technically it's more of a Wibmer's guidelines

September 24, 2019 5:20 PM

Wibmer's Law, an eight minute city biking video from Fabio Wibmer chock full of trials stunts, with a charming amount of narrative throughline.
posted by cortex (20 comments total)

Took about a year to film. Watch the "making of" video. Golly.
posted by Peach at 5:56 PM on September 24, 2019

Came to gripe about urban cyclists.
Then was going to note that I could do that if I wanted to.
Then just watching.
posted by skyscraper at 6:49 PM on September 24, 2019

I dunno. This is cool, but I have the same issue with romanticizing unsafe biking as I do with unsafe driving. I feel less safe as an urban cyclist because of both cultures, tho obviously to different degrees.

(btw, if you're wondering where the stick up my ass comes from)
posted by es_de_bah at 6:53 PM on September 24, 2019

I started out feeling all woooah!!! And then—it’s so hard to tell what’s real and what’s a commercial. It makes me feel old and jaded.
posted by eggkeeper at 7:09 PM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Not to be a big party pooper! It seems super amazing and dope, but I am a little bit ruined :(
posted by eggkeeper at 7:11 PM on September 24, 2019

Beautiful video. Insipid tech-ad music.
posted by migurski at 7:33 PM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

it’s so hard to tell what’s real and what’s a commercial

A lot of high-gloss production for stuff in the whole constellation of extreme sports is tied up in corporate sponsorship, so, yeah, the Red Bull cupholder bit is a pretty conspicuous little bit of winky product placement. Worth a little groan for sure.
posted by cortex at 8:13 PM on September 24, 2019

I know it's all a commercial, but I'm left mostly feeling like dude's an alien. I literally cannot imagine having his relationship with a bicycle and the physical world.

While I'm glad Red Bull is paying for it, it's not enough to just have wings. I need it to give me a major vestibular system enhancement AND robot legs.
posted by MengerSponge at 8:35 PM on September 24, 2019

It's that moment when you know you aren't going to stick the landing, that's the most important part. My favorite part was the out-takes during the last 90 seconds. I have had a bike handle to the sternum many times as a kid trying shit like this.
posted by not_on_display at 9:08 PM on September 24, 2019

I really liked the skateboard bit at 3:00. So smooth.
posted by Gorgik at 10:01 PM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Was it just like the ocean under the moon?
posted by hippybear at 10:15 PM on September 24, 2019

It’s like the bicycle version of those Candide Thovex videos.

What’s going on here, despite being even more staged, looks like it took even more talent and nerve. I really like it.

it’s all fun and staged, please don’t jump your bike onto the roof of someone’s A8 or get into a lady’s car uninvited
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 10:59 PM on September 24, 2019 [1 favorite]

Very beautiful; entrancing. A work of art.
posted by jamjam at 12:57 AM on September 25, 2019

Gorgik: "I really liked the skateboard bit at 3:00. So smooth."

Watch the making of video. It took like 100,000,000 takes to nail that one and 99,999,999 of them are at a far remove from smooth.
posted by chavenet at 1:33 AM on September 25, 2019 [2 favorites]

The skill on display is amazing, but I agree with es_de_bah that the "story" of the video has been poorly chosen. The cyclist is portrayed as a jerk (cycling on peoples' heads), reckless (cycling too close behind cars to avoid a crash if the driver does an emergency stop), and careless of other peoples' safety. We know that all the tricks are staged and that the participants are actors, but what the story says is that it's cool to be reckless and inconsiderate.

It doesn't have to be this way: compare Danny MacAskill's Wee Day Out.
posted by cyanistes at 6:33 AM on September 25, 2019 [1 favorite]

The tricks are fun but part of the draw for me is the pretty places.
posted by evilDoug at 7:09 AM on September 25, 2019

And here’s me feeling good about herself for finally learning to ride no-hands at the tender age of fortysomething. I feel so...

...well actually even without watching the outtakes video I feel so unscarred, unbroken, and undislocated.

Agreement that some of these stunts are total dick moves despite being really impressive. I audibly winced when he went in front of the light rail.
posted by egypturnash at 7:41 AM on September 25, 2019

It’s like the bicycle version of those Candide Thovex videos.

It reminds me of the AZO showreels. Remember him? (Previouslier. Previousliest.) He dropped another one in 2018 but he drops individual stunts on his Instagram more frequently. (Also, hilariously, he made a similar-style video of himself doing parkour-type stunts in the Just Cause 3 video game.)
posted by straight at 10:50 AM on September 25, 2019

Danny MacAskill doing made things at an old Iron Works seems to be the spiritual predecessor to this.
posted by endotoxin at 12:04 PM on September 25, 2019

The attraction of a film like this is that it presents a fantasy of effortless and fearlss travel through a complex and dangerous environment. But if the environment contains other people then it's a good idea for the film-makers to consider how they are going to be incorporated into the fantasy. In the Wibmer video the other people are a mixture of bystanders and victims, except for the one man who helps to spin Wibmer's bike around.

Again, compare Danny MacAskill's "Danny Daycare" — at first sight the story looks like a piece of reckless endangerment, but it undercuts this by portraying Daisy as an enthusiastic participant, and by exposing the filming artifice at the end.
posted by cyanistes at 1:05 AM on September 27, 2019