I am an enthusiast mountain bike rider, but because I seem to be affected by a number of injuries associated with slow recovery times (my old age plays a big part here, as it is physiologically proven that is faster to recover from a broken bone when you’re 20 than if you’re approaching your 40s), I don’t get as much time riding my bike as I’d like to.
So that’s why I enjoy mountain bike movies; and I’m pretty sure that I’m not alone here, and plenty of other people like watching this sort of things because, apart from professionals, nobody really rides as much as they like.
Lately I was watching “The Ride” (link here), and it was pretty boring to watch these nice shots of youngsters ripping off their downhill bikes, big jumps, fast pedalling and all. Then, in the second half od the movie there was first an incredibly cute 5-yr old kid who was interviewed like he was a pro, and filmed while he was pedaling on his mini-bike around skateparks and mini-dirt trails.
That kid was cute but it’s got nothing to do with the point I want to make here.
Later on in the movie, there’s the point: it was an older guy, sunglasses, head shaved and killer attitiude that began to tell his story of when he had this idea of doing a gap jump over a train.
So that’s what really hooked me; the older guy, not the young kids.