http://www.vimeo.com/3060759Another early start at 7am to go and meet Jamie McCullough down at the Mourne mountains.  One of the seals has been leaking in his break caliper so he resorted to burning the brake fluid of his brake pads with a blow torch!

It was a really cold day and also quite dark when we started, but by the time we got to the top of the trail the sun had started to rise properly.  

There are loads of downhill trails around the Mourne area. The trail we focused on (the wolf trail) has loads of densely packed trees along it which can make it quite tight at places, but really fun to ride.

We spent around 5 hours on this trail and got some really good footage.  You can see a clip with some blow torch action in the teaser video.

Up Next:

With downhill rider Ben Ried being a full time pro he has to find something to occupy his spare time in the off season.  Ben decided that putting a 250cc engine into his 80cc MX bike would be a good idea.  Check back soon to see what happens.

Just before Christmas we headed to Rostrevor where we spent two days filming Glyn O’Brien at Kilbroney Forest for his part in Break the Cycle. One of the things that really stood out on this time  is just how dark in general it is at this time of the year which makes it particularly hard to shoot in a forest setting, and full day shoots are definitely out!  

We made the most of our time though. Shane McAuley came down to set up a few zip lines again. We had Glyn hitting a super smooth step down and attacking a couple of flat out corners for that. The shots turned out quite well. By the time we were finished with the zip line it was starting to get dark so we packed up and headed back to Glyns house in Newry.

We stayed over at Glyn’s that night and got some interviews and footage from around his house. The next day Glyn, Big Ray (the headcam guy), and myself headed hiked up the hills above Rostrevor as far as we could go to capture some more action. The views were pretty amazing, and we were lucky to get clear skies.  It was so open up there and definitely worth the trip up.  Ray helped us out with head cam shots with the new HD camcorder we recently purchased gaffer taped to his helmet!

After that we then headed back to Kilbroney forest. Kilbroney has been home to the Irish Downhill Championships for a few years now and has a couple of amazing trails. The light was a bit better this time so we worked flat out to get in as much footage as possible.

Check out the clip from Glyns interview and some shots above Rostrevor. Fuzz also got a few behind the scenes clips together from day 1 of shooting.  A big thanks to Shane for setting up the zip line and Ray for helping with the headcam.

Thanks to everyone who voted for the ‘Break the Cycle’ test video of current Irish downhill champion Colin Ross at Cavehill, Belfast, at MTBMovies.com, as it won their monthly video contest.

In return, we are offering our prize to you!  This includes an MTBmovies T-shirt, First aid kit and stickers, you will not want to miss out!

The winner will be chosen at random from our mailing list, so sign up to be in with a chance to win!

The competition will be drawn on 05/01/2009, and the winner will be notified by email.

Good Luck!

http://www.vimeo.com/2333560I have finally got footage from most of the riders (apart from Glyn O’Brien) for the film and managed to put together a trailer.  This is more of a teaser than a trailer but it give an idea of what the film is all about.

We have not been out shooting over the past couple of weeks as we have been putting the trailer together but we will be out again soon to get more shots.  

Feel free to share the video to your friends or embed it on your site by using the buttons on the video.

Music credits: (in order of appearance – Artist/Track)
The Frames – In the deep shade
Joe Echo – Come get it wrong
Joe Echo – Where we wanna be

Some of you may remember Honcho Designs first video release back in 2001 ‘Heavy metal’. Heavy Meatal II was in development in 2002 but never happened… until now! Video clips have been pulled from the archive and uploaded to the Break the Cycle YouTube channel. They feature riding from Irish riders back in 2002 at Bromont and Whistler. There is also coverage of the Canadian downhill and 4x would cup rounds from 2002.

Bromont Trails

Way back in 2002 John Lawlor, Dale McMullen, Andy Smith, Richard Smith and myself were over in canada to race a couple of rounds of the downhill mountain bike world cup.  We were lucky enough to be able to stop off at a couple of amazing riding spots between races, one of which was Bromont.  For those of you who don’t know, Bromont ihas an amazing network of trails.  I havn’t been there in a while but I have heard that they have developed the area for bikes much more since we were over in 2002.

Grouse Mountain World Cup

Grouse Mountain was one of the world cup rounds we raced at when we were over there.  The track at Grouse Mountain is located in Vancouver on the west coast of Canada.  It was a strange track because it finished half way up the mountain.  For the race runs the weather turned really bad really quickly.  As you can see in the video visibility was not the best!

Whistler

Whistler, what can i say… an amazing place to ride.  I had never seen another place more geared towards mountain bikers in my life.  Back then in 2002 there were a load of Irish riders out there.  Check out the video of everyone doing a train down A-Line.  I remember Andy and Richard Smith loving the wall ride at the bottom section of the track.  I think things are a bit crazier there now.

To stay updated with the latest news on Break the Cycle you can subscribe to this site, Youtube, and FaceBook.

Whats Next? The trailer for break the cycle is almost finished and will be on here soon!