Bike park
Also known as: MTB park, lift-served bike park, gravity park
A mountain bike area with built trails, jumps and features, often lift-served, where riders lap the same lines many times a day.
Updated
What it means
A bike park is purpose-built terrain for mountain biking: flow trails, jump lines, drops, berms and technical descents, usually reached by chairlift or gondola in summer ski resorts. Riders lap the same lines again and again, progressing on features they get to know.
For video, bike parks are a mixed blessing. They are full of filmable features such as tabletops, kickers and drops, and the repetition makes it easy to set up angles and capture several attempts. But they also produce hours of near-identical laps and lift rides, so the edit has to be selective.
How it works in practice
Plan laps around filming. Ride one lap to scout, then stop at a good feature and film friends with a tripod or handheld while they session it. Swap roles so everyone gets footage, and agree on hand signals before the rider drops in.
POV footage works best on flow trails with berms and jumps. A chest mount shows the bike leaning through berms and sits low enough to show height on jumps.
A follow rider with a helmet camera, a classic chase cam, gives lively footage of the rider ahead hitting every feature in the line.
What to watch out for
Lift rides and queues fill cards. Stop recording on the lift unless you want a view shot, and keep spare batteries in a warm pocket.
Dust gets everywhere on dry summer days. Clean lenses with a soft cloth between laps, and keep spares in a bag.
Filming on features can be dangerous for both rider and filmer. Stay out of landings, communicate before each hit, and follow park rules on where you are allowed to stand. Busy jump lines are no place to stop and set up a tripod in the middle of traffic, so pick spots well off the trail with a clear view of the tabletops and berms.
How RawClip handles it
RawClip handles bike park days well: upload every lap from every camera, and the AI removes lift rides, dead time and repeated laps, keeping jumps, drops and peak action and cutting them to the beat of the music.