Martyn Ashton - Road Bike Party "The Outtakes"

 We may be small in land mass but there are 60million of us crammed on this little rock in the north sea.

 and we have some of the best riding in the world

 ours is better

 When it's not covered in 10ft of snow?

 ther ya go bye, tinking canada is all boat eegloos und polar beers.....

 I'm pretty stoked to have dual nationality

 Drive south... the NW US (OR,WA,ID, MO) has every bit of the goods Western CA does... We should succeed and form Cascadia cause the PNW is it's own little world (pretty amazing music scene too, maybe you remember the 90's???).

The UK has some great country and it's gorgeous, but there's not a whole lotta elevation there. I LOVE the Lake DIstrict, like Keswick and such, and my family's all up in Inverness and W.Daviot which is beautful too (never had my bike up those parts though, just down in southern Eng./Whales). I'll also agree that some of the best bands ever have come out of the UK... Hell, even Jimi had to go to London and Europe to become famous... and David Gilmoure and Jeff Beck are like gods to me, to name just a few... ately, Charlene Soriana has been blowing my mind... The UK does humor like the US never will, most of us Yanks just DON'T get sarcasm or timing/delivery. I'd gladly live in Edinburgh and a few other places though But I will say the country in the NW is vastly "bigger" and more sectacular...

 Wooo the flattest continent, a desert full of snakes and spiders.

 funnel web spider scares the hell outta me, you ever see one?

 yep. not the best experience. trail work and there was one under a rock

 Under every second rock here just about but they are fine, its the brown snakes that are a worry, saw a wallaby get bitten by one the other day it dies in about 3 minutes of convulsing, not nice.
Not to mention :
-death adders
- taipans
- tiger snakes
- small eyed snakes
- rough scale snakes
- night tiger snakes
- red bellied black snakes
- spotted black snakes.
All live here.

 www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNEeq5qGh8I

 Scary stuff, don't think I'll be making the trip.

 @ TyranT21 - Not bashing Australia (great country and music scene) but wouldn't a smaller list be one of animals that wont kill you? Something like the humble cockatoo..

 haha, well the cockatoo if you feed em when they rock up to your house then oneday have enough and stop feeding them they will begin to start pulling your house appart. Platypus' are pretty cute, oh wait they aare poisonous to. I am still alive though just done mess with anything and you will be sweet.

 Pretty sure even the rabbits have fangs over here. On the plus side we have a 12 month riding season.

 Yesok, your latitude is exactly the same as the best riding in the world which exists in BC & you're an island, so you probably get just as much snow, you just have much less stuff to ride underneath it.

 hey, where ever we are, its just so awesome we share the same passion: human propulsion on 2 wheels.

 HellI got bit by a Redback when I was fixing fences one day (Lived on Kroombit-Lochenbar Station in the Bananna Shire outside Biloella. It's inland frm like Rockhampton/Yepoon/McKay etc on the Fitzroy River in the QLD for over 2 years) and had to go in and get anti-venine... THAT was totally f*cked. I saw tons of Funnel webs, but never got close enough to get bitten. Got struck at my a red-bellied Black Snake, munched on by a few meat ants (I cut aart a big log with a chaisaw loaded the wood - ironbark, LOVE that stuff - then drove like 400m away... f*ckers FOLLOWED ME and chewed up my arm...) and I got LEVELED by some crazy ass "wasp" of some sorts (the thing was like the size of a tarantula, bright orange and black striped and it's sting felt like I got stabbed by a bayonet in the leg. Any of you Aussies know what the HELL these things are called??? I was in the Kroombit Tops National Forrest... lots of crazy bugs in that bush aye). Then there were the Huntsman Spiders, they don't do anything bad, in fact they're really great, but the first time you pull a piece of bark back off a log and see one an inch from your face you dam near soil yourself... Australia is NOT a myth, everything there is built to survive (even most of the people aye I LOVED being a "Blue" down there (slang for a redhead and coincidentaly a slang term for getting into a fight ahahahahaha)... walk into any bar and there's a group of red-heads sitting there ready to shout the first round...

 Basicly while I LOVE Australia and want noting more then to move back out to Kroombit, thee are SO MANY things on that one "island" that want to kill, maim or just eat you that it's insane... Not to much in the way of elevation, but the riding was AWESOME all the same. I f*cking LOVE Australia, and whle I only got to spend a few weeks over in New Zeeland every year, I LOVED it there too (To me it's just like the PNW only on an island, and THAT is amazing country...)Either way, if Mittens Romney get's elected (oh the HORROR) I'm moving my ass back to the bush in Australia or to Newzy cause those folks get how to live. I LOVE the PNW (Canada and the US) and it really is the birth of freeriding and has some of he best riding on the planet, but the US is just becoing this AWFUL place where they're trying to revert to the Feudal social system of "Surfs and Lords".. it's not about racism anyore, it's about wealth. But I digress. Best part about Mountan biking is that no matter WHERE you are... ANYWHERE (even in the middle of the Saudi desert if you had a sand bike) you can find a place to ride a mountain bike. Todays rigs are becoming like swiss-ary knives aye. They'll climb, they'll descend, they'll go for a roll down the bike path or to the store on any given day... Mountain bkes are f*ckING AWESOME... no if, ands, or buts about it. Mountain biking rocks and is truly a "worldwide" sport"

 @TyranT21 : you ever come cross a Taypei??? Those f*ckers are AGRESSIVE... We were on a walk out with a bunch of college kids from NYC (THAT was hillarious...) and we came across one on the path and luckily I had a big walking stick and we (me and one of the other "people in charge"" were in front and found it cause it f*ckin charged at us in short bursts... I ran like f*ck and ;lust kept trying to keep my staff in between us (had Carharts on which would have helped, but it scarred the SHIT out of me aye... The Red-Bellied black was just as crazy. We had these "wells (basicly you take a dozer and dig a pit /make a wall in a creek bed and when it rains it fills up) and the (the snakes) love to sun themselves on the banks of these things.. well I ran up over the edge f a bank trying to get to my Cruiser in a hurry and the little hoon was laying there when I scarred him and he SNAPPED right at my calf... luckily I as wearing fairly loose fitting Carharts (worst pants ever to work in in Australia in most of the time) and he just got my pant leg (couldn't have gotten through the material either) but I had ust gotten back to work after getting bitten by the Red-back and I wasn't REALLY looking forward to another trip to the clinic aye I love Australia though, mean animals and all...

the-medic.pinkbike.com/album/Ausrtalia (don't know how to make this a link boooooo)

 @The-Medic : It's Wales, not Whales

 @TyranT21 that list you mad is total BS you made half those species up haha......Australia isnt no where near as scary as the 2 nob heads above are makeing out to be. Sure we have a few deadly animals but if you respect the fact that they are there than you should be right. also afew facts on snakes ...... Red bellies wont charge at you or chase you, they'll be gone before you know they are there. though if you do happen to see one just leave it be and it wont hurt you. Brown snakes and tiger snakes are probably the more agresive ones and will have a go at you IF PROVOCTED (sp?). Brown snakes bites are probably the most dangerous one due to the fact that there bite is relatily painless and will only look like a scratch or graze on the spot that was bitten. Though i read somewhere that somthing like 5/10 bites are dry bites (no venom) as the snake dosent want to waste its venom on something that it cant eat. Im no snake expert but i do live in the bush and these are just a few things that ive picked up liveing here my whole life. Atleast we dont have to worry about f*ckin bears haha and i heard somewhere that moose can f*ck you up pretty bad to ??

 Biggest moose ever recorded: 7.2 feet at the shoulders, 1800 pounds. That right there is a damn beast!

 @bj4x4 - Look at the book, "wildlife of greater brisbane" All those snakes exist and regarded as dangerous. I live on a hot dry rocky ridge I have seen them all on my property before, as kids we ran around in the bush all day long saw snakes all the time never been bitten, chased or anything like that, Friend has been bitten once by a bird eating spider and was sick or a few days cause it was in his bed (he lives in a hut shack kinda thing) and that is it. yes everythign over here will try to kill you, only if prevoked though.
As you say if you leave them alone they will get out of your way. I am also s glad we dont have any huge animals - bears and mooses,

 BJ4x4 I have to wonder if you've ever been out of the city... Any snake wil strike at you if startled and Taipei (sp??) will chase you down trails... Watch out for drop-bears

Our Bears are the same way (for the most part) as any other animal, they run away unless they're smelling food and garbage. Big Kodiaks can be more agressive but it's not like they're walking down the street everywhere. Just gotta follow some simple rules in bear country... Our big cats are of more concerne if you want to talk about bi scarry animals. Moose are just NUTS in the rutting season and do kill several people a year (uncle lives in Homer AK and has a vid of him getting chased around his house by a cow with young). Hell Sydney is BUILT on the funnel-web's primary breeding grounds, right time of the year they're all OVER the place... I'd rather deal with a bear I can see then some little basard that'll crawl up your pant-leg (we've got Brown Recluses and Hobo spiders here but they're never where people are, just in giant wood piles...which I have a lot of in my yard). The Ants in Australia alone are enugh to drive ya nuts... tiny ones, huge ones they all bite.

 Yes i have been out of the city ... August this year i travled from newcastle to cape york and last year i spent 6 weeks driveing from newcastle to broome through the kimberly and back and My house is located in a semi rural area... so yes i have been out of the city...Usually if you give snakes enough warning that your comeing they will bugger of before you even know they are there. Spiders are a different story though, most aren't deadly so to to speak but will hurt a fair bit if biten. yeah funnel webs are pretty deadly though though if you dont go sticking your hands under rocks and dont leave your shous outside than your your usually pretty right. And yes drop bears are litterally insane they can run up to speed of 60mph and can drop from trees up to 10 meters high without getting hurt... heres a recent drop bear sighting from around my area cdn.memegenerator.net/images/300x/5529537.jpg

 to all the non-australian people here. drop bears are fake.....

 HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA Wait they're fake????? NO WAY!!!!!! Bundy Drop Bears taste the best I reckon... Another thing I miss about OZ is a good B/S Ball... Just don't wear your sunday best aye

 What a dude.. Much steeze!

 Australia: Mother nature's boss level.

 That Drop Bear photo made my morning, that thing is hilarious..like a rabid Kahlua.

As to all the snake comments, Ill stick with my good ole Rattle Snakes.. than those Aussie spiders.
But what does Australasia have in regards to large predatory Animals?
As listed we get to deal with bears, deer, and large cats, a few spider species to look out for and s handful of snakes you don't want to be 7 feet to.

Mountain Lions are my main concern when I'm out on the bike or hiking.

 Great picture huh, reminds me of our "N.American Wampus Cat" hahahahahahahahahaha Drop bear stories are just kind of an Aussie way to raz tourists and kids and scare the piss out of them around a camp fire... Good folks the Aussies, just bring your thick skinn or you'll never survive their humor/ways of "givin ya the gears"... Sarcasm is a national way of life aye I Miss Australia so much...

Nothing much in the "big pred." category... Wild Pigs will do you up REAL good if ya corner one, maybe a scrub bull here and there, and Ferral dogs are everywhere (not just "dingos" but ferral dogs off many kinds, we had Maremma's though and never had to worry). People think they're "cute" but if ya ever find your self up close and personl with a Kangaroo they CAN really ruin your day. That just doesn't happen though aye. You get near'm and they bolt... worst bit is the jump it gives you.

N.America = Big hairy things that can eat you, Australia = Lots of things that can really bite and hurt you then poison you... Still Love australia like very few places on the planet. I got used to the ants (the little green buggers that were like 2mm long were a PITA but they have these trick beds (at least the folks I lved with had them) where there are like bowls under each of the 4 posts that touch the ground and you fill them with vinegar and then when the ants go to climb up on the bed they can get past the "moat"... Not so sure this is a consistant thing as I never saw anything like it in the city's (I lived near Rockhampton, Yepoon, Macay etc) just out on the station but I though it was bloody brilliant aye...

 Agreed!

 @freeride-forever

nothing wrong with road bikes...

have a very nice road bike in my stable alongside my mountain bikes

all bikes are cool

 bahaha, yeah freeride, hating people who ride bikes is so beneficial to the biking community... I can only assume that you are joking, haha.

How have I not seen this video before? It was insane how he rode that skinny concrete wavy thing... wow.

 his other video on the carbon Raleigh was pretty good to!

 @hampsteadbandit bmx's arnt cool...

 yea they are... cooler than fireroad xc anyway

 more than that, pinarellos are ridiculously overpriced

 With pro-glued tubulars, could have probably gone to 40-ish without damaging the rim bed...except on the dry-pavement-drift-hairpin.

 modern road bikes are incredibly strong, especially the carbon fibre bikes we get bikes into our workshop in London, from riders that have been hit by taxis, cars and buses and its amazing how well they have resisted the impact forces

 Sound of Guns - Sometimes

 Sound of Guns - Sometimes