Mark W

The whole point is that from the research they've done, some people seemingly can, or at least an approximation of that. It's all a spectrum (hence the names from a- to hyper-). From my own experiences with using it, I'm not sure Reddit is the most useful source of info. Even on something as basic as "What type of bass strings is this person using?" there were a lot of contradictory replies, even disagreeing on the clearest/most fundamental aspects of it. There are plenty of better ones out there, especially for stuff like this - namely the large research projects being done into it by various universities/independent bodies. Exeter Uni have quite a lot of info online about it, as one example.

Needs to get that vinyl over the Inspired logo pressed down though otherwise he'll be in trouble

From around 2004-2009, I bought almost every issue of Dirt, Ride, Dig, Sidewalk and Document. That meant that I got to see a shitload of different styles of photography. I also spent almost all my time (especially when I should have been in uni, as Nic is keen to remind me) out shooting. It means that I have a sort of mental catalogue of what can make certain moves look good, and gives me an approximate idea of where I'll need to be to shoot it like that. It's no coincidence I'm still shooting with the same lenses I have been for the past 15 years - much like I've kept my bike setup consistent so I know what it's likely to do when I put a certain input in, with the Tokina fish I usually shoot with I know reasonably accurately where I need to be to fit whatever I need to fit in the frame. Sometimes it comes about from a happy accident though, so for example photos of Ali where it looks like he's boosting to the moon have quite often just been me randomly trying something, it looking interesting, then finessing the shot from there. It's why I struggle with shooting photos of tyre taps as I haven't really seen many photos of them that really show them off well, so I don't have an idea of what will be the 'good' point to get it at. Something like a footjam whip, or an up to front there's a specific moment which is where they're at their best, but for tyre taps there's never really one. See also: Gaps. Consequently I have to make people do them repeatedly to try and work it out. Sometimes I'll also want to shoot a photo because I'll see a move when I'm filming, and will know I can try and re-create that frame. That was true for a gap to 180 nose bonk that Ali did in Cardiff, and was also one that got away from the Malaga trip with John doing the abubaca barspin. EDIT: I realise that earlier bit doesn't really explain the imagination/visualisation aspect well. I don't really see those photos in my head as such, it's more a memory of seeing them, if that makes sense. Which it obviously won't...

The idea of the colour overlay came from a Shadow Conspiracy video (it was originally a totally red overlay). Played around with colour layers, opacities, blends and saturations to make it look OK. Originally the background footage was in colour, but that didn't work so it had to be B+W. Adapted it to work with the Catalan flag as it happened to work better than the Spanish flag (luckily, I got enough shit from Catalans for using a vague Spanish flag reference for the rider titles...), and I'm a nerd for stuff that spaces out like that. The different sides thing was just from playing around in Premiere as I couldn't work out a way to make it work. I can think of it as a functional process (i.e. a transition that needs to happen), but I can't 'see' it as an outcome until I do it. That wasn't the first thing I came across as I basically had to f**k around with it until it worked in some form. Going back to the guidelines/spacings/nerd thing, this is the PS workspace I'm playing with at the moment for the thing I'm working on for TartyBikes: ...with the graphics blacked out, obvz. It shows how I have to 'build' a design though, rather than really being able to just conjur something from scratch.

I think it's probably similar in a way to how I design stuff - there's a lot of constraints to what you can/can't do, so you work around that. This also touches on it: https://aphantasia.com/creation-of-an-aphantasic-artist/

That's part of the interesting thing about it - Exeter Uni are doing quite a bit research project and have found that there's a lot of people with it within the creative industries. My sister's an architect so has to be able to draw up buildings and stuff. I think most of my shit is pretty derivative of other stuff so it's not really like I'm doing my own thing as such. It's all kind of a synthesis of stuff I've seen before. Some might call it theft Most of the way I film and edit is just bites from people like Joe Cox, James Cox, Dave Sowerby and Rich Forne rather than me specifically coming up with something new. I can't really picture stuff in my head that's actually 'new' new. It's no real surprise that the original Clean logo was just a Dymo print, and the majority of the first stuff I did was just typewritten. The vinyl Clean graphics were just something that I painted by hand, and the limitation there was I can't write or draw for shit rather than a specific aesthetic choice... I've been working on a random graphic thing for TartyBikes, and it involves having to do something that is effectively 'new' new and I'm struggling with it a bit. I basically have to do some visual research (i.e. looking at what to steal), then adapt it to suit the specific thing I'm doing (i.e. steal it).

I possibly shouldn't have laboured the visualisation point so much - it was more of an example. It's not so much being able to put that visualisation into reality, it's more that I can't even do the visualisation at all. I basically can't put a picture in my mind, it's just a kind of void. I can remember stuff I've seen, so for example if I had to imagine a dog I can remember a dog I've seen before, but if I had to imagine a dog with green fur (probably some kind of dye-based accident...) I couldn't make that happen in my head.

Slightly random topic, but hey ho. My sister messaged me a little while ago asking me a few questions about whether I dream and if/how I can visualise things. It turns out that she has never had a dream, and can't imagine a picture in her head, visualise something, etc. She basically doesn't have a 'minds eye'. It turns out that my Mum also has this, and so do I. This is what's known as aphantasia, with hyperphantasia being the opposite end of the spectrum. I'd always heard people in tutorials talk about how it was important to 'visualise' moves, but I didn't think they actually meant they fully visualise it or picture it in their heads as that's something I've never been able to do (something until recently I thought was normal ). Unlike my sister, I have had dreams, but they tend to be largely based on memories rather than constructing something new. I spoke to Ali about it when we were riding together last and he mentioned that he can visualise moves and felt it was important for his riding. For me, I find that I have to aim for what I think my body needs to be doing in a move and then try and make that happen. For example, with 360 hops I know that at the 270 point I need to be in a contorted/tweaked tuck position, so I effectively make my body follow the steps to get into that position as that should mean that the move works. It also means though that for new moves I find it really hard to make it work as I can't visualise it, don't know how it'll feel so can't really process how to make my bike do the thing. If I see someone doing it a lot then that can help, which was also how I learned to do hooks in Blackpool - I couldn't visualise them (obvs) and didn't really know how they'd feel, but watched Ali do loads of them at The Hook Wall and ultimately gave it a go. Once I'd attempted it I could then base everything from that, but even now because that was a slightly sloped back wall I can't imagine what doing a 'proper' hook on a random vertical wall would be like. Anyways, I was just interested to see what other people on here had - can you visualise things in your mind? Do you 'see' moves or lines in your head before you do them, or can you imagine a picture/scene?

So is that Marino Bikes UK account yours, Ross? Or are you not really involved with them now?

#justiphonethings

If you drove yourself to those shows/weren't paid for fuel you can claim that sweet sweet mileage. 45p a mile, #justsaying In the random accountant chat I had back in the day, he got really interested in the idea that I rode my bike around filming and actually found the rate I could have charged for mileage spent riding filming for videos. I chose not to because it's a faff working it out, but if I'd done that for all the videos with @ben_travis I wouldn't have to pay another penny of tax for the rest of my life

Nice work Ben (and Adam)! Had a really good feel to that video. Nailed it.

Two days to go: bit.ly/BTF-survey If you'd rather give your feedback in person, the AGM is on on Sunday: bit.ly/BTF-AGM

All that pruning of Israel vs. Palestine comments on your social channels has got to be hassle too... Can definitely ride a bike though!

Yeah, I got that nice surprise for the last tax year (2018/19 one). I don't even really pay much tax, so I'm not sure what the tipping point is for it. Luckily I put that tax year's stuff through in April just after the deadline, so I found out about it with enough time to put some money aside. If I'd just winged it now, I'd have been fully boned. Another reason to get stuff done early!

It's worth approaching editing any video from the position of having respect for your viewers, and respect for their time. Every second they give to you is a second of their life they aren't getting back. When deciding what to put into a video, bearing that in mind is a good first step.

If your normal work uses PAYE it should be pretty straight forward once you've received it. The only thing is you'll need your P60 from your full time gig, so if you don't have that already it may be worth chasing it up - if you've got that it's a case of just firing numbers from that into the relevant boxes on the HMRC self assessment pages. I had to do it when I had a tax year split between PAYE and self employment and it wasn't the total balls up I was expecting it to be. The online system is straight forward for the most part. There are a few really weirdly worded questions that if you're a tax wonk will probably make total sense, but if you aren't won't. It's genuinely not too bad though - I had a half hour consultancy with a tax accountant in 2013 and I've been flying solo since then. I'm sure if I get audited it'll go gigantically tits up, but hey ho. I've set myself up so I've got a spreadsheet on Drive that has invoice names/numbers, totals, mileage incurred for the invoice, expenses incurred for the invoice and any other info I need, so when it comes to the end of the tax year I can just highlight a column and have the total income ready to go, my mileage ready to go, etc. Just doing a bit of admin stuff as you go along is infinitely better than letting it roll around to this time of year and having to go nuts trying to collate invoices. Tom's right in that an accountant would probably be able to help you squeeze your tax bill down by getting the most out of your expenses, but if all you're really doing is stuff like mileage, equipment and any home bills related to work then it's fairly straight forward to do yourself. Once you've got your UTR and then jump through the Government Gateway ID hoops (which may hold you up a bit too) you'll be away.

To be fair to Fabio, I think he genuinely does just love riding bikes. He grew up riding/racing motocross and MTB before getting a street trials setup - he'd been riding bikes 'properly' for a long time. I think his family have always been really supportive (his Dad drove him to Dressler Camp with some spare wheels, for example), and I think him knowing Tom Oehler paved the way for the Red Bull hook-up rather than some ruthlessly devised 10 year plan to make it happen. In his regular videos he does seem to generally be having a pretty good time dicking around on bikes with his friends. No doubt his cheesier narrative-based videos are more of a grin-and-bear-it thing, but then that is work in itself. He might not have done a 'normal' days work, but he'll have put in a lot of work for Sick Series, meetings with brands, appearances, producing his big videos, etc. Doing hours and hours of signing sessions isn't exactly a walk in the park either - just ask Ali

That idea as far as aero was concerned was blown out of the water by that air dam vs. splitter vs. conventional bumper aero comparison you showed me for MX5s a while back

It is and it isn't in a way though - for example with Danny, he had some huge offers come in right after the April 2009 video but stuck with Inspired for the next 8-9 years. Thing is, aside from something like the Inspired In Barcelona trip or the Inspired In Malaga trip, they can't really offer much. Santa Cruz will be giving him a decent pay day and have given him other opportunities to travel and do stuff so can't really blame him. I assume Fabio will be doing pretty well out of this, otherwise he wouldn't have switched from Specialized as he'd been with them for 5 years. I think Danny's riding is probably more along the lines of Hans and Akkers in the sense that he could have a long career in the riding world, whereas Fabio's seems to be a bit more about sending it and going absolutely massive. I'm not sure what kind of longevity there is in that kind of career, but with deals like he's probably got with Canyon he could be making himself financially set for most of his life over the course of a multi-year contract.

What Mikee said, basically. It looks like that trials frame is a tweaked version of one of their DJ frames, so it won't really have cost them much to do. The forks are resprayed Inspireds so that takes care of the only thing they didn't really do, the wheelset is a normal wheelset (i.e. he'll have just thrown his normal wheels in), crankset is normal, etc., so they didn't really have to invest much money in it to have him on a Canyon 24. They've got a lot of money to throw around and I assume he'll be getting a fairly hefty chunk of it, so for them it makes sense to have him on an exclusive. Another way to look at it is that if Canyon are paying him a lot of money, and he uses that "lot of money" to do more trips and go to more places, if on those trips he's getting clips on an Inspired then Canyon are effectively paying for exposure for Inspired.

Give the BTF some feedback about competitions, help improve things for 2020, be in with the chance to win a £20 TartyBikes voucher - bit of a no-brainer... bit.ly/BTF-survey

He's off the front end of the website (https://www.inspiredbicycles.com/team.php), so kind of matches the way that there are still Inspired parts on his bike now, they've just been sprayed over

They were only available through TMS I believe - they had some made for some of their Combo bikes, from memory.