BikeTrial Federation

Hi everyone, the time has come for me to retire from Biketrial after 19 years! I'll be around for a little while longer in the background, handing things over when the remainder of the organisers decide who is taking over the administrative work. My first handover is of our media pages and in the future Andrew Chai will be taking on this role. Thanks Andrew, and thanks to everyone who has supported us in the past. Do keep checking the website www.biketrialuk.co.uk, I'll be doing my best to keep the calendar up to date for a while as I receive information. Best of luck to everyone in the future. Barbara

Colours just represent the organising club / series. Yellow = British Trials Cup / Championship (organised by the Biketrial Federation) Blue = TykeTrial Club (Yorkshire/Derbyshire based) Green = Scottish Biketrial Club Purple = UCI International Events Orange = BIU International Events There's a couple more British Cup events to be added to the calendar yet, also all the Crowthorne Club dates (in the south). Think Scottish Club and TykeTrial Club have more dates to come yet too. Always great to see new people coming along

Well done. It may not be ... we regularly have prize draws and spot prizes: this year at 4 out of the 5 national events we gave 2 x £50 vouchers as prize draw wins for those who pre-entered at one round this year we handed out £100 worth of spare parts for a variety of special awards to general riders (not comp winners) often over the years we've given 'spot prizes' for things like "the best crash", and one year we had £500 worth to hand out one year we had one BIKE per event donated! There's more goes on at the nationals than just a 'trials comp'! The more riders we get, the more sponsorship we get, the more "prizes" we can offer to everyone

Our annual rider survey is now closed, many thanks to everyone who took part, the information is really helpful. We can't promise to act on all of the suggestions all at once, but they have certainly given us something to think about!The winner of the £20 Tartybikes voucher this year is ....... Matt Ogley. Congratulations!

If you haven't already done it, please complete our survey before Wednesday 23rd November so we can review all your comments at our meeting. Thank you for your support for trials over the years, we hope you enjoyed your time with us! The UK’s trials organisers are meeting soon to plan the 2017 events and we’d like your help. We would be very grateful if you would please complete our survey to help us to understand what you would like from trials events, even if you don’t come along any more; there are some statistical questions that just require a tick, but there are some questions that invite your freehand comments and feedback – the more information you can give us, the better! It will only take a few minutes and, as a ‘thankyou’ for your time, there’s a £20 Tartybikes voucher to be won from a draw of those who leave their name/email address (it won’t be used for anything else). Survey link here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Y88TRMV Many thanks in advance.

If you haven't already done it, please complete our survey before Wednesday 23rd November so we can review all your comments at our meeting. Thank you for your support for trials over the years, we hope you enjoyed your time with us! The UK’s trials organisers are meeting soon to plan the 2017 events and we’d like your help. We would be very grateful if you would please complete our survey to help us to understand what you would like from trials events, even if you don’t come along any more; there are some statistical questions that just require a tick, but there are some questions that invite your freehand comments and feedback – the more information you can give us, the better! It will only take a few minutes and, as a ‘thankyou’ for your time, there’s a £20 Tartybikes voucher to be won from a draw of those who leave their name/email address (it won’t be used for anything else). Survey link here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Y88TRMV Many thanks in advance.

As yet, no-one, other than the usual organisers, has said they are coming (as per the email sent out)!

Oh dear! Put it down as 5 years. Thank you.

Hi Everyone We’re at the end of another season for trials in the UK and we REALLY want to know what you all think! Have you been to a trials event in recent years? If not, why not? That isn’t a reprimand … it’s a genuine question, we need to know why entries in trials events, both at club and at national level have dropped over recent years. We need to understand, from you the riders, what we need to do to improve what we do in order to make events better and to increase the number of competitive riders. If you have been to a trials event this year, what did you think of it? How do you think it could it be improved? Please help us by clicking on the link below and filling in our short survey, it will only take a few minutes. At the end, there’s the opportunity to win a £20 Tartybikes voucher as a thank you. https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/Y88TRMV Riders’ comments from the 2015 survey were very helpful to us and we believe that we have addressed some of the issues raised and suggested ie: We’ve progressed with man-made obstacles as best we can with putting in the Olde Home Farm round and hope to have more man-made next year. We’ve added none-age-related classes on all route colours (called ‘Senior’ classes). We’ve brought back the 50/50 red/yellow route to make the progression to/from Elite smoother. We try to include a fun element (speed section / hill climb etc) when possible at events. Better section-taping is being done where possible. We want to be able to review your ideas at our annual meeting of organisers which is to be held on 27th November so please do fill in the questionnaire. If you have anything to say which isn’t included in the survey, please do email us to let us know at info@biketrialuk.co.uk before 20th November. Similarly, if you have anything specific that you would like to be discussed at the meeting please email us before 20th November. If you feel that you can help the organisers in a practical sense and would like to attend the meeting, then please email us by 6th November as we need to be sure to have a meeting room large enough to take us all! Many thanks to everyone who has supported the biketrial clubs and nationals over the years, we really do need your views, opinions and ideas to make the sport even better. Biketrial Federation UK

For very brief information: British Cycling were approached in around 2007/8 with regard to running trials through them and their insurance. Everyone competing would have to have the British Cycling membership and licences; this is itself would reduce entries as it would probably only be those who plan on going to international events who would buy the licences. It would cut out those who just want to attend their local event, and those who just want to do it for fun. Several years ago 2007/8/9 we heavily looked into running all our events through British Cycling, and at that time decided against it: British Cycling would need to accept trials officially – this process would take several years to go through all the necessary channels, and acceptance was not guaranteed due to the size of the sport in comparison with other disciplines (and it was bigger in those days than it is now). To run club events everyone would need to hold at least BC Bronze membership (at that time £10, now £22 per annum) To run regional events everyone would need to hold at least BC Silver membership (currently £42) To run national events everyone would need to hold a BC Gold membership (currently £72) To advertise a national event on the UCI calendar would cost 1,000 euros per event. https://www.britishcycling.org.uk/membership/race TykeTrial Club did try the BC insurance for just one year (which was comparable with the ACU that we used at that time, but more expensive than the AMCA); we could do this because at that time they had a deal that Bronze membership was free for one year – so all the riders had to do was fill in the membership form. The following year the charge applied; no-one renewed so we went back to other insurance. We do get support from our contact at British Cycling who does try to promote us to 'the powers that be'; both Barry and I are in regular contact and have a good working relationship. Unless trials is 'officially' recognised by British Cycling, with everything being run through them under their jurisdiction, and everyone holding membership/licences, then we will not get any promotion on their website or other media. I recently strongly expressed my annoyance, disappointment and frustration that there is absolutely no mention of Jack's achievement at the World Championships this year, whilst winners of other disciplines were well reported. I have no recollection of saying this Andrew, and it is not the case, perhaps it has been misunderstood. They are happy to arrange training for us for coaches so that we can do qualified training, but no support in any other way. It's already on its way to you - please note the dates for letting us know.

We have had a message from the guys at Seymours Arena that bike trials riders have jumped the fence and ridden on the arena. This is strictly forbidden. This land is privately owned and the local motorbike club is given permission by the owner to run events on it. These guys have then kindly let us use it for a bike trial event. It is not too be used at any other time. We do not want to lose this venue. Venues are precious to the bike trial community and we must respect them.

We have had a message from the guys at Seymours Arena that bike trials riders have jumped the fence and ridden on the arena. This is strictly forbidden. This land is privately owned and the local motorbike club is given permission by the owner to run events on it. These guys have then kindly let us use it for a bike trial event. It is not too be used at any other time. We do not want to lose this venue. Venues are precious to the bike trial community and we must respect them.

Check out the facebook album for photos from Hook Woods https://www.facebook.com/379772689176/photos/?tab=album&album_id=10154190512779177

And to finish off the day, there'll be a fun cycle-speedway competition - beer and chocolates for the winners! Day entries will be accepted so get down there!