Danny MacAskill in Forth Estuary.
© Andy McCandlish/Red Bull Content Pool
Trial Biking
Why Matthias Dandois calls Danny MacAskill "the best human on a bike today"
In the first episode of the Decoding Athletes podcast, BMX star Matthias Dandois gets inside the mind of trial bike legend Danny MacAskill, the man he hails as "the best human on a bicycle today."
Written by Ian Chadband
3 min readPublished on
It’s another of Scotsman MacAskill’s exhilarating journeys, this time as he goes through the highs and lows of his career on the Decoding Athletes podcast.
A career which has seen him jump from being an unknown bike mechanic from the Isle of Skye into one of the world’s most watched and admired sportsmen, an internet colossus.
“It almost felt as if I was in the Truman show…”
MacAskill takes us through the story of how his life changed overnight 11 years ago thanks to one video of his street stunts in Edinburgh that almost revolutionised the idea of what’s possible on a bike. He explains the culture shock of how Inspired Bicycles, set to Band of Horses song The Funeral, transformed his life.
One second, he’s a nobody; the next, he’s turning down an appearance on America’s biggest TV show. He also reveals why the pioneering video, since viewed over 39m times, was almost thrown off the web at the outset.
“I tried again, I failed again. I was just losing my mind….”
MacAskill’s perfectionist streak comes to the fore as he tells the story of the trick he refused to let beat him after about 150 failed attempts and how six days of filming just to capture footage of one trick lasting six seconds is always worth it in the end.
On a plane journey, Danny will note down stick men drawings of trick ideas© Fred Murray/Red Bull Content Pool
“In my brain, I’ve ridden this entire room…”
How does the 34-year-old MacAskill come up with his endlessly imaginative and novel bicycle dance, be it over monuments in the Scottish capital, up in the mountains of his home island or in a giant playground of his imagination? He and Dandois spill their creative secrets.
“Even on the way to hospital after you've broken something, you’re thinking about what you’re going to do when you get back on your bike…”
MacAskill’s ecstasy at pulling off the perfect routine usually comes after a whole heap of agony. He relates his conflicting attitudes to the occupational hazards of trying to entertain the world - at least 30 broken bones down the years – including one injury, incurred when jumping off a Glasgow bridge, that still plagues him today, 11 years later.
Danny's approach to bridges is stranger than most
Danny's approach to bridges is stranger than most© Dave Mackison
“If I went home, trying to be Billy Big Balls, my friends would definitely knock me down a peg or two.”…
Four hundred and fifty million internet views of his magic mean we may have all seen MacAskill the cycle legend – but what about MacAskill the man? He shares the details of how his modest lifestyle hasn’t changed despite success – and how his old mates would never allow it anyway.
“Who wouldn’t want to ride on the moon?…”
What are MacAskill’s next great dreams and projects? He talks of the men he thinks are taking biking into new realms of excitement and of his own incredible opportunities – the ones he turned down, like a new life in a Korean circus, and the ones he didn’t, like a day weaving around the Playboy Mansion feeling, er, rather uncomfortable.
Does he have any regrets in his trailblazing career? Tune into Decoding Athletes to find out.
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