Where Did You Come From ?

[TheMunn]

My story begin's a few year's ago when I used to ride dirt, I was pretty much into the whole dirt scene. Tryed my hand at things like bmx racing, dual slalom, 4X and trails. I knew a small group of trial'd riders then aswell but didn't really take much interest untill dirt got a bit boring. So then decided to get myself a job, sold the bike and moved on to trials riding and have been liking ever since.

Here are a few pic's from the old days:

So, write up your story please (Y)

[Trebor]

Mine's boring:

Over three years ago I had a shagged up Raleigh HT2 XC bike, which was always breaking on me, so I saved up lots of money and bought myself a DDG Shooter, as it had a nice low seat tube and looked like a comfortable ride to get about on. All I could do when I got that bike was unweight the backwheel with my feet.

Then I saw a neighbour of mine, who I didn't know at all (as I knew none of my neighbours) doing some little tricks in the road, so I tried to copy, falling on my ass after about 5 mins he came over to see if I was alright, then I met his older brother and we all started riding together, this led on to me making lots of friend around my local area, instead of me riding a mile or so to see my usual buddies.

These two wheels really do help alot, in their own special way (Y)

[fairy elephants]

I started off by getting a Saracen Fastrax (XC bike...ish). I rode abit of XC with a couple of mates, Up-grading the parts on this bike untill it was worth around the £500 mark (with manitou forks (Y) )

Unfortunatly (or was it? (Y) ) this bike was stolen while i was on my paper round. Therefore i claimed on my insurance to replace it. In the mean time, i had become friends with a guy at school, who had just got himself a Specialised P3 (jump/ trial bike), and i borrowed his BMX untill i got a new bike, and did some dirt jumping with him. When i got the money for my new bike, i decided i would go for a dirt bike, so i got myself a Kona Scab. On this, me and my freind with the P3 became the local dirt jumpers, and had all the little kids on their full sus bikes looking on in awe :D

Then this bike was stolen from me, also on my paper round, so i got the newer version of the same bike with the insurance money, and carried on riding dirt.

The move to trials, im not exactly sure why it happened, but for some reason, my mate who got me into dirt got himself a Monty X-Alp... and started riding abit of trials... so i followed suit, and rode trials with him (still on the 18" Kona Scab) :D

After a while, i managed to save up enough money, to get a frame, and build up a trials bike, most of which was spare parts. I now had a realy good trials bike, which was a Hardcore DSVD frame, with Kona P2 forks... etc... :P

Now, after around 2.5 years of trials, im riding my Leeson clear 660, and im still pants :)"

And if anybody actually reads that, then i feel sorry for you, you must be REALY bored :P

Alex

[roozor]

I'm a bit of a solitary trials rider,

I started by myself with no other riders, after seeing some vids years ago. I did trials for a bit but i was 14 and had a crap kids stock, then 4 years later I'm back and decided to take it up again. I've allways been into bikes though, push and motor!

I so wish i could of started with some friends, i dont even have any friends to ride with! None of my friends ride trials, i just ride on my own 24/7!

[Tomm]

I've always ridden bikes, 'cos I used to live in the middle of the country about 1/2 a mile away from the forest of Dean (kinda south-west ish). We used to ride in the woods all day making jumps and trails, all on my GT Talera (1996 model I think). Then we moved house to the big bad city that is Lancaster and there were no woods (Y) So I started doing a bit of the same, but in the streets. Jumping off steps, bunnyhopping walls etc (I was shit, but that's not the point). Then, in my GCSE year at school, I found that I could skip the usual compulsory Rugby/Cross country by saying I was going riding. Fantastic! So we went out every Wednesday (I think) with some people from school, some of whom (tarty included) rode trials. It looked like fun and soon I had bought my first "trials" frame - a DMR sidekick. I moved on to a Zebdi about a year later and the rest is history (Y)

[Heatsink]

^ Hey! I recognise those jumps! They're my local ones (Y) In Royston aren't they? Had a go at them once, and came a cropper on them vowing never to try jumping again!

I used to live in Royston, but now I've moved away. Anyway in an uncharacteristic fashion for me here is a succinct post:

1. Commuted by bike when at Uni come rain and high water (lack of money for a car)

2. Joined XC club

3. Really got into XC - plenty of riding in the Bath area

4. Started reading the mags and got inspired by the Martins (Y)

5. Very slow progression commenced!

6. Left Uni and bought my first bike specific for trials (or at least I thought)

7. Have been bumbling away since, improving at what is surely the slowest rate of anyone! It's only now I live near Cambridge that I know some good trials riders, but I mostly ride alone in snatched moments near my house because it's hard to find the time to make the car journey.

8. Became a Dad, and the bike only comes out once a month now! I'll have to be world champ in another life :)

Steve

[guineasmithpig]

saw MBR in the paper shop before goin on my rounds (aged 13). cyclin 'properly' looked like fun, so saved up for a 'proper' mountain bike. almost bought an apollo for bout £150 :) , but ended savin up a bit more n gettin a gary fisher wahoo (Y) . that went on for bout 18months, gradually gettin into dirt jumpin, whilst savin for another bike. and so it came, my custom build; easton elite frame, Z2 atoms, esp carbon fibre gears, magura hs33s, 521cds, the works. worth bout £1600, took me over a year of paper rounds to build. stuffed it off a drop in 6 weeks later and bent the frame and forks (Y)

insurance paid up, got a cr stinger with z1s, ripped up the trails for a bit. got into street. broke the stinger, broke the replacement stinger evo. got a dmr sidekick on warranty (after some hassle. somthin about 'abusin bikes' :D" ?) and that were my first trials bike, a good 2.5years ago.

worst decision o my life, takin up trials :P wish i'd done somthin cheaper, n less painful. like crashin bmw's into lamposts at very high speeds. yeah, that'd do it.....

auto trader, here i come!

smithy

[TheMunn]

^ Hey! I recognise those jumps! They're my local ones :) In Royston aren't they? Had a go at them once, and came a cropper on them vowing never to try jumping again!

Yup, those be royston trails, built up by a group of my old mates, good old day's, i used to race at the track round the corner from there aswell (Y)

And yeh, those trails are quite nasty, i broke my ankle there last year. Seem's about the same time i quit riding dirt, funny that (Y)

They are dead now though, they have houses on them so they are now the other side of the big road ! lol :D

Edited February 2, 2005 by TheMunn

[rathergoodpie]

ah, started off back in 96 when i saw a really old hans rey vid called "the wheel deal". I was more into dirt back then but started doin trialsy stuff with my mates at school.

Then i saw the Marty/ins in mbuk and decided to move into "the trials scene" i didn't realise other trials riders even existed in those days, so i just rode with dh ers and bmxers, it was pretty amusing. Although the dhs got a bit peeved when i kept stopping on downhill runs to ride the logs at the side of the track!

:">

Edited February 2, 2005 by rathergoodpie

[Rich Pearson]

Bit of a differnt one I hope...

I only learned to ride a bike when I was ten years old, so a bit later than most people. One of my mates sold me a TY80 trials motor bike about six months later, adn I new I wanted it but had no idea what to do with it. My mate then explained about trials and I started going to a couple of comps one it. If you saw my score sheets, you'd probably be cinging with some kind of hystria; I had some kind of repetition at least... I came repeatedly last. In every comp. For some reason I stuck at it and when I was about twelve I got my hands on a fantic 80. It was a bit more my size and had some more oomph to it, but it was around then that I realised I just didn't have the physical strength to keep at it, and slowly lost interest.

Then my dad (a Volvo owner) got an invite to come to some open exhibition Volvo were having at Bike Live 96', Newnham Park, Plymouth. There was some guy there called Martyn Ashton jumping around doing a demo and getting loads of attention. The whole journey home I just couldn't think of anything else except the way he could sidehop about 30 inches off the ground.

Got home, got out my old Trailbreaker Shogun, and tried to bunnyhop. Bought a copy of Tricks and Stunts. Started to get better, Shogun got stolen (why would anyone want such a crap bike as to steal it...) bought a Trek 6000 with rigids and 32t bashguard, snapped it, bought a Specialised P3, sold it, bought a Saracen X-Cess, hanging in my shed, replaced it with an Echo ES2, met this guy at a comp called Kris who said his dad made bike frames, snapped the Echo, bought a Leeson Clear 660, started making pro-mo videos, met a bunch of guys that was to become the South West Trials Crew, never looked back.

Hope that wasn't too boring, but thats basically my life over the last 8 years.

Rich

Edited February 2, 2005 by karsonlevoret

[Da Make]

I started riding bmx when I was 9years (so way back then) and progressed quite well, learned bit manual and ofcourse bunnyhop. I rode mostly alone 'cos no one of my friends were into bmx or biking in general.

Then my friend Jukka started XC-riding and I tought that it that was cool.

Then at same spring we went to local bike-expo and there was few Finnish top trialsers showing their skills. I was like "Crap man! That's something you don't see every day! Is that even possible! (I mean, I'm not a doctor but...)". Then I started trying those things on my trusty xc-bike and learned proper endo, pivoting and some hopping...

Then there was my odd season when I started trails/dirt riding... I smashed my left knee and thought that it was bit unsafe sport...

So I started trying to hop some rock with my bike and I found it really rewarding.

Then I went and bought very cool Green Monty 221 X-Lite! So here we are...

Trials the best sport in the planet!

[Fishwog]

Hmmmm....T'was like about two month's before Christmas of 2000/2001 (canny remember which) and me and a friend saw a trials bike locked upto some railings at our school, and we were intrigued. So at christmas I got a barracude zombie, and my friend got a saracen x-ile. Oh and another friend got a DDG shooter with a jump build.

We rode around all over our local area for a while, busting our bikes left ride and centre.

It all sort of started fading away as far as I remember, and I started getting into playing football (no not bloody watching it, just playing) which led me onto snapping both my ankles into many little bits.

A friend told me that he broke an ankle, and the only thing that felt comfortable and rejuvinating was riding a bike. So I got it back out and slowly started riding place's, sorting out my ankle's and rebuilding my knackered Calf muscles.

One night I was out waiting for my GF at a local swimming pool, with my bike, when a few trials riders came down ( :P ), I spoketo them and explained everything, blah blah blah, and started riding with them for a bit.

It came to when I was about 16 and busted my mission cranks, and never bothered to get them fixed.

I then got a scooter (if anyone calls me a chav for having a scooter i'll hunt them down and rape there family) and spent an absolute fortune on modding it out performance wise, and a bit of visual... It was my pride and joy, then it got nicked.

Got the insurance money back and had some spare cash in my pocket. I still had a saracen MAD, just needed cranks. So I brought some FSA's just to get about, and mainly to get to college, which I had just started. There I met Tim and Miles (mrd156), and from there I started riding, more, and more, and more....

Up until now, where I try to ride for at least 4 hours everyday, come rain or shine. :P

[Da Make]

"Nothing to see here!"

Edited February 2, 2005 by Da Make

[N.Wood]

I had always been into riding my bike, i seemed to enjoy the freedom.

I managed to remove my stabilisers at the age of 4 (they were on a great little Raleigh Grasshopper...16" wheels if i remember correctly. My dad, for some reason, realised my 'hobby' and vowed never to buy me an Apollo or suchlike.

On this bike i managed to ride from the Cement works in Shoreham By Sea along the off-road path to my Grandparents house on the seafront. This was a 5 mile trip - pretty big for a single speed 16" wheeled bike and a 6 year old!

I recieved a Raleigh Max Extreme (which i later went on to remove the stickers, leaving only the XTR of EXTREME :"> ) for christmas.

My dad,brother and i went up to Shropshire to ride up the Wrekin (big hill/very very small mountain) and i picked up an issue of MBUK from a service station on the way up. Thats what got me into it really, i read that from cover to cover so many times it was silly.

Started setting up small wooden jumps in front of my house (Crystal Palace) and i remember setting up a jump and clearing 5' 5" - i could jump the length of Mummy!

Bought a GT Talera in 'Sunburst Orange' with Rockshox Indy C's and WTB Velociraptor tyres as my first proper bike. That's in bits in Jake's garage.

Saved up and bought an Azonic DS1 jump bike, and got bored with having to travel miles to ride jumps, so i converted it (rigid forks, DMR ringthing) in order to ride streety trials. Just so happened Chris Towes of M.A.D 'fame' and a couple of other trialsters rode in my town, so i started copying them.

Got to an alright stage of trials-ness, and decided to buy a Giant Trials team with proper trials bits on it. (Also happens to be in Jake's garage)

Bought a Koxx LB 1065 recently off Jake, and thats where i am now.

/Longest post ever.

[Stephen Morris]

Me and Tim Rodriguez met when we did a paper round at the same newsagents. We were both riding shit bikes at the time - i was on my dad's Emmelle and Tim was riding his friend's bike. As me and Tim became friends we used to go on cross country rides and then we started buying MBUK and going to Teddington Lock to do some jumps. Sadly neither of us did anything but the small 5 foot jump and the big half pipe.

We saw the BBC documentary about trials with the Martins, Chris Akrigg and Eddie Tongue and knew that was what we wanted to do. In the summer of 99 Tim bought a Trek 280 which got stolen. In January 2000 I got my 19" Kona Blast and in March 2000 Tim got a Handsome Dog.

We set about learning trials with no outside help at all apart from Tricks and Stunts. After a year we could endo, bunnyhop and get up 5 brick high walls. I broke my ankle that Summer which slowed me down a bit, so Tim has always been better than me :P

We slowly progressed, learning everything that was required. After riding for about 3 years I'd say that we were competant. After 4 years we were good, and now after 5 years we're about the same as we were a year ago - sadly we don't get to ride as much as we'd like.

I'm steadily improving, although I still can't gap or sidehop at all which is a shame. I'm hoping that during the summer I'll get all that dialled. It's just a shame to see riders who've been riding for maybe 2 years who are much better than you - life's a bitch though isn't it.

Stephen Morris.

[HarshRider]

I started off by getting a Saracen Fastrax (XC bike...ish). I rode abit of XC with a couple of mates, Up-grading the parts on this bike untill it was worth around the £500 mark (with manitou forks :P )

Unfortunatly (or was it? :P ) this bike was stolen while i was on my paper round. Therefore i claimed on my insurance to replace it. In the mean time, i had become friends with a guy at school, who had just got himself a Specialised P3 (jump/ trial bike), and i borrowed his BMX untill i got a new bike, and did some dirt jumping with him. When i got the money for my new bike, i decided i would go for a dirt bike, so i got myself a Kona Scab. On this, me and my freind with the P3 became the local dirt jumpers, and had all the little kids on their full sus bikes looking on in awe :P

Then this bike was stolen from me, also on my paper round, so i got the newer version of the same bike with the insurance money, and carried on riding dirt.

The move to trials, im not exactly sure why it happened, but for some reason, my mate who got me into dirt got himself a Monty X-Alp... and started riding abit of trials... so i followed suit, and rode trials with him (still on the 18" Kona Scab) :P

After a while, i managed to save up enough money, to get a frame, and build up a trials bike, most of which was spare parts. I now had a realy good trials bike, which was a Hardcore DSVD frame, with Kona P2 forks... etc... :P

Now, after around 2.5 years of trials, im riding my Leeson clear 660, and im still pants :P"

And if anybody actually reads that, then i feel sorry for you, you must be REALY bored :P

Alex

←

i followed this guy :P

i used to enjoy just riding around on my bike and messign around then i saw these guys bunny hopping :P alex up there! so i got more into this and decided to build my self up a jump bike from a sarcaen x ile! tried to copy alex's dirt skills! :P when they both got into trials i decided to build myself a trials bike from the bike i already had! so i did! it all progressed from there! got a giant then a leeson!

now im still pop after 2 years riding but hey its all fun!

[pinky]

I had always been into riding my bike, i seemed to enjoy the freedom.

I managed to remove my stabilisers at the age of 4 (they were on a great little Raleigh Grasshopper...16" wheels if i remember correctly. My dad, for some reason, realised my 'hobby' and vowed never to buy me an Apollo or suchlike.

On this bike i managed to ride from the Cement works in Shoreham By Sea along the off-road path to my Grandparents house on the seafront. This was a 5 mile trip - pretty big for a single speed 16" wheeled bike and a 6 year old!

I recieved a Raleigh Max Extreme (which i later went on to remove the stickers, leaving only the XTR of EXTREME  :"> ) for christmas.

My dad,brother and i went up to Shropshire to ride up the Wrekin (big hill/very very small mountain) and i picked up an issue of MBUK from a service station on the way up. Thats what got me into it really, i read that from cover to cover so many times it was silly.

Started setting up small wooden jumps in front of my house (Crystal Palace) and i remember setting up a jump and clearing 5' 5"  - i could jump the length of Mummy!

Bought a GT Talera in 'Sunburst Orange' with Rockshox Indy C's and WTB Velociraptor tyres as my first proper bike. That's in bits in Jake's garage.

Saved up and bought an Azonic DS1 jump bike, and got bored with having to travel miles to ride jumps, so i converted it (rigid forks, DMR ringthing) in order to ride streety trials.  Just so happened Chris Towes of M.A.D 'fame' and a couple of other trialsters rode in my town, so i started copying them.

Got to an alright stage of trials-ness, and decided to buy a Giant Trials team with proper trials bits on it. (Also happens to be in Jake's garage)

Bought a Koxx LB 1065 recently off Jake, and thats where i am now.

/Longest post ever.

←

Do you still live in crystal palace?

Theres a trials type contraption in someones garden at crystal palace next (well I think its crystal palace) to the railway lines

[N.Wood]

Do you still live in crystal palace?

Theres a trials type contraption in someones garden at crystal palace next (well I think its crystal palace) to the railway lines

←

Nope, i moved to West Wickham which is about 5 miles away next to Croydon. It's actually in Bromley though.

I only got into trials when i moved to West Wickham, so i wouldn't have been looking out for rideable stuff back then :P

[pinky]

Nope, i moved to West Wickham which is about 5 miles away next to Croydon. It's actually in Bromley though.

I only got into trials when i moved to West Wickham, so i wouldn't have been looking out for rideable stuff back then  :P

←

yer I know west wickham

one day I will actually ride croydon

[Bucky]

my bro and all his friend used to ride normal shody mountain bikes.

there are big curbs up and down my road which we used to jump off.

we made ramps and played about etc.

i got my first BMX a 20 silver dollar and went down to the village on it one evening and started to jump off walls.

my bro and his mates followed suit and one of them knew some one who had a trial motorbike so we all watched him and decided to try have a go on push bikes because we couldnt afford motorbikes.most of my bros friends quit and carrried on with football but a small groups of us carried on 'trialsin'.

i got a 18" Blue GT Tequest with Judy C's and put D521s and LX hubs on it for my 10th B'day.

that got stolen so i got a GT timberline 12.5" green and put racelines and FSA powerpros on (sprayed them illuminous yellow to match racelines) a hope hub d521's azonic bars etc.

then got a PMR (cheapy alu frame) with load sof trials parts on it.

snapped/cracked 4 of those and ended up with a handsome dog rockhound wellard in blue. (hope hubs hope C2 d521s etc.

did my first competition at Addingham Moorside In June 1998 on the Timberline and havent looked back since.

(sorry to add this but just got sent it on msn and its hilarious)

[Steve-A]

Well here goes.....

I learnt to ride a bike at about 4/5 I allways used to like going on bike rides with my dad, and just riding round the garden for hours on end. I even remember timing myself to see how fast I couls go round the edge of the garden.

After I did cycling proficiency at school in year 6 I started using my bike (an Apollo Plateua I think....) to go round to mates houses, and to goto town etc. On my way to a friends house there was a small collection of jumps, none were veyr big, but they seemed daunting at the time. I would often try to jump them, failing more often than not.

This lead to me getting a Baracuda Ghetto with 'Shox Jetts. About a year after getting my cuda I saw some riders up near the local spot doing a small drop gap. It was a 4ft wall to 2.5ft wall with a 3/4 ft gap, seemed crazy at time.

After this next day at the jumps me and a friend (better than steve is his forum name, though we all call him fat ben) started to learn to ride trials, we did this in a surprisingly logical manner, we thuoght about what skills we would need, and learnt to trackstand, do small sidehops and bunny hops with brakes on, and then to pedal gap and back hop. After a year or so, without even knowing what trials was we could pedal gap about 4ft, up 7brick or so and do sidehop drops off about 3ft.

It was the last week of summer holidays and by chance we saw two other trials riders at our local spot, we rode with them, and by chance saw them for next few days running. It was Matt burrows and Tim Stedman, the same irders we saw that made us wanna ride trials.

3/4 years later after finding trialskings, this place, and more local riders, I am where I am now.

[Trials Tom]

I've always ridden bikes, my first memories are me riding bikes. I learnt to ride when I got me dad to take the stabilisers off a lil purple bike when I was 3 and steadily got bigger bikes every year just to ride around as you do when you are little for birthdays. Got to the age of about 11 when I had some raleigh thing and made tiny jumps in the local woods which me and a mate would jump, we also made little ramps in the garden and things...got a GT agressor which I used for street but couldn't do anything good then after that I bought myself my first trials bike inspired by Martyn and Martin on tricks n stunts and also saw people in MBuk riding it. Joined this forum and continued to ride on my newly bought second hand Pashley 26mhz. I've now been riding for a couple of years with one friend joining me along the way in the following of our sport. I'm now running a Planet X Tibo frame and with new wheels and other parts on the way! Roll on 2005!

[Janson]

popping wheelies -> XC -> trials -> bmx.

Still riding the two latter.

[ScotchDave]

Got a trek 4100 18" a little bit before my 13th birthday (2-3 months) and just rode it everywhere. Then a mate of mine started talking about bikes, so he taught me to bunnyhop, took all of 5 minutes. :P Then I'd basically go see him once a month and he'd teach me stuff, so I was riding by my self almost the whole time for a 2 years, was crap, but I never gave up. So then I decided to build a trials bike, built up a mision quantum leap, so I rode that for 5 months then I got attacked by some NEDs (wanks) who smashed the bike up. :( Insurance cughed up and I got a giant team trials frame and now me mates over in israel and I just seem to be doing the same old shit. :( But I still LOVE trials. :D :D (Y)

[tank_rider]

having always had a bike, i got into xc at about 17, got a marin hawkhill (still use it for road use) and started to do some dirt jumping on it.

Went to a local train station car park where some wooden jumps had been made, met matt staples, started riding with him. Got a saracen x-isle frame from the halfords where i used to work, did a bit of trialsy type riding with matt, did a trials demo at the halfords.

Left for uni aged 18, decided to continue dirt jumping, met dave cleaver a few weeks into term. Met steve, josh and the lawson twins (danny smiths cousins) a few weeks after that who all were either starting or already rode trials.

Ditched sus forks for rigids mid way through the first year. and have been riding trials for the three and a half years since.

Steve, dont worry mate, ill be around in the summer for rides, well have to get something regular going (Y)