Ramsay has been busy working on a new video featuring our favourite trail, the Nipple Tweaker.

With spring rolling in to dry out the trails, we knew the only way to do this track justice was to shoot a RAW edit. We worked with Adam of McGuire Visuals and invited our friend, Rory Semple, to get involved taking stills and handling the steadicam, while Adam shot on the primary camera and monitored the sound.

 

Rory Semple shooting Ramsay’s Nicolai Geometron

We set out at the crack of dawn and began to work our way down the trail shooting frames until each powerful shot encapsulated the trail’s unruly nature. By this time, the vegetation hadn’t quite broken through yet, so it was easy to move around and get our intended shots through the trees before the impending summer foliage blocked it all. The team clicked perfectly, making light work of the task at hand. With rapid progress, we managed to grab some additional shots that none of us had planned for.

As we assembled to playback the captured footage of the day, stoke levels were high as we devoured a warm lunch and strong coffee at a local café.

With it being a RAW edit, the post-production was vital – we took a considerable amount of time to ensure the audio was as close as possible to perfect, without using any Foley audio – actual skids only, please!

Trail with a Tale

It all started when my friend Ross McArthur and I got a bit fed up of travelling so far to ride (from Glasgow) as there isn’t much in the way of challenging trails or terrain close by. So we started messing about with a few wee turns in the woods at Campsie Glen which is only 20 mins north of Glasgow, and before we knew it, after about a year or so of working on it together, a full trail was in place and maturing nicely. We’ve since opened it up to anyone who’s keen to get involved – loads of riders have shown their appreciation and are now chipping-in with their tyres and tools to help develop the spot – it’s really starting to thrive!

Nipple Tweaker is a reference to local legend ‘Big Al’ who runs Wheelcraft, the bike shop at the bottom of the trail. I used to work there as a kid and learnt a lot from the big man – all the trails in the area are named after him. He’s a specialist wheel builder, so all he does every day is tweak nipples for a living… He IS the Nipple Tweaker!

The other trails are called ’17 Years in the Foundry’ (a long descent from the summit down to the car park) which is a reference to Al’s infamous time spent working in the foundry, and ‘Rockit Fuel’ is a reference to Al’s legendary coffee that is, erm, rather strong! I don’t think I’ve slept right ever since my first cup…