Video: Chris Akrigg Goes Full Boost Mode on an eMTB
Chris Akrigg is changing his name to Chris E-krigg and is going full boost mode on his Force Amp. Chris is charged up and ready to go Full Force!
Filmed and edited by Will Evans.
On the location and whether lockdowns played a part in location choice:
 | The locations were mostly in Yorkshire, UK. All pretty much on my doorstep and most were motorcycle trials spots that I've ridden loads over the years. This wasn't the original plan though! We've shot a lot of stuff over the years in Yorkshire and had scoped out some, shall we say, slightly more exotic locations! But due to lockdowns and travel restrictions our hands were tied! We followed the rules and don't think it compromised the edit! |
On how long it took to scope and pick a spot:
| Due to the circumstances, I knew a lot of the spots already, but I did a fair bit of re-visiting locations I hadn't been to for a while. But I'm normally pretty quick at picking a spot when I see it! Normally there's a lot of time researching mostly online and Google Earth! |
On their methods for choreographing what you will ride and shoot:
| Will and I have worked together a lot, and both know what sort of works! We get to a spot I'll work my side out and then Will will work out how to best shoot it, then we'll talk it through, so we know we're on the same page, then just get it done! I normally try to get a lot of the hard lines done first then go find some more! haha |
| We've worked with each other quite a lot now, so everything falls into place naturally. Sometimes I'll shoot something in a certain way to pick up on a technical nuance in the riding and other times I'll have Chris ride something that's super easy for him but allows me to get a cool shot that I'm into. |
Chris on adapting his style of riding to an e-bike
| Super fun! I've ridden a lot of different bikes over the years and find I can normally adapt pretty fast. Getting to understand how the motor-assist works is probably the most challenging bit, it's not really that complicated until you start to ride super tech stuff! I found out it's not all about full boost! I've ridden a good amount of Motorcycle trials and I think that has been a big help and also why I ride a bike like I do! |
On attaching a drone to Chris’ helmet and pulling that shot off:
| FPV drones were one of my lockdown hobbies this year! - I had the idea for the shot and floated the idea to Chris and he was into the idea. I bodged together some 3D printed parts tinkered some electronics and managed to make a remote release system for the drone on the helmet. After a bit of tweaking and testing, we managed to get the shot we envisaged... hard work but worth it! |
On how long did it took to bag this edit as a team of two and whether one move took way longer than the others:
| Yep, it's just the two of us! It took a while this one! When we started filming, I'd just come back from nearly two months off the bike because I'd messed my ankle up badly. So, some of the first filming days were a little unproductive but I soon got into it! And the other main factor was the weather, due to the coronavirus lockdowns our window for filming got pushed way back in the year, pretty much winter, the weather in the UK late in the year is not ideal to film in so we lost a lot of days to that, definitely not shorts and t-shirt weather that's for sure!! There was a couple of moves that were let's say a little problematic! but the line down the tree to spin to backwards rollback to front touch back over the tree was a battle! Not sure how many goes it took, but it was a lot, I'm guessing fifty! And actually, had to go back to it on another day because it just wasn't happing the first day I tried! |
| In some ways being such a small team makes it much easier - we can literally just hop on the bikes and go out and explore and area looking for cool stuff to shoot. I think it took about 10 days in total over a few months to shoot the edit. Most of the lines are pretty tough to shoot due to the crazy technical nature of Chris' riding and because it's all-natural terrain but I can't remember anything that was a crazy battle to get done. |
Thank you!
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Member since Apr 2, 2013
Must Read This Week
1stly - "for sure", he did it in one single take, one non-stop motion from the bottom to the top and also, "for sure" with ONE battery charge!
2ndly - every fat middle aged, unfit and unskilled wanna be electric rider thinks the is 80% like that just because he has an electric...which is actually the subject of this e-propaganda video....the subliminal message...#aslongasyougotanebike, you can do it also!
Chris is one of my favorite rider of all time.. and the fact he is riding this "mofa" is an evidence how hard the industrie is pushing in to the heads of the majority and make people saying things you did.
#gleichstellungaufheben #motorfreietrails
Thats what an e-bike is for, going up some crazy steeps and stuff that you just could not do without one. Not coasting up a fire road then blocking the trails on the way down or posting 30 mile strava road rides on your mountain bike
1. They become obsolete in 3 years and, by the 4th year, you'll want/need another.
2. They can charge you, basically, anywhere between 30% and 45% more than a real bike with only 10-11% production cost increase.
Please ppl, pretty please...stop dancing the songs of the marketing departments.
Good luck finding a 2016-2017 e-bike that still works. And, if you do find one, good luck finding spare parts for it when it will break.
I wish i rode it as well as E-krigg does
Marketing boffins, you heard it first here on Pinkbike!
Best eBike video I’ve ever seen. So creative. So much style. So much power. And that first and last shot!!!!! Best intro and outtro (?) I’ve even seen in a MYB video.
Unreal. Hahaa you got me babbling!
I know this is buried a thousands comments deep but that’s cool.
Good stuff.
Chris Akrigg when he gets an ebike: I feel like Superman
The ebike doesn't add anything to the trialsy bits (if anything,
Maybe it takes a bit away). It mostly lets him power up sick sections.
All my friends know im a huge Akrigg fan. Heck, he's hands down my favorite rider. But i think his style doesnt mix naturally with ebikes.
Btw, the drone catch at the end- mint!!!
Check 2:08 and then 4:31
Not even while floating upstream or downstream.
I would like to see the outtakes of this video, but I am afraid that there aren´t any.....
This is not the only one but its a right aplication for a ebike : Climbing ,up hill in hard mode.Off course we dont know the other face result ,chains ,battery life ,etc
1stly - "for sure", he did it in one single take, one non-stop motion from the bottom to the top and also, "for sure" with one battery charge.
2ndly - every fat middle aged, unfit and unskilled wanna be electric rider thinks the is 80% just because he has an electric...which is actually the subject of this e-propaganda video....the subliminal message...#aslongasyougotanebike, you can do it also!