In the age of viral videos, one hilarious mountain bike film was an internet phenomenon last year. ‘Shit mountain bike girls say’ was made by three mountain bikers in Germany, including Ana Raecke. Here’s the story of how it came to be.
Scroll down to witness the close-to-the-bone wit of this video for yourself. We’ve also included Ladies Night, another great video produced by this trio and a different take on the MTB film format.
I’m 31 years-old and I live in Germany, but I grew up in Venezuela. I’ve only been near mountains in the last 10 years when I moved to Munich, and I didn’t used to have anything to do with mountain biking.
My boyfriend and I found out about a bike park a few years ago. We didn’t know what it was and we wanted to check it out so we went there. He had experience on bikes, I didn’t.
He thought it was really exciting, and I was scared to death. I was crying, I told him ‘how can you do that to me, you sent me to this mountain without any experience’. I hated it. I said ‘that’s fine, you go riding, I’ll do something different in summer.’
The next year I decided to get a better bike, so we could go on a few rides together, to have something in common. The bike I wanted to buy got more and more expensive the more I got into the technical stuff. Then I got a really good bike and I went to that bike park again, and it was a totally different experience.
The first run I was like ‘wow, this is actually working,’ the next run I was like ‘wow, this is actually fun,’ and then the next run was like ‘Oh, I totally love it!’ and I was hooked!
I went every weekend. I bought a downhill bike, did a race for fun and I was good and everyone told me I was getting fast. I thought ‘OK, I’ll try more races.’
So now I can’t stop riding. All my holidays, all my plans, everything is biking.
This year I couldn’t race because I had a bad injury, with surgery and stuff, for my collarbone. When everything goes well I do between five and ten events a year, like the IXS German Downhill Cup and the European Downhill Cup. I can’t do all the races from the European cup but I try to cover as much as I can.
Some of my best result were actually near the beginning of my racing career – I did the rookies cup, and I won the overalls. I placed 6th in the German nationals, and 7th place last year.
My absolute dream is to go to Canada, and do a road trip to see all the bike parks, and I’m doing that next year. I’m super excited! I don’t think I’ve ever had such a big dream. Some people do it every year – for them it’s normal, for me it’s special.
That I got into mountain biking is probably the best experience I’ve ever had as it’s brought me so many friends, so many good times. I can go to work and think of biking, and know that in 3 hours, I’m off and I can get on my bike. I think that’s the best experience.
If everything is going well, I ride 2 to 3 times during the week, and then I try to go biking at the weekend as well. But I always always need one or two days where I don’t ride, to just relax and rest.
Now I live in Stuttgart, and we have awesome trails just behind the house, 5 minutes away. It has a really steep climb, and then different combinations of trails you can ride. We’re going to have an official track soon, right in front of my house. Within in two hours we have six bike parks to choose from, and one is just an hour a way – Wilbad – which is one of the gnarliest tracks in Germany.
‘Shit mountain bike girls say’ video
I have two friends who live in Stuttgart and we were actually doing a film ‘Ladies Night’ – we wanted to a night-ride video, and we chose the off-season because when it’s winter we can only go riding when it’s dark, cos that happens at 4pm. So in the winter we party and we go mountain biking, and that’s what’s in that video.
While we were planning that video, a friend had seen the Shit Mountain Bikers say video, and then the Shit Girls Say video – and she was like ‘hey, there is no shit mountain bike girls say’ video. How about that?’
So we thought, before we meet to record the Ladies Night video, let’s meet a bit earlier and we can try and make our own ‘Shit mountain bike girls say’ video. We took a little camera, and filmed ourselves. Most things we said were spontaneous.
We do always look that things are matching, we know how girls are even in riding – we want to look good. And we ourselves are also girly.
We never expected it to be such a success! So my part in it is that I am one of the three girls in it.
The video got an amazing, positive response. One in a thousand, maybe, doesn’t like it. When we go to bike parks, people say ‘oh aren’t you the girls who were in the video’ or ‘great video, I had to show it to my wife/girlfriend’.
The fun part is that we take the piss out of ourselves, because we find ourselves almost every day saying something that’s in that video, then we realise and we have to laugh again.
Even guys think like it! Come on – guys would also say ‘oh, take that picture from below to make it look steeper.’ Everyone can find something of themselves in that video and we laugh with each other about it. We don’t point the finger at anyone in particular, apart from ourselves.
We don’t have any concrete plans just yet, and we don’t want to do ‘Shit mountain bike girls say part two’ – we want to do something completely different and fun, that has to do with riding. We haven’t found it yet.
Plans for the future
My sponsor Propain Bikes is putting together a women’s Enduro Team. I’ve never ridden an Enduro race but I would love to try it because I think the concept is great. You spend so many hours on your bike, you get to talk to other people on the way up, and you just get timed on the way down.
I also want to make sure I get back in shape, and do some downhill races. I’d like to ride out with the girls from the Enduro team, do road trips, and generally promote the fun you can have on a bike.
I race as long as its fun. Whatever I’m doing, so long as I am having a good time, I do it. So whenever I feel I’m uncomfortable with something, I don’t do it.
Two weeks ago, we did a ladies bike camp, which I think is the best way to get into mountain biking. You are in a group, so you have fellow girls who may be a bit scared, or they don’t want to ride with their boyfriends because they don’t want to listen to whatever their boyfriends say. They want to hear it from other girls.
It takes the fear away, you get good technique tips – things that some people who’ve been riding for years still do wrong. It always helps to have someone who can show you things, explain it well, and explain it in a way that isn’t patronising.
And always, whatever you do, enjoy it.
Ladies Night von BIKEmob – mehr Mountainbike-Videos
