Midweek Movies

Midweek Movies

by April 11, 2012 10:26 am19

It’s the middle of the week (already…) and it’s time for your midweek distraction from the daily grind.

Jon’s not here this week, so that means your viewing pleasure is going to be guided by Matt and Chipps. You’ll probably be able to guess who chose what.

First up, here’s a seasonally gritty tour of Gisburn Forest, giving a good idea of what it’s like to ride there, and a couple of lessons on what it’s like to crash there too… Suffering Supermans…

And now for some Queenstown NZ fun. You will probably have read with interest and a tiny bit of jealousy about this bike-friendly town in New Zealand. Touted as the Southern Hemisphere’s own Whistler, it has a yearly bike festival and here are two top entries from its film competition. They do nothing to dispel the rumour that this is a great place to live and ride a bike.

First up is ‘Through the lens’ by Jon TV… It’s all slow-mo, brown-pow FTW…

And now a more lighthearted (but still scenic) look in ‘Huck Wizard’

Back to Europe now and Molini Freeride sent this video in of some of the Diamondback/Rockstar guys doing some early season testing in the Italian sunshine. It features some great, steep village step riding, set to a very lame soundtrack.

The Tour of Flanders is known as being a hard, and some times dangerous race to ride, but it’s not even safe for spectators… Worth watching for the Flemish noises from the commentators. The rider, Langeveld suffered a broken collarbone.
http://youtu.be/Yns_kGBX9SQ

Here’s some UK racing for you and the UK summer races are starting up (whatever the weather) and we’ve been sent this taste of northern racing, Nutcracker style from the series’ first round in Gandale*, Catterick.

* No, he wasn’t the wizard in Lord of the Rings…

Here’s a homemade video from young Euan from down the road.

A quick Sk8 video in honour of Mr Matt here:

Late addition! We forgot to slip this one in earlier… It’s an amazing ukelele cover of Prince’s Purple Rain
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV3D-l7V_ys

And while we’re in the ’80s… How about Filipino prisoners dancing to ‘Thriller’?

Chipps

Singletrack Editor

Chipps wasn’t around for the dawn of mountain biking in the UK, but he likes to claim that he arrived in time for second breakfast (about the time he shows up for work, then…) starting in the bike trade in 1990 and becoming a full time mountain bike journalist at the start of 1994. Over the subsequent quarter century, he has seen mountain bike culture flourish and diversify and bike technology go from rigid steel frames to fully suspended carbon fibre (and sometimes back to rigid steel as well.)

His riding style is best described as ‘medium, wheels on the ground, trail riding’ though he’s been spotted doing everything from endurance downhill racing to 24 hour cross country racing. He favours mid-travel trail bikes and claims to be wheel-size, gear, brake and tyre agnostic. In fact, his garage spans most bicycle flavours, taking in steel hardtails, carbon trail bikes, even a mountain bike tandem, along with road, touring and gravel/cyclocross bikes.

While he’s happy to chat about bikes all day, his real interest is in the people and places that bikes can introduce you to and he talks as fondly about the trails he’s ridden and riders he’s met as the bikes that took him there.

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Comments (19)

    johnnystorm April 11, 2012 at 10:50 am

    I couldn’t watch “through the lens” beyond about 1:45, am I alone in being bored by slo-mo, “great memories voiceovers” and slow stirring music? 🙁

    chipps April 11, 2012 at 10:59 am

    It gets good about two minutes in 🙂

    wors April 11, 2012 at 1:11 pm

    The gisburn video with the camera looking back at the rider is really weird, in a good way!

    Ropey job April 11, 2012 at 2:03 pm

    I dig that ukelele playing, but I could do with more help from the Huck wizard 🙂

    Sandwich April 11, 2012 at 2:09 pm

    You aren’t subject to a hosepipe ban in your part of the world are you? Young Ewan may want to edit that if there’s one in place. Mr practical me!!

    chipps April 11, 2012 at 2:39 pm

    Nope, no hosepipe bans here. It’s still quite wet out…

    oxym0r0n April 11, 2012 at 2:42 pm

    Tour of Flanders crash… why do people always do that to bikes! They dash to the side thinking that you are going to hit them, like you’re not in control of your bike or something 😕

    mojo5pro April 11, 2012 at 4:59 pm

    The second crash at the end of the grisedale vid. The rider looked pretty hurt, was he ok?

    mojo5pro April 11, 2012 at 5:01 pm

    above post..meant Gisburn vid

    blades2000 April 11, 2012 at 5:45 pm

    It says in the Video “not everything went to plan, Sprained wrist,cut and bruised ribs and broken collar bone” Assuming its one of those injuries. Hope they are ok too.

    rcmark71 April 11, 2012 at 8:10 pm

    Not a fan of those chest mounted videos. They distort everything too much. Who’s riding the bike in the Gisburn video? One of the Harlem Globetrotters?! It even looks like the bars are on back-to-front.

    schbeemb April 11, 2012 at 10:42 pm

    Through the Lens … the build up music … then all hell breaks loose. Wow. I want to fly there now.

    Lancashire Kiwi April 11, 2012 at 10:52 pm

    JohnnyStorm, bloody hell jealousy will get you no where watch the full video and you will appreciate it for what it is. A stunning capture of the riding around the Queenstown and Wanaka area. If you ever get to that neck of the woods you will smile at every slow mo, full speed whatever type of shot as the guy is just revelling in how good a place it is to live and ride.

    satchm00 April 11, 2012 at 11:14 pm

    Oh man felt that on the Gisburn one in the last 20 seconds… ouch

    trailertrash April 12, 2012 at 7:21 am

    Sorry ,but the ukulele video is astonishingly good. The guy is a genius. I never manage to watcch the mtb vids all the way through but that was no effort.

    big_scot_nanny April 12, 2012 at 10:21 am

    agreed, I actually really enjoyed the Ukulele video, brilliant! Britain’s got talent?

    moocow76 April 12, 2012 at 10:35 am

    The guy on the ukele is tremendous. How does he get his big fingers wrapped around the neck so easily without fluffing a single note? Brilliant.
    The crash at the end of the first vid is wince-inducing.Hope he was ok.

    downhillsquirrel April 13, 2012 at 8:59 am

    check out the ukelele guy’s other covers – Down in the tube station at midnight – outstanding…

    timmys April 16, 2012 at 1:52 pm

    Damn! I believe the Huck Wizard’s alter-ego guided me on a heli-biking trip in Queenstown. If only I’d known of his superhero sideline I could have learnt so much. 🙁

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