Trials In A Couple Of Years.

[Alan]

Right, After reading a May 2003 MBUK, You know as you do, There was a section in hip-hop on trials forum and a lil pic of the trials forum main page and its amazing how much trials has progressed over 2 years Statistics as follow:

SECTION.......................TOPICS THEN.........TOPICS NOW

NMC...............................Wasn't NMC .......3596

Trials Chat.......................3048..........................13,176

Site Pic n Vids..................339............................3922

For sale/Wanted...............478...........................8499

Rides/Locations................Wasn't R/L.................1710

News...............................Wasn't News...............57

Chit-Chat.........................234...........................7881

Recently, The frequency of posts has reached a high point, With over 60 people logging on simultaneously.

Now on march 1 there was 473 users logged on.

So where will trials be in a couple of years? Do you think it will be the next BMX or do you think alot of people will leave trials and start doing something else like football, OK maybe not football but another sport or jobs.

Edited March 3, 2006 by T-MAGura

[anzo]

Without a doubt trials is growing. Its hard to predict what will actually happen though, the next BMX as you said, or just flavour of the month?

The way trials tends to grow is word of mouth. You know, friend gets a bike, friend sees it, friend gets a bike and so on. With so many riders now, its difficult to ignore, how many times do you go to your down centre and see some lad on a bike?

4-5 years ago it was unheard of although its quickly grown and has become a sport of 'stunts' rather than control (hence the biggest/longest tend in street trials). With bike becoming cheaper and cheaper, more and more riders are coming into it.

Trials, where I live its way bigger than any other type of sport, more trials riders than BMX (infact we have none), skaters, blah blah blah, even though I can name about 7 riders including myself who ride trials.

In 3 or 4 years time, I can see trials being no more popular then it is already, how far can you push this? No matter what we will be stuck with the younger kids who's parents refuse to spend more then 100 quid on a bike, the kids who will look at us and think it is impossible and the kids who will try and nick your bike. Anyone who is remotely interested in trials, understands it and has any motivation will ride...thats all we can do.

Basing site statistics on the growth of trials is, as you are aware, very unreliable. I know a lot of people on this forum will avoid Trials Nation...and a lot of Trials Nation members avoid this forum...Its just what you prefer to read.

Trials will always be seen as the freak show of sports...Which is great. The amount of riders we have is a minority, but it could be better that way. Less dickheads.

[Jaffacakes]

For a start it will go back to trials chat...

Trials is defiantly a growing sport though. In the past year there has been a couple of thousand new people register.

I think that once the range of bikes get's more out there, in your local LBS or where ever it will grow rapidly. I can't see it being the next BMX really because allot of people use there BMX's for getting around and also allot of people can't hack trials .

[Alan]

Then again maybe it won't, As more and more people see somebody doing trials, It won't be a freakshow sport, It will be seen as erm normal.

The parents who refuse to spend more than £100 on a bike, If the kids show them a bike on the internet, Say the Onza T-bird for £319 then show there parent they can get one off ebay for £200 the parents might push the kids budget abit and then as he/she upgrades his/her parts over months or years depending how long he/she sticks with it he/she will eventually have a bike worth £450+.

It is very true that where the sport will be in 5 years is unpredictable, Because like alot of sports the kids start doing them, Get bored and move onto something else.

Its not weather you can hack trials (I think you ment it as a joke anyway) Its wether you are willing to push yourself harder and harder each time and have faith that you can sidehop higher than 4ft or can gap further than 6, Its just a matter of if you stick to the sport.

Just because of couple of thousand people have registered in the last year does not mean they still do or ever did trials, And some of that couple of thousand are just people re-registering.

Edited March 3, 2006 by T-MAGura

[poopipe]

I can't see it being the next BMX really because allot of people use there BMX's for getting around

Thats probably one of the the biggest obstacles to the popularity of the sport - not many people are willing to justify £500 plus on a bike they can only use for one thing - a bmx is a much more practical option than a dedicated trials bike because you can actually ride a distance on it.

It's pretty clear to me that the whole street riding thing is what will bring trials into the mainstream. Street riding is what brought skating and BMX to the masses. Not everyone lives near a skatepark or a big pile of rocks but nearly everybody lives near a street.

If you ride where people are, people can see you ride. Think about how many times you've seen families stopping in the street while they're out shopping so their little kids can watch the funny men on the silly bouncy bikes climb over stuff?

Every time that happens or every time some little snotbag comes up and says 'oo, how do you do that?' you've introduced somebody new to the sport - whether they pick it up later on, confuse it with bmxing or go home and forget about it is up to them.

New people make the sport progress - getting snobby about the way people ride, where they ride and what bikes are made of only harms the sport.

I figure we all a have responsibility to promote trials in our own little way. I don't mean running around in a tartybikes t-shirt telling everybody about the zen of riding but I mean talking to the little snotbags when they ask about your bike and how you bounce so high.

[yoyoyo]

If it does grow lots, at least parts will become cheaper cause there will be more demand. So there is one good thing.

[Will Arnold]

If it does grow lots, at least parts will become cheaper cause there will be more demand. So there is one good thing.

along with more riding buddies

i reccon its deffinitely growing

also it seems trials is getting a fair bit of media coverage recently, compared to 2 years ago

[F-Stop Junkie]

4-5 years ago it was unheard of although its quickly grown and has become a sport of 'stunts' rather than control (hence the biggest/longest tend in street trials). With bike becoming cheaper and cheaper, more and more riders are coming into it.

4 or 5 years ago, trials was huge! There used to be hour long queues to get a seat for the trials shows at the Bike Show, and MBUK had three or four trials articles per issue, plus Hip Hop. Trials competitions used to have to return entires because they'd reached 110 and couldn't take any more.

Riders used to sign autographs at competitions!

I think that trials has become more focussed now that good bikes are more readily available. The standard is also generally higher.

In a few years time, I think the current generation of riders will be older, most will have moved onto other things, some riders from yesteryear will come back. The sport will only really blow up if there's massive media attention, but I think US style street riding will get that, not trials.

So more of the same I think.

[PaRtZ]

Trials is growing, but you can't really base that on those statistics. All those stats tell you is that there are more people posting topics on the forum.

Doesn't say if they're useful or not

Also I spend more time on here than on my bike (currently cos the weather is crap) so it looks like (according to my post count) that im more "senior" than others. in fact there are probably some n00bs more pro than me

[danny B]

not sure if the sport itself will change that much street will always have a really strong following bt the comp side never chamges in this country it is always comps in feilds there are the few exceptions but never a great push forward to take it to the public......but they are my thoughts but as usual argue away...........lol

[anzo]

-->

QUOTE(danny B @ Mar 6 2006, 10:20 AM) ←

not sure if the sport itself will change that much street will always have a really strong following bt the comp side never chamges in this country it is always comps in feilds there are the few exceptions but never a great push forward to take it to the public......but they are my thoughts but as usual argue away...........lol

A good public event would boost trials, without a doubt. Like the Red Bull Bike Battle in Nottingham, there were thousands of people turn up, people watching out of office windows, it was great publicity...although when does that ever happen?

We have events like Koxx Days, Bike Show and occasionally a little ride at the Sheffield mototrials event in January, none of these seem to help because nobody just wonders in off the street to these events.

We need something to advertise the sport, but the real way to do that is Street riding, right in the public eye, but for it to come across as a sport and not vandalism it needs to be well planned.

What if we invited people in from the audience to ride a few bikes? More events held by manufactures and/or dealers? Trials Schools and shit like that.

I'm suprised dealers such as tartybikes don't organise public events, a massive advertising boost for the company.

So basically, showing someone never helps, you need to include them.

[mr ailsbury]

Well around here the trials scene kicked off about 5 or 6 years ago with some people riding but ended up stopping to ride bmx after a few years.

and then it really kicked off with loads of us riding all the time about 2 years ago and steadilly grew until we had around 15/20 riders. But in the last year most of those riders quit to do other things and we were left with around 8 riders, but since two of them had their bikes stolen the scene really kinda died and theres only a handful of us left and the older riders aren't riding as often etc... the main problem is the money side of it, some of the kids around here started riding but after broken bike parts they have pretty much stopped riding because they can't afford to keep going at it so the people I ride with at the moment are really the last generation of riders around here... it goes up and down really some weeks theres only 1 or 2 of us riding but other weeks there are big groups of us and now people have a bit more money we hop on the train and go riding in other places etc to make it more interesting... usually theres a peak in summer when evryone gets out but in winter it dies off... ok i'm rambling on like a grandma now so i'll shut up lol

trials on a whole though is slowly getting bigger with the differant styles like BIU, UCI more streety styles etc and moves are just getting crazy so you can tell its getting more popular, bikes are getting a little more affordable now aswell and more parts are becoming available to a wider range of people thanks to tarty, select, cleanbikes etc so it will grow but not as fast as the other forms of riding like BMX, maybe if trials parks started appearing or places like AREA 51 the sport would become more popular because it will be more accessible to people and they are more likely to take an interest, i've also noticed that the general public are being a little more supportive of the sport nowadays by stoppng to watch what your doing and cheering when you do something that impresses them and also people with children asking questions about the bikes and where to get them.

cheers,

Tom

edit: trials is a bit like grafitii, only a select few appreciate the skill and practice that goes into it and because its not a 'normal' sport like football many people don't really understand it..

Edited March 6, 2006 by mr ailsbury

[mr ailsbury]

Riders used to sign autographs at competitions!

the thing is though pro trials riders go on big rides with evryone and are more 'down to mortal level' lol and just go along to have a good ride and evryones friendly with eashother. people still admire the insanity of what they do but don't lick their feet at the same time if you know what i mean lol....

[mehukatti]

I don't see much growth for trials in future, the reason being that traditional street trials with short bikes has become a niche segment and people that were interested in that are switching to mtb street and bmx riding. testament to this being that there really are not much street specific trials frames available anymore and curtis/leeson pretty much ignore the non-UK market. on the other hand these uci style long and low trials bikes are becoming more and more freak machines with elevated BB's etc. and people don't think them as bicycles anymore. and it's really painful to ride any distances with them, making a car almost necessity to get into spots that are more far away.

[PaRtZ]

the thing is though pro trials riders go on big rides with evryone and are more 'down to mortal level' lol and just go along to have a good ride and evryones friendly with eashother.

Thats something I really like about trials My mate met Ot pi at a trial who to me is possibly the greatest trials rider ever, and yet their meeting was very cool (although he didn't speak much english apperently)

I think if it gets to a point where pro riders are exclusive to only other pro riders, thats when the sport will suck

[rugbyman]

for those who give a toss............. nothing will change. there are certain people who have been there and done that. street is the new trials(in the eyes of most people ), comps are all to much of the past. there have been some great trial riders over the years, but they are no more. you must ask yourself why. what stood out for me, i know there is no bike show this year, but for me trials peaked a few years ago at the bike show. some crazy stuff went on back in the day. trials for me now is history! the reason why? history can never be repeated! too many people have left trials. ............. for those who remember, crazy rail gaps, massive drops broken cranks on the drop...............happy days.....never to be repeated! long live history

[Krisboats]

I don't see much growth for trials in future, the reason being that traditional street trials with short bikes has become a niche segment and people that were interested in that are switching to mtb street and bmx riding. testament to this being that there really are not much street specific trials frames available anymore and curtis/leeson pretty much ignore the non-UK market. on the other hand these uci style long and low trials bikes are becoming more and more freak machines with elevated BB's etc. and people don't think them as bicycles anymore. and it's really painful to ride any distances with them, making a car almost necessity to get into spots that are more far away.

But at the same time its these "freak machines" that are allowing people to go bigger with more control and it looks even more amazing so brings more people into it because they want to be able to do it. Trials will grow, and so will the bikes, then so will the riding and in a few years pretty much everyone who's been riding around a year will be tapping like 50" and gapping 8' the pro's on the other hand will be

[Brian Bleech]

for those who give a toss............. nothing will change. there are certain people who have been there and done that. street is the new trials(in the eyes of most people ), comps are all to much of the past. there have been some great trial riders over the years, but they are no more. you must ask yourself why. what stood out for me, i know there is no bike show this year, but for me trials peaked a few years ago at the bike show. some crazy stuff went on back in the day. trials for me now is history! the reason why? history can never be repeated! too many people have left trials. ............. for those who remember, crazy rail gaps, massive drops broken cranks on the drop...............happy days.....never to be repeated! long live history

i couldn't disagree more with that statement ...

yes street is the new trials in the eyes of the mbuk public, mbuk helped push trials for a few years and has been the only mtb that has ever given a crap about trials too - but mtb street/dirt is very popular at the moment and mbuk has to do features on that to sell and to keep being a profitable mag!

comps aren't in the past at all, britain has got more prospects (and already world champs) than ever before savage, slinger, danny bulter, etc. Britain hosted it first world round ever and was a great success and this year there is a major uci comp series for the first time!

as for crazy stuff that used to be done, crazier stuff is probably being done as i type, there is now more people pushing there limits of loads of different styles of trials. people just seeing how big they can go for the hell of it and others just going tech as they can on a trials bike.

Yes a lot of people have left trials, but in the last year or so there has been a influx of kids 13/14 years old starting trials ... its crazy!

just because trials is out of the public eye doesn't mean it doesn't have a bright future.

Edited March 8, 2006 by leedstrials

[Jaffacakes]

history can never be repeated! too many people have left trials. ............. for those who remember, crazy rail gaps, massive drops broken cranks on the drop...............happy days.....never to be repeated! long live history

I Wouldn't say history can never be repeated. Look at the "fashion" world, All the fashions come back around in 20 year's or so. Look at yoyo's they were around aaaages ago and only a few years ago they were huge again.

I think trials will just get bigger as more people find out about it. We get alot of people coming up to us and asking what kind of bikes they are and where to buy them etc. I'm sure it's the same for everyone. If they see us riding our bikes doing imposible stuff with tartybikes stickers slaped all over them and tarty t-shirts there bound to twig on and go on the website.

We live in a fairly small town where everyone knows everyone and I saw a 12 year old kid and him and his mates riding a koxx levelboss and a couple of montys .

Trials is defiantly growing.

Edited March 8, 2006 by Jaffacakes

[Dan6061]

Right, After reading a May 2003 MBUK, You know as you do, There was a section in hip-hop on trials forum and a lil pic of the trials forum main page and its amazing how much trials has progressed over 2 years Statistics as follow:

SECTION.......................TOPICS THEN.........TOPICS NOW

NMC...............................Wasn't NMC .......3596

Trials Chat.......................3048..........................13,176

Site Pic n Vids..................339............................3922

For sale/Wanted...............478...........................8499

Rides/Locations................Wasn't R/L.................1710

News...............................Wasn't News...............57

Chit-Chat.........................234...........................7881

Now on march 1 there was 473 users logged on.

So where will trials be in a couple of years? Do you think it will be the next BMX or do you think alot of people will leave trials and start doing something else like football, OK maybe not football but another sport or jobs.

Maybe Trials-Forum's growing more than Trials is?

When I started riding (2003), There was about 4-5 of us in my village, which was awesome.

But now there's only me, and Rich left.

One of them moved house, the other two changed to bmx, then one of those went into cars

But yeah, Trials is growing.Slowly.

I can't see myself stopping anytime soon. I enjoy riding to much.

[Hurman]

Like every sport trials has it's high's and lows. Football fans voted the 2006 FA cup the best ever and it has been a long time coming so even football has it's dips.

Trials is a sport anyone can do and when I first got into it 10 years ago I had a mountain bike which I dragged out of the local tip and put a small front chain ring on it. I was never going to win the world championship but I had a lot of fun practising and then riding in comps.

The biggest change to BMX and skateboarding has been the media coverage it has received and the progress of video capture and editing. Not only can trials be promoted by the public watching someone ride over bits of their beloved shopping centre but the kids who do trials can show their mates their amazing feats either on their phones or over the internet.

A few of the posts on this topic have been regarding groups of riders which have broken up over the years but as that group fizzles out another one is growing somewhere else. Media such as this forum also motivates people to go out and meet other riders or set up their own groups in their town and with more and more people gaining internet access then more and more people will sign up and ride.

The future of trials is in the hands of the people who takee part in it now. Clubs need volunteers to make the comps run smoothly and to attract events such as the world championship. Successful clubs breed successful riders and although street is good for going the highest, longest or biggest the comps are the place that original trials skills and disciplines are nurtured.

I think both street and natural trials will progress and their is room for both of them. Comps will be the place both skills are combined and the clubs that lay out the sections are already introducing some street elements into the natural sections.

This is an exciting time to be part of this sport and only the people who are in it at the moment can secure it's future, then it will be down to the next generation. It will be what you make it

[Waynio]

^^ ^^ ^^ ^^

there words of wisdom, i wish i could have wrote something like that, IN FACT!!! that is like one of Martyn Ashtons columns in MBUK which i always read.

its deffinatly as you say riders are noticed at trials events more so than street riding doing the biggest drop gap the longest gap or the craziest rail gap. i think, and when i was speaking to porter about it just before we went to barcelona, its good to go big, but how big can you go? yes i wouldnt care, i would drop 16ft JUST for the sheer, "iv dropped 16ft" but where does it get me? apart from in a hospital bed with a head ache and possibly arm or leg damage?

you can do the most insane drop gap, you come up short and it hositalises you? its all about risk, i have risk as i want to live life to its potential and injury does not worry me, it doesnt hurt me and im not afraid of it, but there are boundries.

there are great street riders. but can the street riders be as noticed at "normal" competitions for being good at natural too??? yes they could but it takes time to adapt to "natural" riding too, its totally different to street.

iv been doing alot of street riding on my recovery from injury as it is easiest for me to do, iv been trying so hard to get back into natural yet its frustrating me to the point i want to sit with my head in my hands and wish i had never discovered street!!!! and that i rode natural so much more. but i dont il keep plugging away, trials will always keep me amused and interested as there is always something more "tricky" a line much more "technical" and thats what is so much inspiring for me, YES anyone can do a big gap (in their own mind if 1ft is there best gap then thats there best, they are happy with it) but can you nail something 1st time everytime and be happy with it????

iv sat,watched,observed and still cant get into my head how 1 person who iv got to know very well over the last 3 years, HOW he does things 1st time, yes he analises it for a few minutes picks the best line/plan of attack at it and nails it!!!! the lines that are even hard and tricky for him take him 3/4/5 goes!!!! but he is inspirational to me.

trials will keep on going and going, it will have its highs and lows.

Waynio................................

EDIT: PS T-MAGura i think/would love trials to become the next BMX, the way that THAT is, the way comps have prizes and prize money, can be a good thing,can cause arguements etc etc. no sport is perfect, but it would be nice to see more trials on TV and more competitions getting more coverage and even just news announcements.

Edited May 16, 2006 by Waynio

[Mark W]

If you're unsure of whether trials can get much bigger, we've got a useful little barometer in the form of videos from Koxx Days every year. Every year, you see footage from that, and someone will be doing something bigger, better, smoother, or with a different technique every time. The same's true with CLS and Tunni vids. Thinking back, look at how amazed people were when CLS and Tunni both released those videos that featured gapping to front on rails - people just didn't think about it before hand, and now a load of riders are doing it. It's always being pushed, and although there's inevitably going to be some sort of ultimate limits people are going to reach, that hasn't really happened yet. People are finding new ways of upping stuff, different sidehop techniques and so on, and there's still plenty of mileage left in the development of the bikes and components available now.

In terms of the public eye, I don't really know how much can be done to get more people into it. Just seeing someone riding a demo might make a few people want to ride trials, but not a hell of a lot. You CAN go out and do it on any bike, but when the public see people on these almost futuristic looking bikes doing huge moves, then try and do them on their own bikes they're possibly going to get discouraged. At any rate, I think people who are suited to trials will probably give it a go anyway if they're wanting to ride trials. I got into it through just doing more technical stuff on my mountain bike, then getting my brother Tricks and Stunts when that first came out for his birthday, and then realising what was possible on that. I know other riders here have got into trials in a similar way, so it's not just a one-off or anything. People will still want to ride trials just 'cos there are always going to be people it'll appeal to. Seeing as frames prices and component prices seem to be dropping now too, that's a useful thing for the new riders who'll have performance parts available to them without having to save up loads. That's one thing trials is pretty much always going to have over other sports like DH and XC - the fact that a top-spec trials frame can cost you as little as about £300 or so, whereas that would probably cover a good rear shock on a DH bike. The fact trials is way more accessible in terms of riding spots is pretty handy too, of course.

Either way though, it's hard to say where it's going to go. Because it's still not a mainstream thing, I don't really think it'll bomb like BMX did earlier in it's life after it became huge due to media interest, then when that dipped everyone left. People will still stick with it, and although there are riders on here who've stopped riding trials for whatever reason, there are always more people joining. I think on average it works out as over 7 people joining per day, which is still a pretty good amount of people seeing as that's just covering new riders who've got the internet/know about T-F. Speaking of - it's still pretty crazy how so many clips of trials riders turn up on the random video sites on the net. The other week my step-mum forwarded me an e-mail 'cos she said the clip might interest me, and it was Frika's faceplant. Someone else had that vid of Danny Holroyd on his old Brisa doing some rail gaps on their phone, and everyone who saw it was amazed by it. I guess 'cos it's such a weird thing to do it sticks in people's minds more and seems more impressive. If I go out on my BMX, I'm not great on it and people don't really say anything when they see me ride. When I go out on my trials bike though, just backhopping impresses people and gets comments from them, so it's cool that it sticks out more for people. Can only really lead to more people idolising riders and then wanting to take part in it. The fact it's more underground might even help that...

Meh. Riding time.

[PaRtZ]

Trials will cease to be if the time flux continum is mis-aligned with saturn. So watch where you're putting those eggs

[robster]

Like every sport trials has it's high's and lows. Football fans voted the 2006 FA cup the best ever and it has been a long time coming so even football has it's dips.

Trials is a sport anyone can do and when I first got into it 10 years ago I had a mountain bike which I dragged out of the local tip and put a small front chain ring on it. I was never going to win the world championship but I had a lot of fun practising and then riding in comps.

The biggest change to BMX and skateboarding has been the media coverage it has received and the progress of video capture and editing. Not only can trials be promoted by the public watching someone ride over bits of their beloved shopping centre but the kids who do trials can show their mates their amazing feats either on their phones or over the internet.

A few of the posts on this topic have been regarding groups of riders which have broken up over the years but as that group fizzles out another one is growing somewhere else. Media such as this forum also motivates people to go out and meet other riders or set up their own groups in their town and with more and more people gaining internet access then more and more people will sign up and ride.

The future of trials is in the hands of the people who takee part in it now. Clubs need volunteers to make the comps run smoothly and to attract events such as the world championship. Successful clubs breed successful riders and although street is good for going the highest, longest or biggest the comps are the place that original trials skills and disciplines are nurtured.

I think both street and natural trials will progress and their is room for both of them. Comps will be the place both skills are combined and the clubs that lay out the sections are already introducing some street elements into the natural sections.

This is an exciting time to be part of this sport and only the people who are in it at the moment can secure it's future, then it will be down to the next generation. It will be what you make it

We need help Neil so step up to the okky. Keep the little ones up for it and we do have a future. Just stop giving em speed before they compete. Give me a call if they want to go out riding some time. John