Bike Show..tomoz...whos Going?

[chrishayton]

this may be relevant. my friend and i attended the 05 bikeshow purely due to the fact Vince Gilles and Benito were riding. whilst i agree with rob that the riders he mentioned are fantastic riders they lack the exclusivity of the koxx team, look at it this way, I could attend a natural or street ride with virtually all of the uk riders mentioned just by looking on the rides section of trials forum or watch them at a comp for free.

[Joe Papasnap Maher]

I think one thing your all forgetting...

Why are you blaming the trials organisers..?

The show itself was poorly run because the new company running it, didnt want to splash out, and it to be a failure.

[Waynio]

Mike as you had a stand at the bike shows (in previous years) surely you found the bike show at its best when Nelson Reis (Brisa) riders were over, also the year after when Benito Ros was over, if you think of the best years, it had the worlds best riders?????

Therefore you have to incur expense to keep the show alive, you dont pay nothing for something good these days. anything good doesnt come for nothing. look at Sheffield indoor in Jan, Vinco has performed there the last 2 years and i have to say his "shows" are critical at sheffield, just like if Ot Pi and Cesar Canas was there as previous years, its all about what they do, WHO they are?, not how big they can go!!!! people want to see/know people who have good CV's, World Champion X times, British Champion X times, and so on.

its not a "DIG" at the people riding, more at the people who organise it, im sure people from "back" in my ERA when the bike show WAS that good will understand. why should i go to the bike show nower days to see people i see at Brit comps? its because people like Martyn Ashton think outside the circle!!!! They get people to come over who people want to see thats all that i was more thinking on the lines of. but i also think it will be a good year or so before the bike show kicks back into "how it used to be" kinda thing.

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

EDIT: Mr Hayton you hit the nail on the head, and Joe thats exactly what i was pointing out, im not aiming it directly at the Trials bit, its everything!!!! its an "overall" show NOT just a trials show.

Edited April 30, 2007 by Waynio

[Inspired Dave]

First things first, the Bike Show for us was mega hard work for us so I hope we didn't seem too spaced out when people came and chatted! That said, it was wicked to see and speak to so many new trials riding faces! Thanks to everyone who stopped by to purchase things or even just for a random chat .

As for the 'other' aspects of the Bike Show, being our first show as an exhibitor we have a slightly different view of it to shows we have previously visited. But I'll try and get my thoughts down as rationally as I can .

The overall volume of stands and attractions at the show wasn't up to what I had expected in all honesty. The stands were definitely pretty well spread out with a fair bit of free space in a lot of areas, possibly a sign that some of the larger companies Chris mentioned not being present as they see their budget better spent on the London Cycle show. I'd hazard a guess that a factor in this would be that the London Show, being promotion based as opposed to a mixture of promotion and retail as at the National Bike Show (NBS), offers a more productive use of time, cash and efforts in their yearly promotional plans due to them not being interested in retail directly of any kind (Hope is a great example of a company like this) other than through shops.

As for the attractions, I felt the dirt jumps were just about ok for the show, but obviously bigger is always better from a spectator point of view! haha. The 4x/BSX sprint competition, if I'm going to be blunt, was a serious joke and insult to both bsx as a sport, the riders invited and also the people who really matter at a show like this - the public. The trials course from what I have been informed was originally penciled in to be quite a large affair, much more like the trials arenas of old. Unfortunately when plans and materials requests were presented to the organizers things had changed from their point of view. The organizers of the trials arena were now give a fairly un-accommodating proposal of ‘here’s your new budget and the list of equipment you will get.’ Not quite what was expected.

In all fairness, the riders that attended were of a sufficient level overall to perform and entertain a very sizeable crowd. Admittedly there may not have been some of the more fashionable names, which is a shame. However, I do feel that even had there been a significant number of extremely high profile and well decorated competition riders in attendance, the number of truly committed trials riders/fans that would have been willing to pay to enter and been actually able to get to the show would not have swelled the crowds by much more than 100 individuals. Ok some these people may have brought a family member or couple of parents along with them, but I don’t feel it would have seen an increase in crowd numbers to rival those of previous shows. Had the show been publicized well enough I feel the general demographic of people who attended the show wouldn’t have been affected much by the ‘qualifications’ and titles the trials riders on show had. As Rob mentioned, the general spectators at a trials show like the NBS would either be new riders to the sport or general ‘cyclists’ who wanted to see some entertaining shows. The average knowledge of a large trials show audience wouldn’t stretch to the sort of depth that would effect their enjoyment of a show significantly when a rider has ‘x’ number of titles.

I do admit, however, that having ‘x’ number of titles adds a certain element of ‘occasion’ to the shows, and makes audiences feel they can justify their entry price a little more. The addition of extremely high profile international riders would have definitely left true trials fanatics feeling a little happier, however, I feel the proportion of fanatical riders/fans watching a bike show trials demo is seriously outweighed by the volume of general cyclists who just want to be entertained. I would have loved to have seen a few household names from the UK trials scene, unfortunately due to one thing and another (details of which I wouldn't be particularly qualified to speak about) such names weren't able to attend, possibly losing some of the feel that the bike shows of old were renowned for.

Had there been some seriously high level riders there and even household names, I don’t feel they would have been able to do riding that was any more impressive than that of the riders this weekend given the equipment and budget supplied in this case. All the riders put in a massive effort to try and please the crowds, despite the poor attendance for certain shows.

Of all the shows I managed to catch a glimpse of, the trials seemed the best organized with the most effort being out in to thought of an actual ‘show’, and the commentators really tried to get the limited crowds motivated by what they were seeing.

At the end of the day, when all is said and done, there simply weren’t enough people at the show to give any of the attractions a seriously packed house. The riders and trials show organizers put in huge efforts to try and redeem a situation that had, unfortunately, been taken out of their hands in terms of budget and materials supplied and especially time slots for the shows.

Fingers crossed this water tester by the organizers means they are willing to commit more promotional efforts and budget to the next show for both stands in general and also attractions.

[Team Ashton]

I agree with Dave. You could of had the 'who's who' of International Trials, it really wouldn't of made any difference. At an event like this the course must be the Star of the show, not the riders. From what i heard, some great riding went down, just sounds like hardly anybody got to see it?

Giles and team had a go, did the best with what they had. I can't really think of what i would of done to improve the situation. Hopefully the event gets another shot in 08.

Martyn

[Inspired Dave]

Right, that was a major rant! haha.

Bullet point review of above for people that don't want to lose the will to live!....

- the number of stand at the show was majorly down on previous shows

- major manufacturers weren't in attendance so it lost some of the 'spectacle' we're used to

- the dirt show facilities were pretty good, though bike shows of old were possibly a bit better

- the bsx/4x was a bit of a joke

- trials show was seriously limited by budget and vested interests of the overall show organisers

- the time slots given to the trials were pretty poor, not helping crowd levels

- the riders invited put every effort in to make the most of what they had

- the trials organisers worked immensely hard to make the shows enjoyable for the crowds

- big name stars would have helped appeal to impress and please true fanatics, but the 'general' audience would just be happying seeing a good show by any capable riders

- the big names would have boosted crowd by maybe only a 100 or so due to the limited fanatical fan base willing to travel and make the effort to attend

- the general low volume of people attending the show meant it would be near impossible to get large crowds even with all of the top comp and street riders on the best course in history!

Whoppers, I'm off for a Mars Bar .

[trialsalot]

i think that everyone has got some/all valid points so lets try and keep this one clean and not turn it nasty.

As you all know the company that used to run the fantastic shows did not host this one at all and had no part in it which is disappointing. Mbuk has run show after show and it has been a success BUT i'm sure the first ever bikeshow that they ran was not the entertaining beast it turned out. at the same time the company who ran this one has had no expierience in running a show and trials riding least of all. To me this is more of a "wait and see" situation. Dave@tarty summed it up from a more mature persons perspective about financial risk. Boring though this maybe, trust me from a person who is deep in the business plays more of a part in slowly building the foundations of a great show that may blossom into a great event than putting every penny into the event and losing thousands of pounds. i myself know that the company i work for were not going to go as the risk of the cost of the stand we were going to bring probably wasnt going to pull the crowds enough as the event was not going to be the same as it has been.

Give everyone who organised it and rode there a break.things can only get better and at the same time i hope that in the near future the bikeshow of past gets re-incarnated and the greats ride again. the bikeshow should be about the past, present and future. having the latest riders there is great but we cant forget where our sport has came from.

sorry if this raises an argument but it is my view and opinion.

Once again a big well done to everyone who persevered with show. i know tarty were doing fantastic. big shout out to all the chaps i bumped into who i've missed too.

craig

sorry if some of this post doesnt make sense by the way.

Edited April 30, 2007 by trialsalot

[Mike Poyzer @ Onza]

A lot of very valid points. To create a great show you need lots of publicity. To get lots of publicity you have to earn lots of money from the show to pay for it. Its always a Catch 22 situation. I think Wayne and others forget that the Trials show is just a feature of the Bike show. Lots of different disciplines need to be attracted and they all view each other disciplines efforts and hopefully enjoy a good rounded show. 90% of average bike show attendees would not know who any top trials riders were so bringing in expensive "foreign imports" would not be cost effective. The fact is that the riders there probably provided a great show given the limited scope for obstacles within the financial constraints. I still feel that the venue is too expensive, too remote given the age groups it wants to attract and nothing like enough publicity was given. I have seen nothing about it in magazines, websites and even Bicycle Trade publications and websites.

I have been heavily involved in Trials Shows at the Cycle Show over the last few years and I know what it costs us. I also know what some of the continental riders want to charge for "appearances" and I can say for definite that they price themselves out given the return on investment. Last year we only had one continental rider but a great spectacle was created and the crowds loved it. We even had Wayne riding there. The only person to mention "has beens" was Wayne so I don't know where he's got that notion from. I have had nothing to do with the organisation of this show so I don't know how they arrived at rider selections, but I am sure it was not based on whether they thought you were a " has been" or not. Giles does have commercial considerations in the same way that we do with Cycle2007 so his choice is bound to have some bias. Nobody, however, sets out to make a show like that a "second class" operation and I am sure his riders were well capable of doing the job.

[robonatomz]

thanks to dave, that was like an educated mans way of saying what i wanted to say. lol.

wain, i was not being bias, the people i was refering to were the people that rode, regardless of whether they are mates of mine or not, i was just listing them.

i think the bottom of the problem was, the cost, a new show that didnt need to loose a load of money, so things were just a bit on the smaller side to see if it could work for next time. belive me many international riders were invited, but as they replied with thier price (as all pro's would, thats not a dig) the organisers budjet just would not stretch.

basically i think this was a taster of trials for the new organisers, they liked the taste, so lets hope that next year they will have enuf money to order the full menu,

lol, dont know how food came to be the example, i must be hungry or somthing!

rob.

[Ali C]

what a week!! I can honestly say I have never worked as hard, for as many hours and for as many days as I did from wed last week till today! Had a lot of late nights at tartys helping bulding stuff, packing stuff etc.

Got to the show on thursday to start setting the stall up, it was obviouse from the start it was a lot smaller than years of past, they could have had a lot more space for stands if there wasnt the big stuffed toy thing and half the amount of seating.

The trials course was ok, they did a good job with what was given to them, but I am sure if gilles had free roam of the trials arena it would have been spectacular.

The timing for the shows was poor to say the least! Even if the top 10 riders in the world were riding, I doubt they would have found many more lines than we did and with the timing of the shows I doubt many more people would have been there to see them. Its a shame all the top riders ask so much to perform too.

The highlight of the show to me was meeting tarty customers, its always good to put names to faces, I also enjoyed riding the dirt jumps on my ashton and whooping everyone on the 4x sprint (what a joke btw)

[robonatomz]

yer ali has the fastest trials bike sprint ever! he's like a whipet os somthing! lol was nuts doing the masive trails on a trials bike and the dan mac did them on a 16" wheel pit bike, funny!

rob