Danny Mac-A-skill
Lee I was just watching the new video from Danny MacAskill, that man is a bike Kung Fu master (and he has the perfect last name Mac-A-skill). His technique is the perfect visual representation of your instruction for jumping and landing in MMBSii. I guess if you can land as light as MacAskill the drop to flat limit for a dirt jump bike is approximately 20 feet! He truly is amazing.
Dave
Dave!
Yeah man, Danny MacAskill is amazing. He shows such skill, confidence, creativity, power, flow — soul — wow. His filmmaker buddy Dave Sowerby is also a bad ass.
While everything Danny does is way beyond my ability, as a skills teacher I can see Danny’s absolute mastery of core bike control.
He knows how to stay balanced in every situation, and he knows how to give and absorb force in every direction. That means he can do pretty much whatever he wants.
I think the only limit is his limitless imagination.
He is truly amazing.
— Lee
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Honestly… hahaha. With the way i’ve been riding, now I feel like I should have a pacifier in my mouth out on the trail!
Lee, i’ve had a thought – do you think there is a specific body type that is good at this trials stuff? It seems that lanky people with relatively small torsos make good trial and downhill riders. My thinking was that the comparatively long arms and long legs help in developing good height for jumping and excessive body english.
Ryan leech, another famous trials rider has a similar body/limb ratio(the so called ape index).
Ha! Danny makes us all look like stiff-riding pansies.
Long limbs sure can’t hurt. I also suspect he’s very fast-twitch, and that he is able to recruit a higher percentage of his muscle fibers than most of us. His strength-to-weight ratio is probably ridiculous.
BTW: When you’re flipping off a house, there’s no such thing as “excessive” body English!
I always thought it interesting that many of the huckers and freeriders are on the shorter side. Bender, Crispy, and Robbie Bourdon are quite small guys indeed.
I always thought that was related to personality. Shorter dudes tend to be fiercer?
And: smaller organisms are stronger per pound than large ones.
???
The inspired bike team is sick. 24″ street trials have changed the game. Now trials is cool again. Check out inspired bikes, specially Sean Watson riding brakeless… Boulder seems to have a good trials community, with the Ripstoke team for support.
Lee, I’m surprised you don’t have a trials bike??
Sick indeed.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0U_g6R6fso
Trials is one of the few bikes I never thought about. It would be fun and, of course, great for skills.
Dangit, now you’ve done it!
I’m not quite sure if there is too much cross-over from trials to trail riding. I used to dabble a bit in trials a million years ago but there were only certain conditions where those skills were useful out trail riding. In comparison, when I started dirt jumping the skills not only translated but gave a super-hit to my trail riding skills.
The worst thing about trials is that you have to behave yourself because you will never ever outrun the cops with such low gearing!
This cyclocross guy is showing a bit of trials flavor.
https://www.leelikesbikes.com/local-trails-on-the-cross-bike.html
I think it’d be easier to just hop over the log, but it’s a neat trick.
Yeah Chris: pump and jump turn trail riding into trail Riding!
Danny Mac riding some trails local to me. Think his imagination and skill translate well to trail riding and DH
http://www.vimeo.com/14249035
http://www.vimeo.com/14277664
Also Danny riding in Skye with Peaty and Hans
http://www.vimeo.com/12825341
Another guy who pushes what can be done on a bike is Chris Akrigg. Background in trials but also rides brakeless and on fixies! But really like his take on a XC ride
http://www.vimeo.com/10695528
Danny Mac’s riding in the first two vids are a perfect illustration of light hands and heavy feet. Also look how low down on the bike he gets compared to the other riders when attacking the rocks.
Yeah! Skill is skill …