How to Brake with Fabien Barel

"Everyday people talk about suspension setting, to know how to jump or to ride fast but the braking performance is a key point to your bike efficiency and to your own safety. Sometimes people forget that speed is nothing without control."

Video by Vittorio Platania

Fabien Barel Hits The Trail With The Canyon Factory Enduro Team

Mojo Trail Diary Morocco Part 3 With Fabien Barel And Mark Weir

A mountain that is 20kms away can look as smooth as a billiard table... So what looked like it should have been a short stroll up a reasonably steep golf course from our breakfast table on day 2 turned out to be an attempt at Jbel Erdouz a ‘proper’ 3600m mountain on day 3! The bit that looked like a Golf course turned out to be a 45-50° boulder field with no real path and brush and thorns tough enough to scratch paintwork!

It’s said that a camera can’t adequately convey the steepness of terrain or the depth of the experience, but when you have riders of the calibre of Mark Weir and Fabien Barel one-footing it down through the scree and the brush you know it’s steep! Look out also for the dirt and small stones being thrown up by the tyres and blown sideways! A proper mountain environment where the boys were glad to get down with the only casualty being a rear derailleur!

Although the Trail Diary gang were quite literally blown away by the big mountain experience, they were quite glad to get back on the road looking for a more relaxed, flowy trail in the grey earth area on the way to the final stop in Marrakesh. Poor Fab’s face when the monkey guys ambush him is priceless!

Video & Photos by Eyesdown Films

Words by Chris Porter (Mojo Suspension)

Music
Ali & Co. - Life is Good
Bird Commando - Atoms
Felipe Castro - Da Janela (EP)
The Corner Room - Kosmos
Aether - Still Life Portrait (Howlings RMX)