There’s a long tradition of one-off World Champs bikes for riders. It’s a nice little touch to give them a bit of extra motivation and to give their sponsors something special for the World’s biggest downhill race.
This particularly one-off bike was a bit ill-fated and is described by Nukeproof as “the bike that never was”. It was intended to be Sam Hill’s 2016 World Champs Nukeproof Pulse but never made the start gate, instead missing the race due to Sam’s injuries and subsequent switch to enduro.
The bike is based on Sam’s much loved 1996 Auburn CR20 BMX which was apparently his first proper race bike and happened to be made the same year Sam first raced Val di Sole. Rather than going for the classic national colours paint job, Nukeproof and Sam went for the Auburn CR20 tribute silver and green. Thanks to BMXMuseum for the image above.
Interestingly, Nukeproof say, Sam will be using this bike to “practice for World Cups”. Watch this space for more on that.
The back story:
” World Champs is that special event where we like to drop that little bit of extra motivation for our elite riders. Rather than going down the usual Australian National colours for 2016 we spoke with Sam and asked about his favourite bikes from yesteryear. His first proper race BMX came up- a 1996 Auburn CR20s. He bloody loved that thing! What better way to mark his return to ’96 World Champs at the legendary Val Di Sol track.
Unfortunately with a challenging few years after injury and struggling to regain full fitness; and with Sam’s hugely successful switch of focus to the Enduro World Series, this Pulse wasn’t able to break cover for the return for the 2016 World Championships.”
