When Finn Iles decided to throw all the modern technology away and ride a vintage downhill bike down Schladming, the results were hilarious. It looked like he was on a kids’ bike. Days later, Iles would go on to stand on top of the podium in Leogang. Riding a modern Specialized Demo 11 obviously.
Welcome to the 2000s
In a video posted by Red Bull Bike, Iles drops into Schladming on what looks like a late-1990s Trek. It isn’t. But it is the kind of bike many older riders would have lusted over. At the time it was cutting edge. Now it’s a museum piece.
“Oh my god. Oh my god,” Iles says almost immediately.
Things don’t improve from there.
“It feels like I’m riding on plastic.”
A few corners later he starts sounding slightly more confident.
“Oh, actually feel like I’m kind of ripping.”
Then reality returns.
“All I’ve been doing is bottoming out on everything.”
Suspension optional
The bike continues trying its best to eject him. At one point he loses his rear brake. Later he loses his chain. His forearms are pumped. The suspension is overwhelmed. The bike sounds like it is one hard drop away from becoming two bikes.
“Oh, my forearms. I don’t know what people did this.”
In an attempt to be fair, commenters quickly pointed out that downhill tracks looked different 30 years ago.
“The courses weren’t as gnarly as they are these days back then,” wrote one commenter. “They were gnarly just not as big and nasty.”
Others reminded younger riders that this thing would’ve been considered a dream build at the time.
“That bike would’ve been Cadillac back then,” another commenter wrote.
The bike was almost as interesting as the rider
The bike Finn Iles rode down Schladming wasn’t just old. It was a genuine piece of mountain bike history.
The brightly colored rig was a Katarga Alexander Wurz edition downhill bike, a model that dates back to the early 2000s. Katarga briefly appeared during mountain biking’s wild experimental era. The frame carried the name and signature of Austrian Formula One driver and two-time Le Mans winner Alexander Wurz.
Away from Formula One, Wurz was heavily involved in mountain biking. In 2000 he teamed up with Austrian rider Markus Rainer to launch the Rainer-Wurz.com mountain bike team.
A reminder of how far bikes have come
This is a reminder of just how far mountain bikes have evolved. One commenter summed it up perfectly.
“Dh was a full contact sport in these days.”
Another added, “I don’t know how people did this.”
Honestly, neither does Finn.
Still faster than the rest of us
Even on a bike that seemed determined to self-destruct, Iles still looked faster than most of us ever will on a modern race bike. Maybe that’s the lesson. It’s the magician, not the wand. To some extent…
A few days after surviving Schladming aboard a retro downhill bike, Iles lined up in Leogang and captured his second career World Cup victory. Apparently losing your chain, your rear brake and most of your suspension travel is pretty good preparation after all.