Is Trials dead?

[TROYston]

So, never thought I’d be back here, but 10 years later I logged back into the second account I created when I was a teen… 

what’s happing with trials nowadays?

20” seems dead

22”?

24” looks to still be strong

26” also seems dead

 

Looking on tarty, it’s basically stockless in regards to bikes?

what happened with all the big brands from ching(?) the guy who owned echo/zoo/czar…. 
 

Seeing a Monty Camel 221 on eBay for £500 hurts my soul slightly being the most expensive bike back in the day on tarty 
 

 

[Canardweb]

3 hours ago, TROYston said:

So, never thought I’d be back here, but 10 years later I logged back into the second account I created when I was a teen… 

what’s happing with trials nowadays?

20” seems dead

22”?

24” looks to still be strong

26” also seems dead

 

Looking on tarty, it’s basically stockless in regards to bikes?

what happened with all the big brands from ching(?) the guy who owned echo/zoo/czar…. 
 

Seeing a Monty Camel 221 on eBay for £500 hurts my soul slightly being the most expensive bike back in the day on tarty 
 

 

Hey, trials has less visibility nowadays. Especially on these forums. And that's mainly due to social media taking over.

 24" has slowed down and is not as strong as it was. 20" has been a trend thanks to very good riders performing. 26" has slowed down also but that may change this year. 

Trials is mainly aimed at competitions nowadays and natural riding is not as important as it used to be because people use clubs training grounds rather than going into woods or quarry to ride.

Generation has changed also and COVID has made people want to stand out way more. So you can't really be average anymore or just have fun. Parents are really pushing kids nowadays and most of them don't last in the sport as it is a difficult one and as they don't perform as well as they would like to in comps. That's from my experience and that may not be the same everywhere. But it's definitely like that in France.

We also lack an identity. We used to be weirdos riding seatless bikes on palets or rocks. Now I think we don't really know who we are apart from what some like to call themselves: athletes. I think the only ones who we can look up to are the British riders because they don't take theirselves so seriously and are really enjoying what they do.

 

All that being said, I still love trials and if it wasn't for my work or life, I think I would ride everyday. I just need it.

Edited February 18 by Canardweb

[Swoofty]

9 hours ago, Canardweb said:

"because they don't take theirselves so seriously and are really enjoying what they do.

All that being said, I still love trials and if it wasn't for my work or life, I think I would ride everyday. I just need it."

Well said! I agree 100%

[cwtrials]

22 hours ago, TROYston said:

what happened with all the big brands from ching(?) the guy who owned echo/zoo/czar…. 

Unfortunately  Deng passed away awhile back.  Echo / zoo / czar continued for a few years without him, but the brand didn't survive covid.  

In general inventory has been lacking since 2020. It's getting better but High end brands like crewkerz are sold out pretty quick and there aren't any firm contenders to fill the entry market like echo did.

Edited February 19 by cwtrials

[Ross McArthur]

Social media - peoples own Instagram accounts and a couple of Facebook groups, including Ride Inspired and Trials Bikes from the 90s have really stolen traffic away from this forum. 

When you look at events like the UCI World Champs in Glasgow and the Barcelona street ride, you could be forgiven for thinking trials was very much still alive. The slight problem is that there isn't much, from what I can see, new people coming into the sport. There is the odd parent taking it up so they can be involved with what their kids are doing at the comps but they are likely buying 2nd hand bikes.

The Scottish Bike Trials Club does its best to make trials accessible to as many as possible, giving riders the chance to ride indoors during the winter and holds comps in varying locations so that throughout the year people have longer or shorter journeys to the venues. We hold a mountain bike category so that anyone wanting to give comps a go don't need to commit to buying a trials bike to get involved. 

Insta accounts like Aaron Lutze @superridertv does a great job of breaking down the basics for new riders, which is good to see. Back in the day I had to pause VHS tapes to see what body position riders were in for taps, gaps, side hops etc, so new riders don't know how good they've got it.

Are trials frames and parts just too good now? No one needs to upgrade as much as they used to. I'd snap a set of echo urban forks every few months or crack a frame every 6 months to a year. Now there's inspired or trial tech forks which I don't think I've ever broken! So there's less riders buying less stuff now.

Anyway, so all in all I don't think trials is completely dead, its just as small and niche as its always been. 

Edited February 19 by Ross McArthur

[Luke Rainbird]

From a pretty outside view these days (I haven't ridden in years, but TF is still usually the first tab I open on Chrome out of habit/spite!) it's not dead, it's just really fragmented.

Social media has moved folk away from a forum like this and into smaller groups on FB/similar. Big group rides seem fewer and further between, but are still out there (recent Barcelona trip is a prime example).

That all makes it harder for people to discover than before, which won't help. But then you get the top end (Danny, Ali, Carthy etc) out there for the world to find online which has to be inspiring someone, surely.

On 2/18/2024 at 6:01 AM, Canardweb said:

Generation has changed also and COVID has made people want to stand out way more. So you can't really be average anymore or just have fun. Parents are really pushing kids nowadays and most of them don't last in the sport as it is a difficult one and as they don't perform as well as they would like to in comps. That's from my experience and that may not be the same everywhere. But it's definitely like that in France.

People's attention spans certainly seem to have dropped, and perhaps new riders are losing interest sooner than we used to. Could be completely wrong in that, and the fragmentation means I just don't see newer riders so much as when it was all on TF/OTN etc. In a world where it's SO easy to upload footage/clips, perhaps it's now so easy that people are making less effort to deliberately share beginner riding for fear of being shot down now the top end is such a high level and is so accessible to everybody.

[Canardweb]

On 2/19/2024 at 12:02 AM, cwtrials said:

Unfortunately  Deng passed away awhile back.  Echo / zoo / czar continued for a few years without him, but the brand didn't survive covid.  

In general inventory has been lacking since 2020. It's getting better but High end brands like crewkerz are sold out pretty quick and there aren't any firm contenders to fill the entry market like echo did.

The weird thing about Deng's death is we learned it a few years ago, when he was actually dead 5 years before... That's what always happen in the oriental side of the world.

About Crewkerz being sold out fast: it's still a small company, producing "small" quantities of bikes compared to Clean for example. During Covid, it almost died because of the shipping and aluminium costs. There were also numerous quality control problems that cost a lot during this period because of Crewkerz's second to none aftersale service. Fortunately a new investor arrived after another quit, and that made things overall better. 

Now shipping a container is 4x more expensive because of attacks in the strait at the entrance in Suez Canal. But next productions should be more frequent now and quality is now top notch again. 

On 2/19/2024 at 10:50 AM, Ross McArthur said:

Social media - peoples own Instagram accounts and a couple of Facebook groups, including Ride Inspired and Trials Bikes from the 90s have really stolen traffic away from this forum. 

When you look at events like the UCI World Champs in Glasgow and the Barcelona street ride, you could be forgiven for thinking trials was very much still alive. The slight problem is that there isn't much, from what I can see, new people coming into the sport. There is the odd parent taking it up so they can be involved with what their kids are doing at the comps but they are likely buying 2nd hand bikes.

The Scottish Bike Trials Club does its best to make trials accessible to as many as possible, giving riders the chance to ride indoors during the winter and holds comps in varying locations so that throughout the year people have longer or shorter journeys to the venues. We hold a mountain bike category so that anyone wanting to give comps a go don't need to commit to buying a trials bike to get involved. 

Insta accounts like Aaron Lutze @superridertv does a great job of breaking down the basics for new riders, which is good to see. Back in the day I had to pause VHS tapes to see what body position riders were in for taps, gaps, side hops etc, so new riders don't know how good they've got it.

Are trials frames and parts just too good now? No one needs to upgrade as much as they used to. I'd snap a set of echo urban forks every few months or crack a frame every 6 months to a year. Now there's inspired or trial tech forks which I don't think I've ever broken! So there's less riders buying less stuff now.

Anyway, so all in all I don't think trials is completely dead, its just as small and niche as its always been. 

You seem to summarize trials to comps. It's what french clubs do, and it's what makes kids incapable of having fun without being on the podium. and what makes them quit to an extent... It's cool we get to see more comps online or that there are more organised but we see less and less street rides or events like the Koxx Days which wasn't just a competition.