There are always times you just can't get onto a bike and onto a great trail. Just because you're stuck in with work or sat on your arse healing an injury doesn't mean you can't get a slice of 'feel like you're there' singletrack action.
Seems like most riding groups now have someone who's appointed themselves as video man. Probably the same person who always wanted to be the big guy laying down covering fire with the big machine gun in every war hero movie. Because the technology is so light, useable and easily shared that means loads of these trail riding videos are appearing on sites like You Tube after every weekend.
Fancy credits, all sorts of different soundtracks fat, fumbling or really fast lads and lasses are all waiting for you to click play. Trail hounds, near misses, proper big crashes and all the random other stuff that happens when riding are all poised in pixel form for your viewing pleasure too.
As well as being a great way to turn ten minutes browsing into several suddenly lost hours, typing the trail of your choice into You Tube is a great way of recceing a ride before you get there.
So if it looks like your Bank holiday weekend riding is blighted by a rib you bust last night (like mine is after forgetting to drop the saddle before a particularly slow and savage stepped descent) there's a lot worse things to do than surf some singletrack online to get your ride fix remotely.