It’s impossible to watch Scottish bike ninja Danny MacAskill without thinking about Hans Ray, the undisputed king of trials riding and the man who two decades ago brought the twisted style of cycling gymnastics to the attention of North Americans (and for that matter, the rest of the world). Without Hans, there might not be a Danny MacAskill YouTube sensation–who knows?

Regardless, it shouldn’t be too surprising to find out that not only have Hans and Danny found each other, they recently hooked it up for a barnstorming trip across the Scottish highlands, along with third mountain bike madman Steve Peat. The Adventure Life caught up with Hans in Switzerland and here’s what he had to say about the trip, Danny, and the fence.

How did this trip come about–whose idea was it?
Peaty and myself had talked about it for a while to go to the Isle of Skye, since Danny is from there, we thought he could be great addition to our crew and a good guide. He was all for it.

You’ve ridden as much of the world as any cyclist on the planet–what’s the Scottish riding like? Does it remind you of any place else or is it unique to Scotland? How so?
Scotland has some really cool riding and areas, my favorite ride was the Quiraing, it looked like a scene from the Lord of the Rings, with beautiful trails carved into the landscape. Overall, the Scottish Highlands remind me of the high alpine, above the treeline. I have also ridden once a place in Brazil called Minas Gerais that reminded me much of the Highlands. The great thing is you can ride on epic trails for a whole day or week and don’t run into hardly any people or bikers.

How did you and Danny connect?
I met Danny first last summer, after his clip had become famous, I saw a live trials show he put on at the 2009 Bike Radar Live event in England, our path had crossed since.

When did you first see his trials riding? What were your thoughts?
I had seen some of his older clips without paying too much notice, but when his infamous YouTube clip was send to me last year (at which point he had already a couple hundred thousand views, now he is close to 20 million)., I immediately couldn’t believe what he was doing. He definitely raised the bar more than one notch, which is not easy to do, plus he found a perfect way/ style to combine BMX with trials.

You’ve ridden some pretty gnarly stuff. How does that move of his on top of the fence compare?
It’s pretty crazy, I don’t think I would want to try it–even Danny says he never wants to do that again. Trials riding consists of difficult moves, the problem is they don’t always look difficult or riders make it look too easy, finding objects people can relate too is key, the fence did the job, no doubt.

What was the dynamic when you and Peaty and Danny rode together? Did you guys push each other? Were you able to free ride and get after it or were the days dictated by the cameras?
No, we got a lot of good riding time in, on all sorts of bikes, from XC rides to downhill runs and even some trials session. We had incredible good dynamics and chemistry–everybody was super stoked on this trip. We all love riding, no matter what style, even though we all have our specialties. Danny was going quite fast on a DH bike, we did push each other in a friendly way, all day long–I guess that’s part of the game.

Any plans for the three of you to take another road trip?
We’ll see, I’m sure one of these days our tire tracks will cross again.

Tagged as: europe, mountain biking