In Association With Calibre Bikes
Words: Hannah Photography: Sam Taylor
We’re waiting. Harry is up at the top of the hill, just out of sight. I am crouched in the void between the take-off and landing of what is to my eye, a giant step up, carefully out of the shot of Sam, who is tucked in there with me, camera at the ready. We are both out of the shot of George, whose camera is pointed at the air above the landing and the huge lander itself, where we hope that Harry will be deposited safely once he performs whatever it is he’s got up his sleeve. He keeps talking about wanting to ‘spin it’. He’s already done a superman seat grab. It’s a lingo I’ve been taking a refresher course in today here at Woburn Sands where we’ve been out on a photoshoot for two of Calibre’s bikes.
The wind gusts in the trees – you hear it before you feel it. And so we wait until Harry is happy. He’s already sporting a new scar just above his left eye, got when the wind caught him on a pump track and sent him flying into a concussion. I ignore the ache in my knees and the burn in my calves. Squatting a few moments in this hollow is a minor toll compared to what Harry incurs if he gets it wrong. And so, we wait…
Rider Led
Harry Gascoyne arrived at Woburn Sands in exactly the sort of small silver hatchback you might expect a 19-year-old boy to drive. It’s a bit battered around the edges and he proudly points to a new tyre fitted just the night before. Somehow all six feet something of Harry fitted in there, along with his Astronut dirt jumper, a selection of handlebars, track pumps, clothing and so on, plus his Line T3 29er on the roof. In line with Calibre’s desire for riders to replace and upgrade their components as they need, Harry sets about swapping a few bits around on his cockpit.
Sam Taylor is a freelance photographer who often shoots for Calibre and George Finney you may have encountered before in his role as talent and video editor in Berm Death videos on Instagram and YouTube. Today his official title is ‘Social Media Executive’. Though nothing about the word ‘executive’ suits him, at the same time I’m glad he doesn’t have one of those silly job titles like ‘Happiness Agent’ or ‘Stoke Captain’. Although it’s only Harry who’s riding today, they’re all riders and all have a strong sense of what will look good on camera. I’m here to see how they work.
Full extension, low pressure
Harry’s not in the game of just stringing tricks together into combinations for the sake of ticking them off. He wants extensions. I don’t mean an instant lengthening of his mullet – he’s looking to see if his arms or legs are straight, the bike fully turned, whatever the trick requires to look as good as possible. Harry started out dirt jumping and then started adding tricks to his repertoire. Despite still being in his teens, he notes that ‘kids’ today are starting out with the tricks, helped along by foam pits, airbags and mulch landers. He thinks you can see a difference. Dirt jumps give you style and add a smoothness that makes for a more watchable rider, and a polished finish in photos.
There’s every chance that Sam has taken your photo – he cut his teeth taking photos at races and posting them on Roots and Rain. There’s a lot more precision at play here than trackside. Sam is primarily looking for shots that show off the bike. Harry’s signature nac-nac is just about perfect for the purpose – bike horizontal, rider behind it, the whole bike is on display. Perhaps the only downside is that Harry turns to the right, so what you see is the non-drive side.
Trick Breakdown: Nac-nac
Sam likes to shoot a comfortable rider – and a safe one. Harry needs no encouragement on the safety front, strapping himself into a substantial shield of ankle, shin and knee protection. What started as a way of reducing the pain of clonking his ankles with his cranks when learning new tricks has become standard kit for every ride, even on a trail bike. All geared up, Harry does some warm-up laps. Sam keeps his camera in his bag – he likes riders to start the day just riding, taking in some easy stuff, with definitely no pressure to perform.
This ‘no pressure’ vibe will continue through the day. I get the impression that Sam might make a good couples counsellor if he decided to leave photography. It feels like there’s a relationship between Harry and Sam – talent and photographer. But it’s not one of organ grinder and performing monkey, it feels nurturing. On photoshoots I’ve been in, it’s all ‘ride here, stick your elbows out there, look fast, do it again’ or whatever. With Sam and Harry, it’s all ‘Do you want to, do you think you could, if you feel like it…?’. Perhaps that’s the difference between having talent who can ride a bike a bit, and talent who can ride a bike a lot and place it in any number of cool-looking positions in the air.
Showing off (the bike)
The shots that will show off the bike change from design to design. A shot that catches the bike from underneath can be really eye-catching if there’s a bold decal on the underside of the downtube – as there was on the old Calibre Bossnut. On the Line T3 Harry’s riding this morning, it’s all external cable routing. A sight for sore eyes for mechanics perhaps, but not the marketer’s dream. With the Line decals on the inside of the downtube, a different angle is needed.
Clothing is a factor too – both in setting up the shoot for success, and getting a shot that’s good, or great. Wear a white T-shirt, and the photographer will likely be struggling with exposure all day, the highlights thrown by the white. A red T-shirt could contrast well with green trees, and a bike like the Line, in its mushroomy brown colour, but clashes with the red and black Astronut. Later in the day, Harry will pull a trick that looks sick. That’s definitely the word I’d use. But the flash of red T-shirt between black outer layers makes it look like he’s got the kind of terrible sunburn only seen on a Club 18–30 week in Benidorm. It’s all details, but to Harry, it matters. And because it matters to Harry, it matters to Sam.
Keeping the balance
The day ebbs and flows, the vibe pulling like a river current. On the warm-up laps, there’s an eddy, everyone is circling in place. Then Harry finds a jump he says is fun. Sam hears that, and gives Harry a little push out into the flow, encouraging him to play a little. On the first run down Sam grabs a pan shot that’s good enough that we could all go home now, job done. But Harry’s having fun, so more laps are done, more shapes are thrown until his eye catches another feature and the current pulls us off to another part of the woods.
This spot combines two features: a right-hand berm into a gap, then a small step up. They’ve been here before, and the step up has foxed Harry before – it’s the wrong way round for his preference, meaning he’s struggled to get the shapes he wants here. Sam shoots Harry on the first feature, while Harry practises rolling right through and hitting the second, with its awkward-to-Harry left-hand kick. There’s an opportunity here for an unturndown if he can hit the jump right. A 29er trail hardtail is perhaps not the natural machine to choose for the task, but pull it off so it’s super-clicked (with the front tyre buzzing the rider’s shoulder and the bike vertically in front) and it makes for a great angle to show off the bike. Harry pushes it, wanting to get his right leg straighter than he’s managing, but the size of the frame and the height of the saddle means there’s more to get your legs around than on a dirt jumper. A few more goes and Harry accepts the limitations of the tool and jump at hand. Off we go to another spot.
Trick Breakdown: Unturndown
These features are bigger, and Sam seems to pull a little against the current of enthusiasm. He’s tramping around in the woods, not focusing on Harry or pointing a camera at him. He’s watching, but sort of pretending not to. He wants Harry to take his time and figure out the features without feeling a camera on him. A slam here would hurt. George and Sam agree that it’s uncomfortable being on a shoot when riders are going too hard. Sam starts “You’re just waiting for something bad to happen…”“…And it always does!” finishes George.
It’s such a far cry from the attitude of ‘send it!’ or crash-reel clicks we so often see. Instead, it’s ride today, ride again tomorrow, save a bit for another day. Get it right, make it better. For a brand that’s often selling bikes to teenagers or new riders, it feels like a great vibe.
Trail translation
Harry squawks. Or is it a shriek? I wait for Sam to translate, or for actual words from Harry. There’s a lot of this throughout the day. Some noises are obvious. An ‘oh no’ in the air is bad, and will have us all holding our breath for the sound on the other side of the landing. But there are other sounds that might be a ‘wahh’ or a ‘woohoo’, their meanings varying and conveyed through subtle changes in vowels and timing. Some convey frustration and unhappiness with the trick, others mean it felt good. At times even Sam has to wait for the English language follow-up from Harry.
In this instance, it’s a good noise. The jump feels fun, and Harry swoops around it. But Sam can’t catch him – shooting a pan shot from the back side of a big shark fin, there’s no way to track the rider into the turn and off the take-off. Catching Harry mid-air is tricky, and the shot just isn’t happening. A few more runs and the current has already grabbed Harry and pulled him onwards, so we leave the tricky airborne turn shot and move to another step up. This one hips the right way for Harry’s preferences.
For a few minutes, there’s near silence. Sam has learnt that this means Harry is figuring something out, so Sam should shoot everything so as not to miss the moment. Harry whips the jump a couple of times before going for a nac-nac. To us watching, we’d be happy. Very happy. But Harry’s noises indicate it’s not quite as he wants it. The leg’s not quite straight enough, and the bike isn’t quite far enough around. It’s tiny little adjustments, but Harry wants to get them. “Sorry!” he apologises. “If you could see what I’m seeing!” responds Sam, showing Harry the camera. But there are still tweaks to be done. “I want to get it the biggest possible. If not, then it’s just mediocre. I’m not here for that.” After a few more goes, the landings start to get squirrelly. It’s not clear if there’s a line he hasn’t quite hit or the jump is just not quite the right shape, but it’s time to move on before frustration turns the landings into crashes. We head for some more typical trail riding lines.
Trick Breakdown: Whip
Sam wants to get some classic dirt-spitting tyre shots. We crouch on the outside of a berm and he warns us “Top tip: keep your mouth closed, we’re all in the firing line!” I hold my breath as Harry rails past, but the dirt barely shifts. It’s damp and heavy. We move to catch the point where he did kick up some dirt, and he kicks it somewhere else. The way he fills Sam’s shoes with soil on one pass would be positively genius had it been deliberate.
We change positions, and Sam tucks himself inside the berm, George above him capturing just how close Harry gets to Sam’s lens as he swoops by. After a few more runs in different spots, Harry’s lines start getting more ragged than loose. It’s time to take a break and refuel before there’s an injury. It’s also time to switch to the Astronut, and head to the main dirt jumps.
Comfort zone
As Harry swaps into casual baggy clothes for the dirt jump part of the shoot, I ask him about his sponsors. Calibre is a good fit for him because they just like riding bikes and making it more affordable. He likes that. He’s got support from Hunt Wheels, and he did have a components deal with Reverse, but that fell by the wayside when Cyclorise ceased trading, so there’s a bit of a gap in the line-up right now. He doesn’t have a clothing deal, “I’d have to like what I was wearing.” Casual words maybe, but they’re revealing. He’s working a four-day week doing hard graft forestry work, trying to fit riding into that fifth day, and weekends. Taking support and shiny things where you can get them would be the easier route – I have to admire his integrity. Combine that with all his protective padding and his measured approach, Harry is the kind of role model I’d be happy having my kids look up to.
Fed, rested, and equipped with the Astronut on the dirt jumps, the smaller bike makes throwing shapes much easier. He’s soon ticking off no-handers, tables and barspins. But he wants to get that unturndown fully clicked. Sam shoots each lap, bursts of clicks on the camera. And then – zzzzp – the sound of the tyre buzzing Harry’s shoulder accompanies the clicks, the sound confirming the extension Harry’s looking for has been reached. The skin on his shoulder displays the burn. “It’s kind of cool, but it does hurt a bit.” Job done, shot grabbed. Time to move on to the giant step up that sits at the back of the site, its presence looming over all that goes before.
Trick Breakdown: Suicide No-Hander
There are two kickers, and Harry rolls through to test them out. Too slow, he cases the landing. He heads higher up for more of a run-in. This time, it’s too fast. Some of the local diggers are watching and there’s a low ‘oooh’ followed by a ‘Yeah, don’t do it like that!’. A couple more runs and he’s got the feel for it. He’s gone quiet again, and Sam knows this means something is coming. It’s up to him to be ready for whatever that is.
Bag of tricks
Harry pulls a superman seat grab, bike out in front, full body extended out behind. Seriously impressive to see it done in the flesh. But it’s not quite right – there’s an annoying flash of red T-shirt and something about the legs that Harry wants to correct. A change of clothes, another run, another impossible moment of flight, and we move to the gap between the kicker and the landing for a different shot. “Get the fish eye!”, shouts Harry. “That will look cool!” Sam does as he’s told, and we crouch, waiting to see what Harry will do. Waiting for the wind. Waiting for Harry to feel the time is right. And then the roll-in, and the kicker. He spins in the air, a 360. “That feels so good! Flying over you!” Harry whoops. He’s almost flown out the edge of the shot, and Sam isn’t happy with the framing. Harry thinks he’s got more in the bag too.
Trick Breakdown: Superman
And so we crouch again, my knees damp in the dirt, waiting for the wind to drop. Harry spins overhead once more, but apparently looks at Sam too long, weighting the turn wrong, causing him to drop a foot on the landing. Another run, another spin, and this time there’s an ‘oh no!’, followed by a whump and a scrape. We hold our breath until Harry calls out that he’s OK, although he thinks he’ll be in trouble with his girlfriend over the state of his ‘good’ trousers. He heads back for another run, does another 360, lands it – just. And with that, we’re done. There’s no last run – everyone here is a rider and knows why. No questions are asked. Harry just calls it: “Those are getting sketchy now. I might just have to take that.”
