Kenny writes to Giacomo

[ogre]

wheres the giacomo responce?

[Paperclip]

wheres the giacomo responce?

Have you checked his Bebo, Myspace and wordpress?

[TheChai]

Food for thought...

I will be interested in finding out possibly from the forum or some other measure of what the trials population is in the UK at the moment. Get data for 5 years ago and 10 years ago. Really how much has our sport grown?

Compare that stat to Pakour and BMX or skateboarding or anything else that is a sustainable sport at the moment. When I say sustainable I mean able to grow naturally i.e. more new riders starting and less stopping. In my time in trials. I have definitely seen more older riders stop than new riders start.

The next question would be why.

And I think the answers are obvious. Expensive bikes, accessibility etc... there are most certainly more

Now why is there so much focus on competitions? Why is there so much focus on the rules of the sport or what is right? Surely the immediate problem is that at the moment it simply is not an easy sport to start. Why don't we try and focus on those aspects of the sport instead? What Mick Mitchell is doing in Barrow farm is an excellent example and so is Dexx Trials. We need to be supporting these and creating more of them.

Once the sport is actually growing sustainably, than money would be a side effect. Who wouldn't want to sponsor or start business in a sport that is growing?

A thing I see far too often in competitions is the bitterness competitors seem to have for each other. People within the sport should help each other grow, encourage improvement. I have been to the worlds and to be honest it seems to me that there is far too much bickering and unhealthy competition where you wish the worse for your opponents. I personally just have fun. I came drop dead last in my first world cup and am proud to say I tried and will be going again this year.

[Mark W]

Has Giaco deleted that post off FB or because we're not 'friends' does that mean I can't read it? If it's the former: Bitch move.

[Ross McArthur]

Ross, I've had a bad day please explain about whores?

Come over for a night out and ill hook you up.

[Mikee]

I think the main problem with trials is more to do with the image then how it is organised and run. We ride stupid bikes and a lot of top rides wear ridiculous clothing.

I think that is probably a big reason why danny mac is so popular. He doesn't look like a tit. I reckon if he was riding an echo control for axample in his first BIG video, it would'n't have had the same impact.

I get more comments/questions about my riding when I ride an inspired. When I am riding a seatless bike, mostly what I get is "where is your seat?".

Trials just isn't cool compared to other disciplines to the general public.

[Rusevelt]

I wonder if Kenny or Giacomo were invited to this last year?

[Ross McArthur]

What the hell has that got to do with anything?

Are you actually just on here to take the piss? I dont know whether to laugh or punch the person sitting next to me when I read your posts.

[Paperclip]

Food for thought...

I will be interested in finding out possibly from the forum or some other measure of what the trials population is in the UK at the moment. Get data for 5 years ago and 10 years ago. Really how much has our sport grown?

Compare that stat to Pakour and BMX or skateboarding or anything else that is a sustainable sport at the moment. When I say sustainable I mean able to grow naturally i.e. more new riders starting and less stopping. In my time in trials. I have definitely seen more older riders stop than new riders start.

The next question would be why.

And I think the answers are obvious. Expensive bikes, accessibility etc... there are most certainly more

Now why is there so much focus on competitions? Why is there so much focus on the rules of the sport or what is right? Surely the immediate problem is that at the moment it simply is not an easy sport to start. Why don't we try and focus on those aspects of the sport instead? What Mick Mitchell is doing in Barrow farm is an excellent example and so is Dexx Trials. We need to be supporting these and creating more of them.

Once the sport is actually growing sustainably, than money would be a side effect. Who wouldn't want to sponsor or start business in a sport that is growing?

A thing I see far too often in competitions is the bitterness competitors seem to have for each other. People within the sport should help each other grow, encourage improvement. I have been to the worlds and to be honest it seems to me that there is far too much bickering and unhealthy competition where you wish the worse for your opponents. I personally just have fun. I came drop dead last in my first world cup and am proud to say I tried and will be going again this year.

I agree, Here in the UK we have a problem that we need to resolve with the comp scene and just general trials. In Barcelona we saw kids on all sorts of home made trials frames/bikes that were probably 3-4th hand and it just makes it easier for them with more places to go to ride and practice. Retired professional riders making a living off coaching and having deals with schools to teach cycle safety (even though when you see some of the people on bikes in the city you want to run them over just so you don't have to watch how bad they are on a bike).

It could only help the world rounds been given better media but they would have to fairly mix things up to make it better.

To compare the world bike trial rounds to the motorbikes (so the indoor rounds) you could have speed sections and stuff before the finals to place riders into the finals that would make it more fun to watch and mix the riding in the sections up a little.

Edit: to add to the above I find myself having to drive to get to rides more than I used to with a lot less options of riders to go ride with.

Edited March 5, 2015 by Paperclip

[N.Wood]

Yeah never really thought about it but the cheapest 26" bike on tarty is £600... Admittedly you can get a mod for £330 but still, if someones used to paying £100 for a bike, spending £330 on something their kid might use for a week then forget about is a lot.

[kevind]

The cost thing has been discussed at length. Personally It will always be an issue to some people and that's understandable, as the saying goes if you want something bad enough get of yer arse and make it happen. Just take a walk around both paddocks at Fort William to see, is there a money issue or just an attitude in trials. One of these downhill bikes would pay for a years trialing and don't ask about entry fees. Also the modern requirement to have a new/best everything all the time is another issue. There are SH bikes very cheap all the time on various places. You don't need a big van unlike other trials to do bike trials as the bikes fit in most boots and as stated just share travel costs.

[Ali C]

the way I see it, compentition trials will always be the geeky spotty My Little Pony loving little brother of Mountainbiking. He'll try and tag along with the bigger brother and his friends but they'd much rather ditch him and go have fun and show off to the girls.

Trying to get such an unwanted, weird looking, ugly little runt of a kid popularity is pretty much impossible in real life and I think the same goes for comp trials. I'm not saying some girls won't take pity on him and some might invite him into their group, but they'll never really want to physically touch him. He might also have friends who are also into My Little Pony and stuff, but he'll never be one of the cool kids.

I personally think both Kenny and Giaco make good points, but I've been thinking recently how much I dislike modern UCI comps and sections, it seems it's all about who can sidehop the highest or who's bike is best on the rear wheel. I also disagree with Giaco that trials is comps. That's a very blinkered way of looking at it.

I'd like to see more BIKE in Biketrials, I want sections with mud, rocks, kickers, ramps, sprints, roll-downs, tech etc. I don't want a carpark with random scattered rocks or logs where all everyone does is go from the floor, up and over a rock and back to the floor and repeat. Sections need to be clearer and more tech where the rider doesn't touch the floor till the end gate.

I think that rather than sacrificing sections (and the progression of riding) to get more spectators, get the bikes back out of the cities and into the woods and hillsides, screw the media....if you want money from trials then comp ridings a bad choice and most people knew this when they started. If you want money, take up a more popular sport and fight it out with the hundreds of other people who are probably miles better than you.

I want the World Champion trials rider to be the best f**king BIKE rider on the planet! Not just the best weird bike hopper. Trials should test ALL riding abilities and bikes should be compromised to suite anything thrown at them. This will make the riding more flowing, better to watch and everyone would benefit from being miles better at riding. The bikes would look more normal too and perhaps more people would be interested in it?

I also think bikes should have a weight limit. 8.5kg for stocks and 8kg for mods. Everyone would be on a level playing field, bikes would be safer and more reliable (no more drilling the f**k out of stuff) and it means a new rider could have a bike pretty much as good as a pro rider without spending hundreds on carbon forks and stuff.

I think competition trials has been going downhill for a few years now, it's just SO specialised now it's shot itself in the foot. I think it NEEDS a radical makeover. It needs a complete overhaul and resetting from (nearly) the start.

[LEON]

With an 8kg weight limit, pretty much every top of the range off the shelf stock would be banned!

I have a feeling you meant minimum weight. If there are weight restrictions then it's even more specialised. I don't think that's the way to go.

Edited March 7, 2015 by LEON

[Ali C]

I actually feel really strongly that a minimum weight limit would do way more good than bad. They have it in Road racing (and XC?) to keep things under control. All they need to do at the start when you get your number is weigh the bike....pretty easy thing to do. They used to check all your gears were working, you had bar ends, shoes with ankle guards, cables had the ends neatly capped back when I did the worlds. That was a much bigger challenge yet it worked.

If there's no limit bikes keep getting lighter, keep getting more expensive, the sponsored and rich riders have a clear advantage, people compromise strength of parts and reliability goes down, I wouldn't be surprised if eventually a bike will break in a comp resulting in the serious injury of a rider.

A minimum weight limit is my idea of keeping trials from getting more specialised, not making it more.

[valk]

I believe that a sport as weird as this one (as Ali mentioned) will never get traction from the general public, I mean who wants to train every day for 2 years to end up sidehopping 4 pallets? only die hard nerds (like us). To get it out there with more exposure is nearly impossible and the comps would only grow bigger within the trials community that already exists.

Competitions are important in any sport, they set a "standard" for the fans to go about doing the sport, it just so happens that the majority of the riders do something so different than what they see in competitions that we see a big gap from the trails reality to the competition.

I'd like to say that I got a solution but I don't, my only idea is make it a time-based thing (like any other bicycle sport out there) and make people roll around more instead of hopping for every move.

[LEON]

It's just a very awkward, start - stop kind of thing to watch, no one's gonna sit down and watch that enough to care, there's no momentum, it's like chess.

[isitafox]

Ali is right, I remember doing a couple of the British rounds years ago (I posted a VHS taken at the event on YouTube) which involved river sections, steep bankings and actual riding rather than just big hoppy bits. I much prefer stuff where you actually need to be pedalling to get around at least some of the sections rather than relying on bunny/backhops. Fort Bill is a great example, when I was there a few years back there was a brilliant section which involved crossing a river then riding back across a waterfall which I really enjoyed.

[Herbertlemon102]

Again, this is laying down the pipe dreams, but what I'd want to see at comps is a similar setup to the Tartybikes open trial, except instead of deferent routes with different Difficulty gates, different routes with the same difficulty gates with points awarded for how creative you are in mixing up the lines and generally putting on a good techy show.

Edited March 9, 2015 by Herbertlemon102

[ogre]

i got my ass handed to me at yesterdays tyke, i was longing for tarty style gates so i could actually complete each section and have a good time. thats not a dig at the tyke trial; the sections were good, but i was totally off form for allot of it and 2 minutes per section was .

[kevind]

Good luck on getting a set of regs up to help observers mark on putting on a show in a section. It will be like synchronised swimming but at least it may become an Olympic sport.

Was at Tyke trial on Sunday as well, positive to see a lot of younger riders starting out, but nobody seemed to be offering advice or helping to much from what I saw. Maybe I am wrong.

2 min is 2 min and we just dealt with the change, sections seamed to time ok for us. We went round with Andrew Chia and Antonio and had a great time, never heard someone laugh so much, brilliant lad. They both struggled big time in Jack set out sections BUT its a start of a hard road and event by event there will be less fives as they find experience and strength. To us that was a perfect day out maybe a bit to many fives but new friends, spoke to a couple of new riders and dads. Thanks to all the officials and Tim for a few beers the night before. simple