Pedal power or motor power?

If you pay any attention to the extreme sports world Red Bull has helped grow over the years, you may have heard of the Red Bull Hardline downhill moutain bike race. For the last decade, the world’s top downhill mountain bike racers have come together in North Wales, UK to bomb down one of the toughest, most technical single-track trails that exists.

Huge 90-ft (28-m) gaps, near-vertical 40-ft (12-m) cliff step-downs, rocks, ruts, roots, and usually wet conditions feature on the 1.4-mile (2.4-km) downhill course. Massive crashes, serious hang-time, and epic bragging rights are the reward for who can get from the top to the bottom the fastest.

But what’s faster? Pedal power or motor power?

In 2022, Jackson Goldstone set the blistering Hardline record with a time of 2:20.5 – beating second place by nearly seven seconds. He was riding a Santa Cruz V10.8 downhill mountain bike that weighs about 37 lb (17 kg) and makes 1 hp (human power) at the rear wheel.

Johnny Walker is a top-rated Hard Enduro dirt-bike racer who’s won too many events for me to list here. Saying “he’s pretty fast” at racing a dirt-bikes over tough conditions would be an understatement. He’s riding a 2024 Beta RR 300 two-stroke dirt-bike weighing about 235 lb (106 kg) and making 39 hp (29 kW) at the rear wheel.

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The difference between the two bikes is pretty monumental. The Santa Cruz mountain bike being a whole 200 lb (90 kg) or so lighter makes it incredibly agile compared to the Beta dirt-bike, but with only a twitch of the wrist, the Beta can accelerate in a way that no human-powered vehicle could ever match.

I don’t want to give anything away, so have a watch yourself. I found myself forgetting to breathe and tensing up the entire run. If you want to skip right to the run, it starts at the 5:43 mark.

If you’re really looking to get saucy, here’s a side by side video of the world record run by Goldstone and Walker’s gasoline-driven run just a few days ago.