures the time period perfectly thanks to a cast of heavy hitters including Tyler 'Super T' Klassen, Darren Berrecloth, Ryan Leech, Thomas Vanderham, and Andrew Shandro.

Looking at the footage, the vast majority of the big moves in this film still hold up, 20 years later, a testament to the skill of all the riders involved.

I was working at a small bike shop in Colorado back in 2003, and I remember watching the Kranked 5 VHS tape over and over again, dreaming about riding sketchy freeride lines, and trying to figure out how to make a trip up to the promised land of British Columbia.

If you've never seen it, or even if you’ve watched it hundreds of times, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show. It's a good one.



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149 Comments
  • 98 5
 No selfie speeches, no Gopro's on chin mounts and not an E-bike in sight, oh the Glory Days!
  • 25 7
 ...Internal Headset Cable Routing wasent even a concept
  • 5 7
 JFC! Kranked has been in the ebike scene longer than anyone
krankedbikes.com/pages/our-story
  • 2 1
 @threesixtykickflip: you don't know that
  • 4 2
 How sick was it that they were filming out of helicopters and now all we get is drones
  • 42 0
 1000% the reason I got way into biking. I watched kranked and went and took off my front derailleur on my xc hardtail, put on a chain guide and started "huckin my meat" off of every stair set in sight hahahahahaha!! This is gold, thanks for the reboot
  • 34 0
 I stole this off LIMEWIRE....sorry not sorry.
  • 8 0
 Your comment makes me feel so old... Time flies!
  • 4 0
 *shared
  • 31 1
 2003 I probably just got my Azonic Eliminator with a Romic shock and the double crown Marzo Jr. T that had 9mm QR dropouts. Talk about a flexy fork. And the shock seemed to destroy seals every couple of rides.
  • 3 0
 same lol.
  • 7 0
 Romics twin-tube shocks felt amazing when they worked and the seals didn't blow.
  • 2 0
 @dirtdiggler: Amazing? Lol. Fox had no damping but was most reliable, rockshox had no damping and were made of plastic, manitou shocks at the time were horribly leaky and unreliable. Romic had some damping but they were the most unreliable. None of them were amazing. That’s why I had to buy an Avalanche, they didn’t blow up.
  • 3 0
 @emptybe-er: At the time Avalanche was way too expensive and exotic. Romic was the poor man’s exotic shock. I think I blew the seals 3 times in a row before giving up and throwing the fox vanilla back on.
  • 2 0
 @dirtdiggler: They were expensive and up front and also heavy but definitely saved time and money in swaps/warranty. Even the Avalanche didn’t feel amazing just felt amazing to actually have controllable damping. Shocks just sucked back then.
  • 2 0
 @dirtdiggler: yup
Still have 2 & multiple springs
  • 1 0
 @emptybe-er: I agree with that! This is all relative to late early 2000's shock technology. I would take the cheapest Float select from this era over any shock from the early 2000's, coil or air. The only exception would be a custom tuned AVY.
  • 29 0
 2003 I was working in a shop and called Marzoochi to get a shop deal on a 888. They were out of stock so I ended up with a Monster T. I am still convinced that was the best fork I ever owned.
  • 2 0
 10 lbs and 7” of travel! I dented my stanchion cartwheeling through rocks and it didn’t even care.
  • 1 0
 So true...so true!!!
  • 4 0
 My 2002 monster t is with marzocchi mark now getting re-furbished
  • 2 0
 I miss my Jr. T. That thing was so buttery.
  • 2 0
 I am working on restoring my 2003 Big Hit DH with '02 Monster T and Avalanche DHR. Ultimate monster truck of a bike.
  • 1 0
 @FriedRys: Plz let us know!
  • 27 1
 I remember being most stoked for Super T's part because it was the year after he won Rampage. These were the golden years for Kranked, that's for sure.
  • 13 0
 Super T forever
  • 3 0
 @xTwoSnakesx: What is he doing these days?
  • 12 0
 @funkzander: 5 years ago pinkbike did an interview with him:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrKbQg8DpaI
  • 11 0
 @bashhard: maybe the best piece of journalism that PB has ever put out.
  • 4 0
 These were the golden years of mountain biking.
  • 20 0
 I'm here for all the early freeride fools. Fist bumps to everyone that remembers 24" doublewides, Gazzis and Kujos, Marzocchi Super Ts and Monster Ts, champagne Hayes, etcetera etcetera. In 2003 I was riding my Brooklyn Park Bike with a red Z1, original 24/26 mullet with 2.6" Gazzis on Arrow and Mavic rims, Brooklyn steel 5pc 4" rise bar. I worked at a bike shop that was THE Brooklyn Machine works dealer so they had two TMXs on the floor.
  • 15 0
 Bikes where not as capable but man the vibes with friends in the woods with your bike was unbeatable!
  • 19 0
 I might get some shit for this, but the vibe was better when there were just a few weirdos out in the woods, most trails were "tech" and you didn't have to queue up to drop in. The bikes sure are better now though.
  • 1 0
 @real-skookum: trails were't built with machines, but they sure as f*ck weren't all "tech"

in kamloops they mostly weren't trails at all, just 1-4 massive hits that you could sesh placed all over the city because the narcs didn't know what jumps where. The idea of Tech and flow trails didn't exist but it was the golden day of huge f*ckoff jumps
  • 2 0
 @real-skookum: sure was better when it was just a few people though and you weren't being yelled at for digging by some Karen on a 15k stumpjumper
  • 1 0
 @luckynugget: True. Definitely dependent on geography. That sounds great.
  • 8 0
 Awesome, Kranked 5! I almost Forgot how important those vids (Kranked(s), Chainsmoke(s), the Down(s) were to my personal freeride progression. I was on a .243 DH steel (8lb) frame w/ 21" top tube, Rock Shox Psylo fork w/ U-turn tech. Race Face Northshore cranks with ISIS BB, Azonic seat and pedals, Azonic stem, Azonic bars, Oury grips, Woodman hubs, Arrow rims, IRC Kujo DH tires, with Slime. Wow, 20 years!
  • 6 0
 .243s were sick! also the u-turn psylos were HOT for the time.
  • 8 0
 Any Kranked fan who hasn't seen this interview with Super T should check this out:

www.youtube.com/watch?v=MrKbQg8DpaI
  • 2 0
 I enjoy every time he says Kokanee.
  • 1 0
 "My greatest accomplishment in mountain biking was not dying."
  • 6 0
 I remember thinking back then that the way freeriding was progressing each year, I was sure that in just a few years that riders would be hitting 100 foot drops. Turns out this was just about as big as it ever got
  • 2 0
 SuperT got some serious balls..
  • 1 0
 @eric-w: Shouldn't there be an MTB Hall of Fame with sth like JoshBender prize for overall achievement and shaping the sport and hucking so hard that even after 20 years it seems incredible..??
  • 2 0
 @matheas: https://www.pinkbike.com/news/steve-peat-and-josh-bender-inducted-into-the-mountain-bike-hall-of-fame.html
  • 1 0
 @vesania: yeah! Thanks! Didn' know that, probably was in lycra riding road bike Blank Stare
  • 4 0
 I was riding my first 26" bike! A Trek 6000. With a THE fender, of course!

I've watched this movie so many times; still have a copy on the shelf here in my home office! The Ryan Leech segment was pretty eye-opening to me at the time. As was the bridge segment. So good!
  • 1 0
 Still have a good condition pair of THE fenders front and back matching
  • 6 0
 Would love to see more 'where are they now' info on some of these yesteryear riders.
  • 3 0
 I was in a phase where I had stopped mountain biking altogether. I am a tall guy and had gone over the bars so many times I swore off the whole sport after a decade of crashes. I was showing up to class with my face covered in bandages and dried blood, literally having to spend days on the couch after endoing and losing traction so many times. Man how slack HTAs have changed the sport for me!
  • 2 0
 No lie there!! I look at how tall, short, and steep these bikes were (Ntm how sketchy suspension and brakes were) and I am amazed I still have a face at all.
  • 3 0
 That era I was rockin the Rocky Mountain Wade Simmons Edition RM7 with the bright green flames with a Marazzochi Monster T on it. Loved that bike!! I literally bought it based on this movie and others like it showcasing Wade and that bike.
  • 2 0
 Damn this movie was so good. If you haven't seen it, do it. I had just got back into mountain biking after a 5-year hiatus(early 90s XC) and just opened a bike mag to Robbie Bourdon at Rampage. I have been riding ever since.
Super T segment was mind blowing at the time.
  • 3 0
 I was riding a Dirt Research Pecos hardtail which was a brand started by Tom Teesdale. I bought it in 1998. It had 3x8 LX, Sun CR18A rims, and a Manitour SX-R fork that I bought on closeout from Bike Nashbar.
  • 2 0
 I was on a 2002 Norco Shore, with a longer chain stay from the Team DH, making it slack(er) and low(er). The newly introduced "cheap" Boxxer Race that was the worst fork I've ever ridden. Bike had a dual ring with front derailleur that actually always kept the chain on, so just bash ring, no chain guide. Raced my first couple of DH races on that bike, and was hooked. Spent the next 5 years traveling around racing DH.
  • 2 0
 What a throw back. I had u-turn psylos on a hardtail I cracked jumping stair sets while working at a bike shop for cheap parts. When I finally got totems years later I swore you wouldn't be able to get a better fork haha.
  • 2 0
 This movie shaped my riding. I was 13 when it came out and remember being absolutely mind blown. The claw stomping that 3 drop on the Big hit is burned into my memory hell yeah
  • 5 0
 I was on a Big Hit with Super Ts.
  • 4 0
 24" rear ?

I was on a rockymtn RM6 with whitebrother upside down dual crown forks yeeeeowwwww!
  • 1 0
 @glenno: For sure. Bought a BETD kit to run it in 26" but sold the bike not long after.
  • 2 0
 I had a 2001 GT iDrive 3.0 that I flogged as if I had a Stinky. It somehow survived.
I explicitly remember that it was $1700 off the shop floor and I had to justify spending that much on a bike somehow.
  • 1 0
 2003 i had stopped riding gravity (had started at plattelkill in 95) in my shed was a schwinn straight 8 with a monster t and dual 24" which was a replacement for my gt lobo which had been stolen from the mtn...... i started getting back into it in 06 and had gotten a brandy new demo 9.......
  • 1 0
 Crazy!!! I remember going to that premier at Sea Otter that year. Kranked 5 paired with the Race Face UFC (Ultimate freeride challenge) where Matt Hunter beat Cam McCall in the finals, that was quite the combo! Im pretty sure I was on a Bullit...
  • 1 0
 Living in big bear CA riding Gary Fisher Sugar4+, still rocking spandex and racing cross country. I was downhill curious but the local park trails (snow summit) scared the bejeezus out of me and it was an intimidating scene not exactly welcoming to newcomers.
  • 1 0
 in 2003 I had just gotten my first mountain bike. Diamondback Topanga Comp, Hardtail with disk shimano mechanical disk brakes, LX drivetrain, and RS JUDY TT fork. Kranked 5 and Chainreaction 2 were the first mountain bike movies I ever saw, it was that year. And they inspired me to really push myself and do some dumb stuff.
  • 2 0
 Back in 2003 my ridiculously overforked Giant NRS frame crapped out and I got a Specialized Enduro which I rode for 15 years.
Nowadays most of the bikes in the movie are considered unrideable ... 26" still rules.
  • 1 0
 I had a cro-mo xc Merida hardtail without front derailleur and with suntour fork changed from 100 to 120mm, hucking stairs to flat. I remember half of my mates having forks bent forward on the steerer. And after those movies I bought a handmade noname cro mo hardtail likena dual racing frame and put a junior t 130mm with qr20 on it, the fork costed about a whole monthly income of my parents, I was putting every penny for a year to have a used one. Weight 17kg, felt like a battleship.... And after 20 years and about 18 bikes, and road cycling and full sus and 'downcountry' I'm ona a Banshee (dream from the early days, remember Bashee Morphine????) hartail, happy as a kid.
  • 1 0
 OMG 20 years... :O

So its also 20years this July since Dave Watson jumps the Tour de France.
www.pinkbike.com/news/throwback-thursday-dave-watsons-original-tour-de-france-road-gap.html

And filming for Kranked 5 sadly Tarek Rasouli broke his back. :-(
  • 4 0
 Banshees, Big Hits, M1s and Monsters.
  • 4 0
 And I am officially getting old.
  • 1 0
 I would have been riding a GT Outpost I bought in Kodiak, AK in '98 when my ship was there in drydock. Decent chance I was riding in another part of Alaska while in port on a different ship when this was filmed.
  • 1 0
 In 2003 I was on an '01 RM9 that I picked up for cheap at veloswap. Hands down the flexiest, worst pedaling bike I've ever owned. But it was really good for jumping off of stuff.
  • 3 0
 Just moved to a '03 Giant DH Team with Dorado from an '01 Kona Stab Primo with Stratos s8
  • 1 0
 I remember seeing this on VHS and I know where I was and who I was with when I first saw it. And everything was great but what blew my mind was Brian Leach on those railroad tracks in New West
  • 1 0
 I bought a second hand 00 model P3 that year, over the next few years a lot of parts broke and were replaced. I still have the bike, I never ride it but I can never see myself getting rid of it.
  • 1 0
 At that time I was riding a Balfa Minuteman hard tail with a Marz SuperT, racing DH and hucking off of everything we could find. Also around that time was when I co-founded ECMTB out here on the east coast. Good times.
  • 3 0
 In 2003,I was on a Balfa BB7 with a Marzocchi Shiver and 5th Element shock…good time!
  • 1 0
 The Kranked series was sooo good right up until about this time. In particular, Kranked 2 was hugely influential to me. After Kranked 4, they leaned into the Rage Rap soundtracks a little too heavily for my taste.
  • 3 0
 I was learning how to ride with training wheels.
  • 2 0
 Back in the days I just couldn't believe what Bearclaw just did in his part! Nothin but great memories.
  • 1 0
 Stinky, Super T's, 2.6 Gazzas on 521's, Raceface cranks double & bash, Hayes Mag's. Perfect for riding the shonky North Shore style skinnies we built in the local woods.
  • 3 0
 A sweet Santa Cruz Bullit. Powered by my legs.
  • 2 0
 I was riding a 2003 Giant AC. At some point I swapped the Z1 fork to a Super T which helped the 69.5 deg stock HTA a little.
  • 3 0
 Waaaay to make us all feel old as balls.
  • 4 1
 Marzochi monster Ts on a Norco hardtail
  • 1 0
 I was just a kid. My dad bought a couple Kranked DVDs, and we still have 'em! Watched this one several dozen times. The soundtracks bring me back
  • 3 0
 Where are they all now? That'd be interesting to know and catch up.
  • 3 0
 2003? Rocky Mountain pipeline, with a Bomber Z1
  • 3 0
 Claw's seggy changed my life
  • 1 0
 The first year I got a proper downhill bike! It was the black GT DHi with a Monster T fork. Such a great piece of machinery back then!
  • 1 0
 Thank you Pink Bike. & Keep it coming. Its gotta be good fro humanity if more people (newer to the sport than 2010 ish) need to see Tyler, Wade and Leech.
  • 2 0
 Dainese suits with a t-shirt! Style was all in the riding, not in the price of the kit. Love glory days!
  • 1 0
 I had built up a Snipes hardtail with a Jr.T 26F/24R 8 speed and my first hydraulic disc brakes from Hayes. It was the best of times.
  • 1 0
 2003...Kona Stinky deluxe, Fox vanilla rc coil, Marzocchi 66 light eta, Mavic en 521 wheels, narrow bars high stem, barely a clue, hucking everything
  • 1 0
 DORADO CARBON + DeLa Soul beats + descending alpine style trails = A DREAM in 2023..... the dorado was a dream when I was young, and today it seems the dream became true
  • 3 0
 Chris Glew. That is all.
  • 1 0
 Bring back that hair!
  • 2 0
 Jackson Goldstone on the trike.....
  • 11 0
 Nope, that's a different grom - Jackson wasn't born until 2004.
  • 2 17
flag cormacmcdonald (May 4, 2023 at 13:21) (Below Threshold)
 @mikekazimer: bro how do u just know that thats kinda weird
  • 1 0
 www.pinkbike.com/video/147106
  • 12 0
 @ilike01: some people can math
  • 1 0
 I was riding a 1999 Specialized Rockhopper full suspension. Still have it Smile
  • 6 5
 Back when riders were actually pushing the limits unlike now with the overhyped shredits.
  • 4 2
 Ridiculous statement.
  • 5 1
 @BenPea: Silence surrender monkey
  • 5 0
 It is interesting that bikes being more stable with 29” wheels hasn’t led to any progression from the freeride era. It all still holds up today for that reason, bikes had become more capable. Now bikes are just more capable of not falling over when ridden without skill.
  • 1 0
 @emptybe-er: yup
  • 1 1
 Overhyped? Sounds like you're just jealous
  • 1 0
 @emptybe-er: what do you mean? e-bikes can help you push them up a hill
  • 1 1
 @cedarlicker: what a pathetic stereotype to use as a burn. Get a life
  • 2 0
 2002 Norco Shore with Super Ts!
  • 3 0
 Where did the time go
  • 2 1
 I was on a rootbeer colored V10 with a Boxer and a bunch of Azonic stuff. My e-bike is now lighter than that rig was.
  • 1 0
 How were they able to do that without wagon wheel bikes and mile wide handlebars?
  • 1 0
 26 was KING, nobody was even worried about an inch and a half of wheel growth nevermind 3"
26wasn`t even feeling sick!
  • 1 0
 I was riding a Norco VPS-2(?) the one with the sick red and white Canada flag paint job!
  • 1 0
 What is the track that Andrew Shandro is riding next to the snow?
  • 1 0
 Pleasee @mikekazimer don't skip the featured pic... Thats POAT!
  • 1 0
 you know some of us are trying to get some work done today, lol
  • 2 0
 ya moms
  • 1 0
 I was about to turn 3 when this came out haha
  • 1 0
 I got it in VHS and dvd someday maybe worth couple hundreds dls
  • 1 0
 Vanderham great then, great now. Love his style.
  • 2 0
 Santa Cruz Bullit.
  • 1 0
 I wasn’t even born then.
  • 2 0
 lazy
  • 1 0
 Giant ATX One DH! I loved it and still love it!!
  • 1 0
 This makes me miss my ole SantaCruz bullit and monster T.
  • 2 0
 Shiver me timbers
  • 1 0
 kranked the revival should happen, same ethos newer riders and bikes.
  • 1 0
 No feeding off each other?
  • 1 0
 a road bike, haha. but strangely i was watching mtb videos at the time...
  • 1 0
 Banshee Scirocco mullet 26/24
  • 1 0
 More reasons to delete Strava.
  • 1 0
 SKINNIES!!! So much fun!
  • 1 0
 35:20 top
  • 1 0
 24 ain't dead! Lol
  • 2 3
 Respect to Kranked, but I think the NWD series started about this time and blew Kranked out of the water.
  • 2 1
 I wasnt Born
  • 1 0
 '03 Kona Dawg bby
  • 1 0
 mountain cycle shockwave
  • 1 0
 Ktm 380 sx Big Grin
  • 2 2
 MTBMX
  • 1 2
 Is that an Ellsworth?
  • 1 2
 What a fall from grace.
  • 1 0
 Remember the Nicolai Bmxtb Hardtail?
  • 1 1
 @funkzander: sex
  • 1 0
 @funkzander: My friend has one he uses for pumptrack. Great bike.







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