From YouTuber to VIDEO GAME Creator?! | MATT JONES on the Making of MAVRIX

How do you build a video game from scratch? Well, Matt Jones knows.

This week on Just Ride Rob and Eliot welcomed back their good friend and previous guest Matt to talk all about his new video game, MAVRIX.

Matt’s an elite slopestyle and downhill rider, YouTuber, businessman and now… video game creator.

Designed by Matt and his brother Jono, MAVRIX is a massive open world mountain bike game, allowing players to explore the thrill of downhill on their PC.

It’s a fascinating look into the world of video game creation – and makes us want to play MAVRIX!

Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

00:00 Intro
03:40 Form in 2025
05:00 Working on MAVRIX
06:40 How did it happen?
08:50 Mountain bike video games
09:40 Controls
10:50 Rob’s commentary
13:00 The open world
16:00 Authenticity
17:20 Learnings
20:10 Enjoyable process?
22:15 Working with Jono
23:30 Other sports?
24:30 Managing his workload
28:00 Riding
30:15 Outro

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And I’m so scared as the I guess owner of the game, right, to expose any things I don’t want to show and I want to play it well and make it look fun. There is pressure on you. I’d rather it be good and the core community love it than it being really arcadey, blow up and make loads of money. I’ve done it cuz I thought that there wasn’t a good mountain bike game. [Music] Hello everyone. My name’s Rob Warner and I am Elliot Jackson and this is the cycling podcast from Red Bull Just Ride. And today we have got someone we’ve had on before. Y but we’re at Red Bull Hardline Wales here and we just couldn’t say no to another chat with him especially with what he’s been up to lately. Matt Jones does everything. He gets into it in the podcast, but he is an incredible writer. He’s got this amazing YouTube. I mean, we talked to talked to him all about it last time. You have to go and listen to it. He um has a clothing company, Hellfire. And now he’s making a video game. And so it launched today. Yeah. And we’re at Red Bull Hardline Wales and he’s racing here as well. So it’s it’s just wild. And he’s not a man who likes much downtime. I don’t think he’s quite industrious, busy, one of the most busy people I’ve ever met in my life. But, you know, this is how he runs it. It’s true. I mean, every time I see him in a different context, it makes sense, right? Like, yeah. Oh, I see you jumping over a house and almost dying. Like, okay, all good. Like, no worries. But the thing that was crazy to me, we were actually at uh the Red Bull Sarah Bajo, I think it was Guanowato. Yeah. And we were talking about how you are going to do commentary for this game because it’s a it’s a mountain bike game. Yeah. The difference between freecaster and broadcasting now, it couldn’t be further apart. And I would actually get put in prison for most of those lines that came out of my mouth back then. So, it’s very hard to find ones I can use now. And it’s very, very, very hard to find ones I could use in a computer game. But he’s on about releasing an adult DLC with them all in somewhere in the future. So sit tight. I don’t know if it’s something we should do. I don’t even know how I feel about that. I think it’ be the end of my career, right? I don’t think we No, he’s trying to talk me into it. But I think Yeah, that’s no matter the fact that even if people have paid for it on a DLC, we still can’t say that. Wait. Okay, give us give us one like I know they’re fresh in your mind. like give it not not one of the gnarly ones but just like one that was really it’s well Jonno came up with a good one. Yeah, it was something about I still can’t remember it though. Greener than a polished avocado split or something. It’s greener. It’s green. Greener than a polished avocado. We Yeah, it was all like I mean we were throwing them out all day long. Like I said, I mean it’s out now. So if you play it, make sure you like let us know in the comments. Let us know what you thought about it. And without further ado, let’s uh get to Matt. Today we’re joined by a mountain biker, a YouTube star, and the creator of the first ever mountain bike video game made by an actual pro who rides the stuff he’s coded. Welcome to Just Ride, Matt Jones. How are you, Matt? Yes, sweet. Big week this week. Big week. We’re at Red Bull Hardline. You’re in one piece so far, which is a great start. How you getting on up there? It’s insane. Yeah, always. I’ve done the least preparation ever this year. And usually I come in like fairly scarce on the prep kind of scale. I’ve got a new bike that I’ve never ridden. And you haven’t been riding cuz I noticed you were up here a few weeks ago for tag team with Billy Bolt and you signed off on your run very early and I was like Matt’s not prepared for our line. Is that true? I was I’m willing to go off that cliff drop 100%. I couldn’t believe Jonno did it. No way. Yeah. Yeah. I was said what we doing? We shouldn’t even know. Oh, wait. So it was what was it? You did the top then Jonno then? Yeah. So we had a choice with Billy and Johnny at what point we passed the batting on the track. Okay. To create this race and I rode a fifth of the course and Billy Bolt Billy Bolt did the other 80%. About 20 seconds out the start line. He pulls over and Billy takes over. Well, it’s soaking wet. Yeah. But Jonno was prepared. Jonno manned up and didn’t hand over his batter until Dirty F. Well, but then Billy Bolt like crashed at the very end. going well. Actually, it was a good decision cuz Billy was insane through that whole like tech midsection on a motorbike. I couldn’t believe he could do it that quick, but then he paid the price of it. He he was pushing. Yeah. To That’s Billy, isn’t it? He’s quite competitive. Yeah. In for a penny, for a pound. Matt, you uh you were training pretty hard for Hardline Tasmania. Well, because I was in New Zealand riding sunny, dusty trails with Jackson, Ronan, Dunn, Teao, like I was in amongst it in the mixer and they’re training, right? So I just That dragged you up to speed a bit, did it? Well, yeah. If four out of your five mates are training for Tasmania, you’ll be the fifth one. Whereas more recently, nine out of the 10 people I know are all sat in an office coding video games and I’ve become the 10th one. So, because you’ve been like I would imagine I’ve seen a had a a taste of it, but you’ve been phenomenally. Have you ever been you’re a busy man, but I can’t believe you’ve any been been any busier than now while you’ve been creating and releasing Yeah. a computer game, a video game. Yeah. this year. Well, I’ve started it 18 months ago, but this runup to the summer now has been completely ridiculous. I’ve been spinning a lot of plates. It’s worked and everything sort of talks to each other, you know. I’ve got my riding career, got my sponsors, got YouTube, got healthare, my clothing company, and now Maverick’s and other business. They’re all sort of satellite to the same thing. They all help each other at the same time. Everyone requires its own dedicated hours and things. And the video game’s been crazy. We’ve got an amazing team that do a lot of the heavy lifting like with the programming and stuff. Got basically a team of 18 20 people full time. A lot of them. Yeah. Is this your like biggest project you’ve ever done and you know including film and nothing’s been on the level of you creating a computer game? Right. Cuz you really have created it. That’s people probably need to know. I I saw it when I was in the office. I even got told at one point I was asking about something when I was doing the BO for the commentaries. Yeah. And I was like well and mate he goes ask the boss pointed at you and I was like what? He didn’t know who you were. He just thought you were a random guy. Yeah, that’s funny. Is that what they say? He is actually running it. Well, at that moment in time, I was like, “Oh, he’s not just fronting it. It’s actually is.” I did think that. And it is, right? It’s you and Jonos. Yeah, it’s my company. Really? Yeah. Matt, can you like take us to 18 months ago or even before that? Like, how did you think to make a video game? Like, how did you put everything together? Like, how did this happen? Every like everyone wants to make a video game, but yeah, it’s good question. I played a lot of video games as a kid with my brother. Well, mostly we had one console and I watched him play. Which console? PS1 first. Yeah. Then PS2, which will lead on to your legacy shortly, which I’m sure you’ll make a segue into the fact that I’m actually going to steal your thunder. Rob’s on the front cover of a massive massive PS2 video game. There you go. You can pick up the pieces from there. And he has cardboard cutouts. It’s right above it. It’s It’s plastered on the ceiling that way you can see. got that like ticker tape with me all around all around all around the house. It looks amazing. Yeah, it’s merchandise. It’s cool. Merch is still running hard. So, I did that um played games then went off and did mountain biking for years. Traveled the world. Um and then honestly a couple of years ago it with two things happened. I met a guy called Chris who’s from that industry. He’s grown big game studios and things. Um and we made a well created a friendship around cars. We met around cars. You met him at supercar? Yeah, supercar thing. So having all them supercars has actually worked out, dude. Like that’s Yeah. No, without being Yeah. It’s opened so many doors. Yeah. The circles of successful people, I’d imagine. Be honest. I mean, that’s how it is, isn’t it? You can’t have a supercar if you Yeah. And everyone’s kind of got their guard down. They They’re not hiding behind the embarrassment of doing well. Because if you show up to something with a flash car, you sort of you can put Everyone’s got a flash car. It’s sort of all right. You kind of understand what I mean? Yeah. No, I totally do. Yeah. Yeah. Whereas in normal circles in the world, it’s like bit uncool to have a anything flash, isn’t it? Whereas in those scenarios, it’s like, “Right, cool. What do you do then?” You know, so you could cut to the chase. Anyway, we we became mates. I was fascinated about what he had done. He was really interested in mountain biking and the fact I had an audience, a YouTube audience, because that’s one of the biggest barriers in creating video games these days is just Yeah. getting it out there. I think there’s even laws around you can’t do any specific targeted marketing. There’s regulations. whereas I know my YouTube demographic. Yeah. You know, it’s a third of them are 18 to 25, etc., etc. So, um, we chatted about that, but at the same time, my stepson River, he was playing a lot of mountain bike video games, and I had a go on it, and I just really hated it. It didn’t make sense to me. Like, the controls didn’t m I ride all I know is bikes. So, I was hoping that it would be fun and it did. It wasn’t. I just didn’t get it. It was like this is I don’t understand who built this. It’s clearly not been like developed by someone who rides bikes, right? So I thought, well, there’s if I think that, then surely all the actual mountain bikers that play mountain bike games think the same. So I spoke to Chris and I said, we could do something here. This needs fixing. We need a solution. And that was to start the plan of building a video game. Now, we talked about making a phone game, but actually to do things properly with physics, animation, and all the tech required, um, it made more sense to build a proper PC and then console game because they can run better graphics and more complex stuff for bigger worlds, multiplayer, controller. Yeah. And a Yeah. And a controller. And when you put a controller in your hands, it’s got two triggers, which we have on our handlebars. And it was obvious to me, the left analog sticks, your your handlebars, your steering. The right one’s your body. And that’s all you have on a bike. you pedal, stop, and move your body around. You know what I mean? So, a controller has all the same things. Yeah. Um, so I kind of thought that we were on to something, but 18 18 months on, we’ve had a big team, spent loads of money. We’ve actually built a working game, which launched yesterday. So, yeah, we’re halfway through hard we chose to launch it on Hardline Week, which was seemed like a great idea. You didn’t have enough of. Yeah. Well, I’d kind of thought about the uplift of mountain bike, you know, viewership and thought I’d hijack that a bit to be honest, but it’s ended up being a lot on top of each other. I mean, congratulations. That’s like insane that you Yeah, congratulations cuz you have It’s amazing. Really incredible. Isn’t it? And you added like Rob added so much like a lot of the good feedback we get is when you race in the game, um you do time trials on the tracks, you have to discover a track, it appears on your map, and then you can race it. Okay. Racing is a big part of the game and there’s other things when you drop in. It’s Rob’s commentary which 731 different lines actually. Yeah, apparently. I think it was more. Yeah. It was I I heard 900. How much was that in a day? No way. Yeah, it was a big day. It was a big day. He paid me all right. So, I didn’t mind too much. I think it’s potentially best ever paid day work you’ve done it. But for that 800 lines cuz I’ll keep that cuz the game he’s not actually commentating, right? The game doesn’t know exactly what’s happening. It just triggers things like we’ve got splits and if you’re up by less than a second, Rob has to record 10 versions of he’s up by just under a second, you know, and then if you crash, do a scrub, do a whip, go around a b. They’re all the things that trigger code in the game so it can pull. And then you even have like these probability curves where if Rob says a really funny line that we love, we’ll make that less pro like that appears less often. You don’t want to hear it twice in a row. But Elliot knows all about stat for instance like say look at the time right like you could you might only get that if you go first on the global leaderboard like you can actually put that in like Yeah. Yeah. It’s I couldn’t believe it. I had no idea it was like that. Yeah. So it’s going to be like when you play it and I’ve played it the other day at the London London. Addictive, isn’t it? Yeah. It’s addictive but the commentary does actually kind of match what you’re doing which was it’s perfect. It was pretty weird for me playing it. I’ll be honest. Well, I’ve been I’ve been watching like you’ve been doing so much content leading up to it. Like lots of you’ve been like streaming, which I thought had you ever been on Twitch before? No. And so you’ve been like I love it that you you’re streaming. You got your little face. Yeah. I got we got a green bed sheet hanging in the Yeah. In my ann Yeah. Jonno’s round. Yeah. Would you do it now? You think you could be a Twitch streamer? Yeah. I guess I’ve already done it, haven’t I? I might do. I might do. It makes my head explode though. Yeah. It’s not to play the game well. And I’m so scared as the I guess owner of the game, right? To expose any things I don’t want to show. And I want to play it well and make it look fun, which it is, but you know, it’s a video game. Like you can at any moment probably hit a rock and get pinged 200 feet in the air. And then I don’t want to show any of that, but at the same time, I’m trying to narate narrate it. Yeah. It’s Yeah, streaming is hard. Yeah. It’s really cool because you can like you just hang out like it’s almost like it’s real life where you you go to like one trail and like meet up like you could actually it’s open world isn’t it? You just cruise about and find a free ride track or you find a downhill there influences of this track Red Bull Hardline Wales in it. Yeah, there is. We’ve got a big Well, we’ve got the Rivergap from last year in there obviously. I know Red Bull. Yeah, Red Bull. Don’t want to talk about it. We’ll put it in. Well, it certainly happened. Well, you jumped it, so it’s kind of justified. You can do that in Mavericks now. Yeah, there’s loads of stuff. Well, the the the open world we’ve got right now is based on Wales. All the topography and stuff, to be honest, we literally got a topography heat map of just over from Dy Bike Park and started with that was we didn’t want to like create a mountain range from scratch. You may as well just get some mountains that exist and Dy has a good bike park. We didn’t want to literally nick theirs because we probably end up with the same tracks. Um but yeah, we used Wales and stretched a few bits, but the Yeah, the topography is Welsh. The No way. The landscape’s Welsh. We researched what altitude the certain trees stop growing at. All the biomes match. It’s Wales. Is it the landscape before Do you have to build that before you can have bikes rolling around it and get into the physics of how a bike operates? What What’s the How does it Where do you even start? Okay. Right. So, you start with a gray flat plane with a grid on it. I saw you playing on that day. That’s what we test in cuz it doesn’t have to load all the environment and stuff. You don’t Yeah. So, you just have a big It’s called gray box. It’s a gray box world. That’s what it’s called. Um, and you you can place some assets like a ramp that’s just again gray. You don’t want to have to process any complex graphics and things with that. And then you have a bike which without a rider. You don’t have a rider. You want to connect this the controller with it to go stop. Use the front brake back brake and just try and make that work. And I was having to explain to all these guys, look guys, when you go around a corner on a bike and pull your back brake, the back end step steps out. If you pull the front brake, it pushes forward. It’s different. Okay. And then so I’ve had to really educate those guys. Yeah. They all have to be they all have to think mountain bikers. You can do both. I mean, I mean, I feel like it is interesting like trying to to translate something that is so intuitive for you to be like, “No, no, no.” Like of course like the back end’s going to lift up if you grab a ton of front brake. Like that’s just it’s difficult to articulate, especially at the start, but it’s become exponentially easier because half the guys in the office now after work go out on mountain bike rides. It’s amazing. They’ve they’ve been immersed so much in bikes. I promise they well it started off them watching YouTube, right? Then after about a month, I’d come into the office and they referencing like Sam Pilgrim or Fabio River, you know what I mean? I was like, “All right, you’re listening. You’re looking.” No way, Matt. You have a YouTube channel. Yeah. And then the next and then there’s two guys that now walk around walk around in five 10 shoes at work. Yeah. So it’s like, wow, you’re all you’re becoming mountain bikers. If you’re 18 months into eight hours a day talking about bikes, the path of least resistance is just to do bikes, isn’t it? Yeah. Go with the go with go with the flow. So that’s fun. Um, so I think actually from now the progression is going to ramp up and we’re going to be able to break new ground quicker and build a more authentic game because they’re out there riding bikes and understanding it. So that’s sick. And the purpose of us launching this week in early access, which means the game’s available. It’s like beta as you explain it wrong. It’s a beta, right? It’s basically a test. Yeah, it’s completely playable. Perfect yet. Well, it’s playable and super fun, but it’s not like book closed. We’re on to the next. No, we’re keeping the same size team on to develop it. We’ve already got our first update planned for 20 28th of August with loads of changes. So, that’s being worked on now in the current master. Can you bolt new tracks in? You can people will just go on the game and it will be it will improved or be changed. It’s not like buying a disc in our day which was fixed. You know while you’re asleep the game can update. Um you can play a whole new DLC. Yeah. Because that’s a thing you can’t not do it right. There’s most game developers are constantly making games better and people expect that and the games industry is quite quite communitydriven which is interesting. Like they everyone’s got an opinion. Yeah. Um reviews are pretty strong. You know, a positive review is really positive. A negative review is really negative. People feel like part of the club. Um, which has been a challenge like me with me making the YouTube videos. Everyone’s got an idea of what they think they want. Totally. In reality, it’s not what they want. Yeah. Like everyone wants pedaling to look different, but they haven’t got an answer for it. There’s Yeah, it’s interesting. Yeah. I’ve learned loads. What’s been the What has been the most surprising thing that you’ve learned that you kind of had an thought you had an idea of coming in? How many people are required to do anything? How many? Um, I assumed that if you wanted to put a few trees in that field there in the game, so you’ve already got a world. Let’s add some trees there that you just kind of drag and drop them like you would on a word document, right? If you want to move a text box, you just move it. Yeah. Whereas that one is like you need to get a concept artist to draw the trees, but then they don’t exist. They just they’re literally a piece of artwork. Then a 3D artist has to create them as an asset made up of millions of little triangles and things, and they have to optimize them. They don’t require too much. This is all computer graphics. And then a a programmer has to put them in the game so the games know knows what they are and they move in the wind and they’re like part of a biome. And then Yeah. And then you have to like code the collisions. What happens if you ride into that tree? Do you go through it? Do you bounce off it? Does it create a crash? Does it It’s like there’s so many steps. It’s like well maybe just wouldn’t shouldn’t have bothered with the tree. How much that going to cost? I was just like, how close do you think it is to your vision of what a complete like a a finished game? It’s getting there. It’s fully. Yeah. I’ve not deviated from the path. Yeah. I’ve tried to keep my integrity with what and it’s important. It’s good. It’s quite your reputation as well. Like you said, that’s right. There is pressure on you. Yeah. I’d rather it be good and the core the core community love it than it be really arcadey blow up and make loads of money cuz it’s I’ve done it cuz I thought that there wasn’t a good mountain bike game. Yeah. So I really want it to be a good mountain bike game. One from PlayStation 2 No Fear Downing Mountain Bike in which weren’t you on the front? Was it true you on the front cover of that one? Yeah. PlayStation. It was a bit before my time. That is it. Is that all right? Let’s move on. Was it What bike were you on? ATX1. It was like 96. Yeah. Was it real? Was it a real photograph? It was a proper photo he took in Cap in France on Leo Williams downhill track. So I do love that. I do love that cover. I remember the drop. It was horrible on a horrible downhill track. Did you get paid as much for that as you did the lines that you paid nothing in half a day? No. No. I got I did better out of your computer game than being on the cover of me of that one. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, the only money I mean, it’s changed probably over the years, but but like Pety was going to be on the cover or I was going to be on the cover and as I remember it, it was a Code Masters game and Giant would give more bicycles to be given away as prizes in the promotion of it. So, I ended up getting the cover, which was sick. And the only money I earned out of it was getting paid about 500 quid to turn up at gaming conventions and play it for an hour. Amazing. I mean, amazing. Elves C. I went through so it’s just like it was funny. That’s amazing. Yeah. Yeah. If you own the game, you can unlock me with monkey wrench in the in the screen. Yeah. I remember the name. Yeah. It’s funny, isn’t it? Yeah. I want to do it again. Enjoyable process. Well, yeah. Well, it’s been stressful. I’d imagine. There’s a lot. It would have been really enjoyable if it would have been super enjoyable if I just did that. But trying to do it in parallel with thinking I’ve got Hardline in a few weeks and hardline Tasman. It’s been going off. Hey, Darkfest. All these big events. I’m coming right off the back of just honestly being on my laptop loads and then off right flights in the morning and I’m going to Darkfest and I think god there’s 110 foot like so but in the other breath like I’ve I’ve seen it in Jono this week riding so Jonno’s literally can’t be on the podcast cuz he’s like on calls about server issues. Yeah. At Hardline which is our fault. We we chose to do it this week. But when he when Jonno’s been riding this week he’s been on it like he opened the cliff drop for everyone. He’s pretty hungry. wanted to do the 90s first and he was gutted he couldn’t do it. He got red flag cuz they someone was setting up a camera. He was he lost the ability to do them first and I thinking that’s like not the side of Jonno I’ve seen. What’s happening there then and he’s super busy. I think it’s just cuz I think just cuz we’re distracted it’s like ignorance to risk. You’re like all right you’re kind of like oh we got to head up the course do a quick top to bottom then if that’s and then even on the way up we’re checking our phones. you get to the top and you haven’t had the stress that everyone else is in of right race run what what my lines we’re just so distracted that like you you’ve not had time to absorb the risk on the side touch we got two days left how did that happen because so Jonno your brother it’s like you you and him like building this game building this company obviously you have tons of employees and everything but and you did you like recruit him because he was working in finance right yeah so he worked in financial risk in London for a good bank was doing well on on the side of riding his bike. And his boss was generous. He certainly did a lot of those calls and spreadsheets from like an Italian car park at the bottom of an enduro race. But he he’s always been good at spinning plates, you know, and doing it all. So, I think we’re both quite good at being here, there, and everywhere. Industrious. Industrious. Yeah, the word. That’s a good word. Mog. I needed him because Yeah, that’s better. What did you say? Mogist. Yeah, there we go. I’ll put that in my bio. I needed him because I needed someone who understood the sport, understood the brands, the riders, and I don’t think there’s a long list of pro mountain bikers who have done the business world. Totally. You know, certainly not at the same time. So, he was pretty unique in that sense. So, I said to him, you’re the only person I can think of that can do this and two brothers doing something’s pretty cool and I’m not we’re not afraid to like do tasks and challenges together. Um, and he was up for it in the end. Yeah. Bit of few negotiations. So he gave up he basically gave up his job in the city full time on this game with you. Yeah. He handed in his notice and he was scared to. He felt like what I’m going to tell him. I’m going to go and roll the dice building a game with my brother. And he went to work and told them all and they all were so stoked for him. They’re all jealous. They’re like, “Oh my, we’ve all this is our dream. We’ve always wanted to kind of you only live once, take the suit off and throw the briefcase like and they’re like, you’re actually doing it. That’s everyone’s dream in London to kind of get out of there and he was pretty that kind of spurred him on to think he’d made the right call. Let’s see. I I want to do it again. So, you did ask if I’d do it again. So, this is the the big picture plan right. If we can get this one right and we’ve got, you know, a few months to go and we’re going to get it on console. There’s there’s still a mountain to climb. Um it’s proof of concept that if you put an athlete in the at the core of developing a game, it’s better. it speaks to the right people and you create a better product. I believe in it 100%. I think we’re already we’re already on the way there. We’ve already got a better game than others. It’s just incomplete, right? Um but then I want to do the same again with a skier, like a Red Bull skier. I want to do the same again with a surfer cuz I want to I want So the publishing company we form Cascade, my vision is that we become the we create action sports video games. Yeah, that’s amazing. Yeah. Especially if this one’s a success and you can go to I mean who like Billy Bolt a prourfer like and I’ve got that network and say look with a few months of your time all your knowledge in your head all your experience and all your connections we can spin a flywheel up that builds the best video game in your sport because no one’s done it properly industrious and it will get easier you’d imagine like when you learn you’ve learned a lot on this one you know yeah well you could repurpose a lot of the tech if you built a skiing game we’ve already built mountain ranges with chair. Yeah. Yeah. What does the future look like? Right. We’re at Red Bull Hardline Wales right now and you mentioned, you know, Darkfest. You’re doing all this biking stuff, all this mountain bike stuff and building the game. How do you manage it? How do you uh go forward from here? I don’t really manage it. I think every day is a yeah whirlwind. Um my wife’s epic, so I’ve got like the stuff at home on lock, so I can be very flexible and freestyle, which is lucky. Um the short-term future is just two days of hardline left to go. And I did I only did two runs today. I’m a bit embarrassed really an entire day of practice. Um between the first and the second, the track is so smashed to pieces. It’s funny how it’s funny how for a few days it remains the same and then when everyone starts to turn it on Yeah. the track gets destroyed. And I’ve heard that in motocross too that like it’s the track is pretty good until minutes before quali and everyone really puts the power down. And I don’t understand that but I’m witnessing it firsthand. Yeah. that there’s ruts and holes appearing just cuz everyone’s starting to turn it on today. People, we’ve had good weather, you know, lots more practice than usual. Definitely everyone’s up to speed earlier than they might be, I think. Yeah, I you probably agree. I think this will be the fastest ever time of this track. Well, you know, it’s the tracks unchanged from last year. So, this, you know, you can look at it like, oh, what a shame we ain’t got a new track. But actually, the way to look at it is, yeah, everyone’s coming here up to speed and is only getting faster. You know, even the guys that are here for the first time, they they were doing full runs today, so they’re they got a chance on Sunday. Yeah. Yeah. I’m struggling with it, man. Is it stressful for because like when we did a podcast before, you said, “Yeah, I have to keep riding.” That’s like that and the YouTube are the absolute backbone of my business. And now you’re turning up like you say here, 110 foot gaps, whatever it is um at Darkfest. Like that’s pretty as a rider, I imagine, not feeling conf I mean, you’re pretty confident, but you must feel a bit less confident, right? Turn up. And is it stressful or not? Too bad. I wouldn’t say it’s stressful, but I I just accept that I’m weaker and less fit than I should be. Just accept it. So, if my arms give way off the road gap, it’s because I didn’t put in the work, and that’s probably going to be that’ be lesson learned, won’t it? Yeah. Yes, I know. I like pulling burner, but the wheel doesn’t blow up. Yeah, but I did I did a full top to bottom today through the beline. I’ll get there then. Well, yeah, we’ll be It took ages. No wonder I get arm pump. I’m on the track for 60 seconds longer than everyone else, so I have to physically No wonder I’m exhausted. If they had to deal with what I have to deal with and I can’t we can’t wait to to commentate like over I mean it’s just it’s just special. I feel like like as an athlete, as a kid, like as just like all of those things together are super special. I think like with the merch and riding YouTube, I feel like you like living a lot of kids dreams. Yeah, it’s sick. Yeah, I think I’d like to think so. I mean, I didn’t plan to. Not that it doesn’t take so so so much work, but yeah, it’s loads of work, but it’s a choice, isn’t it? No one’s forcing me to do it, and I’ve still chosen to do it, so clearly. Yeah. Worth it. And I’m motivated. But yeah, these next two days will be pretty telling. I think it’s the ultimate test hardline, isn’t it? This one especially, right? Yeah. How how much how does this rate up against the Tasmanian track? Like this is the original. Is it is it much more fullon? It’s much harder to ride. Like if you if you I don’t think anyone would ever come here on their own and ride this track. You know what I mean? Maybe G. Yeah. Yeah. True. He probably has. No. Yeah. Well, this is the original track. So, they definitely have actually. Yeah. Ra Ra is up for a ride on the road. Yeah. Other than Yeah. Outside of that family, no one’s no one’s getting a lift to the top. The Tasmania one I think you would ride for an element of fun. But what I find in Tasmania, I’m lucky to have ridden both is the Tazzy one’s gets much harder when you start to think about racing like when you there’s like this critical speed where when you’re beyond that it gets really dangerous there. Yeah. Where that even that even the section that everyone calls flat and like a pump track on camera like the G-force in some of those BMS is insane. Like your tire’s almost coming off the rim. It’s so hard pack down through the fery. Yeah, you’re actually going really fast on a push bike. If you went wrong, you it’d be catastrophic. So there’s like this this balance where in practice you can make it feel doable, but then when you turn it on, it starts to get outrageous. And I think Yeah. Whereas this one Oh, I don’t know. I’m not qualified. Dealing with it from the start. Yeah. No, that’s all that’s what it is. This one’s just a Yeah. shock to the senses from day one. Yeah. I think you should be honestly your progression as a downhill downhill has been mad, mate. You you like I’ve called you the plywood warrior before, but you come you know like the first time you rode hard when was it first Hardline Tasmania? Last year. Of course it was. I mean your suspension didn’t move. It was insane to watch, but you are. I’ve learned loads. I wish I could have given it my all and I hope if I ever get the chance to come back and I and like the game stuff’s doing well, I don’t have to give it so much time. I do want to do the gym, the training, riding like everyone else. You owe it yourself once. Yeah, I want to see this far actually. You should cuz you skills. Yeah. Do it. Yeah. Everyone else is halfway through a World Cup season, aren’t they? They’re going race to race to race. We We said that earlier like those who have come in straight after what, seven, six, seven World Cups this year. I mean, how can they not be absolutely flying? Like that’s it. You know what I mean? That’s what they’re doing every weekend. Yeah. Yeah. It’s different. It’s funny, is it? It’s an eclectic mix here. It is. Yeah. Yeah. Well, Matt, this has been so cool. Like I’m so glad that you uh that you’re launching this, that you came to talk to us about it, and great luck. Yeah, we better wish him luck for Sunday. Yeah, you’re gonna need I think you need more luck here than you do with a video game. Cheers. Thanks, mate. You’re going to need more than 700 lines to comment commentate my run down here. It’s going to last a while. Maybe you can get some AI just to throw them all in over the 10 minutes you’re coming down. 10. There’s the challenge. Rob, what a what an industrious guy. I I really I love that analogy that he made about like how like the amount of plates you have spinning, right? He’s like he doesn’t talk about it much, but he’s a father, you know, he’s got the supercars, the YouTube, like all of these different things, and he does all of them really really well. And and I think, you know, he’s very very aware that that at the base of all that is him as a mountain bike rider. That is what gels it all together. That’s what his YouTube’s off. That’s what this game’s come off. So he, you know, he’s very aware of that and and you sit here and talk to him about business and he’s doing this and he’s doing that. Like it’s very easy to forget just what a brilliant bike rider he is. And ultimately that is what he is and that’s what’s got him here. You know, he’s like self-made. Totally. Like I we talked about it a lot in the first episode, but I think it’s really really important to have people like Matt um not only to show what the bike can do for you, right? like all of this is happening because he is riding a bike and because he, you know, was out there practicing and doing what he loved. Um, but also like as an inspiration for athletes, right? Like you can be more than, you know, he started in slope style, but now he’s more than an um a business person and has a family and all downhill. Yeah, totally. So, I think it’s like really good for like professional athletes to have a Matt Jones figure, which is funny to say, but Well, but like it’s true. You know, I actually I was talking to John. I went out motorbiking and juring with Jonno the other day and we were talking about just how mad busy Matt is and what he does and the fact that he just puts himself out there like and I actually said to to Jonno, I said, “Matt is actually an inspiration to me.” Like because I would love to be that productive, you know, to have that many things and be able to deal with it and and get through the day really, you know. I said to him, “What time did you get up there?” And he was like 5:30. And I was like, “What? Cuz we were on about riding up a mountain here, you know.” Yeah. And I was like, that’s probably three and a half hours too early for me. But I was like, why’d you get up that early? And he was like, there’s so much to do, you know. And then Cove’s up an hour later, you know, he gives him an hour. Yeah. Yeah. He works hard. He works very, very hard for everything he has. So, yeah, totally. Yeah. Definitely inspiration for me. Love seeing what he does. And uh hopefully he’s an inspiration for you, too. But you got to let us know in the comments. Let us know the email. Just ride at just ridebull.com. And um yeah, subscribe. We love hearing from you. We do. Leave your comments in the you on YouTube for us. Tell us who you want to see on what you want to hear. We’re here. But we’re we’re having a good time doing test ride. We want to carry on. So yeah, let us know. Let us know. No. The thing I want everyone to uh drop in the comments is what line you want Rob to do. Like I love that we got one of those. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, it was Yeah. It’s good. I’m in a computer game. It’s brilliant. I’m happy. One day. Okay. See you guys next time.