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Trial Magazine Update


isitafox

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I'm sure a few of you on here know of Trial Magazine and probably also know that it doesn't really contain much bike trials in. The thing is, I know the boss who started the mag up and he's asked me to ring him regarding getting more stuff in there to interest us lowly non petrol propelled riders so before I speak to him I just want to see what would make you interested enough to buy the mag?

I initially thought the basics like new products, results and pictures from comps, rider profiles, etc, but thats just me. I want to see what everyone would like to read, hopefully I'll be able to convince him to give cycle trials a bigger share which will be good for us as it's a magazine worth buying to read and good for him as it might improve his sales.

This is also partially aimed at people like tartybikes and heatsink pads as whilst most of us know of them it may still help them out with a bit of exposure if they got involved.

Like I said before, I've got to speak to the boss first and for all I know nothing may come of this but its worth a try, let me know what you think!

Edited by isitafox
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I think showing new products it's a great idea, and promote brands like Deng's, Fans, Rockman... because at least here in Spain, you can only see MONTY MONTY AND MORE MONTY inside the mag, the few Skys of Benito, Abel, etc. and nothing more.

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I also thought stuff like in every mag have a ride out with locals, to get rider profiles of not just professional riders but people who ride for the enjoyment.

Say, if there's a ride in Leeds then tag along, take a few pics for the mag, get some bike specs and some general history on how they started riding, why they do it, if they wanna go anywhere with it.

What you reckon?

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I think it'd be great if they could feature comp write-ups and photos, product reviews and general interest stuff (the rider interviews or features on group rides that you mention, for example).

If they could manage to get a vibe a bit like the Hip Hop section of MBUK but with a bit more content (what they do in MBUK is great, but it'd be cool to see a magazine dedicate a bit more space to the sport!) that would be ideal I reckon.

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I also thought stuff like in every mag have a ride out with locals, to get rider profiles of not just professional riders but people who ride for the enjoyment.

Say, if there's a ride in Leeds then tag along, take a few pics for the mag, get some bike specs and some general history on how they started riding, why they do it, if they wanna go anywhere with it.

What you reckon?

This.

Take a look at old Ride BMX and Dig magazines, used to be great for this^^^^^^^^^^^^.

Product reviews are good too.

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Right a very promising update!

I've just come off the phone with John the boss at UK Trial mag and he's very keen on really pushing UK trials in the magazine so we're gonna meet up to discuss some ideas about what we could get in there.

I've already been told that tribalzine are keen to get involved and give us world reports and the like and John want's to get as much of the UK events in as possible.

I'm gonna speak to him more about some of the other stuff thats been suggested when we meet but I'd love to hear from some of the organisers of the national events about sorting some coverage, either from me attending to get some pics and get copies of the results or if they're too far for me or I'm unavailable from themselves providing some to be printed.

Please, please get involved if you can and we can really get this thing to take off!

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I'm not really too sure how good it'd be putting new products in simply because you're always going to be behind the times just because of how quickly the internet tells people what's around. Most manufacturers don't do things like MTB ones do, and so there's no real 'release' as such, it's just "Here's some new stuff" all of a sudden. As a result, I think you'd probably be better off sticking to original content, and using the leverage of putting a print magazine together to get photographers/writers to get out there with more big name sort of riders for interviews and so on.

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I'm not really too sure how good it'd be putting new products in simply because you're always going to be behind the times just because of how quickly the internet tells people what's around. Most manufacturers don't do things like MTB ones do, and so there's no real 'release' as such, it's just "Here's some new stuff" all of a sudden. As a result, I think you'd probably be better off sticking to original content, and using the leverage of putting a print magazine together to get photographers/writers to get out there with more big name sort of riders for interviews and so on.

Thanks for the input Mark, this is exactly why I started this thread and your opinion's probably more important than mine as I've only just started riding again after 10 years out whilst trials is your job!

Interviewing big name riders is obviously going to be an ideal situation which I'm sure would be possible. Would you think getting hold of people like Rowan and maybe The Clan for an article would be a good starting point and get some interest? As for my idea about getting out on a group ride for some pics and writeups on people who do it for their own enjoyment rather than on a professional level, would that interest you?

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Would you think getting hold of people like Rowan and maybe The Clan for an article would be a good starting point and get some interest? As for my idea about getting out on a group ride for some pics and writeups on people who do it for their own enjoyment rather than on a professional level, would that interest you?

Regarding the first bit, just a bit of lurking in the video section and on other threads should give you an idea about people who are 'popular', so to speak, so you can get an idea of who to interview/speak to. Those would be a good place to start - Rowan's a pretty sound guy and has a totally different style to a lot of people out there, plus it's interesting that he's got a 'proper' job and his own place and so on but still rides like a total beast and does cool stuff for other companies too. Find that more interesting than people who 'just' ride all the time, for the most part. Bit more depth to an interview too... But yeah, just see who you can get!

The group rides thing might work, but the issue with that is that you're likely to get out-done by people putting videos up straight away, plus a lot of group rides seem to just be the same people at the same places doing the same moves, so I don't know how interesting that'd be in a more long-term way...

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Part reviews would be good, so from that perspective, new product features might be worthwhile, it's sometimes slow for a product to gain popularity because no-one wants to be the first to try it. Haha!

A bit like the because 24" frames.

Suppose instead of a new products feature you could get away with a long term test, a bit like MBUK do with bikes maybe??

They do currently try and review the odd thing here and there but it's mostly done by people from the European versions of the mag, for instance this month they tested four 24" bikes to see how they faired at a bit of natural in France, one of which was actually the Because 24"!

Regarding the first bit, just a bit of lurking in the video section and on other threads should give you an idea about people who are 'popular', so to speak, so you can get an idea of who to interview/speak to. Those would be a good place to start - Rowan's a pretty sound guy and has a totally different style to a lot of people out there, plus it's interesting that he's got a 'proper' job and his own place and so on but still rides like a total beast and does cool stuff for other companies too. Find that more interesting than people who 'just' ride all the time, for the most part. Bit more depth to an interview too... But yeah, just see who you can get!

The group rides thing might work, but the issue with that is that you're likely to get out-done by people putting videos up straight away, plus a lot of group rides seem to just be the same people at the same places doing the same moves, so I don't know how interesting that'd be in a more long-term way...

All taken on board cheers Mark, will hopefully have a good few ideas to talk to him about when we meet at this rate.

Could even modify the group ride bit slightly by saying something like I invite you boys from tartybikes to meet up at Matlock quarry for example and just basically have a bit of a laugh, get some shots and some mini profiles. Or find, like you said, some of the popular riders and do the same with them, find somewhere relatively local to them all and get 3-4 out for a bit of a ride and a shoot?!

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I write the sidecar trials articles for the trials mag and have also discussed with John getting bike trial stuff in more regular. I've sent him titbits on Adam that he's put in.

You seem to have some good ideas. Comp reports. Rider profiles. Titbits. New products. Reports on rides custom builds. Group rides etc

Would be wiling to send John stuff regular as Adam rides comps most weekends

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Tyke Trial/Bike Trial Federation would be more than happy to provide results, reports and photos from our events - I'm sure I could find the time to interview a few riders as well (Y) These would most likely be Tykes/National comp riders, from the top Elite riders down to up-and-coming younger riders such as the Rolls boys and Adam Morewood for example but I'm sure I could provide interviews with some of the top Euro riders from time to time as well.

As discussed already, Tribal Zine are also well and truly behind the idea and would be happy to provide some reports, news etc.

Keep us posted on how things are going!

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