Plan B Forum

Turn off the sound unless you're a fan of disgusting performances of dreadful songs from the soundtracks of extremely boring sixties movies that never should have been made but were and the producers should have been tortured and killed for making them...

In the opening scenes, isn't that the curved viaduct featured in several of the "Harry Potter" films?

Excellent example of "trialsing", a style of cycling more correctly known as "observed mountain bike trials riding", in which the object is to negotiate a seemingly-impassible obstacle course without dismounting or "dabbing", that is, touching the ground with ones' foot to steady ones' self; penalty points are assessed for doing this and the lowest score wins (in the event of a tie score, which nowadays is not uncommon, the shortest time to complete the course determines the winner).  I've seen some pretty impressive displays in my day, so I don't doubt that everything seen here — with the possible exception of the underwater scene shown around the 3:00 mark — was actually done without camera trickery*, although not necessarily on the first attempt as shown by the outtakes at the end.

So far as the music goes, it wasn't bad; seemed well suited for the tone of the video.  In my opinion, at least, it was far better than the usual soundtrack to this sort of thing which is usually some teen-aged, adrenaline-and-caffeine-fueled independent band beating a drum set to death with a pair of guitars and resulting in something that can only be described as "music to crash buses by".  Not to mention you've got to love a song with lyrics like

Mini-skirts were in style when she danced down the aisle
Back in '63 (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)
But it's hard to get by when your arse is the size
Of a small country

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* The human body is inclined to float and the weight of a 'normal' bicycle is not enough to offset that, as proven by the Mythbusters in a 2012 episode.  The bicycle would have to be severely modified (weighted), and at that point it becomes very difficult if not impossible for unassisted human power to move that amount of mass against the water resistance.

-"BB"-

Bicycle Bill wrote:In the opening scenes, isn't that the curved viaduct featured in several of the "Harry Potter" films?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribblehead_Viaduct

Bicycle Bill wrote: So far as the music goes, it wasn't bad; seemed well suited for the tone of the video.....

Liking that kind of music must be due to some kind of sadistic cyclist affliction...

Gob wrote:

Bicycle Bill wrote:In the opening scenes, isn't that the curved viaduct featured in several of the "Harry Potter" films?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ribblehead_Viaduct

I don't think Ribblehead curves that much.

After further research as well as checking the comments on the YouTube site where the video comes from page, I've pretty well confirmed that the viaduct in the video is indeed the Glenfinnan (the "Harry Potter") viaduct near Loch Shiel in the Scottish highlands.  Even the 'Red Bull' site about the video as well as a BBC web article about the video states that the opening scene was shot there.

Interesting side note — the gentleman on the station bench at the end is the rider's father.

As for the riding itself — I was good, but I was never that good.

-"BB"-

Cheers Bill.

Wow! And beyond the awesome biking, it solidifies my determination to go to Scotland if I only get to one place in my miserable life - SO beautiful!!

It's also very cold, wet, and full of drunk Jocks.

When I was there 50 years ago, it was near-impossible to understand their speech!

with that being said:

Beautiful countryside and very good people.

Danny MacAskill is a tremendous rider. My favorite ride is still The Ridge on Skye (where he is from), that Gob shared with us several years ago:

"Becoming One With The Universe." Very impressive.