With the skatepark closed and the streets off-limits, we thought it'd be a good time to build a small setup in the garden with some old railway sleepers. So that we can try to keep our skills sharp, as well as share some of our trials knowledge with you.
To kick things off we've started with a "Five ways to Gap" video.
Starting off with the standard "gap jump" across the sleepers.
Getting a bit more advanced. Moving on to the gap to front!
As it looks like we'll be in lockdown for a fair while now, let us know if there are any techniques that you'd like to learn and we will do our best to film a video on them.
For Mr Shaw, this is clearly well within his skill/comfort level (he does this for a living), so I'm not worried about him for things this "small". Also, the ground is soft (he clearly set up the area to practice on, and its loose gravel to soften the impact).
It is true, this type of stuff surely is more dangerous than just walking around, and you could absolutely hurt yourself. But, I'd actually wager its less dangerous than many other more "normal" trail rides, because the main factor for getting hurt is usually the speed, which really magnifies the force of the impact.
If you look at the video, he's not getting much higher off the ground than if he was jumping from board to board on his feet. I'd also assume a beginner would be going much smaller than this when learning. It seems most likely that you'd trip and fall a foot or two.
Not telling anyone how to live their life, but if you watch the video and think "that looks doable", you're probably in the target viewer, and have some trials skills, I don't think its a horrible choice. I'd imagine to most people that are into trials riding, this is kind of the equivalent of practicing manuals in the backyard.
Just be realistic with your evaluation of your personal skill level, and if anything, to err on the side of caution. Going outside of your skill range/level is a sure way to get injured, which of course we're all trying to avoid.
Personally, I think this is an interesting video, mostly to figure out the technique. Even though I'm (very) far below this in skill level, I think some of it applies to the endo turns/ manuals/etc that I've been practicing in my driveway to sooth some of the trail desire during lockdown .
The top comment last night was someone worried about pink bike promoting “dangerous” activities like this during the pandemic. So I was responding to them.
I forgot tor “@“ them, and it looks like they got downvoted into the ground though, so now this doesn’t have much context now.