Sean Watson - Brakeless 2010

[Mark W]

Sean Watson has a new video up featuring his brakeless footage from 2010 to launch the new Inspired site. It's in the featured video bit, go check it out! It's got some really cool lines in it with a good mix of tech and ballsy stuff, worth a watch for sure.

[Ben Swales]

That gap to footjam and the brakeless nose roll were mint! Well impressed by that! If only I had more time and money, I'd love to give brakeless a try!

[matt.price]

If only I had money, I'd love to give brakeless a try!

it doesnt cost more to take your brakes off

[Ben Swales]

it doesnt cost more to take your brakes off

That is true. I reckon I'd want to try it on a streetier bike though, plus there's still the time issue - I barely have enough time to ride normally

[Mukso_]

epic

really nice ride

Its a shame I cant even manage this with brakes

[mr ailsbury]

Absolutly loved that

been waiting to see gaps to footjams for so long

[Brian Bleech]

Sweet video, ace riding and it had a real 'bmxy' feel to the edit. Good stuff

[Canardweb]

Hey I am riding brakeless since two months now(or a bit more than that), and I just absolutely love it! That video is the exact way I wannna ride except that I ride a real trials stock bike without brakes (without all the BMX tricky thingies... Such as footjams).

I don't want to get my brakes on anymore.

Edited May 28, 2010 by Canardweb

[Jonny Jones]

Loving the new website! HUGE step forward over the previous design, great work Dave!

[ibs_m]

That was an amazing video!

Those huuuuge reverse mannuals are incredible!!!

Awesome riding - the guy is a legend!

Ibs

What ratio is he running??

[Rusevelt]

Its a shame that Sean couldn't get anyone to film him during some of those sweet little lines, still full credit to him for managing to keep himself in the shot when filming by yourself is no easy task.

[MikeCottTrials]

That was easily some of the best brakeless riding I've seen

[Skoze]

That was awesome!

[isitafox]

Very good riding and stuff like that gap to footjam was very impressive but brakeless still doesn't do much for me!

[Ross McArthur]

Special FX are getting incredibly good these days.

[Rich Pearson]

If I were to say that video really irritated me, am I likely to get a rather hefty slating from all sides?

[Mark W]

I wouldn't have thought so. There's definitely things in there I wasn't really keen on, and as a whole I wasn't massively into the editing, but it was just refreshing to see someone doing something different. I didn't really know what to expect from one clip to the next, and for me that almost makes things like using that song for the millionth time forgiveable simply so I'm not just seeing another sidehop, followed by another tap, followed by another drop-gap everyone else has seen before.

A better edit and a bit more attention to detail riding-wise might have been cool, but I'd much rather watch a not-so-well put together video of someone riding new spots in new, interesting ways than the usual videos on offer here.

[J Harris]

really smooth and well edited vid, must of taken ages to film some of those lines,

concerned that its only a matter of time before trials bikes get stunt pegs though..

[pizzapie..]

That could be the best vid i have ever seeeeeen!

[Luke Rainbird]

concerned that its only a matter of time before trials bikes get stunt pegs though..

Yeah, about 5 years ago...

I don't understand why people get so angry/upset about people wanting to add in other influences to their riding and actually have a bit of fun on a bike. Isn't that why we all started riding in the first place?!

I thought the video was great, a hell of a lot more interesting to watch something like this than most of the videos that hit the forum

[Rich Pearson]

Its odd because watching it I've got a huge amount of respect for the skill the guy obviously has (the sideways gap between the two tire width walls was super tech), but it just kind of made me go "Can you please f**king decide whether you want to ride BMX or trials?" I know in the interest of open mindedness and not restricting creative expression 24" and the brakeless trend that has followed has opened up and proved how dynamic and different the sport can be, but as a bit of an unwilling trials purist, video's like these will always irritate me and make me think "Is it really trials?" Note; I know that on a a semantic level no-ones actually said this 'is' trials, but you get what I mean.

Dude's got skills though for sure and props to that

[Luke Rainbird]

Perhaps I don't think of it as a "trials" video and more of a "riding" video instead then.

Question for you Rich, since you're actually able to keep a reasonable conversation about things like this:

If someone posts a half decent BMX video and you watch it, are you likely to enjoy the riding in that?

I guess what I'm getting at is that people tend to be fine if it's one or the other, but have issues when the two are combined a little, just wondering if this is the case here maybe?

[Mark W]

I suppose the difference for me is that I can kinda relate more to where Sean's coming from riding wise, in terms of wanting to mix BMX with trials. I'm just interested to see where it ends up, in that it's all good having more influences to sort of give what people are doing a bit more of it's own identity. I think people's idea of what "trials" is is so distorted and different to what trials was originally about that it just doesn't really matter any more. For you, him doing this makes you think "Is this trials?" (even though we'd both agree that's irrelevant), but seeing people who can barely actually ride a bike just working on sidehopping up higher walls all day doesn't really strike me as being 'trials' either, and I wouldn't necessarily consider people who just seem content to gap and sidehop their lives away 'trials riders'.

[Rich Pearson]

I think you've hit the nail on the head there Luke, as I love watching BMX vids of all variations; I think my personal gripe comes from being continually compared to Danny MaCaskill by the public over the last two years at every show I've done, and kids going "You can't do a backflip or a manual - you're not a very good trials rider then," and I have to sit down and painstakingly explain that trials (as in the original, competitive sport of trials) is nothing to do with tricks that look good, but is more about the practical ability to get a bike over any given problem thats in your path. I am WELL aware how much of a stuffed-shirt this makes me sound and I, like everyone else, am continually blown away by the advances in brakeless and 24" riding; If I hadn't broken my leg (which I'll admit the built up frustration of which has probably precipitated some of this tangent I'm now storming off on) I'd almost certainly have a 24" brakeless rig myself by now (I was actually talking to Joe about sorting me out with a Zoot full bike that I could take the brakes off and have a go on).

Its just that videos like this one are SOOO far towards being BMX theres almost nothing trials about it, and it only really annoys me when the public see this and think that this is what all trials riders do.

Sorry for going a bit off topic and high jacking the thread here, just my own thoughts really.

Rich

[Mark W]

it only really annoys me when the public see this and think that this is what all trials riders do.

That's a fundamental difference between us there I suppose - people always seem to talk about boosting "The Public's" perception of "The Sport" and all that jazz, but it's never really interested me. When I first got into trials, no-one outside of riding knew what it was, but people still rode it. That's always been the case, and it'll always be the case even when people are less interested in Danny Mac style riding. I can appreciate it might make your life as a demo rider harder, but basically that's a choice you've made in terms of how you want to ride and how you want your riding perceived, whereas Sean's just going out, riding his bike and filming it. I don't think Sean's made that video to try and "Get people interested in the sport" or any of that, and so I don't really think that whether what he's doing is an accurate portrayal of trials really matters.

For what it's worth, at least in that video he looks like he was having fun and was just trying new stuff out - I'd rather people saw that and associated that with trials rather than some of the twattish, chav-y shit that other people seem to do when they go out riding (and then film, and then put it online...).

EDIT: Oh, and in the event that people outside the trials world actually saw that video, I doubt many 'normal' people would understand that he was brakeless, and how much that increases the difficulty in what he's doing, so I'd have thought that most people would just think he wasn't that good. I know it says at the start of the video that he's brakeless, but 'cos of fixie riding and all that shit I think most people assume that there's some other trickery at play. I've had quite a few MTBers (who you'd have thought might have had a clue) simply be unable to comprehend that I just don't have brakes or any means of stopping on my bike. Having to explain repeatedly that it's not a fixed gear and it's not a pedal-back-brake hub to people who you'd have expected to understand simple ideas about bikes sucks...