Wednesday, October 18, 2006

DIRT - the classic MTB flick

A couple of days ago I bought Mountain Biking UK for the first time in several years. No, I haven't gone mad, nor have a I turned into a whining teenager. The reason I bought it was because it came with a free DVD which, apart from some awfully filmed 'modern' riding, has the first (and possibly only) digital copy of 'Dirt' on it, one of the original and best mountain bike flicks ever made.

It's basically Rob Warner, Scott Dommett, Dave Hemmings and the late, great, Jason McRoy pissing about on their bikes in the sunshine. With the exception of a guest appearance by 'Jumpin' Jez Avery, there is very little 'impressive' riding in it (and even Avery's section is ridiculously tame by modern standards, despite the orginal GT STS and green body-armour!), but then that's not the point. The point is that it perfectly encapsulates the spirit of going out and riding with your mates on a warm summers day. It harks back to a more innocent time (well, for me at least) when you didn't go 'downhilling' or 'XC' or 'street-riding'. You just went for a ride.

I still have a well-watched copy of the original tape somewhere but, given that I don't own a VHS and aren't likely to ever own one again, I though it was worth getting it on DVD, for posterity's sake.

The first six minutes of it are available to watch online at http://www.jasonmcroy.com/jmc/, go to the downloads section and press play. Classic stuff.

No comments: