Do you find there’s much difference with what bike you’re on?

That’s a strange thing because someone said to me ‘what sort of genre of riding do you prefer now’. Because I’m known for all sorts of shit at the moment, I’ve lost it myself really, of what I’m supposed to be doing. But it doesn’t really feel like I’m picking up a Fixie today or I’m picking up a downhill bike or a trials bike or whatever. It just feels like, yeah, I’m on a bike, let’s go see what I can do.

Nah, it’s just stuff I’m getting roped into. I think what it is, is that I’ve been riding bikes for a long time and I don’t mind jumping on different bikes all the time. I think some people stress out a little bit getting put into unfamiliar territory. I don’t.

Well, I’m just good, what can I do!? On the same token I wouldn’t think I could just turn up at an event and do well, there’s a lot more to it than that. If I’m going to an event and I’ve had a bit of time before, yeah I’ll have been on that bike and done a bit of preparation. And there’s no pressure on me to do well, because people think, ‘that’s just, Chris he does this, he does that’.

I put a lot of years into trials and I feel I’ve done that. I’ve done my time of doing one thing. At the moment it’s sort of down to sponsorship as well. Mongoose are really enjoying me doing a bit of everything I want to do.

I always say I’m not competitive but if any of my friends were here they’d say ‘what the fuck’. Everything turns into competition with me apparently, but I don’t feel like that. But at end of day when the flag drops I want to beat everybody.

The biggest pressure I have is when I’ve found something to ride and I wanna ride it how I’ve envisaged it. The biggest pressure is in my head and a couple of people come to mind sometimes when I’m riding into stuff, that’s just to gee me up a little bit. I’m thinking, ‘X is gonna think this and who’sit’s gonna think this’ and I’m thinking ‘right I’ve gotta make this good’. But a lot of it is just pressure I put on myself to do well and nailing it how I want it. Yeah, Danny MacAskill’s definitely made me think a little bit about things.

I think a lot of people think that I’d be really bitter about it and be like, ‘I’ve been doing this a long time and he’s just come along and boshed a video out and he’s done really well’. But to be fair it hasn’t done me any negative things at all, in fact it’s probably done me more good than bad you know.

How come you think that video of his was such a phenomenon?

Because he’s fucking good isn’t he? He’s good and people can relate to it. There’s a lot of stuff in there that your general Joe on the street can look at and think ‘that’s a phone-box, fuck me, he’s jumping over a phone box’.

I’ve never really been a burly rider, I don’t do anything of that magnitude and I don’t go upside down and I don’t do spinners. I’ve never been good at it and don’t train at it and I don’t really care about it that much personally. I just enjoy really fucking crazy weird lines that you probably have to be there sat on the bike to sort of appreciate.

I think you’ve almost got to know what’s going on to know to know what’s going on, if you know what I mean. It’s quite hard to relate to. The other day somebody said, ‘just go and fucking do a backflip Chris!’ I don’t really feel like I need to. Yeah I can backflip, I’ve done it and I really enjoyed it. I just prefer riding normal down a street. I’m just a Yorkshire lad trying to make ends meet at the end of the day.

I don’t tend to, I used to be mad for it and a lot of people used to class me as a street rider. A lot of that though was down to working all the time. So you’d finish work and if it’s dark you obviously can’t go riding natural stuff in the dark. Then on the days off you’d go ride natural stuff. But now I’m getting millions of pounds to ride my bike I can go out when I please you know.

I don’t touch a bike at weekends generally, there’s too many folk about, walking around and gorping at ya, you can’t get anything done. It’s not that I’m antisocial…well I am…but it’s just natural curiosity; if you’ve got a camera set up and you’re walking around like a weirdo with some riding kit on or a helmet and you’re waiting for people to move out the way to do something, everything takes twice as much time. They might come over and have a chat, which is cool, I don’t mind chatting with people, but you just get unwanted attention.

I’ve never really been a fan of riding in front of a crowd. I’ve had comments about me before being antisocial or ‘he’s a dick because he doesn’t talk to you and stuff’. It’s not that I’m a dick, it’s just because of my personality, like some people are quiet when they go to a bar, well I’m just like that on my bike.

Riding how you do, not in front of crowds or at a race where you get a result as a record of having done it, do you find that you like to have a record of it either in a film or a photograph? Or are you happy to ride and nothing come of it except the personal experience?

I think that’s when you know if you’re happy with your riding. But the whole filming thing has saved my riding, I don’t know what I’d be doing now if I wasn’t filming, what I’d be concentrating on.

I literally enjoy the whole process of it, because I keep everything in house, I get mates to do a bit of filming and I edit everything myself. It helps me see my riding and think, ‘I’m being a bit shit there, I need to push it a bit more’. It’s got to be perfect because it’s not like a photo where it’s a split second. It’s from A to B and that’s gotta be mint. That really pushes me. It’s what makes me go out and find places to ride. But I can also go out riding and not do any filming, I quite like it. I like to take it steady when I go out normally.

I think it’s definitely fair to say that it’s my art form. It’s my way that I express myself for sure. I don’t really express myself in any other way.