Its name has become synonymous with "big ride" on a mountain bike, tackling drops that very few have dared to: heights that had never been seen before. For this reason Bender came to use a 300mm fork (the Marzocchi Super Monster of which a paragraph is dedicated in the article). Many champions, like Cam Zink, have reported that Josh Bender was their point of reference: perhaps not for the technique but for the mentality and the "mood" he had in seeing Freeride.
There are those who define him as an innovator, who as a stunt man and who as a madman. For me it was a bit of all 3.
This brought a lot of media attention and raised the bar to a level where many were concerned about Josh's safety. His influence on sport, more precisely in Freeride, changed the way in which mountain biking was perceived by many: he also paved the way for the first Rampage and the direction in which the whole world of Freeride was evolving.
1999 - Bender begins to get noticed together with his friend and photographer Simeon Schatz where they take a photo of Josh jumping with a stock Specialized FSR on a drop of about ten meters: for the occasion he wore a military bulletproof vest for protection.
Josh and Simeon say companies were scared of this image at the time: they weren't sponsoring Josh for fear of bad promotion (and indirectly of broken bikes and components). However, a Utah film producer, Thor Wixom, encouraged Josh to travel to Utah to challenge the various natural “terracing” drops. Josh accepted and fell in love with the land so much that he moved.
THOR WIXOM DOWN FILM
Thor Wixom's small-release "Down" featured Josh Bender doing the huge (for the time) Jah Drop. This prompted the film producers of Freeride Entertainment to offer a deal: they would pay for Josh's airline flight and cover all necessary hospital expenses if he came to Canada and "raised the bar." The following spring they released “New World Disorder 1” with international distribution, showing for the first time Bender's enormous riding action around the world and influencing many young bikers of the time.
FALLS
The falls in Josh Bender's career have been many, so as to make one think that someone had an angel in heaven to protect him. However, despite the angel, the count of fractured bones is lost with the epilogue on November 14, 2005 where, attempting a drop, Josh Bender reports the fracture of two vertebrae, tibia and hip. After this difficult recovery, from which he emerges without problems, he begins to ride enduro, lowering his madness into riding.
Here is a video below that gives an idea of how tenacious Josh Bender was.
RAMPAGE
In 2001 the first Red Bull Rampage event was held. A real novelty wanted by Josh Bender. Ironically, Josh did not participate because he was hurt before the event, but he was part of the jury in an event that created so much media hype and, slowly, entered the collective imagination.
In 2003, Josh helped fund and open a BMX track facility in Virgin, Utah. To finance it, he donated the proceeds from the sale of his most famous bike, a radically modified Karpiel. A bike that gives you goosebumps just looking at it for the very “original” geometries and the technical choices put in place (in the paragraph below we will talk about the fork used by Josh).
Josh Bender had the vision to see that mountain biking could conquer much more challenging terrain and encouraged the sport to look at the terrain in a completely different way. Not to imitate or repurpose the BMX.
Marzocchi Super Monster T
Josh Bender was also an innovator in the choice of fork. The Super Monster Triple project was born in Marzocchi in 2002. It was an innovative product but certainly out of the ordinary. Just look at the numbers: 300mm of travel for 6,5kg of weight. The stems were 40mm and, for the time, an absurdity since it was the time where many rode (in cross country) with the 28mm RockShox Sid.
The technology came from the motorcycle world with Marzocchi Shiver hydraulic cartridges from MotoCross. Plates and bow entirely CNC machined from solid. Several freeriders have used the Super Monster T and among them we find Josh Bender, the pioneer of extreme Freeride.
The marketing of the Super Monster Triple lasted only 2 seasons, from 2003 to 2004, as the evolution has brought less extreme but more drivable forks.
KARPIEL APOCALYPSE JOSH BENDER
Karpiel Apocalypse modified by Josh Bender: all steel with 330mm of rear travel (two shock absorbers). He had a 300mm Marzocchi Super Monster fork made just for him, and it was so tall that he needed 24-inch wheels to compensate.
THE INFLUENCE OF BENDER IN THE FREERIDE WORLD
Here is a video that shows the influence that Josh Bender had in the world of Freeride MTB: many champions admire Josh for his vision.
However, not all that glitters is gold and Josh Bender's life has had many ups and downs, especially in private life. In this gorgeous article of bikemag. com, the problems he had, the alcohol dependence and the many injuries and head trauma are described (here thewe have translated into Italian).
If a Josh Bender hadn't existed, we would have had to invent it in the laboratory.
