North Wales downhill headcam

ilovedirt

Took this at one of the local DH spots earlier today, it's almost a full run (it goes up a little further than that). It's called Moel y Ci and is in Mynydd Llandygai, for anyone interested.
Pretty lucky to have this stuff pretty much on my doorstep!

The Northern Monkey

thats a lush track! great work!

Will hopefully be hitting some local DH this weekend too

ilovedirt

Cheers, yeah it's a really nice track, one of my favourites around here (there's 3 or 4 within a 40 minute or so pedal from my house)

Nice one man, where you headed? You should start hitting some gnarlier stuff than Cwmcarn! feel free to give me a shout if you're ever up this way by the way, some excellent off piste riding (both downhill and XC) if you know where it is.

Dan Dare

Looks like fun! I might have to start putting my own bloopers in at the end of my videos

sanchez89

superb vid again matey. it looks like somewhere i might be able to ride without getting too scared aswell.

can i ask, seeing as your obviously confident with jumps and drops, where you position yourself on the bike on take off for the jumps?

im cack at jumping, which is why im going on a skills course for it , but any advice is useful.

i normally land either heavy on front wheel, or on my face.

ilovedirt

Cheers!
Yeah it's a nice track for beginners, nothing overly steep/technical. Few medium sized jumps/drops, buy they're all fairly easy and have chicken runs. If you're ever up this way and fancy a go, give me a shout, I'd be happy to show you where it is.

On the jumps, it really depends what the jump is like, some of the ones on that track have fairly flat take offs, I tend to just stay fairly neutral on the bike, keeping the bike as flat and balanced as I can. For jumps with a bit more of a lip, It helps to pop off the lip a little more, but I still try and keep the bike fairly balanced. It's hard to explain, but you'll know when you've got it right, it just takes a little time to get to know the bike and how it handles in the air I guess. If you're landing front heavy though, it would probably help to pull up a little, I don't notice myself doing it too much, but I tend to hang over the back quite a lot when I'm riding.

Also, gratuitous picture of me shredding the step down near the end of the vid. Note the central/balanced position.



And on the landing, note the bottomed fork and huge gurn!

sanchez89

cheers matey, yeah ill defo give you a shout when we get round to doing Wales.

Iv only just really noticed that during normal riding im quite forward weighted anyway, i think that doesnt help with the jumping. Small drop offs, 1-2ft im fine, anything bigger and the front dips down first. a confidence thing also but technique defo needs work.

thanks for advice anyway, i shall take it onboard and try and practice up Stile Cop on the red run.

ilovedirt

Yeah, like I say, I tend to ride over the back quite a lot. Maybe practice trying to get over the back a bit more or just pulling up on the front end when you're going over drops etc. I don't like slow speed drops too much though, they can go tits up for me, as you really have to pull the front end up, or sort of wheely off them

delcol

. Small drop offs, 1-2ft im fine, anything bigger and the front dips down first. a confidence thing also but technique defo needs work.

the technique should be the same weather it is a 1ft drop or a 10ft drop.. it's in your head.. best bet is do what you said and get some training/skill coaching,, i would never be were i am at today with my riding if i had not had skill/coaching from guides in whistler..

ilovedirt cool video.. bet it would look good with some 3rd person perspective shots, or shot from a 3rd person perspective..
looks a good trail to...

ilovedirt

cheers, yeah i might have to see if i can get a little tripod and do some proper filming up there or something, would look pretty good if i can get some nice 3rd person shots like you say

delcol

yeah,, it can be very time consuming and a lot of effort. having to keep stopping and hiking up and down the trail to get the shot's needed to make the video but imo it's well worth it..
and a trail as good as that one will look good from a third person... hike it to scope out angles... angles make or break a bike vid...
to give you a rough idea heres 2 trails we filmed first from a pov (helmet cam) and one from the 3rd person perspective..
tell me which ones you think is better...
danimal pov

danimal 3rd person

bigtimber pov

bigtimber 3rd person

same trails just one is pov footage and the other is 3rd person. let me know which you think is better..

ilovedirt

Some nice looking videos there, the 3rd person ones look better, for obvious reasons. What camera did you use for them? I'm only just getting into this whole filming thing, as I got the go pro for christmas. Can't really afford many expensive mounts/tripods etc at the moment though. Might have a go at a bit of 3rd person filming though some time when I have a bit of time on my hands.

delcol

the danimal one was filmed on a canon 7d dslr with some expensive lenses.. and tripod mounted on a midrange tripod (cost around £200)
the big timber one was filmed on a hd sony camcorder a sony sr12..

you dont really need mega expensive stuff to film on there other people on this forum got some good result with cheap cameras..
it's just trail and error think about angles when placing the camera... and it can be time consuming..