{"id":926988,"date":"2026-10-09T21:32:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T21:32:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/926988\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T21:32:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T21:32:10","slug":"the-story-behind-kirsten-van-hornes-stained-glass-rampage-helmet-and-unmarked-bike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/926988\/","title":{"rendered":"The story behind Kirsten van Horne’s stained glass Rampage helmet and unmarked bike"},"content":{"rendered":"

For Canadian fans, Kirsten Van Horne was the story of Red Bull Rampage. On Thursday, the B.C. racer finessed the burly Utah cliffs to float onto her first Rampage podium, finishing third behind three-time winner Robin Goomes<\/a>.<\/p>\n

It wasn\u2019t just Van Horne\u2019s riding that stood out. Flashes of sparkling marble on her frame caught the bright desert sunlight and her sky-blue helmet stood out on camera. Those are both the work of another Canadian very quickly building an international reputation behind the scenes: Dylan Forbes. Forbes also painted Goome\u2019s winning helmet as well as a series of bikes for this year\u2019s Rampage for 2025 winner Hayden Zablotny<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To find out the story behind Van Horne\u2019s Rampage podium kit, we talked to Forbes about what went into the designs.<\/p>\n

The Helmet: Stained glass built for sending huge hits<\/p>\n

\u201cKirsten wanted to keep the mountains as a main theme this year, but keep it within the blue tones,\u201d Forbes says. \u00a0\u2018I\u2019ll be honest, I struggled with this one at first. She was sending me reference photos of the colours she had in mind, and then something clicked\u2026 stained glass!\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is a stunning look, with the mountains and skies of Van Horne\u2019s B.C. interior home laced together by streaks of gold.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis has to be one of my favourite paint jobs I did for Rampage this year. I\u2019m so stoked with how it turned out, and even happier that Kirsten loves it too,\u201d Forbes says.<\/p>\n

If there\u2019s one silver lining to not being a Red Bull sponsored athlete, it\u2019s got to be the complete freedom to get custom paint work like this. Better than another boring bull any day.<\/p>\n

The Bike: Marble simplicity<\/p>\n

As if the stunning helmet wasn\u2019t enough Van Horne rolled into Rampage on an unmarked, marbled white frame. Instead of hiding the lack of a sponsor, the Canadian\u2019s decided to highlight it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe bike was a different story. Kirsten didn\u2019t have a bike sponsor leading into Rampage this year, so she wanted to keep it simple with a plain white bike, no logos,\u201d explains Forbes, adding with a laugh \u201cI had to do a little convincing to get the white marble in there. I think it was worth it!\u201d<\/p>\n

Hopefully after her success in Utah, Van Horne will need to get Forbes to paint up a new frame. Someone sign Van Horne, now.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Van Horne, right, with another of Forbes\u2019 stunning creations for Goome\u2019s in the foreground. Bartek Wolinski \/ Red Bull Content Pool<\/p>\n

Forbes was happy when Van Horne liked his work. But even happier watching his fellow Canadian\u2019s incredible performance in the desert.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe went out and absolutely crushed it! Her riding was so smooth, linking together different tricks all the way down the mountain. Unreal to watch, and I couldn\u2019t be happier to see all her hard work pay off,\u201d says Forbes. \u201cAfter the event, Kirsten messaged me saying, \u201cThe helmet and bike didn\u2019t get scratched!!! Great success!\u201dI told her I wasn\u2019t too worried about the bike or helmet. It\u2019s such a gnarly event and, more than anything, I\u2019m just happy she made it through the week safely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo proud of you, Kirsten,\u201d Forbes added. \u201cI\u2019m stoked to be a small part of the journey and see you up on that podium! 3RD PLACE AT RAMPAGE. LET\u2019S GO, CANADA!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For Canadian fans, Kirsten Van Horne was the story of Red Bull Rampage. On Thursday, the B.C. racer…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":926989,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[445],"tags":[317675,49,48,635,318456,1700,35620,62722,104533,82],"class_list":["post-926988","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-2026-red-bull-rampage","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-cycling","tag-kirsten-van-horne","tag-mtb-features","tag-mtb-gear","tag-mtb-news","tag-red-bull-rampage","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926988","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=926988"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/926988\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/926989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=926988"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=926988"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=926988"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}