A Day off Work, but Not off the Throttle

The constant hum of chairlifts running fills the air, the sweet smell of brakes wafts on the wind, and there are two big arcs clawed up each side of jump take-offs - summer is here, and the bike park season for Schladming is in full swing.

Our budding adventurers, original exfluencer and papa bear, Stevie Fucking Schneider, and 50% speed demon, 50% steeze lord and 50% pig dog, Kilian Buhl, take the day off from their normal duties and head out for a ride.

It might sound like a quaint outing for the two close friends, but when one is a racer through and through and the other has spent his entire professional career abandoning all self-preservation mechanisms, it’s going to be a wild day.

Stevie is like a freight train, hitting turns with full speed and full commitment, again and again until his tyres scream for mercy. Kilian oozes style out of his ear holes, in a way that only the latest generation of young riders can. He makes everything look easy, until you realise it’s not as you try and emulate that amount of style at the speed he’s carrying. He even makes it too much for Stevie in some instances.

Despite both living so close to the enormous trail network of Schladming, both of them conveniently left their bags of fucks at home, and proceed to give their Yalla!! V2s a thrashing. Luckily, the bikes aren’t made from sugar and give back just as much as they take.

As the summer ticks on, and the lap counter rolls into the hundreds, it’s a joy that downhill bikes are the daily driver for a bunch of lucky folk. Schladming, as well as some other bike parks around the world, have immense seasons that go right up to the point that the mountains are about to dance with the man in the white coat. Maybe the lap counters make it into the thousands. Who knows. All we do know is that our Yalla V2 is more than up for it.