Bikes!

By Shamus Posted Sunday Aug 21, 2011

Filed under: Links 46 comments

As of this writing, 1.4 million people have watched this. More people should see it, so I’m posing it here.

Danny Macaskill – Industrial Revolutions:


Link (YouTube)

Astounding. It really is amazing what human beings can learn to do.

Speaking of amazing people and bicycles, here is a really brilliant Kickstarter project:


Link (YouTube)

Makes me wish I didn’t live in sine wave country.

 


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46 thoughts on “Bikes!

  1. Audacity says:

    Well I guess finals-induced insomnia isn’t all bad. That was pretty cool, I love those lights on the spokes.

  2. Museli says:

    That Danny Macaskill video was incredible. You don’t often post random vids here, but they tend to be super cool when you do – good find.

    1. Yeah, I mean – half that stuff would be difficult even without the bike, but even with a couple of bails he makes it look easy.

      I can’t even imagine how freaky the backflip must’ve been to learn, and this coming from someone who’s been trampolining since they were 5

      1. MrWhales says:

        I really like that those are in there, where the guy is working through how it will work. Makes it seem… more real?

    2. Destrustor says:

      Am I the only one who was softly swearing profusely out of sheer awe during the whole thing?
      “holy damn… whaaaa…you f***ing crazy dude….” and so on.

  3. nawyria says:

    The revolights thing looks really cool. Apart from the rather glaring Tron-likeliness, I think it could go a long ways to improve safety on the road for cyclists.

    1. Dnaloiram says:

      As if similarity to Tron is a bad thing.

      1. nawyria says:

        That’s not what I wanted to convey, an unfortunate choice of words. I meant to say that the lights improved safety with the added bonus of having bikes look like Tron cycles.

        1. Eärlindor says:

          Yeah, first thing that went through my head was Tron. Totally sweet.

  4. Dnaloiram says:

    Doesn’t anyone think that one could just mount some stable lights on the front and back of their bike and not have to bother with the Revolights at all?

    1. Shamus says:

      If you go to the Kickstarter page and play the movie, the inventor talks about that very thing. He didn’t like that normally mounted lights were so far from the ground, and Revolights evolved from a series of attempts to put the light closer to the road, where you could get more illumination.

      Although, the price tag is pretty crazy. ~$200 for the lights. I suppose that’s reasonable or not depending on how much your spend on the bike itself.

      1. Ragnar says:

        That pricetag doesn’t sound very crazy considering that it is in development stage still. With increasing popularity, I’m sure the price will fall rapidly.

  5. Jeremiah says:

    I think my favorite part in the Danny Macaskill video was there were a few clips where it showed him either not performing a trick correctly on the first try or scouting out and setting up other tricks.

    A lot of times you watch those kind of videos and everything just looks perfect, like first time every time on the tricks and the environment was just perfect for every trick they did. Was nice to see something a bit different in that regard.

    1. Al Storer says:

      He’s done that in other videos- in his first hit one he has to bash a wheel back into shape…

      1. Chris says:

        I love the part in his first video where he’s going along the roofs of the shops in Lothian Road – ~4:40.

    2. Fat Tony says:

      Yeah I think he’s shown something along thoose lines in all of his videos, I enjoy that too as video like you described bore me as all I’m thinking is: “how many takes of that went un-used as you faceplanted, etc.”

    3. Jarenth says:

      My thoughts exactly. The inclusion of a few fumbles makes the whole thing seem so much more real.

    4. MrWhales says:

      I completely agree. You said it all.

  6. Railway Man says:

    The bike tricks and what have you are impressive and all but I find myself captivated by the old diesel shunters and rolling stock. Such a bloody waste to have these lovely relics just wasting away on some derelict sidings outside an old factory.

    1. MichaelG says:

      Did anyone else feel a little creeped out by the combination of derelict industrial plant and bicycle tricks? Felt like a comment on our dystopian future.

      1. Dan Efran says:

        Looks like it was filmed in City 17! I kept expecting to catch a glimpse of a Hunter, and I couldn’t keep from scanning the ground for ammo.

  7. Al Storer says:

    The Danny Macaskil vid was shot for a documentary here in the UK called “Concrete Circus”. The full thing can probably be found via the usual illicit means. the other videos are on youtube in high res anyway:
    Storm Origins, a free-running/Parkour video. Yes, the fire is real, no special effects there. Starring Paul ‘Blue’ Joseph, Phil Doyle and Mathiue Ledoux
    Release. Flatland BMX from Keelan Philips
    A Skate Illustration by Spanish skateboarder Kilian Martin
    Barbican Bolero, the finale, starring all of them. The dive the free runner takes at about 1:30 is stunning

    1. Nick says:

      The dive is quite a bit less amazing when you don’t know what he landed on. Could have been an air bag, which makes it pretty tame.

  8. Fat Tony says:

    Dan Macaskill was one of the three inspirational people I could choose to write about for a practice run of my G.C.S.E (English version of Highschool finals, roughly) English test ALL of his video are amazing. That a pretty wierd opinion to come from me too, as usually if i see a sportman doing what millions of other sportmen are doing, just that little bit better i switch off, but his videos are well filmed enough to hold interest.

    Thoose light are pretty smart too, but what are they trying to acheive? High visibility Of the biker or helping the biker see his way ahead?

    1. Fat Tony says:

      My typing is terrible i just type my own e-mail wrong -___-

    2. Jarenth says:

      They’re trying to achieve both at once. Regular bike lights are mostly for cyclist visibility, but don’t really assist all that much in seeing where you’re going.

      1. Vipermagi says:

        Personally haven’t found it an issue. Fixed lights tend to be pretty powerful.
        Until some douchebag breaks it, of course… *sigh* Humans.

        The revolights seem way less luminant, in fact. LEDs don’t output a whole lot of (focused) light, which is why the revolights don’t luminate much more than twenty centimeters.

  9. X2-Eliah says:

    Hm, as for those lights… Idk. I feel that something blinking like that – especially the weird pattern they switch in when the bike stops/starts – would seriously divert the attention of passing drivers from the road..

    Anyway – just seemed very very flickery/blinkey to me, I’d be annoyed to have to drive behind someone on that.

    1. Vipermagi says:

      The Dutch law bans blinking lights and most decorative lighting for exactly those reasons. Had a friend get pulled over for having a blinking light on his bike.

      1. Jarenth says:

        Are they still banned? I thought the law got appended to ‘Ok, whatever, just have some lights on your bike’.

        1. Vipermagi says:

          How recent was that change? It’s been (quite) a while since the aforementioned, so it might just be me being out of the loop.
          Haven’t heard about that, in any case.

          1. Jarenth says:

            Hmm… the most recent publication I can find is from 2006, in which they’re still illegal. It’s entirely possible blinking lights are still technically illegal but tolerated, which is a thing our legal system likes to do.

  10. Sumanai says:

    I wonder what the maximum and minimum temperatures for the Revolights is.

  11. Eärlindor says:

    Holyrollypoleymoley! That’s amazing!!! 0.0

  12. Boison says:

    The stunt thing looks fake in certain scenes… It doesn’t make sense, since he’s still doing the tricks, but in certain scenes it looks like he’s been edited in after the fact… am I the only one who sees it that way?

  13. Tobias says:

    My first thought on seeing the stunts video was:
    I couldn’t even drive through this factory normally without ending up with two flat tires and a bent wheel. And having to carry my bike home.

  14. (LK) says:

    That’s kind of a bummer, I went and listened to more music from the artist whose song is used, convinced myself I’d like to buy an album or two, then couldn’t find a source for his music in the US.

  15. Chuck Henebry says:

    I’ve seen lots of youtube biking videos, but never one so beautifully produced. Fantastic camera angles, thoughtful set-up shots, great music. Thanks for finding this and sharing it with us!

  16. Airsoft says:

    saw the documentary about this recently, bunch of videos made about street sport, very impressive.

  17. Rayen says:

    The Only part that threw me was when he was on top of the trains and he was jumping from support rail to rail where the roof was missing. THat was crazy crazy. Even if i could do what he could i wouldn’t have, i mean just one of those bends of got forbid breaks, thats a trip to the hospital with tetanus minimum. He may have tested them first but still…

    Everything else he does; THIS IS WHY I WATCH THE X-GAMES.

  18. Meredith says:

    You always find cool videos of people doing amazing stuff. I bike some and I know there’s NO way I could ever hope to do even one of those jumps; I’m impressed. (Random: I once went biking after a massive gaming marathon and actually tried to quick save after dodging an obstacle.)

    The lights are really cool, but I don’t know if I’d trust them in a high traffic area. Bike lights are more about cars seeing you than you seeing the road. Then again, I live in the city and traffic is terrifying. I might try them just for the awesome if they weren’t so expensive. Perhaps some day.

  19. Lisa says:

    I love the fact that he can’t walk the “tightrope” on foot, but has almost no difficulty on a bike.

    As for those lights, they make me want to go back to biking. On the other hand, I’m wondering how well you could fit them to a car :)

  20. Alex the Elder says:

    One thing that was refreshing about the Macaskill video was the fact that it had quirky, interesting acoustic music for a soundtrack rather than the aggressive metal or hip-hop that usually accompanies sports videos. Don’t get me wrong, normally I love metal and the less antisocial forms of hip-hop, but it’s a cliche and it was nice to see it averted for what was already a very impressive video (I was watching with my mouth hanging open for most of it).

  21. David A says:

    Yea, it’s all fun and excitement until one of those old, rusty girders collapses under the weight of him jumping on it and he gets tetanus from the still-water and corroded metal.

    When Ken Block releases a drifting video, it’s on a closed course set to rock music. When these “X-GAMES” athletes release a video, it’s on a condemned property with crappy indie tunes playing.

    I’m just saying – it was an entertaining short to watch, but there was way more potential for him to have gotten hurt than anyone is comfortable admitting. And if he had, we’d be laughing “What a stupid nut to try something like that, SERVES HIM RIGHT! Now get a real job and a haircut!”

  22. thenoob says:

    Elma IRL, if anyone played that game.

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