Film Review: Where The Trail Ends (original version)

Original version of review

The latest mountain bike film from Freeride Entertainment and Red Bull Media has landed: Where The Trail Ends. Spread across a variety of locations across the globe ranging from Canada to China, this movie certainly has the locations, but does it meet the hype?

Kurt Sorge sending a huge superman, credit Where The Trail Ends

Where The Trail Ends is very well shot, with stunning cinematography at all times, featuring some incredible riding. There are breathtaking and bone crunching moments in equal measure throughout, keeping the viewer entertained and involved, however some of the features on the culture of the country being filmed in can disenchant the watcher, if these segments were cut down upon I don't feel it would detract from the film as a whole, though these scenes played a key  part in the atmosphere of the film and should by no means be cut out completely.

Darren Berrecloth smashing a huge road gap, credit Where The Trail Ends

Overall if you love stunning scenery and incredible riding then Where The Trail Ends is definitely a film you should be putting on your watch list, however if you prefer tricks and slopestyle then give this one a miss, as it's pure, unadulterated freeride through and through, an absolute cracker!

Film review: Where The Trail Ends (re-edit)

Edited version based upon feedback from readers

Where The Trail Ends; a stunning mountain bike flick from Freeride Entertainment has landed, with locations across the world, from Canada to China, featuring mind-boggling riding coupled with breathtaking cinematography. With riders such as Berrecloth, Doerfling and Lacondeguy this movie is going to go off with a bang!

Kurt Sorge sending a superman, credit Where The Trail Ends

The riding is both breathtaking and bone crunching, keeping the audience captivated throughout, as stomach-flipping head cam shots are coupled with cinematic vistas shot by helicopter of incredible lines. At times the background of the culture can intrude upon the flow of the footage, however it breaks up the non-stop freeriding, a big plus for the less fervent viewer, acting as both a positive and a negative factor.

Darren Berrecloth smashing a huge road gap, credit Where The Trail Ends

Product Review: DMR Brendog Vault pedals

Pedals are one of the most important parts of a bike; the major contact point and the only way to drive the bike. As a result, pedal choice is absolutely key in the ride quality of your bike, so it's worth investing in a decent set. Pedals come in two varieties, flat and clips, with different people opting for different styles. Personally  I use flats as they better suit my riding style of "foot out, flat out". Over the past couple of years I've been using my tried and tested V12 pedals, but DMR have now updated them in the form of the DMR 'Brendog' Vaults and I couldn't resist giving them a go!

Pre-box opening, expectations were high

Initial impressions were very positive as I opened the box. They were nicely presented and well protected with a slip case with some info and a nice shot of Fairclough, capturing that understated, pure style he has on a bike. Once opened the box contained the pedals themselves (in separate compartments to avoid damage), some spare 'extra long DH/FR pins', a couple of spare standard pins and the spanner/allen key to fit both!

The pedals are very well built and have a large area on which to place your foot, something I found very handy on their virgin ride through some frankly horrible snow conditions. On one side of the pedal across the centre brace they are logo-ed 'Brendog' with the other bearing the brand name DMR Bikes, each finished in a classy gloss black typeface, however only time will tell how long the logos hold up. The rest of the pedal is finished in matte black which will hopefully prevent flaking of the paint, and Fairclough's twitter name, his signature and the motto S4P (sorry for partying) are printed on the inside edge of the pedal, viewable when seated upon the bike. Overall the pedal has top notch build quality, with a classy finish that will compliment most bikes. The Vaults come in at a claimed weight, and actual, of 410 grams, which is something of a rarity!

Pedals and box, impressive design and build

As far as fitting goes, the pedals were a doddle to fit, however the lack of labeling of left and right on the pedals may leave the less mechanically minded cyclists confused, however it's easy to work it out by orientating the logos, or just examining the threads. The actual fitment of the pedals was easy, just adding some grease and screwing them in, even the most cack-handed guys will have no trouble whatsoever!

I first got a chance to ride the pedals earlier today, on a short trail ride in some rather snowy conditions. Initial impressions were very pleasing, as I found the larger platform to give me significantly more support than I was used to, with the arrangement of pins being both comfortable and grippy, giving me immediate confidence to push my speed, even in the slippery conditions. When dabbing a foot in corners it was easy to get my foot back on the pedal in a comfortable position, and coupled with my rather battered 5:10 Freeriders I had no shortage of grip, more than can be said for my riding buddy who was slipping pedals left right and centre! On my current set up, the bike has a low bottom bracket, and as a result pedal strikes can often be an issue. Pleasingly the low profile design and tapered edges of the Vaults seems to have improved their rock dodging capabilities over the V12s, however a true test will be when I get to hit some rocky downhill tracks in a few weeks time, but I had no problems whatsoever on my initial ride!

Pedals on their own, works of engineering art

 Overall the Vault is a much needed upgrade over the traditional V12, which was beginning to look rather overweight and small in comparison to similarly priced pedals. The finish and build quality are spot on for the budget and the pedals are comfortable, grippy and confidence inspiring. At £109.99 RRP the DMR's are by no means cheap, but compared to offerings from Straitline, Twenty6, Kona and NukeProof the Vaults have more than proved they are value for money. If you are looking for a high end pedal, with high end features and a build to match then take a good, long look at these bad-boys, because they are well worthy of their namesake, the king of style.

A semi-eventful day.

Had a few downs, but lots of ups, surprisingly including a Chemistry exam! I was dreading the paper in the run up, but in actual fact the exam was far less trouble than expected! There were 5 questions, spread across the course including calculations, bonding and electronic structure however despite the wide range, all of the questions were doable and I felt fairly comfortable on most, hopefully when I get the results my confidence will be proved correct!

The key low point of the day was a lesson of a subject (used in it's loosest form) of TRAK, or Thinking, reasoning and knowledge. This subject is a joke, with lessons ranging from how to play sudoku (thought this was a hobby not a life skill) all the way through to the challenging topic of counter arguments; yes it did take our teacher an entire lesson to explain this simple phenomenon to us! Today's lesson tackled the mock exam paper, and general revision for the exam tomorrow. The first task passed with ease and I picked up a Distinction, hardly surprising when the pass mark is 23, considerably lower than 50% of the possible 60 marks available! It genuinely astounds me that it's possible to fail an exam where we are provided with such gems of questions such as being able to rearrange numbers to figure out a pin number; part of a simple arithmetic puzzle. The challenge of revision however was far more tiresome, as we were taken through such fascinating subjects of fallacies, how to draw a Venn diagram along with going over what a counter argument was, for those in the room with 3 or less brain cells! Just at the point I was beginning to doze off in the corner, the teacher ended the lesson, and we all stampeded out, the cry "revise for tomorrow" falling upon deaf ears!

Overall however it was a good day, and the promise of study leave tomorrow, before a 2 o'clock exam should leave me more than enough time to have a healthy lie-in, go for a short ride before cleaning the road bike! Barring the exam, not at all a bad day!

A little introduction

Hi, I'm Sam and this is my blog.

So, a little about myself; I'm 16 years old, fanatical about bikes, work in a bike shop and go to college! This blog will hopefully be a stepping stone for me into the bike industry, my dream job, be it writing articles for a magazine, working in a distribution centre, or just spending my days tinkering with bikes and selling accessories to customers.

Bikes have been a major part of my life since I was 12. I remember the day well, it was warm, summer and at Centre Parcs Longleat where I had at long last been coaxed into putting foot to pedal. There was a short dirt bank, with a little ramp up the other side. I remember chasing my dad down it, flying out the other side with a grin plastered across my face, and from then on I was hooked. I started off slowly, riding tow paths and freewheeling down the local hill but soon I began to progress. Over the period of a couple of years I went from riding a bike on light cross country purely on occasion, to owning four bikes, riding everything from road to downhill, and even occasionally racing!

Over the next few years I hope to turn my attention to gravity enduro racing! On January 15th tickets for the Megavalanche on Alp d'Huez become available, something I cannot wait for as it is an event that has to be seen to be believed! 2000 mountain bikers hurling themselves down a sheet of ice before spending an hour and a half riding one of the gnarliest (and I mean gnarly!) downhill courses on the mountain, including a savage climb part way through! This event will push my bike handling abilities and fitness to the edge, hopefully giving me a real taste of mass start racing!

Well, that's me, my past, present and planned future! I'll be using this blog to document various events and parts of my life along with utilising it as a portfolio of my writing skills and work, so read on, enjoy, and most importantly, drop me a line with any feedback, it's all welcome!