As trails and mountain biking master Danny MacAskill picks up the phone for our interview, I can hear the satnav giving his driver directions – in German! ‘Sorry mate, I’m dashing to the airport!’
He’s clearly a busy man but he still has time to chew the fat and discuss his Gymnasium video shot through with his trademark imagination and wit, which has had over 11 million views… (All images in this piece were shot by Red Bull Media House.)
I felt that I was going to really do myself some damage, or maybe end up on crutches again before Christmas
Photo by Red Bull Media House
He’s usually seen in more adventurous settings but Danny MacAskill’s Gymnasium is shot entirely in an indoor gym, in an ironic nod to his dislike for getting injured and having to do endless winter gym rehab.
In fact, in the past few years he has spent two Christmases on crutches, so he was very keen not to get injured this time around, even though he launched himself off squat racks, bounced off Swiss balls and generally seeing how much physical jeopardy he could squeeze out of your average gym.
But what was the scariest trick to pull off, and does he have any tips for the rest of us to inject more imagination and playfulness into our bike riding?
So, was Gymnasium an ironic comment on your rehab sessions?
I had a bunch of ideas that I’d been daydreaming about over all those years of rehab and I thought it’d be quite cool to do a wee project, especially in the winter when you could go into a heated hall and ride on some of the everyday gym obstacles.
Was there a trick that ended up being a bit of a nightmare?
Well, there were quite a lot of nightmarish tricks in there. The scariest, the one that had the most fear for me, was definitely doing the 360 on the parallel bars. We custom-built the base so that it was a bike-width apart rather than being shoulder-width apart like usual.
It wasn’t a trick I’d ever done before. I didn’t have the muscle memory built-in to my system, to be confident about doing that high off the ground.
I did have the feeling that I was going to really do myself some damage, or maybe end up in crutches again before Christmas, but luckily that one worked out – it was quite satisfying!
The scariest trick, the one that had the most fear for me, was definitely doing the 360 on the parallel bars
Photo by Red Bull Media House
Looking at the jump off a squat rack, to another rack – that looks pretty gnarly?
It’s funny. There’s certain parts of the riding that come a lot more naturally. The style of riding that I’m doing on the squat rack is traditional trials riding, which is something I’ve been doing since I was 11 years old.
That was actually something that was a bit more straightforward, and the nice thing was that we could move, we could make the gap smaller or bigger. We started off with it smaller and then I could work up to the gap I did in the video.
Which trick took the longest to nail, and how many attempts?
By far, it was the last trick on the film. I don’t know what to call it, is it a ghost? I do a trick where I ghost my bike at a ramp and then my bike takes off by itself off a springboard, and then it clips the front wheel and the back wheel off a horse.
Then, of course, it does a front flip in the air, then I run up behind it trying to catch the handlebars and jump back on the bike before I land on the ground again.
That took me about 800 attempts, over two and a half days. That was definitely sore in the legs, that one.
Absolutely a must – I think that’s the case in any sport, you have to be able to visualize exactly what you’re doing, in real-time as well.
Sometimes the visualizing can be not that handy, when you visualize yourself having all the different crashes that could happen, your brain can’t help that. When it comes down to it you have to be able to visualize the success and how it’s going to feel.
Was there another trick that you had to absolutely rinse to land cleanly?
The gap between the slacklines – that took, don’t know, maybe 300 to 400 attempts, maybe less. I didn’t really get a sniff, after like 200 attempts, I didn’t even get close to landing both wheels on the line because you had to be very, very precise.
Then it’s a case of just blindly going at it, doing the same thing over and over again until you eventually land on it. It is a satisfying feeling, it’s definitely what makes me tick, that trying, what seems maybe impossible in the beginning, and making it work by the end of the day.
Spend less time on Strava and more time mucking about!
Photo by Red Bull Media House
Skids is always a good place to start, haha! No, I don’t know, when I get on my bike, it still makes me feel like I’m eight years old, I still get that buzz from it.
I suppose there’s some basic tricks that’ll make riding a lot more fun – there’s a lot to be said for learning car park tricks, learning how to do your track stands, learning how to do your bunny hops, wheelies, all that kind of stuff.
It doesn’t have to necessarily be done out on the trail, it can be done in car parks or wherever – just flat ground, it doesn’t need much at all.
Just get it out there and have fun with it, see what you can do on the bike. Tackle those little steep climbs and just play about. Maybe spend less time on Strava and more time mucking about, that’s what I’d say!
You mentioned you especially like riding in the winter?
Yes, I love it. I think it must be a UK thing. I just love riding in the wet, wild north conditions. I suppose being up in the highlands, you have to do that, otherwise, you would never ride.
It’s maybe because your riding gets a little bit slower when you’re on the muddy steep trails, but you feel like you’re going just as fast, but then when you crash, then it’s also easier on the body. Also, you feel like you’re beating the day, when you’re out in the wild, wet conditions.
Yes, it’s true, and with mountain biking, it doesn’t matter if it’s muddy, that adds to it!
Yes, it’s the perfect UK sport, I would say. You’re not waiting for the conditions; you’re not waiting for wind or waves or whatever else, you can be out there in everything, as long as you’ve got the right kit on.
You can be getting out there and just getting blown up out of the hills. It’s satisfying when you get to the end of the day, anyway!
Photos: Red Bull Media House
A version of this article originally appeared on RSNG.com – read it here
Photo by Red Bull Media House
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