Downhill mountain biking has been littered with legends – Palmer, Vouilloz, Peat – but what about the bikes they rode? Can they be considered iconic too? We think so and here are seven of the most iconic, race winning bikes from the history of downhill mountain biking.
Honda RN01 G-Cross
No bike shook up mountain biking more than the Honda RN-01 G-Cross. It was a silver bullet shrouded in secrecy and designed purely to win. here at Dirt, we loved everything about it.
Honda was so protective of its gearboxes that they would be removed from the bike every night in case they were stolen. There is a video that shows it to be little more than an encased derailleur system, but the jury is out on how legitimate that is.
Unfortunately, we’ll probably never know for sure as the bikes were all (supposedly) melted down when the team disbanded in 2007.
Cannondale Fulcrum
Giove, Vasquez and Rockwell all rode these totally radical and innovative beasts in the late 90s. Three chains and four cogs make up the drivetrain, the fork was two leftys bolted together and each one is estimated to have cost over $20,000 to build.
The bike never made it to production and less than a dozen were even made for the 1998 season but we’re still drooling over it til this day.
