Rocky Mountain Photoshoot

Jacques Marais is a wonder behind the lens and a longtime customer here at BikeHut. The last time we did a shoot together was when I opened the store in 2003 - a little something for Sports Illustrated. A finalist in RedBull's extreme sports photographer of the year, it's little wonder then that he'd be roped in to shoot for the South African Rocky Mountain ad campaign. He is afterall riding a Rocky Mountain ETSX70 himself. What's cool is that Rocky Mountain SA decided to use local riders to feature their series of bikes: Geddon Ruddock (ETSX), Mathius Beukes (Element), Justin Novella (RMX) and yours truely on the Slayer that I mentioned in a previous blog post. Man was I itching to ride that bike!

We're riding different bikes of course, showcasing the steeds from Rocky's stable of XC to DH rigs and everything in between. I had the enviable duty of showcasing the all-mountain trail category. I'm no XC whippet and having retired from DH racing a couple years back, I'm an average joe singletrack junkie with a penchant for what some would call "freeriding" or aggressive cross-country riding. Heck, this is mountain biking as I know it for as long as I can remember riding Tokai on a fully-rigid back in 89...

The weather was a bit dodgy - well ok - the weather was really dodgy, but as a puppet you gotta deliver the goods when Jacques shouts "one more time Steve, but can you..." while negotiating slippery rocks or steeps. Doing this kind of thing is quite the rush, we didn't fake any shots and chose lines that we'd ride to show off the bikes. The XC guys had it easy, but plonk yourself on a longer travel bike like the Slayer (which is 6") and Mr. Marais wants steeper, rockier, gnarlier action for his hungry lens. You can see why shooting a mountain bike movie requires exotic locations and big budgets.

I must say that the Slayer is one heck of a bike. It's got the looks and performance to boot. This is no poser bike - swing a leg over this and you're destined to blow your own mind. It's not often that you ride a bike and feel immediately at home. Like a comfortably fimiliar pair of "jeans pants" I had no problem seeking out lines and riding them first time on the Slayer. Bear in mind, there's no time to get used to a bike when you're called into duty like this. It's climb aboard and ride straight away - what the photographer wants he must get for that all important money shot. So, I was pretty relieved when the Slayer felt neutral and confidence inspiring in light of my recovering shoulder injury sustained last year. No matter how attractive the prospect of a possible cover shot I didn't want to sit the rest of this year out with another injury due to an over-eager ego. One big crash and it's "Good night Nurse!".

The Slayer 50 is an awesome all-rounder: it climbs well with it's customed tuned Fox RP23 rear shock and with the stiff-and-plush Marzocchi All Mountain 1 with ETA and TST upfront, with SRAM handling all the shifting duties one could easily adopt a bike like this for every kind of riding.