BBC enlists Danny MacAskill's help to explain how we manage to ride a bike

A BBC Two programme will next week explore the processes that enable people to ride bicycles – with the help of trials ace Danny MacAskill.

Airing at 9pm on Monday 9 October, the episode forms part of the series The Human Body: The Secrets of Your Life Revealed.

In a trailer for the episode, MacAskill says: “Riding a bike for me just feels completely natural, as if I’m on my feet.

“It’s kind of similar to running over rocks on a beach. You just know exactly how far you need to shift your feet to get to each rock.

“It’s the same for me when I ride my bike.

“I know exactly how much pressure to put on my pedals, it’s almost easier for me to do it on my bike than on my feet.”

While the 31-year-old’s skills are way beyond anything all but a handful of cyclists around the world can achieve, and riding a bike is something most of us learn in childhood, when you take a few moments to reflect on it the act of cycling is possibly the supreme example of man and machine in harmony.

Judging from the trailer, the programme will seek to explain exactly what it is that makes that happen.

MacAskill has often been featured on the BBC before, including in a documentary that took a behind-the-scenes look at how his video The Ridge, shot on his native Isle of Skye, was produced.

> BBC documentary follows Danny MacAskill as he rides The Ridge