Bike Parkour
March 31, 2012 9:14 AM   Subscribe

Urban Trials Riding in Melbourne looks a lot like bike parkour; amazing and more than a bit insane.
posted by quin (37 comments total) 15 users marked this as a favorite
 
Great video. Terrible music.
posted by You Should See the Other Guy at 9:24 AM on March 31, 2012 [2 favorites]


So, this proves cheap black spray paint is really an antigravity medium?
posted by Samizdata at 9:37 AM on March 31, 2012


Parkour is actually foot trials.
posted by tylerkaraszewski at 9:54 AM on March 31, 2012 [2 favorites]


The term "bike parkour" confuses me. On the one hand, we have trials riding, which is kind of popular, and already has a perfectly good name. On the other, we have parkour, which is extremely niche. For some reason, people on the internet have decided to name the former after the latter (I suspect Kottke popularized this).
posted by ssg at 9:58 AM on March 31, 2012 [5 favorites]


Proof that we need more bike paths, so people aren't forced to hop all over everything to get across town like this poor fellow.
posted by orme at 10:03 AM on March 31, 2012 [10 favorites]


There were several moments where a slight miscalculation meant certain testicular doom; I kept my legs crossed while watching.
posted by Forktine at 10:07 AM on March 31, 2012


Why is it that they call riding a bike parkour, but they call the one who parks a car the drivour? What a country.
posted by found missing at 10:23 AM on March 31, 2012


“Bike parkour” is a thing that does not exist. It is a brain-dead neologism for an activity that has always had a name – your choice of three, in fact, namely trials, biketrials, or trialsin (from the original Spanish).
posted by joeclark at 10:45 AM on March 31, 2012


Regardless of the taxonomical debate, those are some impressive skills.
posted by rainman84 at 10:51 AM on March 31, 2012 [1 favorite]


I'm in the camp that says brain death is a poor explanation for how words take on new meanings as language evolves.
posted by found missing at 10:52 AM on March 31, 2012 [2 favorites]


Is is just me, or is that guy an incredible badass?
posted by Fists O'Fury at 10:57 AM on March 31, 2012 [2 favorites]


> The term "bike parkour" confuses me. On the one hand, we have trials riding, which is kind of popular, and already has a perfectly good name. On the other, we have parkour, which is extremely niche.

It's just that "bike parkour" is a better blurb. It's immediately clear what it is. On the other hand, if "bike trials" pops up in your rss, it's not as recognizable — "trials" can mean a number of things.
posted by Tom-B at 11:05 AM on March 31, 2012


It's all anticlimax after the parking garage.
posted by cribcage at 11:07 AM on March 31, 2012 [1 favorite]


Yeah, people have always been doing stunts on bikes, since bikes have existed. I mean from my perspective what makes Parkour distinctive is the lack of a device like a bike or skateboard.
posted by delmoi at 11:31 AM on March 31, 2012 [1 favorite]


I recall a similar video from some dude in Scotland or Ireland...
posted by dfriedman at 11:38 AM on March 31, 2012


Whoa. That is all pretty nuts.
posted by arnicae at 11:44 AM on March 31, 2012


All I'm gonna say is that is some of the best unintended advertising I've ever seen. I'm out to buy more stuff so that I can keep it in my Storage King. Now if someone could point me in the direction of Fairfield I'd be more than grateful.
posted by Blue_Villain at 11:50 AM on March 31, 2012 [2 favorites]


Did anyone else notice that his bike has no seat? And how awesome that made it?
posted by daq at 11:52 AM on March 31, 2012


I recall a similar video from some dude in Scotland or Ireland...

Danny MacAskill, previously and last year
posted by Z303 at 12:00 PM on March 31, 2012


I didn't notice there was a distinct lack of seat! It makes sense since it would get in the way of his body shock absorption and springing, but wow how did I not see that?

I remember seeing this bike trial stuff on some game show somewhere and it was magic then and its magic now.
posted by Phantomx at 12:02 PM on March 31, 2012


Crazy stuff. That levering himself up on the front wheel is nuts.
posted by carter at 12:05 PM on March 31, 2012


Who gives a shit what they call it? You can't do it so quit your kneejerk rage.

The point is that no trials rider calls what they do bike parkour. They don't call it bike parkour, people call it bike parkour online to get clicks (as Tom-B points out).
posted by ssg at 12:06 PM on March 31, 2012 [1 favorite]


So, when you wipe out, is it called biketribulations?
posted by fikri at 12:07 PM on March 31, 2012 [3 favorites]


Although I'm unable to comment on their respective bicycle-riding abilities, Danny MacAskill certainly has better taste in music.
posted by schmod at 12:29 PM on March 31, 2012 [2 favorites]


So what is bike trials? Is it, as described, bike parkour, or is it actually trying out for something?
posted by jacalata at 1:25 PM on March 31, 2012


And I thought I was badass zipping around a college campus going up and down massive stairs . . . this is intense. The Go Pro-type shots were making me clench.
posted by exlotuseater at 2:27 PM on March 31, 2012


It's like he figured out how to enable video game physics in real life.
posted by the jam at 2:43 PM on March 31, 2012


FWIW, bike trials riding came out of motorcycle trials riding. If you believe wikipedia, a top moto trials rider wanted to teach his kid trials riding, but made him practice on a bicycle.
posted by mollymayhem at 3:36 PM on March 31, 2012


You know all those lumpy, bolted-on anti-grind guards that cities put on everything to encourage skateboarders to go away? If these guy's don't knock it off, we'll have spikes on all the benches and short walls and curbs and handrails. Knock it off!
posted by Barry B. Palindromer at 3:54 PM on March 31, 2012


The point is that no trials rider calls what they do bike parkour. They don't call it bike parkour, people call it bike parkour online to get clicks (as Tom-B points out).

Good point- "parkour on a bike" definitely doesn't describe trials riding in an accessible way to the layman, and the professional athlete who posted a demo video on a public youtube channel probably wants as few clicks as possible.
posted by hamida2242 at 6:20 PM on March 31, 2012



So what is bike trials? Is it, as described, bike parkour, or is it actually trying out for something?

I guess we'll never know, because the important question is whether or not that's an acceptable analogy.

Too bad the rider posted his video on youtube, if he'd had his own site there might have been a riveting Metafilter discussion about the font choices. I'm kind of a typography nerd, you see, not like those other kinds of nerds.

Maybe some pedants will show up in the thread to talk about whether "parkour" is acceptable in giving a basic description of the activities performed in the video.
posted by hamida2242 at 6:29 PM on March 31, 2012 [1 favorite]


Megaskill has much better taste in music.
posted by Manjusri at 11:23 PM on March 31, 2012


Great video. Terrible music.
Great video. Great music.
posted by Joe Chip at 11:43 PM on March 31, 2012




Let's do this with every thread on the Blue from now on. Don't react to the actual topic, instead argue about little dumb finicky details. Because Youtube comments are so cool.
posted by Twang at 3:52 PM on April 1, 2012 [1 favorite]


I can't believe you dicks just watched a guy do the most amazing feats of athleticism, balance and agility, and then thought that the most interesting aspect was what it was labelled.
posted by wilful at 5:56 PM on April 1, 2012


Twang: is this detail finicky, or just petty (or perhaps pedantic)?
posted by logopetria at 12:05 AM on April 2, 2012


« Older New Google Maps   |   Just a click away Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments