Yesterday Andy and I headed to Ravensdale, Co Down where we filmed Masters World silver medallist Meave Baxter for her second Break The Cycle shoot.  She has got a very cool house where she is lucky enough to have a mountain bike trail which practically leads straight down to her back door, very lucky lady!

We started off at the big mast above Ravensdale Forest, the views were unreal, it was pretty hazy at first but it wasn’t long before the sun came out and the hours just seemed to fly by as we filmed some pretty sick riding by Meave.  I even had a go on Meave’s bike (my first ever go on a downhill bike) which I totally loved, as you can probably see from the photograph below!

After scaring a few sheep and coming across a random plastic chair halfway up the mountain we headed back down to Meave’s house were we all stuffed ourselves with some lovely sandwhiches made by Meave then headed to a Forest just outside Newry, Co Down to meet up with Liam, Meave’s brother for a cross country section.  The forest looked amazing, the sun was just setting and the bluebells were in full bloom, the footage looks pretty cool!

Andy and I got back to Belfast quite late in the evening and are now getting ready for the final group shoot today!  Should be a good one!

With filming for Break The Cycle almost finished, and the editing process already begun, we still have a couple of exciting shoots to go.  Yesterday was no exception as Andy and I were lucky enough to get an insight into the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service.  We headed to Armagh Fire Station, County Armagh, where fireman and Break The Cycle rider Glyn O’brien is stationed.  It was a really fun afternoon as we were given the grand tour of the newly built fire station and then got to film Glyn and a few other fireman going through some of their drills, check out the photos below.

Coming up next is the final group shoot where we are getting all the riders together for some serious riding and some craic of course!

http://www.vimeo.com/3524339After months of waiting for new sponsors to come on board for his 2009 team, we finally got a session with Ben Reid on his downhill bike.  We hit the trails near Rostrevor in County Down to soak up the action.

Ben just recently built up his new 09 Iron Horse with all the latest kit that you can see in the teaser video.  It’s a pretty sweet set-up, and the bike is really quiet on the trail.

Ben was actually great to work with.  We started at about 10:30 in the morning and filmed through to 18:00.  He only had a small bottle of water and a couple of chocolate biscuits to keep him going, but he had no complaints at all!  All that pre season training must be paying off.

http://www.vimeo.com/3166859After having to put this shoot off a few times due to snow we decided we couldn’t wait any longer and met up with Irish pro Ben Reid and his rather high profile MotoX training partner Gordon Crockard for a session somewhere close to Londonderry this afternoon.

When we arrived on location we were all pretty surprised at how much snow there was still lying, it was about a foot deep and unfortunately unrideable, didn’t stop them having a go but we soon realised if we were going to get any decent footage we would have to go elsewhere and fast, before we lost the daylight!

A few phone calls were made and we headed to another location close by. The track was in much better condition, still not great but we got some pretty good shots just as the sun was going down.

Music Credits: Lily-Jean Lonely, Hell Fire Club

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.