To promote its new line of on-bike racks and panniers, roof rack and luggage maker Thule has commissioned a series of videos – The Way I Roll – featuring significant bike riders, and there’s quite a bit of dirt riding in them.

Beautifully shot by film-maker Peter Sutherland, the short films cover a range of aspects of bike culture, through the lives and thoughts of six riders, kicking off with downhiller Chris Van Dine, cyclo-crosser Nicole Duke, alley cat racing videographer Lucas Brunelle, and BMXer and skater Sal Barbier. There are two more still to be released, featuring fixie entrepreneur and rock drummer Gina Marie Scardino and framebuilder Seth Rosko.

But these aren’t your regular high-octane fast riding and stunt videos. Van Dine talks about his work with Pedals for Progress, which donates bikes to people in the developing world. Nicole Duke reflects on her journey from downhill racer to cyclo-crosser and mum. Brunelle explains what he’s trying to do with his videos and his life, while Barbier shows off his collection of BMXes, picked up by being the ‘Bidminator’ in the early days of eBay.

We especially like the Duke and van Dine videos, riders who come across as having a bit more to them than the usual driven training junkie. Here’s Nicole Duke:

The bags Thule is very subtly plugging here (seriously, blink and you’ll miss them) are from the new Pack ‘n’ Pedal range. This is a system featuring racks that strap to just about any frame and bags held in place with a combination of conventional hooks and rare earth magnets. The hooks fold away into the bag, so the bag is snag-free off the bike.

Check out the gallery for a couple of official snaps, and if you’re as much as a bag nerd as I am, there’s more at Thule’s Facebook page.

The whole series of videos can be found on its YouTube page.