et tu Brute?

@xpirimint Biggest advantage is the immediate control you get. Which in a commuting setting is really awesome. It's hard to explain, but after years of riding everything under the sun (Road, CycloX, XC, DJ, DH, 29er, Fixie), The single speed fixie is by far the most responsive bike I've ever ridden. It's hard to explain, but if there were any other analogy I could think of, it's like going from driving a RW drive car in a foot of snow, to something with 4WD. It's also why fixed geared bikes were originally velodrome bikes, because in those really tight banked turns with twenty other riders sniffing your a$$ you had to be pinned. Outside the velodrome however.. kinda silly.

Two balls, one gear, both are pretty much fixed.

Don't know if Bruno is reading these, but if you are. Got any advice for a budding photographer? I understand basic composition, and ISO and Ap and Shutter length and most the technical stuff, but every time I go out to practice shooting outdoor photography I always have a hard time placing a story into the photo. Maybe it's yet to develop, but if you don't mind me asking. When you start setting up for a shot, what elements are you looking for?

Sooo... he built something and that's considered natural? So how is this jump any more or less "natural" than a double built on any given mountain side? Call it natural if you want. If you do though you have to include any constructed or engineered take off to be a "natural" jump as well. I don't think I'm being nit picky here. I can understand the need to maybe clear some brush away, or pack in a soft spot or two, but the moment they "constructed" a take off that involved the moving of enough dirt to bury a body, and then started placing rocks around the backside for support I do believe the jump became no different than any of the hits or doubles I've made myself, or seen at mountain bike parks. Maybe you could give me your definitions of a "dirt jump" and a "natural hit" To me a dirt jump is: Any jump designed and constructed by a human out of dirt. Examples include, The Post Office Jumps, Any doubles, step-ups, step-downs, etc etc that involved the use of tools to create. A Natural Hit is: A naturally occuring terrain feature, such as a sharp rise, or sudden fall from which it's possible to gain air. It can be part of a man-made trail, but the point from which the rider leaves the ground has not been altered by a tool. See your point about "afford" and "consumerism", but I still don't see how it led to a blinding effect in the guys comment. Not exactly the most relevant comment but again.. here we are trying to define "natural".

He does an amazing job with silhouettes that I haven't seen too much of. Don't know how much of what he's showing here reflects his overall style, but I love the B/W with the high contrast between foreground and sky. IMO they create a very earthy grounded feeling to the mountain biker by the simple fact that the biker and the mountain are the same dark tone, and those when placed against the lighter sky cause an the shot to expand into the open sky, which again IMO, created a sensation of awe that many mountain bikers are seeking to express. So.. if you're looking to make a mark I'd say you've done it.

Where does anyone here mention consumerism? Or buying anything, or pushing a product or anything remotely close to consumerism? Only consumerism present in the whole thing are the blatant ads placed around the jump. Which in all fairness... is perfectly valid considering they paid for Paul to come pull off his trick. However some food for thought... 1) If that landing (or take off for that matter) is natural then so is every other big double with a sculpted landing or take off, because it's obvious that booter had some serious spade work put into it. Not to mention the rocks they carried in to support the backside. Sure conditions were far from ideal, but that doesn't make his setup natural. He even states in the interview " I wish we’d had the crew to engineer the perfect lip." Engineering and Natural generally aren't synonymous. 2) "If [he were] to hit that line with no lip or a perfect booter,[and] still be sending the same transfer" why would he need to build it in the first place then? and, Why would he wish to have it built better if it made no difference in the transfer? Do have to agree on the whole 13" singlespeed setup thing though. It's a 26" wheeled full suspension bike with knobby tires... sounds like a MTB to me.

Pinkbike... Think you could pull off a round table Q&A of the who's who in Mountain Biking? I'm sure tons of Pinkbiker's would love to chime in with questions to debate.

Still stand by everything I said in the other post, but all that aside, mad props for coming out and addressing the cynics, and giving his own two cents on the whole thing. I think I enjoyed this edit way more than I did the other. Makes me curious too see what a discussion of Big Mountain vs Dirt Jump would look like from a bunch of the professional riders. I'd probably even pay to hear all their perspectives.

1) That lip wasn't created by using "a little tweaking". It isn't only sculpted, but dirt was piled, packed, and then supported with rocks. Despite the extremities of the run in that jump is no more natural than a dirt jump you'd find at the Post Office jumps or Whistler. 2) I've yet to see a single person bash Paul for hitting this jump. In fact there are alot of people giving him props for not only sticking the trick, but trying again and again after taking repeated hard hits. 3)What people are disputing is whether or not "Paul Bass made history". And since the double backflip has long since never been a first, his claim rest solely upon whether or not his feat can be defined as "natural". Unfortunately as it is painfully obvious that this jump was in fact built. Which in and of itself demeans every other athlete who has performed a double backflip off of a scultped jump, by saying that his was the first. In short.. His jump is no more natural or unnatural than any sculpted dirt jump, and He is not the first to perform a double back flip off a double dirt jump. Have him pull that off of a drop or over an unsculpted ridge and ya.. he's got it. Good for him. But the only thing here demeaning is the clearly false claim that has been made.

@togoodie Reductio ad absurdum - look it up (hint: It's not a Harry Potter spell).. secondly.. ya.. pretty vague on that definition of "natural".. given his jump wasn't anything different than something you'd find in a bike park or dirt jump lot I'm wondering if he was maybe just trying to say that that was HIS first double backflip?