6 minutes of exhilaration. My heart was in my mouth watching this clip

I watched it on BBC Breakfast this morning , made me feel a bit tingly, quite scary.

I don't know though. This sort of dangerous stunt always strikes me as just plain silly risk taking. People have appalling bike accidents. Who would have picked up the pieces of this young man if he'd crashed as so many would if they tried to copy this? Lots of impressionable youngsters will too.
I was never impressed by Evil Knieval and I'm not impressed by this cyclist.
Obviously I'm a spoil sport but I've the results of dangerous risk taking...

Extreme sports scare me. My husband watches them but thankfully he's too old and achey these days to try any of them.

He's a complete bone-shaking nutter but he's great!

100% agree with Jane10 here- I find it really sad, and this is the case with so many sports, extreme biking, extreme skiing, extreme snowboardin, extreme parapenting, etc, etc- that there are so many young people (usually young men) who feel, that unless they are constantly on the edge of death- life is not worth living.

And these videos encourage this- with oft tragic results.
And they go around because we watch them and share them - and it becomes a business, with adverts, sponsors, etc.

Daniel "Danny" MacAskill is a Scottish trials cyclist, from Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye. He works professionally as a street trials / Mountain bike rider for Santa Cruz Bicycles. In April 2009, he released a five-minute street trials video to YouTube, filmed by his flatmate Dave Sowerby... lots of other videos on YouTube.. Danny is TOTALLY professional and has done lots to promote and improve safety for all cyclists.

Wow. Whatta guy. Such fitness, control and skill.

Fleur20, yup. Thanks for that, Danny.

biba70

100% agree with Jane10 here- I find it really sad, and this is the case with so many sports, extreme biking, extreme skiing, extreme snowboardin, extreme parapenting, etc, etc- that there are so many young people (usually young men) who feel, that unless they are constantly on the edge of death- life is not worth living.

And these videos encourage this- with oft tragic results.
And they go around because we watch them and share them - and it becomes a business, with adverts, sponsors, etc.

Oft tragic results, like road accidents caused by vehicles that nealry all of us drive.

Only I'd hazard a guess it's a LOT more in the case of road accidents/deaths than all the others associated with "extreme" sports put together.

People in glass houses flinging rocks again.

I was hugely impressed.

It'll all end in tears ! I don't rate these dare-devil tactics.

Without dare devils,
no mountain climbed, no ocean sailed, no under sea creatures discovered, no jungle explored, no Atlantic flight, no man on the moon.

It's not a necessary discovery though is it ?

You've missed Fleur20's point, EV. Danny MacAskill's cycling exploits have made a big difference to bike safety. Doing the stuff he does has showed up where improvements in bike manufacture needed to be made – balance, weight distribution, length of wheel base for difference needs, better tyres and brakng systems, etc., etc.

That matters to ordinary everyday cyclists.

Without dare devils, no mountain climbed, no ocean sailed, no under sea creatures discovered, no jungle explored, no Atlantic flight, no man on the moon

Absolutely brilliant post, thank you Cherrytree for saying that. It's the risk takers that help us to develop new safety equipment that eventually filters down to everyday use that we all benefit from; seat belts, harnesses, crash helmets, air bags: all of these were initially developed for safety measures in "extreme" sports that are now used in every day life.

There are far more responsible ways to develop safety equipment.

I wouldn't have thought that it's every day that cyclists suddenly decide to cycle down the sides of a cliff edge

Oh, I don’t know EV. I've cycled down slopes as steep as some of that though not as crazy looking or as scary below. When I say cycled it’s a case of standing on the pedals with fingers on the brakes the whole time. It’s fun!

And the last time was in 2019.

Live a little! ?

And there's the puritanical rub: no exhilerating fun allowed!

That was amazing, GNW, and yes, beautifully filmed. Talk about feel the fear and do it anyway...

Oh My Goodness! Stunning.

There are far more responsible ways to develop safety equipment

But it's because of the need for extra safety measures needed in extreme sports that they're discovered in the first place! Read up on when, why and who invented seat belts, crash helmets, eye goggles and air bags. They're in common everyday usage now but they were developed because someone risked their safety for fun and someone else stepped up to make them safer. And we all benefited.

I'm with you Jane10 - it is interesting that we spend hundreds of years developing ways to keep ourselves safe (sanitation, antibiotics etc.) and yet some people are still drawn to danger as if by a magnet.

I am all for people having a bit of exhilaration, as long as they do not expect others to risk their lives picking up the pieces for them when it all goes pear-shaped - I often think this about mountaineers.

It's interesting that most mountain rescue workers are volunteers and they volunteer because they like mountaineering as well and know that it's worth doing because life is about more than always avoiding risk.

Not that most mountaineering is dangerous anyway. Risky at times, yes, but so are far more ordinary things that even risk-shy people do all the time.