Danny MacAskill's Wee Day Out

I first encountered trials riders when I got sent to shoot video of America's Sports Mom, Gale Webb, at an early mountain bike event at Mammoth Mountain, in California, in 1988.  Mountain biking was pretty new then, as a sport, and most of them didn't have much in the way of bike skills.  Former BMX racers ruled the downhill, and former cyclists ruled the cross country.  But they also had this crazy trials course set up by the lodge that weekend.  Hans Rey, a GT rider all of us BMXers knew of was there, but a guy named Ott Pea, from somewhere in Europe, was The Man.  He blew my mind with his riding.  Even so, bicycle trials riding was considered highly technical, but kind of lame.  They got no respect.  That bummed me out, because the stuff they were doing was super hard, AND super scary.

Personally, I was stoked to see Danny MacAskill come along several years ago, doing trials mixed with mountain biking, and some freestyle, and blowing it up in popularity.  I decided that after that first introductory post above, the best thing to do next would be to share some of my favorite videos that just make you want to go ride.  Though I'm a huge fan of Danny's videos, I'd never seen this one.  Like all of them, it's amazing, gnarly, funny, and, more than anything, makes a bike rider want to go ride.  Enjoy.     -Steve

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