Midweek Mini Movies

We’d have liked to kicked off this week with another bit of public safety but the only one we could find was a 15 minute long epic from the 1950s with kids dressed as monkeys and to be honest it just got a bit weird after a while, like a terrifying acid flashback crossed with a school zoo trip. Instead, get some more Joe Barnes awesomeness inside your eye sockets, it’s the Dudes of Hazzard pt 5. It’s got a bit of everything in it, bike riding, moto trials, tea breaks, the lot.

Paul Stevens sent us this after the Reuben Alcantara vid last time. We’ve seen a couple of BMXer Mark Webb’s edits before and they’re usually pretty amazing – backflips out of nothing, bunnyhop tailwhips, that sort of thing – but this is mental. The temptation to get a BMX and get horribly, horribly hurt while attempting to do lame tricks is becoming quite strong…

Back to bikes on dirt – it’s part 12 of The Atherton Project. We’ll do the wavy line thing and you’ll be back in time a few weeks with Gee winning the World Cup and then going to take second place at the Redbull Rampage. You’ll be more stoked than a steam ship.

Bearded media man-whore Ed Oxley has turned to pimping his lad Nial, who’s filmed here pinning it down some trails in a startlingly dry autumnal Hebden Bridge. Nial’s just started racing DH and he’s fast, he just really needs to stop wearing downhill jimjams. Stick to baggies and a T shirt, it’s the only way to keep any credibility unless you’re contractually obliged to look like a colour blind clown. We wonder how much longer Ed will be able to keep up with Nial at this rate, that’s going to be a proper changing of the guard moment. At least Ed can grow a mighty beard, he’ll win that one for a good while…

There’s no big tricks in this video, no banging soundtrack or much in the way of sweet air time but it’s our duty to keep things balanced in terms of wheel size, so after all the BMX stuff here’s someone riding a Lenz 29er on the North Shore. Poor guy must go through the seats of his shorts using the back tyre quite a lot…

After writing that the thought of trials on a penny farthing suddenly came to mind and this is the closest we could find, a man riding a penny farthing at Laggan Wolftrax. It’s only on the blue trail which is slightly unsporting. Do the black, never mind the plastic surgery bills…

The Story of XTR continues with the 2011 kit being put to test for the first time in BC. Did we mention we’ve got some 2011 XTR in now? We can finally do a head to head with SRAM XX to see which one is best for the money-no-object crowd. We still can’t quite understand how insanely expensive groupsets are so popular during a massive economic downturn but they must be, as they keep making them…

Let’s end on a note of grimness and suffering with a bit of cyclocross racing in the 1950s. People were tough back then, when men were men, asbestos was a good things to put in buildings, and what didn’t kill you would make you stronger rather than just cripple you for life. You get the gist. Stuff like the enforced river crossings really should be put back into races to make them the kind of joyless sufferfests that give you a warm feeling and deep sense of relief when they’re over, and not just because you’re so exhausted that you’ve urinated yourself.

If you’ve seen or made anything we really should be giving a wider audience (even if it involves a monkey balancing on a goat on a tightrope) then send it in to newdesk@singletrackworld.com and we’ll stick it up here next time…