The Radavist

Super shredder Yoann Barelli helps us to understand the reality of what it takes to be a pro by taking what amounts to be a beefed up road bike on some heavy duty late 90’s/early 00’s tech trails. Gnar.

With all this New Zealand fever happening on the site it is only fitting to feature Bernard Kerr absolutely devastating the trails around Queenstown. Bernard is quick enough to challenge for the podium at any World Cup race and he has the steeze to make this edit utterly enjoyable and with speed and grace that is obviously unattainable by us mortal men and women. While the riding is stunning, Bernard may want to check in with the Masters and Masters school of off-bike hijinks to tune up his delivery, its not that the lad doesn’t have it in him, its just the Wyn and Eddie might be able to help him punch up his gags a bit. No doubt though, Bernard has whimsy and good humor in his soul.

Locally accessible mountain bike trails are a privilege. Fact. If you live in a place with quality riding right out your front door, then you have a good thing going. Now if you live in a city that has, for years, laid claim to the crown of the the nation’s best cycling city you would expect that with a number of hills and park lands within the city limits there would be a decent set of trails for the countless cyclists that call this city home. You’d expect, that to have the confidence, the audacity, the gall to wear such a crown, to print it on city walls and propagate the message in travel brochures and in-flight magazines you would have a infrastructure for all manner of cyclists. For the most part we do pretty damn well, heckfire we even have a special bike rack for our Zoo Bombers, but the one thing Portland doesn’t have is mountain bike trails, there are those who will try to convince you that Leif Erickson is a MTB track, it’s not, it’s hardly a dirt road. If you can push a stroller on it, its not a mountain bike trail.

Eddie Master is method actor, his art form, mountain biking. In this short but powerful documentary film, Eddie risks his title as “King of the Enduro” in order to prove a point to the world, that there is no shame in fat bikes, and in order to do so, he piles on weight like he’s auditioning for a cameo role in another Eddie M’s The Crumps series.  The man simply sacrifices everything for his art,  and takes the Morgan Spurlock approach to the proof is in the pudding by simply eating all of the pudding. If you are not sold on fat bikes now, you better start cutting out coupons, because after you watch this video you are going to be buying bulk and living large with a whole new take on meaning of “The fat of the land.”

Sam Pilgrim proves once again that it is the rider, not the bike, that matters. The gap toothed mad man from Essex doesn’t seem to be at all phased by dropbars and aero rims while putting his road bike to the test throughout Southern California.

Thank god or science of whatever your belief system dictates for the Masters brothers.

Wyn and Ed can both easily shred anyone of us, and if we don’t wind up in the hospital trying to keep up, then they’re are sure to put us in stitches with quips and cut-ups. Thanks boys. Thanks.

Heres a question? Is it possible to have race/comedy night with the Masters brothers, the Dudes of Hazzard, and Team Robot. Or better yet can Funny or Die sponsor these guys for the year? I’m thinking Road Fools on the world cup circuit.

Its Christmas right? Well this is on the top of my list.

Thanks whoever.

The dudes are back with their final installment of their 2014 video series. Its been a real treat boys.

Joe and the gang tap the Funk Button three times in the latest Dudish installment. Now you might be thinking, “Hey these are so funny, and I like them, but I am not getting the full VTT treatment here, I want more shredding.” But look closely, what you find is that though these edits are not end to end wheel turners, the parts that do have riding are very choice. Joe Barnes can link turns like no other, those switchbacks? Jeeeeeeesh! Not mention the gratuitous use of the fisheye lens. Fantastic!

Sign me up for a trials motorbike while you are at it, so fun. Plus the helmets are super cool. Non-fullface D2 anyone?

Kidding my maple brothers and sisters. Kidding. Equanimity, equality, etcetera.

In this episode, The Dudes make like Eddie Murphy and come to America. They make quick work of it. Then they go to Canada, it is here that the user experiences the highlight of the video, some whimsical found footage in which the myths about Canada are once again perpetuated.

While this segment is certainly the video’s strongest, one cannot discount how awesome each of these edits are as a whole. No tricky editing, boom setups, high quality equipment, or egregious use of slo-mo, just get to the point ham on rye production.

Mr. Barnes also bucks the current trend of including the guttural howl of discontent arena rock or the staccato machinations of dup-step by tastefully selecting a a wide range of pop culture hits to accompany the flat out speed blasting that is happening on trail.

These segments definitely feel like the work of someone raised on Fawlty Towers and the Sprung/Dirt vids and I love them for it.

Damn Damn Damn these are good.

The Radavist may have a global reach but that doesn’t mean we can’t talk about specifics when necessary. This Tuesday night, December 2nd, the City of Portland’s Metro division while be hosting an event that will help shape the future use of the North Tualatin Mountains natural area…

Read on below.

Joe Barnes is doing it right. He could have looked back on his season and thought, “Hey, I finished on the podium at an Enduro World Series event and finished 9th overall in the series, I should get out a RED camera, select my favorite dub-step cuts, design some slick graphics, and make a facsimile of almost every other video out there at the moment to really push my brand.”

To the benefit of us all he didn’t, instead he continued to produce the Dudes of Hazzard, a mix of on bike schralping, off bike antics, and conceptual absurdity that takes itself just as seriously as anything based on professional recreation should. If this strikes your fancy don’t worry, there is a couple years worth of back catalogue to watch and the Dude’s don’t deviate.

We have seen Jared Graves on a bike before, we have seen Canada before, we have heard electro/dub/pop before, and not that any of those things are wrong. I am happy as a clam to watch Mr. Graves absolutely tear apart any trail, but what this video does differently  is the way it deals with its the sound design.

The muffled percussion and submerged staccato of Jared and his bike as he rips down the trail evoke the sensation of riding in a way that I haven’t heard expressed in other videos. Sound designer Keith White has accurately captured the sound of riding, the high tinny clanking goes away, much as it does when riding, as if those sharp sounds those peaks without substance just can’t reach our ears.

What Keith has expressed here is the onomatopoeia of riding, the thwacks, blahps, schralps, fufks, etc that flood our ears while we fly down a trail, the noises that wholly invade our audio system, a compliment to our senses, a full expression of action. Have a look, watch the fun, and pay attention to the sound of shredding.

Mark Appleyard ruminates on riding bicycles, watch it, trust me.

Day 4. In which our noble riders visit Roubion and the Maritime Alps which, roughly translated, means Sea of Mountians. In this segment the drone camera operator has really hit his stride with some fantastic long follow shots that really really really make me want to get over to France and ride.

Riders have reached the midway point for this year’s Tran Provence and the stage 3 took them up a long hike-a-bike above treeline. My guess is that this was done not just for the benefit of the riders, because the images coming back from this days stage are stunning. Wind swept passes and people on their bikes hauling assses. Epic.