Each year the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame inducts up to four new members who have left a positive legacy upon the sport. Nominees who have not been voted in are carried forward for three years, so no worthy candidate is passed over. The nominating committee is made up of industry, media and athletes, most of whom have been inducted, and this year they have made a concerted effort to streamline the voting process and reach out to ensure that the MBHOF continues to be an international forum of excellence.
Also good news is that voting membership is now only seven bucks US. The funds are spent on keeping the lights on, and the small fee also helps to keep the voting honest. Our sport is still relatively small, and most mountain bikers would be surprised by how influential your votes are. Check out the Mountain bike Hall of Fame's announcement below and honor your favorite nominees with your vote. - RC Did you vote yet?The Mountain Bike Hall of Fame is happy to announce that Inductee elections are now underway! Voting runs through midnight July 15, 2018 Hall of Fame Guiding Principles for Inductees
An individual (or specific individuals within a group) whose activities in mountain biking have made a significant contribution to the sport, having lasting influence on a national and/or international level. The MBHOF strives to ensure that inductees reflect the diversity of regions and activities in our global and constantly evolving sport.
The Hall of Fame Inductee elections are an annual tradition that dates back to the very beginning of the Hall, starting in 1988. Each year, members and inductees of the Hall of Fame choose their favorites from a ballot of select nominees submitted by people from all corners of the globe.
MEET THE 2018 NOMINEES Josh Bender Josh Bender, aka Bender, quickly made himself a name in the emerging Freeride scene in the late 1990’s. His name became synonymous for going big on a mountain bike, hucking off cliffs very few dared, at heights the sport hadn’t seen. With very futuristic bike designs, spectacular stunts and crashes, Bender became a household name in mountain biking.
More Ken Chlouber On August 13, 1994, with the deafening blast of the old double barrel shotgun echoing off the surrounding 14,000 ft. mountains, Ken Chlouber changed the face of mountain bike racing forever. Ken is the founder of the iconic Leadville Trail 100 Mountain Bike Race. He is a true pioneer in the sport of ultra-endurance mountain bike racing.
More Stan Koziatek In the year 2000, a rumor began circulating around bike shops and mountain bike races. A guy in New York had figured out a way to replace traditional inner tubes with a liquid that could seal punctures almost instantly, improve traction and control, and even make tires roll faster. On top of all that, the converted tires and wheels were lighter. It sounded too good…
More Steve Peat Steve Peat has had an illustrious career racing downhill mountain bikes that has spanned nearly 25 years starting in the early 1990’s. He had early success in the sport and has been a favorite with fans around the world. Hailing from Sheffield, England, “Sheffield Steel”, or “Peaty”, has always contributed and given back to the sport…
More Tim Neenan By now we all that know Mike Sinyard introduced the first widely accepted mass produced mountain bike, the ‘Stumpjumper’. But the man who actually conceived the bike, built the first prototype and convinced Sinyard to put it into production, was someone else entirely, a nearby framebuilder from Santa Cruz.
Tim Neenan’s Lighthouse frames were well known on the central coast of California when Mike Sinyard approached Tim in 1980 about the possibility…
More Tym Manley & Steve Behr Tym Manley was the first Editor in Chief and part owner of Britain’s first mountain bike magazine, Mountain Biking UK (MBUK), which has been central, for thirty years and counting, to the development of a British mountain bike scene focused on freeride and downhill and majoring in anarchic humour and fun. In the 80s, Steve Behr became obsessed by mountain bikes and applied his talent for photography to the early races and then to feature work.
More The Kennett Brothers Over the last 30 years the Kennett Brothers have completely transformed off-road riding in New Zealand by organising world-class events, promoting rides through their national guidebooks, building sustainable trails coupled with mass tree planting, and winning widespread support for mountain bike access. Their latest accomplishment is the organisation of one of the world’s biggest bike-packing events – the 500-rider, 3000 km-long, Tour Aotearoa.
More Derek Westerlund If there were one single person tied to every monumental moment in the sport of freeride mountain biking it would be Derek Westerlund. Part unsung hero, part mastermind and visionary, Westerlund has spent 25 years of years of his life pioneering the entertainment space in mountain biking and action sports. Sometimes in the shadows but always in the credits, Westerlund’s original British Columbia crew were carving a path for freeriding…
More
62 Comments
The time comes and the dude shows up with a crazy Karpiel bike with what looks like a moto fork on it and it weighs like 50 pounds.
He sends the wall, gets bucked OTB on the landing, crashes head first, and slides down the hill and into the parking lot, briefly unconscious if I remember correctly. The EMT’s load him on a stretcher and haul him off. As he is being carried off on the stretcher he gives everyone a thumbs up.
People had no idea what to make of this display of balls and seemingly insane behavior, calling this guy a fool, a nut case, etc, but I heard no one say they’d give that huck a go and no one volunteered to attempt a repeat.
In short, we thought he was nuts, and he seemed to be doing it all solo. That guy was Bender. As a racer focusing purely on speed, I too thought he was a crazy fool. I didn’t understand his vision. I couldn’t even imagine such a thing at the time.
I now have big respect for the man. He was a dreamer on a obsessed mission with huge balls who was a major part of the birth of freeride. He was thinking way outside the box. He deserves a spot in the historical record of our sport.
youtu.be/N0-OhKyqGz0
Send me $5 - yes, just $5 and you can vote for as many MTB legends as you like - any discipline; dead or alive. Hell, send me the $5 and you can even vote for yourself! I don’t care!
PM me for bank account details to make your transfer or send cash to:
MBLOF,
123 Four St,
Imagineryville,
England
1. those who are already part of the clique and want their buddy to join in
2. the subgroup of cycling enthusiasts who have the awkward fetish of keeping those lights burning in the MBHOF.
Makes me wonder
1. What does it matter who's in there if the inductees are chosen by such an odd subgroup?
2. Is that MBHOF even a physical hall that you need lights there? If not, then clearly describe what you're using that money for. I'd rather see it go to Share the Ride than some vague hall.
So since pinkbike takes a lot of cash, but you don't charge, can we assume that corporate donors are exerting pressure and influencing pinkbike?
Really though - if, in 2018, an organization can't find a way to make enough money to stay afloat by using website traffic and/or data from registrations, they're doing something seriously wrong.
Beer. Bikers like beer. Throw a damn party!
2018 is the 30 year anniversary? More like 5 years of it being in CA
www.denverpost.com/2013/09/04/crested-buttes-mountain-bike-hall-of-fame-moving-to-california
I bet they do work hard keeping that place running. Still, there has got to be 100 better to "keep the lights on" than by doing "pay to vote". For sh!t sake,they charge people to ride trails in Marin County, have some of that money (if they already do, than more) go to the HOF.
1. The goal where the money ends up actually influences who's going to vote. If the money would be used to make Velosolution build a massive pumptrack less than 5km from then oh yeah, I'd pitch in and I hope the rest of the world would too. But most likely the rest of the world would think differently and I can't blame them. Same goes for this museum. Whoever may like to have all this legendary stuff near home would pitch but otherwise there is no real point. Not to pitch in, not to vote. So that will give you a narrow subset of voters. Not representative to the worldwide mountainbikers population.
2. The whole thing about a museum like this reminds me of that Counting Crows tune, about a tree museum and a parking lot. I'd have been more likely to invest in keeping the mountainbike trails over there open for the existing community to keep building on the scene they already have (even if I'd not be likely to ever ride there) rather than invest in a static display of products not meant to be static. Of course legendary stuff needs to be on display. I get that. But then I'd rather see it in the right context. The companies like Orange and Commencal to proudly display their winning bikes. Yes these may not have a public museum (though most companies have their in house museum of cool stuff, just like recently shown from Cannondale here on PB). But to have their cool stuff so far out of context over there in Fairfax seems wrong.
3. As much as I appreciate what I'd call a local initiative (which to me a physical museum is) I don't like to see it funded by something "marketed" (there sure may be a better word) as global (the voting). As said here more often, we here as the audience indeed vote with our wallets. We buy what we like and make sure as little of our money ends up supporting something we really don't stand behind. As it is (right down to the concept of nominees brought forward by "insiders", friends etc) I just want to vote and by doing so, say I approve.
Now don't go silly about those seven bucks. I know what seven bucks is. I just want to use it for the right cause. I don't support PB as a "PLUS" member but I do support Eskapee.com for more than double what this PLUS membership goes for. Because I like what they do and I want to keep them going. Same goes for Cranked magazine (though it does actually get me a physical magazine too). Andrew Cho from GT and recovery of more than a few injured athletes, that's what deserves money from people worldwide. And much more than 7 bucks. That local museum, sorry not so much. And down with that goes the credibility of this HOF.
I would give the hof to stans. He did not invent anything, but he was responsible for mass tubless. i remember when he started to sell his kits on mtbr.
This year, I will pay the $7 and I will vote...for Bender.
Living now in NorCal I wonder how the HOF ended up in Marin instead of one of the several other "Birthplace of Mountain Biking"
How about we VOTE in the comments section?
I vote Josh Bender.
With the internet hacking going on out there, making it a pay-per-vote helps protect fake votes from being cast. They are just trying to take the vote seriously and raise a little money to keep the lights on.
Maybe Pinkbike should do an article on the museum and its curators to help people become aware.
www.denverpost.com/2013/09/04/crested-buttes-mountain-bike-hall-of-fame-moving-to-california
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