- Alright, it's time for Ask GMBN, Blake.
- Yes!
- We've got a special one this week
cause we asked on our social media
for questions, just for you.
- You've put me in the deep end.
You've dumped me in the black.
- Loads of our lovely followers on social media
and on YouTube had sent us loads of good questions
that I am gonna pose to you so hope you're ready.
I've got loads of them.
- (nervously blows air)
- First one, JPrime93,
What's your favorite place to ride in the UK?
- (inhales deeply) That's a tough one.
I like to ride in a number of different places.
My favorite place to ride dirt jumps is my local spot
where I've been riding for years and years and years.
It's a place called, Buckland Rings.
It's in the south,
but I do Wind Hill.
I like Rogate at the moment,
and Bike Park Wales is pretty good place to go.
Black mountain, insane, so you see,
there's not one favorite place.
- The question is what's your favorite place.
- I can't, they're all great!
- D.A.N.H, How old were you when you started riding,
and what was your first bike?
- My first bike was a BMX.
My dad hand-built it from ground up.
It's was blue, it's was a British Eagle,
and I started racing BMX when I was five.
- Oh, wow.
- Yeah.
- Ethan Curran 2003, Hey! Love the vids'.
What's the worst injury Blake has had?
- I broke my leg, tip and fib.
I still got a pin in my leg.
So that goes through my bone.
It's called nailing, they nailed it.
So it's a big, long titanium rod like that
in the big bone, and it didn't have a cast.
But I snapped my leg in half.
It sounded like I slipped a pedal and hit my shin pad.
Big, loud crack.
- And that stays in, does it?
- So that's planned to come out
within the 18 months to two years.
Still got it in though after three years.
- Stoked, spokes, MTB, Who was Blake's first bike sponsor?
- DMI Bikes, yeah.
- (mumbles)
- I think everyone was in the UK?
- Cool British company.
Jamie Hazelden, Would you ever ride rampage
if you were invited?
Five years ago, would you?
- Yes, young.
- Yep.
- And full of, like, want to just do stuff, yeah
Yes, but now I don't think.
Would you ride it?
- No, but I could have possibly years
and years and years ago.
There was maybe a slim chance
when G went and did his first one.
If I would have shown more willingness, maybe could have.
But that was back in the old days
when everything was a tenth of the size.
But now, no chance.
- No, but you do get
to build your own track,
so you can build it to your abilities?
- Can you build a really small one?
- Yeah, just half way down like you can walk up.
You can ride down the push-up.
Actually the push-up is really hard.
You need ropes to climb up stuff.
So, I would like to go and scope it out.
We should go to that site.
- Yeah, I'd love to go and watch.
Horton Chris 007, if you're only allowed
to perform one trick for the rest of your life,
not sure why that'd be the case but one trick,
what trick would you choose?
- Well, for the rest of my life, I'll be super dizzy.
It'll have to be the 360.
- The 300?
- The 360.
300, I'll be crashing a lot.
The 360's my favorite trick.
You can get so many different angles
You can kind of potentially go upside with it.
- Those noisy, hook on the Gee Style ones.
- Yeah, looking back I love 360's.
- Tobias Turnham, What is the biggest
or best trick you've ever done?
- The biggest and best trick I've ever done
is a 360, double tail whip.
I love, I did it for a video,
for a clothing sponsor, Animal Clothing.
Did it for that and then, it's quite demanding trick,
it's like all or nothing off that lip. Yeah.
That was my favorite big trick I've ever done.
- Narley.
- Yeah.
- Jos waters 05, What do you think of 29ers
and what do you think of cleats?
(mumbles)
- 29 inch... So I rode 29 inch at Mega Avelanche
and it was my first ever time riding a 29er
and I loved it, only because it was racing
and I was going over some horrible, rough terrain
and it kind of glided over all of it.
Clipped in. There's a time and a place for being clipped in.
Maybe if I was racing Cross,
I'm not really a clipped in kind of guy.
- I guess 29ers doesn't suit your riding mostly.
- No, I like a bike that's kind of
quite agile and flickable.
When it moved to 27.5, I was like whoa, big wheels
but now I'm kind of used to it.
- Yeah
- But 29 is quite spick.
- Inkno Kupfer, what's the difference
between free ride and downhill?
- Well free ride, while downhill there's loads of rules,
free ride, there's no rules.
- Yup.
- You can do whatever you want.
You can have fun, you can race,
you can go slow and be steazy,
you can have a lot of style.
- I like the rules.
- You do like racing, don't you?
- Yeah.
- So what would you pick? Free ride or Downhill?
(mumbles)
- It's about time for a bit of change isn't it.
- Yeah.
- Stephen Prior, Should I start with clip less pedals
or flats as a beginner mountain biker?
- Your talking to the man that likes
being flat pedaled and learned on flats,
so I'm going to say flats, you?
- I would say the same thing.
- I think flats, clipped...
- Attariqn, How often does Zim Blake shred his tires?
- Like Skidding?
- I guess like wear them out?
- So, Steve Jonas from EMBN literally
gives me grief because of my tires on my downhill bike.
He's like, "why do you have you got these tires?
They're so worn out." Well I do like a worn tire,
especially during big jumps, they roll faster.
You still got an aggressive tire on the outside,
so in turns you can actually corner
but in the middle it's like totally worn.
- Ah, I see that, sometimes.
- Yeah. Do you do that in racing?
- Occasionally. For downhill tracks
or fast tracks you would but I don't know.
- So I kind of go till there dead.
- Tomeriksol, asking about your canyon torque.
He says, how tall are you and what size do you ride?
He would like a small size frame
that's more flickable and playful.
He's 182 centimeters, that's pretty tall.
That's about six foot and a bit.
And he's thinking about getting a medium one,
So what size do you ride?
- I ride a medium. To be honest,
if your six foot, you would want to go for a large.
- What is 182, let me google that.
182 centimeters into inchs... yeah, six foot.
- Six foot nil.
- Pretty much, yeah.
- I'm five foot six.
- Not very tall, are you?
- No I'm pretty short, so a medium is good.
I wouldn't go anything smaller,
I've tried a large on my new proof megger
and to be honest that bike
was way to big for me to kind of handle and move down.
I was kind of like no, this is just,
like the reach was terrible, I didn't feel comfortable.
The medium's best, so for you
I think the large would be like me riding a medium.
- On to quick fire alright, so quick yeah.
- Boo yah!
- Dubbinit UK, Zim Blake or Zimboray,
which brother is the best rider?
- We're both the same.
- Really?
- Yeah. Ray is really good at competition dirt jump,
he far outdid me in competition.
His back flips, are the straightest back flips in the game.
- Where yours are a bit wonky.
- Mine are always wonky.
- Jakob Zupancic, when will a learn
to back flip video come out?
- Soon, When we can get the insurance for Neal to do it.
- J Roache Doherty, would you ever
come to Australia to ride?
- 100 percent, yes.
- Big Red Fella, would you rather have
feet for hands or hands for feet?
- This is a tricky question. Hands for feet.
You'd be like a monkey and climb and grab everything.
- Right, now onto a couple about Zimbabwe.
Cameron Francis Smith, are you actually from Zimbabwe?
- Yes, I am from Zimbabwe.
Born. Bred. Lived there for 15 years.
- It doesn't sound like you have an accent.
- I've been here for 17 years.
- Richard, what made you leave Zimbabwe?
This is not a quick fire.
- This is not a quick fire question.
- Give us the quick answer if you can.
- My dad was a farmer, we lost the land
because of the political problems in the country.
So, we had to seek refuge.
Mom and dad had a British passport,
so the best place to come was England
and we moved straight to the other one
because we had an aunt and uncle who lived there
and they had a free house cause
they had a house in Cape Town.
We moved straight there, and we've lived there ever since.
- Alright seeing as it's an 'Ask Blake',
I've got a jumping related clip, If I'm wrong.
- You can help me. You can help me.
- Well, you might be able to help out Jake,
whose won specialist stunt jumper in Reno, Nevada.
- Oo, nice place.
- Who's been hitting his jumps,
this jump for a while and can't make it smooth.
- Okay, so let's see it.
- That looks so dusty as well. So difficult.
(reacting)
- He's cleared the jump
He's got it, the technique looked a bit different.
- He's kind of front wheel up, isn't he?
- Yeah.
- Mega front wheel up.
- He looks like he pre-hops,
like he totally jumps before, like a misfire really.
- Yeah, I agree. I reckon he looks
like he pumped in to early
and then is trying to lift the bike.
- Lift the bike with, you know,
it looks like he's been clipped in.
He's like pulling the bike up.
- Tips for Jake then?
- I would say do that same technique
but a bit later, letting the lip doing the work for you.
Don't rely on your feet, bringing it up with your feet.
So, that's my tip, yours?
- I would say the same and actually get Amram pump tracks.
It really helps a lot,
it really helps with your pump in technique
to then be able to lift the bike properly.
- Exactly, Yeah.
- Nice one.
That's all your questions Blake.
- Aye, we're going to do one next week for you.
- Well maybe. Thanks for getting involved,
everyone on Instagram,
that's where we got all the questions this week.
- Thank you very much, some good questions.
- Yeah, definitely.
If you want to get involved,
we got some black Friday deals on the GMBN website.
We got these metallic jerseys and T-shirts.
Look at this gold.
- It's probably...
- Can you see the shininess on camera?
- Yeah, flipping good.
If you want to get your hand on one of these,
we've got the link is in the description down below.
Go get yourself a nice black Friday deal,
Black whatever deal, it's pretty cool.
- Thanks for your support.
Seeing as it's an 'Ask Blake'
I think we should throw it to two of your videos.
I reckon, Blake, you riding Mount Avalanche.
- Ooh, yes.
- If you want to see that one,
we talked about it a little bit already,
click over here for that video.
Do you have a favorite Blake video?
- If you want to see me hit
the biggest jumps in my life,
click over here for Darkfest.
- Hit that sub button, give us a thumbs up,
if you like this video if you like this weeks 'Ask'.