Words by Owen Taylor
As I write this, the elite riders will be lining up for qualifying for the 2026 Downhill MTB World Championships in Val Di Sole, Italy. They are preparing themselves to take on the infamous ‘Black Snake’, one of the most technically demanding downhill tracks on the planet; steep, rocky, rooty, fast and long. This year will be fourth time that the World Championships have been held here, and unfortunately I’m old enough to remember the first event, back in 2008.
As a 25 year old, my obsession with downhill was at it’s peak. I rode every day, trying to emulate the speed and style of the world’s top racers, captured in still life in my bi-monthly Dirt Magazine subscription. Seeing your favourite riders in action meant waiting for the next Earthed video to come out, but not in 2008. That was the first year of Freecaster TV, a free to view, live streaming service that showed all the mountain bike World Cup races live on the internet (crazy times!). We were able to see the races unfold live before our very eyes, complete with commentary from Rob Warner, and whoever decided to join him in the booth. It was fresh, raw, explicit, and the most exciting thing to happen to downhill in years.
As a fellow Brit, there was only one rider I wanted to win on that day; Steve Peat. I witnessed his heartbreaking last corner crash in Les Gets in 2004, and with Steve approaching the end of his career (we thought!), time was running out for him to get a gold medal at the Worlds. With only a handful of riders left to go, Steve was sitting in the hot seat, poised to take the win. The next rider was the on-form Sam Hill, the previous year’s winner who had been dominating the sport with his flat out, loose, moto-inspired style.
Sam began his run and he immediately looked fast and aggressive, drifting his Ironhorse Sunday around the tight turns, roosting dust from his back wheel. What would the first split be? 5.36s faster would be his reply. Now the track gets steep and technical, and as Sam skips effortlessly over huge boulders and gaps, seeming to float above the ground, he extends his lead to 6.35s. He exits the trees, only the final ski jump to go, then a short sprint to the finish. He lands the jump and sets up for the left hand turn. In typical Sam Hill style, he goes for the inside line, skilfully drifting the bike as the sunlight bounces off that polished frame. It couldn’t be more perfect…but then disaster. The Black Snake bit back, Sam washed out his front wheel, hitting the dirt hard. He climbed back on quickly but crossed the finish line in 2nd place, just half a second behind Steve. That would be one of the most iconic and memorable moments in the history of downhill mountain biking.
Fast forward to July 2026 and I receive an email from engineering consultant Dan Roberts, founder of Garage Bike Project, describing his idea of building an Ironhorse Sunday Restomod; A tribute to the bike that Sam rode on that day, reengineered to modern geometry and standards. The bike would be built using modern day equivalents of all the components that Sam used, around a custom made one-off frame. Straight away I got excited and after a chat with Dan, where we shared our memories and passion for the sport, I knew that Slik Graphics had to be involved.
The bike would be presented in Val di Sole in August, so with a relatively tight deadline to meet we had to get started, but the bike didn’t exist yet. Fortunately Dan was able to provide accurate scale drawings of the bike, so we began creating the decals based around old photos and existing designs. The main frame decals had to wrap around the top and town tubes, as well as negotiate welds and cable bosses. Along with the frame graphics, we were also tasked with reinterpreting Sam’s RockShox Blackbox fork and Vivid shock decals to fit the modern components. Working with DT Swiss, we printed a custom set of EX1750 decals to recreate those infamous white wheels, but this time in modern 29/27.5″ configuration.
With only a couple of weeks to go, Dan received word that Sam Hill himself would be attending the Les Gets World Cup the weekend before Val Di Sole. The opportunity of meeting Sam and showing him the bike was too good to miss, so everybody pulled out all the stops to get the bike finished. The moment Sam sees the bike is captured on film. It takes him a few seconds to realise what he’s looking at, but then the details become apparent. This is no reworked Ironhorse Sunday, this a custom made bike, designed and built from the ground up. The details are accurate, the construction is perfect, a meticulous recreation of one of the most decorated and adored bikes in downhill. Sam is quietly impressed, which says everything.
