Content warning: Bagpipes.
Visit Scotland wanted a different way to show off Edinburgh, so got trials riders Ali Clarkson and Duncan Shaw to ride out to Arthur’s Seat, up against two freerunners (Johnstone Macpherson-Stewart and Robbie Griffith). The result is as believable as any Top Gear-esque this-vs-that race, but very well edited and entertaining, filled with astonishing tricks. Trials riding has enough outtakes as is, and admittedly this has fewer certified bangers and super-ambitious moves than you’d tend to see in a trials-only video, but with two riders attempting things simultaneously, the potential for outtakes is enormously compounded. The parkour’s pretty stunning too:
(No video above? Click here instead. Go on go on go on. Or if YouTube’s not working, try the Facebook version instead).
And like all good blockbusters, there was a behind the scenes crew working away to give up the back story and to ruin the magic of runners on pulleys and springboards and bikes with motorbike tow-ins and giant off-screen ramps.
Except there wasn’t. Unless you count a couple of inch-high bits of scrap wood and rocks used as occasional launch ramps. At best the behind the scenes video shows a couple of refusals, but it’s well worth a watch to see how low key and seemingly improvised it was. The passersby in the shots are literally just that, and the riders and runners just move round them on the way to performing flips and wheelies on wet stone, wet cobbles and wet marble.
Here’s the video. You should also check out Ali Clarkson’s channel too. Plenty of behind the scenes falling off on there.
Can’t see the video? How about here?
