Bureaucracy, balance and mayhem – six short cycling videos

Obstructions, infractions … and pain An entertaining video from the United States, where filmmaker Casey Neistat reacted to an urban cycling-hassle incident by making his point in a style that owes a certain something to the Jackass movies. Neistat had been fined $50 by the NYPD for cycling outside a designated cycle lane – the two-wheeled equivalent of jaywalking – and this annoyed the filmmaker somewhat, given that he had been forced out of the cycle lane to avoid “obstructions”. So to make the obvious point about unfairness and bureaucratic stupidity – and to show just how many cycle lanes are blocked by cars, vans and general clutter (something that also applies in Scotland, even if we don’t have the same strict laws) – Neistat arranged to be filmed cycling unerringly along the official lanes. This led to a series of comings-together with the tarmac, a couple of vans and – inevitably – a police car.

The Janus school of cycling Shorter and sillier – but almost as entertaining, in a wonders-of-engineering kind of way – is this film of two blokes hammering along near Gothenburg on a facing-both-ways tandem. Think one of those Welsh symmetrical steam engines – or Dr Dolittle’s pushmi-pullyu two-headed llama, but with wheels. “They must really hate each other,” as one of the YouTube commenters said.

Who needs two wheels? From two saddles and two wheels to one saddle and one wheel. The wonders of unicycling never cease – a few years ago, for instance, a man was said to have been seen pedalling round parts of Skye on a unicycle while playing a tuba (a bit like these chaps, but with Sgurr nan Gillean in the background). And then there are these young turks, hopping around on unicycles after the manner of skateboarders. Coolest bit? Surely 45 seconds in, when the guy lets his saddle do a complete 360 while balancing on one leg atop a bench.

No stress at Glentress This week sees the TweedLove mountainbiking event at Glentress near Peebles, and this helmetcam footage was taken at the same course one snowy night a few years ago. Wrong choice of music, though: something ambient and dreamy – or even just the natural outdoor sounds, as in the final 30 seconds – would work better than the Kaiser Chiefs, given that the visuals would then seem rather soothing. (In which regard, admittedly of trains rather than bicycles, this lovely film from the Bergensbanen in Norway remains hard to beat.)

"A total lack of respect for the law" Talking of helmetcams, this is a heck of a thing: an extraordinary five minutes of footage from London of a cycle-couriers’ race in 2006. It’s a bit like the car-chase scenes from Bullitt or The Bourne Identity, but on two wheels and with no guns. Quite how none of these guys ended up in custody or in A&E – or worse – is mysterious (ditto this), but it will almost certainly give the majority of sane cyclists the shudders. The film will also reinforce a feeling in a lot of those who watch it: that they never want to live in London.

A throwback to gentler, more wobbly times And finally, after all that mayhem, something a whole lot calmer – and perfectly legal. Take one specialised modern mountainbike track – in this case Laggan Wolftrax, west of Newtonmore – and wobble along it astride a somewhat less modern – but equally specialised – machine, the penny-farthing. While wearing cricket batting pads. “I’m a psychiatrist”, sings Lee “Scratch” Perry on the soundtrack. Indeed.

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Related posts:

1. Saddle up and twiddle those gears – it’s time for TweedLove
2. Cycling through magical Kintail
3. It’s the summer of TweedLove as mountainbiking hits the Borders