Bike Check: The 'Boostmonster' Has a 300mm Marzocchi Super Monster T Fork

May 13, 2022 at 12:35
by Mike Kazimer  
The Boostmonster

Inspired in part by the exploits of the Ukranian vintage freeride scene, Jordan 'Boostmaster' Olthuis recently managed to track down a functioning Marzocchi Super Monster fork T and install it on a 2005 Norco A-Line. In keeping with the more-travel-is-better theme, Jordan also swapped out the original shock for one with a longer eye-to-eye and stroke length, bumping up the rear travel to 279mm.

Rather than hunting down vintage parts to complete the build, Jordan installed his preferred components to create a sort of hybrid retro / modern machine. As a full-time YouTube personality with a sizeable fan base, the project has provided plenty of fodder for content. I mean, who wouldn't click on a video titled, “We Are Building a Franken Monster Bike”?

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Hope Pro4 hubs laced to 26" DT Swiss FR 560 rims and a Shimano Saint 7-speed drivetrain.

Boostmonster
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Thirteen pounds and 300mm of travel ready for smashing. I can almost smell that bath oil from here.

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Adjustable travel used to be a much more common feature than it is today.
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Truvativ cranks with a Straitline chainguide.

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Chromag OSX bars, Hope Tech V4 brakes, and a Chris King headset.



Jordan even hired Andextr to do a suspension analysis on the bike in its current configuration.

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The geometry numbers are a good reminder of why current bikes have gotten longer, lower, and slacker – the reach of the A-Line is scant 365mm, and that's on a size medium. How about that bottom bracket height? At 423mm it's much higher than any modern bike, although there also aren't any modern bikes with this much travel.

Even with that 300mm Super Monster up front the A-Line's head angle is still a not-that-slack 64.5-degrees. That's a figure we're seeing on trail and enduro bikes these days – DH bikes are typically a degree or two slacker.
Geometry

Travel: 300mm / 279mm
BB height: 423mm
Wheelbase: 1228mm
Chainstay length: 435mm
Reach: 365mm
Stack: 637mm
64.5 degree headtube angle
Weight: 49 lb / 22.2 kg

I was around for the heyday of the Monster T era, back when everyone was sporting Dainese body armor from head to toe and hucking off absolutely anything. As fond as my memories are of that time, I'm also glad that things have progressed – I'm really happy I don't need a step stool to get on my bike, and that it doesn't weigh 50 pounds.

Still, it's great to see people like Jordan out there experimenting and trying different things. At the end of the day, it's all about having fun and goofing off in the woods, and this Boostmonster bike is certainly one way to accomplish that goal.



For more on this bike follow Jordan on Instagram and Facebook.




Author Info:
mikekazimer avatar

Member since Feb 1, 2009
1,719 articles

132 Comments
  • 279 6
 Hey @boostmaster let's do the Boostmonster vs the Grim Donut. Winner gets $200 worth of Tim Hortons, but has to eat it all in one sitting.
  • 44 2
 long vs big
  • 22 1
 Make it happen @mikelevy!
  • 13 1
 Dual 24s and then it'll be on
  • 18 1
 I will personally sponsor the $200 to make this colab happen.
  • 6 0
 @TrailFeatures: his personal main sponsor JordanJuiceMaster will sponsor another big amount thats for sure.
  • 78 0
 @brianpark haha YES!! Just let me put on the 24" wheels first.
  • 13 0
 @boostmaster: you boy need a 24” rear wheel, OG mullet bike and a slacker head angle!
  • 6 0
 I meant to say you ONLY need a 24” rear wheel…
  • 15 0
 Let Yoann pilot them.
  • 1 0
 How many Timbits does 200 syrup-flavored Canadian kopeks get you? How about American greenbacks? One large Timmy's coffee, cream and half a sugar, and approx one thousand donut holes? Delish! That's 24-hour-race fuel! Maybe some more coffees, but don't take away one single donut!
  • 5 0
 What’s second place? $400 worth of the Horton’s? And a double double?
  • 5 1
 This would be epic! Please make it happen
  • 2 116
flag EvoRidge (May 14, 2022 at 0:28) (Below Threshold)
 @boostmaster: ..well, where do I start...
There’s a reason you never see 300mm forks any longer and this video hilariously showed why.
1) On 90%+ of the riding he was realistically using no more than 200-250mm travel.
2) The kinematics (and frame) of the A-line are historically awful...maybe go with an old Canfield Jedi (high pivot idler) to have a huck bike that can still kinda pedal/trail ride/is reliable construction wise.
3) An incredible missed opportunity to mullet the thing, run a rissie racing inverted ‘Big Foot’ 300mm suspension fork with a custom made/tuned avalanche rear shock....I mean drown this project in money the proper way my dude
4) Old Saint cranks (165mm), my bro. What are you thinking
5) The entire tune of that bike was built for Hucks..575/600lb call it a day. You were so dang fiddly with the rear shock performing well...you need an old high pivot bike designed for quality shock tunes>>Canfield Jedi (all ‘em) if you want your valiant suspension efforts to come alive while riding mixed terrain.
Real deal

Okay okay..get the old 26Jedi, inverted 27.5” Dorado fork/wheel and somehow someway get someone to make it pedal assist electric/throttle, go fly to Colchester, England and have Sam pilgrim ride it till it falls apart. Pay him for a guest domination presentation ...something funny

oh and P.S. my dude...way to brush off how much dogshit your buddy ate. Head injury looked like and a severely busted up wrist? Nothing short of life changing...but here’s shots of us measuring stuff//It’s like your unremorse, monotone style has been what’s primarily earned you a fanbase>>how modern chić of you.
Tell him to look into Comfrey leaf&root and hydroxyapatite. Healing bone supplements.
Love ya
  • 15 2
 @EvoRidge: wow you can go f*ck yourself
  • 34 0
 @EvoRidge: you must be fun at parties
  • 12 0
 @EvoRidge: who hurt you?
  • 5 0
 @Narro2: Nick Clark Smile
  • 5 0
 @EvoRidge: what ever piece of shit you ride @boostmaster could kick your ass on a unicycle.
  • 1 11
flag EvoRidge (May 17, 2022 at 18:52) (Below Threshold)
 Butt-babies
All of you

I’ll show ya a proper dualcrown trail bike that can actually ride
I nit-picked your nit-pick project. And you wonder if I’m fun at parties? Nice catchphrase

Now go custom order that 300mm Rissie Bigfoot inverted fork you f*cking YouTube glamour girl...I love you sweet boost bby Wink
  • 3 0
 @EvoRidge: where can I get the Bigfoot?
  • 6 0
 @EvoRidge: You're missing all these great opportunities to shut the hell up
  • 1 0
 @boostmaster: www.risseracing.com/forks.shtml

Good luck reasoning with the unreasonable.
  • 98 0
 You may think the short reach and 26” wheels would negatively impact stability, but the extra weight of all the crap in your cargo short pockets helped even things out.
  • 6 4
 Underrated comment
  • 59 0
 Has you sittin like a freeride penny farthing
  • 1 1
 lol! I immediately thought the same
  • 49 1
 Doesn't look like a Session...
  • 5 2
 DISAGREE Wink
  • 40 0
 Bruh this thing looks absolutely preposterous. I love it.
  • 14 0
 haha Smile
  • 41 2
 This is awesome. Needs a ripped azonic loveseat!
  • 17 0
 And a lizard skin chainstay protector
  • 3 0
 And some Gatorbrake 16 pot brakes for the front wheel!
  • 3 0
 Roach Stem Pad!
  • 47 12
 Slava Ukraini!!!
  • 26 6
 Smert Putinu!
  • 26 0
 when your front travel is almost as much as the reach
  • 26 0
 Anti Pit Viper ad
  • 19 0
 Stoked to see a 17 year old VPS getting a bike check!
  • 7 0
 I had the Team DH version of this bike when it first came out (2004). Geo was whack for racing, even for those days. Then, Norco out-did themselves in 2005, releasing the Team DH with... A head angle that was even steeper (production error)! The '06 and '07 were good though.
  • 2 0
 @mammal: I had the silver '04 Team DH. Loved that bike. But you're right, the geo looks messed compared to modern DH bikes.
  • 17 0
 Dianese? Excuse me we were all on ROACH!!
  • 3 0
 Right, us regular folk couldn't afford the Dianese. I had some fox moto elbow guards I'd picked up for like $20, obviously not the same as a Dianese upper body suit, but the elbow cups and forearm plastic guards looked identical to those on the dianese my buddy had.
  • 2 0
 Hah, I forgot all about my old Roach pads! Basically just pinballed off trees the whole way down the mountain without a scratch.
  • 16 0
 Super Monster Fork T.....all your base indeed belong to us
  • 15 0
 69 pounds, 300 millimeters
  • 27 0
 Nice. It'd be nicer if it had 120mm more travel.
  • 17 2
 Thats what I tell the ladies
  • 1 0
 @danielfloyd: that's what I thought
  • 9 0
 I so very much miss my Super Monster. Sold it to a kid in the Ukraine years ago. Regretted it ever since. Just stupid fun to ride. I had it on a Karpiel Apocalypse and a Banshee Scream. It was pretty ridiculous. I would LOVE to try this bike out. I hope one day to get a hold of one again.
  • 4 0
 How did it actually ride and generally behave?
  • 8 0
 @joshdodd: the Banshee Super Monster setup was terrible. Way too slack, front end was way too high. You could loop out just leaning back. For straight drops and jumps, it was great. Just send it and it would save even the worst mistakes.

The Karpiel Super Monster was much better. Actually handled okay, you could actually ride it. Very heavy, very tall.

It was fun to play around on. Biggest issue is finding a frame to run it on. I will be surprised if this Norco lasts with the punishment he is putting it through. So much leverage on the head tube. Lots of guys ended up with Chris King steelsets with the longer cups to try to keep their headtubes from ovalizing.
  • 2 0
 There's a Super Monster T for sale on the BuySell page right now.
  • 2 0
 @spencer-funk: there is, but I don't think I want one for $5500 CAD!
  • 9 0
 This definitely needs a slo-mo huck to flat.
  • 4 0
 20 years ago I used to think I just sucked at riding, but looking back at the geometry it all makes sense.
Absurdly short reach, high bottom brackets and generally, much steeper head angles than this bike (sometimes 70 degrees)
High center of mass, tiny wheelbase. = Completely and utterly kinematically unstable!
Incredible that people used to race these things...
  • 1 1
 there was a video on here where some famous racer races his 10 years old SC V10 and the brand new one from 2021... guess what... the difference in time was like 10%


so all those geo numbers you are spitting out here is just a marketing dept that got in your head
  • 3 0
 @valrock: TBF Steve peat would be fast on anything and the original V10 were game changers when they came out
  • 1 0
 @valrock: 'some famous racer'
  • 1 0
 @hubertje-ryu: sorry bro, I am not obsessing about celebs
  • 8 0
 So much awesome
  • 7 1
 Great video content & a super nice dude. Stoked to see what else he comes up with.
  • 5 0
 I remember being a kid and drooling over these types of bikes during the Josh Bender era.

Speaking of, what the hell ever happened to that guy?
  • 4 1
 A bike website similar to but not Pinkbike did an in depth podcast interview with him relatively recently. Well worth a listen.
  • 3 0
 Back in 2020 just before we all went into lockdown he had a shuttle event planned in NorCal:
www.pinkbike.com/news/freeride-pioneer-josh-bender-launches-guiding-and-shuttle-company-shredding-with-bender.html

He also was a ride guide with California Expeditions, a shuttle company out of Georgetown, California, back in 2019. @BCpov rode with him:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYhm06pcDBM
  • 3 0
 Serious question: will DH start seeing longer travel up front or will it always be 200mm? Surely the faster you go the more an extra 20mm of travel could/would be justified. Isn't Nino running 120mm up front now, rather than the 100mm industry standard, and that's only cross country.
  • 3 0
 Use as much travel as you need. Some pros will also be running lowered forks. Jared Graves got third in the Worlds in PMB a few years ago on a 180mm Fox 36.

More isn’t always more!
  • 7 1
 Back in the day a lot of DH bikes had 240'ish mm travel but it's always come back to that 200'ish number (I think the current V10 is 210mm rear)

this is a good video on how much is enough by Vorsprung.

youtu.be/Inrf0MD8vHI
  • 5 6
 @Mfro: I Don't think it was the 180 36 that got Graves the medal #allyourheroesarejuiced
  • 2 0
 Vorsprung have a good video on why DH bikes have settled at around 200mm. Might be the how much travel do you need vid.
  • 1 0
 Probably not. You sacrifice pedalling efficiency, weight, and responsiveness with setups like this. Although, I would like to see someone slap a Super Monster T on a modern DH frame for fun. (It would probably snap the head tube, though)
  • 4 0
 Been following this build on YouTube, actually looks like a great bike regardless of age!
  • 4 0
 They are hope hubs not chris king Smile
  • 4 0
 The smell of Marzocchi open bath oil... will never forget.
  • 2 0
 Tell me about it - opened up my 66 last weekend to draw off some oil (level too high), and stank of it all afternoon! Will need to do a full oil change this summer - the joys...

Gotta love the sound though - squish squish! Smile Turn it over and listen to all the oil sloshing around...
  • 1 0
 @bmbracing: really.miss my old 66 wish I never sold it. It was so easy to setup and so reliable
  • 2 0
 @briain: Yeah hope it's reliable, it's my first proper high-end Marzocchi, only had it a year and not put a huge number of miles on it yet! Ridden other folks enough to love 'em (Shiver, 888, Z1 etc) but have only had a few 'lesser' Zocchis myself. Currently a 44 on the HT - ok for the price, but very basic. Z1 Wedge - spiked like crazy and eventually blew up. And my first FS in the '90s had an XCR up front - wonder if anyone remembers them? - crap, but probably not nearly as crap as the rest of the competition back then - upgraded the air springs to coils to make them less crap, but still crap... Razz Light though - very light even by today's standards, at the cost of breaking something if you went big, like a 2" kerb! But hey, having any suspension felt good back then, and it paved the way for the almighty '97 Z1.
  • 1 0
 Has everyone forgotten that Josh Bender and hucking off 60ft drops back in the day? He used these forks for a bit and I think Krispy did too?

c1.staticflickr.com/9/8045/8413803947_c31665c599_z.jpg
  • 3 0
 grim donut 3.0 with boost monster fork??
  • 2 0
 Definitely
  • 4 1
 yoooo my man Jordan finally made it big
  • 3 0
 Those numbers; reach: 365mm, weight: 49lbs. Seems like a lifetime ago.
  • 1 1
 that's urban freeride geometry
  • 3 0
 Can't wait for the Grim Donut vs. Boostmaster review!
  • 2 0
 @boostmaster check out the EXT Arma MX shock, should fit perfectly
  • 2 0
 Photo caption misidentifies the Hope Pro 4 hubs as Chris King.
  • 10 0
 Fixed. I must have had the headset on my mind when I typed that caption.
  • 1 0
 Chromax? Who they?
  • 4 1
 YEAH BOOSTY! Big Grin \m/
  • 1 0
 Josh Bender was on one of those when he gave us the pro tour of Silverton Mountain.
  • 2 0
 Should try and get a bender Karpiel frame with the dual shock
  • 1 0
 This is good shit. The anti squat blue line is actually the steepness of the hills required to exploit this bad boy.
  • 1 1
 You would have to set the sag to 100mm just to get the BB at a place that the bike doesn't chuck you over the bars on a piece of gravel.
  • 1 0
 Would be cool to have a guest on that could send this thing off a 20+ foot drop just for old times sake.
  • 1 0
 That bash ring comes in blue. What a missed opportunity!
  • 2 0
 Probably not anymore Frown Straitline is leaving the bike biz and just selling off remaining stock now.
  • 1 0
 beautiful and timeless shock absorber
  • 1 0
 That doesn't look like a Chris King hub...
  • 2 1
 Wow, I never even knew this fork existed back in the day.
  • 1 0
 Nostalgic made me really want to ride 26dh like the good ol days
  • 3 3
 wouldn't it be nice if dh bikes were modern long, 26", and 10" travel? they'd be perfect for rocketing through gnar
  • 1 1
 They'd be sluggish as hell. Good reasons the industry moved on from this stuff. I've ridden a Super Monster on 24's. Really weird feeling and would not want to ride it at a park.
  • 1 0
 @spencer-funk: 26" is optimal tradeoff between rollover and fun, let the racers keep the bigger wheels, i want a bike that's fun to ride. you'd also need smaller wheels for more suspension
  • 1 0
 I wanna see this on Aline
  • 3 4
 That's how you make a high-pivot. Screw all this idler shit. Check out that axle path!
  • 2 2
 lol true. look at all the haters, you post something factual, they hate. the world is completely mentally ill in 2022
  • 1 1
 @baca262: scope my comment above, haha. 90+ down votes telling this goof like it is
From one to another
  • 1 0
 Guess I forgot the sarcasm tag.
  • 1 0
 Dorp to falt era!
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