Video: Wild Times in Wales with Seth Barrett by ForbiddenBike

16 Comments

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SangamonTaylor (Feb 4, 2022 at 16:08)

I can’t exactly put my finger on it but every video on riding in the UK leads me to believe the scene there is way cooler than in the US.

callumreynolds (Feb 6, 2022 at 2:37)

Interesting. I think most people in the UK feel the opposite way round. We'd love to be able to do descents that last longer than 2 min maximum and ride dry trails in amazing backcountry wilderness...

Linkpin (Feb 6, 2022 at 11:15)

@yankeeswap: Username checks out

bombdabass FL (Feb 7, 2022 at 6:45)

Having ridden in both, I would say the scenes are definitely different. The scene in the UK is a bit more old school. Hardly any ski lifts (except two in Scotland), lower levels of elevation, less facilities, more informal. You can regularly rock up to an uplift and find yourself hanging out with a UK world cup racer. The US is a bigger scene for sure but just as fun, just different. I really like them both.

danstonQ (Feb 7, 2022 at 11:15)

@yankeeswap: Idk... I've been fantasming so much about Wales: I bought some books / maps and studied the welsh mtb websites... but I haven't been there yet (lack of time/occasion).... considering that I currently live in the South-West of France nearby the Pyrénées and the Black Mountain... meaning a huge and unlimited playground.
The grass is greener in Wales (sure, it rains more :-), but it's mainly the magic of the place that attracts me (Scotland as well). More than riding my bike, I'd like to properly visit these regions, to meet their people, to discover their culture and so on. Looking forward...

BTW: excellent video. It's more a promotion about Wales than a Forbidden Bikes propaganda. Well done anyway!

RabWardell (Feb 5, 2022 at 0:06)

'Andy says we're not supposed to have favourites, but Seth is my favourite...' Nice film Seth! Was hoping for a spinning whisbie though.

markkarlstrand (Feb 4, 2022 at 20:58)

And every riding video from the UK has at least one part where they are basically making a trail by riding through the woods. Do the trails grow over really fast or do people in the UK really just make a new one every ride?

markyp1965 (Feb 5, 2022 at 14:25)

I see Seth most weekends at my ‘local’ riding spot, he can definitely handle a bike. Nice guy too,

noodlewitnosteeze FL (Feb 4, 2022 at 15:41)

That shale section is sketch AF

motdrawde (Feb 7, 2022 at 3:05)

I hate Oxfordshire

Maxcycles (Feb 7, 2022 at 19:00)

Another Yank here, thinking the UK scene looks super rad in general!

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MumblesBarn (Feb 5, 2022 at 9:49)

@ForbiddenBike "... place where the trails are as challenging to ride as the place names are to pronounce."

Please can you check yourselves before casually insulting an entire culture. I, like every Welsh person, have no problem pronouncing our place names. Why is it acceptable to casually make fun of the Welsh language as if it's unique in being "not English"?

Do you go to France or Germany, Italy or China, and say things like "Jeez, these place names are really tough to pronounce?" No, you don't, because that would be at best culturally insensitive, and at worst plain ignorant. You understand you don't speak Mandarin and accept it.

28% of the Welsh population counts Welsh as their first language and that number is increasing, despite repeated efforts over the past 100 years to kill it off. We don't expect you to learn Welsh before visiting and filming here, but at least have the decency to treat our heritage and culture with the respect it deserves, and refrain from using tired tropes to mock it, however gently it might seem to you.

spencerhartmann FL (Feb 6, 2022 at 8:06)

calm down

MumblesBarn (Feb 6, 2022 at 10:28)

@spencerhartmann: I'm perfectly calm, thank you.

When a company utilizes a different culture to promote their product, however loosely, it seems to me that the least they can do is educate themselves on the culture in question. I have no doubt that @ForbiddenBike are good people and that this was an unintentional slip up, but throwaway comments like this normalize the idea that the Welsh language is weird in someway and difficult to pronounce when it is neither of those things; it's simply a different language.

Here's some educational materials to amuse yourself with, should you wish:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Welsh_Not

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treachery_of_the_Blue_Books

www.bbc.com/news/uk-wales-politics-34527379

Braindrain (Feb 7, 2022 at 0:29)

@MumblesBarn: I'm totally with you mate, a blinkered perspective.

Also, I'm no language expert, but I would say that English is mostly a difficult language to get correct pronouciations. There are so many homophones and homographs, 'sight words' as they call them nowadays that just don't follow any rules. They teach phonics in schools, but phonics do not work in the English language. Certainly in Swedish, the vast majority of word sounds follow 'rules', so you stand a very good chance of getting it right if you know the rules. I have a bilingual family, it seems to always be English pronouciations that cause the trouble...

As for place names... I think most people will get these wrong:
Lewes
Wrotham
Southwark
And lets not forget
Gillingham and Gillingham
I'm sure there are so many more...

How is it in Welsh? Do phonics work?

justanothermatt (Feb 7, 2022 at 1:28)

I get what you are saying and businesses should probably be a bit more careful with throw away comments but I do find it quite funny listening to people attempt to pronounce Welsh names. I also find it funny when people don't realise that the Welsh and the English on the sign posts basically say the same thing, we get lots of people going to Traeth Beach for example.