Is Trials Expensive ?

[JonMack]

I still can't work out how you managed that one Luke!

[Luke Rainbird]

I still can't work out how you managed that one Luke!

A combination of being sensible about things, and not worrying about having the latest fad bike, just getting something that works (albeit sooooo damn well!)

Well, that and having awesome friends - another thanks to everyone who helped us out

Finding working parts cheap, fixing things that weren't quite right instead of buying a new bit and using spares/old kit works, and there's your living, breathing, made-of-metal-so-doesn't-live-or-breathe proof!

[Rebelistic]

Yes trials can cost a fair bit - but for the enjoyment I get, I think it's an absolute bargin.

[psycholist]

The reason trials seems expensive in many cases is because other sports are subsidised to make them easier to get in to either by government grants/school fundraising/senior club members paying over the odds to make junior club member fees affordable etc. How many parents think nothing of spending several hundred pounds on soccer gear for their children (Updating it each time the team strip changes) as well as driving them to and from matches and related events, but would still balk at spending a similar amount to get a trials bike. Trials is cheap enough that just about anyone with a full time job and no other big financial commitments can easily afford it, especially with the sport being big enough now to have a second hand market and the parts available being pretty durable.

Imagine the expense and difficulty of getting into playing soccer if it wasn't already around and deliberately made accessible to as many people as possible - step one would be to buy a field near where you live, get it leveled and grassed correctly and employ a groundskeeper to maintain it... Not cheap at all - and that's before you get a team together or possibly 2 teams in order that a match can take place ...

If you're not earning, pretty much no sport is affordable without subsidisation though...

[Ash-Kennard]

i rarely buy anything anymore, tyres, pads, grips, cables, thats about it. oh and forks usually

[davey90]

Trials is probably the cheapest form of extreme cycling available. To even enter a Dh race you need the £50 entry fee never mind the cost of a weekends camping and a few previous weekends getting to a track and practising i recon a race costs me about £200 all in never mind having to shell out for spares and even the bike at a cost of about £2000. Whereas trials on the other hand has cost me about £300 for a full bike, ok its nothing special but its got me started, i can see younger member's coming from the point that its hard to do it yourself when you can't get a job but i'm a full time uni student and can still work over 20hrs a week to get my fix of shiney bits at the end of every month.

[eskimo]

If this is your general attitude, I have two bits of advice for you:

1. Take up skateboarding blading (£100 on boots)

2. Do not take up Formula 1.

Rich

Best point out that skateboarding isn't cheap. Shoes + decks cost money on a REGULAR basis. Lets say each season. But generally you are right.

With trials once you've got a nice bike, all you need to do is pay for;

Grips £5

Tyres £40

Tubes £5

Chain £10

that every half year i'd say, maybe more or less depending how much you ride.

[Mark W]

A trap people seem to fall into quite a lot when they haven't got much money is to buy budget parts, but that hinders you more because, as they say - "Buy cheap, buy twice." Because people are now placing more of an emphasis on wanting light parts, that means you're sacrificing strength to get them that light, so stuff's inevitably going to break more.

However, there are plenty of ways to get a bike that'll run and run; scope out on here what parts are known to work well, then buy 'em. It might not mean you get to run a 100% matching Deng CNC'd/anodised monstrosity, but it'll mean your bike will actually work and leave you with more money left over (By not having to keep buying new bits) to afford to go to other places to ride, and so on.

[psycholist]

It might not mean you get to run a 100% matching Deng CNC'd/anodised monstrosity

That's exactly what I have ...

When I got into trials there were no affordable parts rated for trials use (And not a lot of unaffordable ones either - I wanted Martyn Ashton's Cannondale badly as it seemed to be perfect for trials use - It was only years later I found out that he snapped lots of them, in no small part because they weren't really designed for trials, so having one of these bikes would probably have left me poorer with replacement costs), so you just had to accept that stuff would snap every so often and hope you had enough money to replace it when it did... Currently my bike has cost me quite a few brake pads, but very little else ... Modern trials frames will take a hell of a beating before breaking, so cost of ownership is lower and good frames are available second hand .

[Mark W]

Modern trials frames will take a hell of a beating before breaking...

Now, you say that, but there are still plenty out there that aren't shit-hot when it comes to longevity, which is again why it comes down to:

Scope out on here what parts are known to work well, then buy 'em.

[forteh]

Once youve got a bike build that youre happy with then it costs very little

Ok the initial outlay is a fair amount but then its just consumables like pads and tyres (ooh a whole 50-60 quid a year?) if youre breaking parts then learn to ride smoother or save up for decent parts that dont break

The only other reason for buying parts is if you fancy a change, Ive changed the spec on the triton left right and centre and Im nearly happy with it now, spent about 500 quid on it in the last 4 months I reckon

[davey1991]

I've got three bikes. My onza Proto which I spend all my money on, a mongoose expert bmx .... i've change tyres and bars on and i've got a dirt jump bike , unsure of the brand though . I don't spend money on my other bikes because they dont need looking after as much as trials because more things break doing trials riding than BMXing or dirt jumping for me.

Your not unsure stu its a saracen and your embarased about it:P, you never thought i'd find this did you mwahahaha.

But yes very expensive atm im trying to trade my stock parts for mod parts but no one wants anything suppose its one way to save money,

If anyones interested PM me lol.

[eskimo]

Rather than making a new topic to moan about how over priced the 'pro series' Onza rims are, here we have a £75 rim without even a name besides 'rear'.

Cnc'd machined sidewalls came on budget level rims, welded seems too and square holes also.

Paired with another fine example, the Koxx Ti-Nesium pedals. Renamed and priced over £50 more.

So yeah, i change my mind, trials is a joke. I don't care in costs have gone up, it's ridiculous.

Slate away

[Mikee]

it is expensive but its nothing compared to the price of downhill/freeride bikes

[Billy]

At the minute, trials is waaaaaaaay too expensive for me I've had no bike for about 3 months, and I can't see me being able to afford another, for a long time. In comparison to other bike sports, I'd say its the cheapest though?

[froggy]

I don't think it's expensive if you're not pressured into buying the newest releases. When I started trials a few years ago I had a bike which cost me around 300 pounds and it was great. It was just my constant urge to upgrade everything and buy new parts when the older parts were fine, I was buying things simply because they were new. Eventually I worked out my bike was worth around 1200 at retail and i had spent over 2000 on trials at 16/17 years old - Crazy!. I ended up with a BT 5 frame when they were just released and ordered a new king from aspire velotech and everything was up to date, it was my dream bike.

Since then I've quit and now I'm getting back into it, I'm now expecting a second hand full build T-MAG sometime this week. It's costing me around 50 pounds and I'm quite confident It's not going to cost me anymore than 150 to keep it running for the year.

Unfortunately the misconception of riding a T-MAG is that everyone thinks your some kind of new trials looser as there is a such a wider, better variety these days. I know I will enjoy it though and this time I'll be more careful with my money because to be honest the bike I had before I quit was perfect, although I feel spending all of that money was just for the sake of it because it was my hobby, it never did help me progress much.

Also check out the bargains in the for sale section! You can get a pretty mint second hand bike for around 200-400 now.

Edited August 17, 2008 by froggy