Chris Benchetler's Grateful Dead Inspired Art Appears on a Rampage Bike
If you’ve been hanging around the ski industry for a bit, you’ve probably noticed the grasp the Grateful Dead seems to have over it. Grateful Dead imagery like the Steal Your Face symbol and the Dancing Bears have made their way to outerwear and soft good brands to ski movie merch to hard goods.
Most recently, Chris Benchetler has led that charge with the colorful, psychedelic art pieces he’s created for his pro model ski, the Bent Chelter, and films like Fire on the Mountain (2019) which featured the skiing of Benchetler and several other athletes as well as surfing from Rob Machado all set to the Dead’s music.
Now, Benchetler’s art has made its way to the biggest stage in mountain biking, Red Bull Rampage. Many Rampage athletes get custom painted bike frames for the event each year, and the creativity, attention to detail, and art on the frames is always one of the coolest things to see come out of the event.
Oregon-based freerider Carson Storch debuted his 2025 Rampage bike today with none other than Benchetler’s art wrapping the frame of his Propain Rage. The art is printed on Ride Wrap, which is a protective film that gets custom tailored to a bike frame so it seamlessly blends.
The graphic is similar to that found on the 2026 Bent Chetler skis and that was displayed on the ceiling of the Sphere during Dead & Co’s residency at the Las Vegas venue earlier this year.
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Bentchetler’s art has made it’s way to Storch’s Rampage rig via his new film, Mountains of the Moon, which will premiere this fall. The film uses a similar concept to Fire on the Mountain of action sports, lit up by colorful LED’s and backed by the music of the Grateful Dead, and features freeride mountain biking by Storch and other athletes, along with skiing, climbing, surfing, and more.
“My 2025 Red Bull Rampage Rampage bike! So stoked on how it turned out. Artwork by the legendary Chris Benchetler to promote his new film, Mountains of the Moon that I am honored to have a part in!” said Storch in his Instagram post of the bike.
Storch’s bike is a meshing of the ski and mountain bike worlds and an example of how intertwined action sports have become. Storch was also on the advisory committee for Natural Selection Bike, as Benchetler was for NST Ski.
You can watch Storch and his Mountains of the Moon rig in action on Red Bull TV on October 18th and Mountains of the Moon is set to release later this fall.
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