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Video: Danny MacAskill goes back to his roots in The Ridge
Danny MacAskill has gone back to his roots for his latest video, The Ridge, riding a mountain bike on the Cuillin Ridge on his home island, Skye.
Knife-edged and treacherous, the Cuillin Ridge is a famously hard series of mountains. The full traverse "should not be your first ambition in the Cuillin unless you are a highly competent mountaineer," says skyeguides.co.uk. Perfectly sensible place to ride a mountain bike then.
Growing up on Skye, says MacAskill, he always wondered if he could ride his mountain bike up on the ridge. In this video, he finds out.
It's great to see MacAskill bringing his skills to some old school wild mountain biking. This is the type of riding I fell in love with back in the mountain bike boom of the 1980s, though I did a lot more walking and falling off than MacAskill.
John has been writing about bikes and cycling for over 30 years since discovering that people were mug enough to pay him for it rather than expecting him to do an honest day's work.
He was heavily involved in the mountain bike boom of the late 1980s as a racer, team manager and race promoter, and that led to writing for Mountain Biking UK magazine shortly after its inception. He got the gig by phoning up the editor and telling him the magazine was rubbish and he could do better. Rather than telling him to get lost, MBUK editor Tym Manley called John’s bluff and the rest is history.
Since then he has worked on MTB Pro magazine and was editor of Maximum Mountain Bike and Australian Mountain Bike magazines, before switching to the web in 2000 to work for CyclingNews.com. Along with road.cc founder Tony Farrelly, John was on the launch team for BikeRadar.com and subsequently became editor in chief of Future Publishing’s group of cycling magazines and websites, including Cycling Plus, MBUK, What Mountain Bike and Procycling.
John has also written for Cyclist magazine, edited the BikeMagic website and was founding editor of TotalWomensCycling.com before handing over to someone far more representative of the site's main audience.
He joined road.cc in 2013. He lives in Cambridge where the lack of hills is more than made up for by the headwinds.
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56 comments
I like the end shot where he sits on the beach wondering what has happened to the boat he didn't secure.
Yep, that didn't help my vertigo issues at all
I was thinking it was a rule 55 violation
i'd be more impressed if he did it in the rain...
awesome stuff
I'm not going to be trying for that Strava segment.
That blew me away.
Disappointing. The only climb was the easy side of the Inn Pin, at moderate, carrying the bike. I thought he might make it onto the top of the Cioch, at least.
Make sure to share your video when you do that and show him how it should be done eh?
Certainly would if I could, but then again, I don't exhibit my exploits on the web.
As it happens, I think I could carry a bike to the top of the Cioch, and strike a pose astride it there.
Yeah, complete rubbish. Why even bother? It's a shame you won't be making a video, I'm sure it would be loads better.
If I did make a video I wouldn't use a helicopter to make the Cuilin hideous.
I am no good on the bike tricks, but I have soloed Skye routes rather harder than anything in this video.
Anyway, I don't boast and I don't stick stuff up on the internet. I mention what I have done not to boost myself, because many people have done much more on the gabbro, but to say that even my feeble efforts are comparable.
I can see from the attempted sarcasm that I have touched a tender spot criticising the hero. I do think that the tricks in this clip are fine, but nothing beyond his earlier astounding feats. The climbing side of it is not impressive though.
why would you use a helicopter?
if you have soloed skye routes, did you carry a 34lb+ bike on your back? and i guess danny has far less experience then you?
Some of the shots on the video seem to be taken from a helicopter.
Without wanting to get involved in this argument, I am a crap climber and I have soloed and down climbed routes at that grade carrying rucksack full of ropes and climbing gear, which weights similar to a bike. So I doubt carrying any weight would be a problem to felixcat.
I can't watch the video because I am at work, but I know the ridge a bit and wouldn't try biking it!.
why would you use a helicopter?
if you have soloed skye routes, did you carry a 34lb+ bike on your back? and i guess danny has far less experience then you?
I have no idea how much climbing experience MacAskill has. I am, like you, in awe of his bike skills. The climbing sequences do not impress me as much.
Google "Cioch" and take a good look at this amazing rock feature. Hanging in space is a flat area big enough for a cool and skilled cyclist like MacAskill to ride around. It is halfway up a thousand foot face, and juts out into nothingness. The route up to it is a long winding climb a lttle more difficult than the Inn Pin. If you ever get a chance go up there. It is not technically difficult, though exposed as climbers put it. I would have loved to see what MacAskill could do with it.
Danny didn't, that's for sure.
Then I stand in awe of a superior being. Personally I would be on my hands and knees, with my eyes closed, praying to all the gods that my knocking knees didn't shake me over the edge.
You are too modest. I have taken non climbers, male and female, up the Cioch, and it gets a grade harder than the easy side of the Inaccessible Pinnacle. If you could climb a ladder you could do that.
Your awe is misplaced.
did your none climbers ride down?
I can promise you MacAskill did not ride down the Inacessible Pinnacle. Its usually abseiled.
The video seems to be put together from clips taken in various different parts of the Cuillin. They certainly don't constitute a narrative of a trip up and down any particular route.
I don't mean to upset you, but I don't find this video as impressive as some people here.
There were bits of that where the risk assessment went:
Identify Risk: Falling
Possible outcome: Death
Likelihood of outcome: 100%
Mitigation: None possible
Some of that made my wife feel physically ill.
Amazing video. There are climbs I would not think of going up without a bike, let alone with one. I very much enjoyed watching this. The way Danny dealt with the fence was good.
I thought I'd been pretty cool getting to the top of the Inn Pinn but it turns out that unless you carry a bike up you're not even trying...
Respect to that man!
Wow. Parts of that made me feel sick.
Backlash from the "titty mansion video" too much so do the classic "back to my roots" manoeuvre?
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