Brakeless comps

[clerictgm]

Isn't it cool idea? With sections for street-trials and pure trials brakeless bikes. Natural and streety. I think it will be alot of fun and really cool to watch. In my city/country there are so many brakeless riders it can be counted on one hand, so it's senselessly.

[shercofray]

Isn't it cool idea? With sections for street-trials and pure trials brakeless bikes. Natural and streety. I think it will be alot of fun and really cool to watch. In my city/country there are so many brakeless riders it can be counted on one hand, so it's senselessly.

It would be very hard to put into place, what would you propose, corner of the streets? But it would be interesting/slightly pointless.

And the highlighted sentence doesn't make sense, 'there are so many it can be counted on one hand' that's really not many!

[Danny00135]

considering street trial riders don't do "sections" like in a competition (majority of cases) it's a little pointless..

[bike_dummie]

I think brakeless comps would be really cool! But you would need to change it slightly. Maybe something like they get judged on style, efficiency and how well they used the sections with ten points to score in each category. Obviously you would need a more street influenced line aswell, be it street or natural it's defiantly possible!

[CalopS]

I'd totally do Barrow farm or lee mill events if they let me.

You could say lines were like sections.

Anyways I hope there's some cool events on this year for us street cats

[isitafox]

I know it is one of the goals for Pheonix so hopefully we'll get there soon enough

[Joe Papasnap Maher]

I'd totally do Barrow farm or lee mill events if they let me.

You could say lines were like sections.

Anyways I hope there's some cool events on this year for us street cats

Pay to hire the field, and barrow is all yours

( this applys for any events people wish to hold..Barrow can be hired out )

[dngr2self]

If it was done more like a bmx comp and judged on creativity, technicality and style it could work.

[chimpanzyyyy]

super elite finale

with akrigg vs flipp vs ali c vs rowan J

[SamKidney]

Pay to hire the field, and barrow is all yours

( this applys for any events people wish to hold..Barrow can be hired out )

I like the idea of this.... would be a nice way to spend my 18th for sure.

Like the idea of brakeless comps too. After watching Ali, Stan and Flip ride brakeless and kill it at Shipley it would be an awesome event to go see.

[shercofray]

I like the idea of this.... would be a nice way to spend my 18th for sure.

Surely you may as well just go and pay to ride? And then if there are others there it's a chance to meet new riders..

[Mark W]

considering street trial riders don't do "sections" like in a competition (majority of cases) it's a little pointless..

In a sense I'd say that wasn't true - most street videos feature people doing longer lines which is essentially what a section is. If you compare that to most normal trials videos, they tend to feature 1-2 moves on a single object.

In terms of doing more street-orientated comps, events like Dressler Camp, the old NASS trials comps or the Red Bull Street Light Sessions are the way to go. By giving riders a free reign over where they do/don't go, you highlight their level of creativity and ingenuity. You only have to go to comps these days to see that by having a more direct section approach to laying out routes you are essentially forcing people to do things in a certain way. In a normal comp where you're trying to find who can ride 'the best' then that makes sense, but it doesn't really work for street stuff. It's also not a particular interesting or engaging way of doing things, and it also means that you miss out on seeing a lot of what's going on. With events like NASS, the freestyle comp at Dressler, Section 01 and the Red Bull sessions riders can see what each other are doing and feed off that to come up with new stuff.

It means that setting up an event like that requires more work, but I don't really see why that should be off-putting really. Section 01 was fairly straight-forward to set up, and it's an easy, tried-and-tested format (there have been some pretty big, corporate-sponsored city centre jams like that worldwide) - all you really need is an idea of a place you'd like to hold the comp at, then a rough route for the day. Organising it in Bristol when I lived 3.5hrs away made life a little harder, but luckily Ben Rowlands is The Man so helped out a lot. At Section 01 you could see people feeding off the atmosphere there and doing ridiculous stuff they might not ordinarily have done, and it was much the same as the little indoor gig Ian put on for Phoenix. That's what I'd see as the aim as being for any sort of street trials comp rather than just trying to work out who can do 'the best' thing on the day. You don't get that from a traditional, section-based competition so it doesn't make much sense to me to try and shoe-horn a broader, modern format into a rigid, older format.

[Miss-Higgy]

I'm with mark. I loved the street light sessions was amazing to watch. And i would show up for future events similar to this! Now i'm a little more confident on my bike i'd love to have a bash at the sections that were put out! But when its put in a competition format it doesn't sound as appealing to want to join in with.

GetCreative Video comp was a great idea with regards to its way of addressing all skill levels and encouraging everyone to be as creative as possible but to essentially have fun! I personally dislike the whole super serious side of riding, i got into it because i thought it looked fun and it is. And the aim of these events i think are to increase popularity of the sport and to encourage all current riders to take part and have fun!

[eskimo]

Definitely a nice idea. Screw the tricks/ style judging thing, as you might as well just have a jam then. Just make it an easier trials course/ section but you have to go brakeless. And so it doesn't seem majorly lame, go with no bash/ pedal touching. Watching people bash everything because they can, or sidehoping to pedal because they can't sidehop high enough is lame.

Though i can't see it happening unless there's an event that puts on some course/ section like Radfest, cause there's literally nothing else. Though maybe someone single handed could do it with some hard work. Clean worked out really well, think there was like 30 or something riders.

[manuel]

A brake less section comp will be just as dull for spectators (other than some epic bails) as any other trials comp.

The format needs a real shake up to go anywhere. Jams are great, but I'm not sure they are the answer entirely.

[Danny00135]

In a sense I'd say that wasn't true - most street videos feature people doing longer lines which is essentially what a section is. If you compare that to most normal trials videos, they tend to feature 1-2 moves on a single object.

In terms of doing more street-orientated comps, events like Dressler Camp, the old NASS trials comps or the Red Bull Street Light Sessions are the way to go. By giving riders a free reign over where they do/don't go, you highlight their level of creativity and ingenuity. You only have to go to comps these days to see that by having a more direct section approach to laying out routes you are essentially forcing people to do things in a certain way. In a normal comp where you're trying to find who can ride 'the best' then that makes sense, but it doesn't really work for street stuff. It's also not a particular interesting or engaging way of doing things, and it also means that you miss out on seeing a lot of what's going on. With events like NASS, the freestyle comp at Dressler, Section 01 and the Red Bull sessions riders can see what each other are doing and feed off that to come up with new stuff.

It means that setting up an event like that requires more work, but I don't really see why that should be off-putting really. Section 01 was fairly straight-forward to set up, and it's an easy, tried-and-tested format (there have been some pretty big, corporate-sponsored city centre jams like that worldwide) - all you really need is an idea of a place you'd like to hold the comp at, then a rough route for the day. Organising it in Bristol when I lived 3.5hrs away made life a little harder, but luckily Ben Rowlands is The Man so helped out a lot. At Section 01 you could see people feeding off the atmosphere there and doing ridiculous stuff they might not ordinarily have done, and it was much the same as the little indoor gig Ian put on for Phoenix. That's what I'd see as the aim as being for any sort of street trials comp rather than just trying to work out who can do 'the best' thing on the day. You don't get that from a traditional, section-based competition so it doesn't make much sense to me to try and shoe-horn a broader, modern format into a rigid, older format.

There's me proven wrong

I didn't get my point across that well really.. What I meant was if you take a normal comp with brakes.. and take the brakes away, it'd be pointless since you may aswell do it on a bike with brakes..

The more I think about it though the more I think i'd love to see it.

I've even got myself out of that or i've made myself look like a bigger tool :wink2:

[dngr2self]

Bringing events to city centres would help promote the sport too.

[FamilyBiker]

i´ve heard there are people who ride street with brakes, honestly

[Mark W]

A brake less section comp will be just as dull for spectators (other than some epic bails) as any other trials comp.

The format needs a real shake up to go anywhere. Jams are great, but I'm not sure they are the answer entirely.

I see what you're saying, although I don't really know where it 'needs to go', to borrow your phrase. They're definitely not the be-all and end-all, but the thing that I like about jams is that they're basically for the rider, rather than trying to package it up as something else. For example, the idea of using it to 'boost' trials:

Bringing events to city centres would help promote the sport too.

I don't really agree too much with that side of things, mainly in the sense that I'm not really too sure how much just seeing someone riding a trials bike in a city-centre environment would really convert someone into a rider. For me that's much the same as the idea of appearing on something like 'Britain's Got Talent' or something similar as 'promoting the sport'. To strip it down to it's essence, it's about a target audience: BGT has an audience that is statistically populated most by 45-54 year old women (I actually looked it up a while ago). I'm pretty sure if you ask most trials manufacturers, that isn't their target audience. Similarly, if you found a 45-54 year old woman in the street and tried talking them into riding trials I'm not sure you'd really get that far. The incidental audience you're likely to get in a city centre (as in people who don't know about it, but happen to chance upon it while out and about) is probably not going to be the usual young male that would typically take up riding trials, so it just seems like a slightly scattergun way of trying to get people into riding. You could theoretically hype it up online and get people who would potentially be interested in trials to turn up as well, but then that seems like it might be leading it more into a Street Light Sessions-style event (which was good in the sense that it allowed people the chance to actually try riding a trials bike which was really effective and is a pretty crucial step that no other event seems to offer) which would make it potentially more popular for the general public, but would compromise what it'd be like for the riders involved.

The good thing about jams is that they allow everyone to have a go at stuff. I'm using Section 01 as a basis for this as it's what I have experience from, but there were all levels of riders getting involved whether they were beginners or much more experienced riders. Because there wasn't a crowd waiting expectantly for either a fantabulous trick or savage crash, it meant that there was no pressure to "do something good", so people could do whatever they wanted. To that end having a less publicly-orientated event makes it much better for the actual riders involved, and it seems to me that that's what should be the central point of any event that's happening (which is why it seems strange that Lee Quarry was abandoned last year, although that's a different story for a different day). I don't think any of the passers-by from Section 01 will necessarily have bought themselves a bike as a result of seeing people riding, but that wasn't what I was setting out to do and I don't think that event is the type of thing that would make that happen.

To look at it another way, when I first started riding trials the only access to trials I had before I actually started riding was the odd page I saw in my brother's copies of MBUK and a VHS copy of Tricks and Stunts. There wasn't really much online content to speak of, and no-one else that I knew locally who did it. In spite of that, I still bought myself a trials bike and got into riding. I'm sure it's much the same story for any other rider who grew up in the pre-internet age. If people were able to get into riding then when there was a comparative lack of media and dedicated trials companies, it seems like there shouldn't really be much of a barrier to anyone who might take an interest in it these days. A 10 second search on Google or Youtube would bring up a plethora of videos that could inspire you to get into riding, and a subsequent Google search would give you a large list of options to get yourself a bike and meet like-minded people. I don't think an event should compromise what it's like for the riders involved just to try and be seen to be 'promoting' things. If you look at almost all trials comps in the UK they don't draw in public crowds but that isn't necessarily a bad thing - they're aimed at the riders who are riding them, and at making it as good as possible for those people, and that's the way it should be "IMO".

I didn't get my point across that well really.. What I meant was if you take a normal comp with brakes.. and take the brakes away, it'd be pointless since you may aswell do it on a bike with brakes..

To do the same sections but without brakes arguably takes more skill and consequently it makes it harder to do, and that's kind of the point...

EDIT: Just to clarify things a little, I don't think that Section 01 was the best thing that's ever happened in the history of man, nor do I think that that's the blueprint for every future event. There are plenty of ways to do things in a better way, hopefully someone will make it happen at some point.

[Revolver]

The question on many people's lips is, will there be Clean Section 02 this year?

[dngr2self]

When I said about promoting the sport I didn't just mean converting new riders, promoting it could be something as simple as making people aware of it. I've lost count of the amount of times I've been told to go to the skatepark.If people are more aware of he existence of trials then it's more likely that we could get more trials specific stuff installed at the local skateparks. I know there has been funding available to upgrade the parks round here but they won't put money in to it if they've never seen or heard of it.

[Mark W]

The question on many people's lips is, will there be Clean Section 02 this year?

When I said about promoting the sport I didn't just mean converting new riders, promoting it could be something as simple as making people aware of it. I've lost count of the amount of times I've been told to go to the skatepark.If people are more aware of he existence of trials then it's more likely that we could get more trials specific stuff installed at the local skateparks. I know there has been funding available to upgrade the parks round here but they won't put money in to it if they've never seen or heard of it.

I don't think it's necessarily because they're unaware of it. From my experience, councils will generally go with a select list of approved contractors, many of which give no f**ks about anything. To put it into perspective, when we were campaigning for a mini-ramp in my home-town in Wales, the 'approved contractor' my local council went for actually suggested coating the ramp in that soft, spongy tarmac the use under swings in playparks. The council were for this as it was 'safe', and had we not happened to check with them about progress we would've ended up with that. I think trying to get a trials park through your council is always going to be hard because of that, and that's why the majority of trials parks around are set up either by riders, sympathetic land-owners or some other avenue rather than direct council funding. Councils will always go with these existing contractors, and as a result there'd need to be quite a leap to the point where skatepark manufacturers felt that there was enough of a market to actually offer that as a service which is unlikely to really happen (in my opinion, anyway). A lack of interest, knowledge and financial reward isn't going to spur on many businesses unfortunately.

[eskimo]

To put it into perspective, when we were campaigning for a mini-ramp in my home-town in Wales, the 'approved contractor' my local council went for actually suggested coating the ramp in that soft, spongy tarmac the use under swings in playparks. The council were for this as it was 'safe', and had we not happened to check with them about progress we would've ended up with that.

ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhahahahahahahahahahahahaah

I've ridden some dumb stuff but that takes the cake. I think i'm gonna laugh this one off for a while.

As for Clean 2. Whoever could just organise a ride of 24"/ street goers in a city with some known locations and you'd have a good day. Prizes and judges aren't required to have some fun.

[Mark W]

They're not, but they do give people a chance to 'earn' something for riding well. If - say - you'd got £500 instead of a frame, fork and whatever else you got on the day, I doubt you'd complain and I'm sure that the prospect of winning a prize might make some people potentially try a little harder to do something, or push themselves a bit more. Organised rides happen all the time, that sort of opportunity doesn't. Again, I'm not saying that they should be going on constantly or anything like that, but it was a fun day and it was nice to be able to say thanks for people for coming out by giving them something. There were those two kids who came along on the train by themselves from a pretty long way away, and it was the first real ride they'd been on. They each got one of the Inspired/Clean T-shirts and both seemed pretty chuffed, and that serves as a kind of memento for that event. Although had they just gone home with memories that would've been good too, having a bit more doesn't seem like a bad thing.

EDIT: It might also have the draw of making people travel from slightly further afield too I guess.

[Andeee]

Brakeless Comps? Oohhhh God!

Does the liability only cover until the moment you step on your bike.