They call it "Downhill" at the beginning of the film but this hardly resembles the style of mountain biking we are familiar with today. Although the roots of the sport go back to the 1970's, it wasn't really until a massive period of growth in the mid 1990's that downhill mountain biking began to look as we are familiar with today.
Even so this is definitely entertaining viewing, especially when you realise that some of these guys are riding full rigid, steel hardtails, (the elastomer forks of the day were pretty useless), which probably accounts for the insane out of control crashes the film focusses on in its entirety. Equally amusing is seeing how the riders fail to pull-up in time for the corner into the forest, (check 4:20). No hydraulic disc brakes here baby!
The best crash is at 4:45. That is GOLD!
The sport has certainly changed in 20 years, but beyond the technology and skill level it is fun to remember that in its essence downhill mountain biking is about people on bikes...riding stupidly fast...that we all then get excited about.
Nowadays this riding is called cross country!
