Captain Scarlet

Yes Matty P and I are based in North London so regularly ride there. We usually attack a certain area of London each time. I.e start at Liverpool Street, and crack on with the City of London (attempt the Barbican, Brewers Hall Gardens on London Wall, St Paul’s Cathedral, blocks outside Old Bailey) South but still central ish you have the blocks by Southwark Cathedral (old school trials spot!), continuing west there’s a few bits along the south bank until the south bank skatepark and of course the iMax roundabout. I am currently in the progress of building more rides in remote areas of London, like Mark and Travis have done (I’m a London cabbie so I’m always trying to spy out new spots as I drive) If you have a means of getting over there, there are a few riders in the Isle of Dogs area too, they are in the London what’s app group Matt mentioned And there’s usually a ride going on most Sundays.

2004 (age 13-14), I had a Saracen jump bike and all of my friends from school were into jump biking. Whether it was; finding a good kicker kerb, building a ramp or hitting the jump box at the local skatepark, we’d spend whole weekends together and every evening after school on our bikes. One night we was in town and saw some guys on funny looking bikes, either no seat or really small seat, and they were able to balance on the back wheel and get up larger obstacles without the need for a jump. I was mesmerised. The idea of being able to ride street objects such as walls and benches was so impressive to me! I used my Saracen jump bike as long as I could, snapping many back axles learning back hops in the process! Eventually I convinced my parents I wanted a trials bike for Christmas... an Onza T Vee. The most affordable spec trials bike I could find £250 I believe. I wouldn’t have taken up trials riding had it not been for this affordable bike available at my local bike shop. Trials needs to be affordable. The specific bike aided hugely in my progress, and our local trials scene had grown! The year following that Christmas (hazarding a guess of 2005) there was over 20 trials riders in my local town. My biggest inspirations were Danny Holroyd, largely due to his exposure in MBUK and being featured in the freebie DVD’s. Eventually my MBUK subscription was just flicking to the small trials section in the back, edited by Martyn Ashton. One the internet I found trials forum, and once YouTube became a thing I was in awe of a rider called Craig Lee Scott... he blew my mind how big he could go on the street. Phone boxes, post boxes, rail gaps. For me trials was always about the connection with the street. I remember the first big group ride I went on in Chelmsford... meeting Steve-O and Dan Wheeler. Seeing this huge riding in person and how they interpreted the street was eye opening. Even to this day when walking a town and I spot a rail gap or line, I feel the urge to grab my bike and go and complete it We used to meet for rides on the streets, there was no fees to pay, just hop on a train and meet at a big spot for 10am. I remember being stopped from time to time either by ex trials riders or current riders who didn’t know that there was trials riders in their area, all from the street. I personally would like to see more street based demos/competitions. Competition formats in woods or venues in the country are great but they only cater to the trials scene or people who happen to be there. A street demo/competition has a much wider audience, also the size of obstacles in the street are much more relatable. A passer by could say to their friend “I saw a man on a bike jump from that post box to that bench”. There is much greater potential they share it on social media (video or comments) and spread the trials message.

Hi guys, I'm looking at buying the Echo Lite full build (seen here) as a cheap way of replacing my frame, brakes, wheels and other components in desperate need of upgrading on my current Mod. My question is, how reliable are the Echo TR discs? I can't see them for sale on their own? Can they be serviced easily? What kinds of parts do they take? How well do they perform etc? I'm really tempted to take the punt, but I'm very sceptical of the quality of the brakes at this price. Many thanks, Tom

If you can, find a good group of people who ride regularly or ride a different style. I considered selling up late last year and early this year. I'm a huge lover of TGS but lack of riders converted my riding to park/street style just to get a social aspect to my riding (BMXer and skater friends), got really bored of doing the same moves and lost hope in riding. Last couple of months I told myself to start doing competitions and I've since starting riding regularly and find myself wanting to ride all the time. Competitions opened my eyes to how bad I've become on a trials bike (I think I've just sat on past achievements) and it's hard to accept your current level of riding, now I'm progressing again each week and I've fallen in love with the sport all over again!

Hi All, I'm currently riding an Onza Limey 320 running dual disc, its a great frame and I find the geometry absolutely perfect, but I have a lot of issues in terms of chain line and rear disc rubbing. I'm looking into a change to another mod frame, that must have a disc mount but I've been out of the trial loop for a while so I'm not too sure what is out there currently. I'm looking for your recommendations, maybe if anyone else has had the similar chain slapping issues and has managed to overcome these with a new frame. Thanks, Tom

Basically I've changed jobs which has freed up my weekends for the first time in what feels like an eternity. I really would like to get out on the bike most weekends, visiting Barrow and usual areas. However I'd really like to explore more locations in London, Herts and Essex or other surrounding counties. Just wondering if there is a regular group of people riding these areas on the weekends. Post in or PM me for a contact. Cheers, Tom

I'm available weekends to join in London riding.

Scrolling down this forum I was really surprised to see no mention of a London ride..? So who fancies it? plenty of notice, so hopefully a good turnout 11 at what was the sloped walls?

If your like me and somehow manage to cut horrendously on the piss with a hacksaw, use an old seat clamp or even a reflector bracket from another bike as a guide, just clamp it where you want and it'll cut straight each time.

Nice clips mate, the slowmo bit was a bit long but hey at least your having fun trying different editing. How long have you been riding for?

So I've been getting back into riding trials again lately, but more often than not I find myself down the skatepark with my mates who ride BMX. I've always loved throwing techy moves into my lines, like endo-360 drop offs, reverse nose manuals and such, but it really feels like a long time since I learnt a new move like this. I'm really eager to pick up more cool techy stuff. So I suppose this thread is a long list of tricks which are done/can be done on a trials bike. I'm thinking: 360 endo drop offs 360 endo whip drop offs (Macaskill) One handed front wheel spin (done on the back wheel) That front flip thing over the bars which Jack Meek is a beast at If anyone can post up any other cool tricks like this or even video examples that would be great!

I found that riding brakeless really improved my balance and removed the need for unnecessary correction hops once I had put my brakes back on. Really enjoyed the two videos that have been posted up, brakeless riding has such a unique style.

Top job Ben, I love the progress of this competition already, can't wait to get cracking!!

I'm only an hour away too so wouldn't mind riding on the weekends that I'm off.

Thanks guys, I'll pass the comments onto her, I think she's pretty chuffed with the views this has generated so thanks again. Definately young Purdonious! I've got a set of wheels now so no train bumming for me, I'm down to right just about any weekend when the weather sorts itself out..

A girl who does 2d animation at my uni wanted to use me a subject for an animation piece, which involved using text on video footage. There's not a huge amount of animation, but I think her edit is brilliant it was her first time using Final Cut Pro and she even did a nice bit of colour grading too! So it's nothing big or amazing, just a short little video to brighten up your day I suppose. Cheers.

This is amazing ahah!! Thnaks for the comments guys, I would love to make a structured video featuring more lines with these guys as they all said that their riding wasn't up to their usual par!?!?!? EDIT: well aside from Joe who really owned everyone that day...!!

I made a little video of these top guys riding the bank holiday just gone. It's not an amazing edit, just quickly assembled in Final Cut Pro and having a little bit of fun colour grading it. Riding is immense but unfortunately not many lines. Cheers, Tom

Depends what riding your after really? I really like Borehamwood and Potters Bar/Furzefield leisure skatepark, both concrete, relatively well spaced and plenty of lines for all kinds of action sports.

It's just one of those inevitabilities as you get older, I'm sure that if I could have started trials when I was around 12-13 then I would be a lot better than what I am now. The thing that keeps me driven is understanding the risk, weighing up pros and cons etc. Each time I come back to myself with the argument that trials is so much safer than other action sports due to the amount of static moves, unless you have an almost BMX like style then there is very little chance of having a crash that will be exaggerated by speed/momentum. I'm 20 and I'm nearly on the transitional point which for many is the start of their adult life (i.e settling down, not going out as much, full time work etc). People may argue that this happens at different ages due to personal circumstances and such but I feel this is still coming at some point, irregardless of when. As a result I try and push myself knowing that each day might be the last proper trials ride I have whilst I'm still relatively young.

My house at uni is about 15 minutes from Watford. During term time when the weather is better I'm generally always up for a street session on weekends on weekday evenings.

It's only a short one but I threw it together to get it out of the way because I've got a lot of uni work coming up. All was filmed this October, couple of clips I was really chuffed with, the rest was just basic filler. Really wanted to film more but with Winter coming up, I doubt I'll be riding much more on this side of christmas. Cheers! -Tom

You'll get the swing of it, sounds really daunting being faced with big numbers across many months and breaking it all down but eventually you'll find that you spend more some weeks, less on others so you might even yourself out that way. I'm lucky due to my parents earning sweet sod all, so I'm eligible for the highest loan and student grant, University of Hertfordshire were also incredibly generous by offering £1000 for their compulsory bursary (this was f**king amazing!) I'm sure if I was a jub with no live and decided to commute, I could have had a stupidly big amount of money in savings from un used uni grants/bursarys, but like every other uni student I decided to go wild and have fun with the money... and somehow I've still managed to put some aside into my savings.

I've got 9 more hours booked in total for the end of this year, sleeve should then start to take shape.

I'm off this Saturday and wanna try somewhere new to ride! What's like lowestoft like to ride? is there any videos of riding? and importantly free parking on a Saturday?