History On Trials

[Si]

Hi

Part of my course is to write a report on a topic of choice. I have chosen trials, but i cant find any history on it. Monty has removed there part on history, only left a little about them and their sucess.

So if you would find me some sites relevant to history on trials and about trials i would really appreciate it.

Thanks

Edited November 14, 2005 by Si

[Simon]

http://www.biketrials.com/intro/history.shtml

[Tony Harrison]

That seems to be mainly American, and only goes as far as the early 90's. How much detail are you after?

[Dan Clark]

vctz.cz or whatever it was called seems like a good place to look, its like a European biketrials.com. A lot of it's in German though.

[Si]

That seems to be mainly American, and only goes as far as the early 90's. How much detail are you after?

Well its not really detail, but like main points in trials history. Its on for a 700 word essay for my "key skills" i hate the theory on my electrician course (Y)

[Tony Harrison]

So a search on the web. The link to the BikeTrial page is worth looking at and would make a good start. Also visit hansrey.com, as he is quite a key figure. In the 90's you could mention the Martins of course. They were riding for Megamo (I think) in 1995, then Ashton went to Cannondale in 96 and Hawyes went to Scott. A bit later Ashton got a full pro deal with Cannondale, Hawzee was on Giant and the Bike Show trials displays were getting a bit bigger. The GettaGrip video featuring both of them was filmed in 96.

I think by now Matt and Eddie Tongue were getting pretty good, and Akrigg was doing well too. Not sure what bikes they were on. Matt and Eddie were probably riding Sunn bikes? In 1997 there was the Chainspotting video which at the time was amazing. At the start of 1998, Rich Johnson was riding for Proflex and Ashton did that 16ft drop-off onto sand. That year the Martins did Tricks and Stunts, which again was an amazing video for the time. I watched that vid to death.

Around 1999 was when I really got into trials, and that was when Akrigg was on a double disk Pace, before they produced them for sale. The Saracen MAD team had started I think with Barry Deeks and Stevie Thompson riding, with Rich Johnson. Matt and Eddie were on Pashley then, and at the bike show Matt hurt himself (forget what he did), and Ian Cooper was riding for Raleigh, and Fletcher Gillet was possibly still on a Kona. That summer MBUK ran the Urban Tour, Martyn Ashton killed his rig (nicknamed 'R2D2'), Ian Cooper was on a titanium Raleigh prototype and Thibbault Marriaux, riding for DBR, was doing mindblowing stuff. The Brighton Urban Tour, photos of which were used for the MBUK article, was just an amazing day. Barry Huskinsson had an Ashton replica Cannondale I think.

Also in 99, I think Revolution came out, followed by Evolve the next year which had a small feature on the 2000 Bike Show. This was a speed trials event, and some of the Americans came over (Leech, JJ, Lenosky) and they all road Stratford as well (there was an MBUk article on it too - Akrigg jumped the canal...). Was it this year Tricks & Stunts 2 came out? And also Edd Tongue and Ashton went over to the USA to ride the Sea Otter Classic trial.

Can't remember much past then. I didn't ride a lot until about 2003 and just can't seem to remember anything. And since 2003 it's just gone wild....

ALSO... check this link out, there are photos and just tons of information....click me

Edited November 15, 2005 by snappel