Severity Of Trials

[dixie]

Is it just me or are trials getting to hard again????

In the late 80s early 90s trials started getting stupid ,bouncing and backing up ,wich is fine if you are a tenager and go practicing two or three times a week ,but a lot of us normal guys only ride at trials ,alot have nowhere to go even if they had the time to ,

anyway in those days my local clubs went from 60+ entries to barley 20 .

Are we in danger of doing it again ,I rode today in the clubman class and the magority of sections required a bounce or hop,I cant do that am i just to old or is my entry money no good/not wanted.

at least i can still keep up at the pub

[fivemeister]

I rode today in the clubman class and the magority of sections required a bounce or hop,I cant do that

If the clubman class is too hard, why not just drop down a route? Its a thankless task trying to set section for riders of every ability. What you might think hard will be a main road for others and no challenge. They might not come next time because of this as you won't because its too hard.

The 'clubman' class should be catering for the majority of riders at the event. If 'the majority' are of a high standard and need harder sections to test them, so be it. What did the results tell you? did the majority struggle same as you? If they did it is clearly an error of judgement on the course plotter - if not, you should be realistic and simply drop out of the clubman class onto the less severe route.

I think lots of blokes are loathe to choose the least severe route because it is mostly called the 'easy' or 'beginner' route and its a blokey pride thing. Might be better to just nominate them colour codes - riders might be more inclined to use and enjoy it.

[theshercorider]

I agree with what has been set above however I have been thinking that if trials are been made harder then it is very difficult for a rider to step up a level/route not giving the rider as much acomplishment. If people keep on improving then surely there are other bigger/harder trials for them to be getting involved with.

[proc]

But what happens if the clubman route is the lowest route? surely the ones who aren't struggling should move up to say the green route? keeping the clubman route free to be easy enough to entice new riders into the sport?

[jeeves88]

Hay,

i've always thought of this, but yeh i agree that clubman is meant to accomodate for everyone, and there should be harder and easier ones, but ive always thought of like a rating system or something, depending obvisouly on the weather, but if its known as a bit of a harder trial just generally, say when advertised or something. The other thing, is if your new to trials and an adult, and cant learn on the easy courses for kids, clubman is quite a shock sometimes.

Cheers

Edited July 19, 2009 by jeeves88

[fivemeister]

But what happens if the clubman route is the lowest route

I don't think this is ever the case. Most club trials run three routes ie hard - clubman - easy.

I have only known the bigger national / road events only run two routes (hard / easier) and anyone entering these knows you have to be at a reasonable standard to survive even the easier route.

[pete_scorpa3]

But what happens if the clubman route is the lowest route? surely the ones who aren't struggling should move up to say the green route? keeping the clubman route free to be easy enough to entice new riders into the sport?

The trouble is that the opposite is happening.

The Hardest route is becoming elitest in that only half a dozen good riders can cope, but they cope well.

This means that the other 'only just good enough' riders tend to drop down to the Middle route. This then has the effect of making the middle route seem too easy, so organisers make the middle route harder. Then, the better riders who've dropped down stay down and the rest begin to struggle.

The Midland Centre has a B route for our Centre Championships and the Group trials. A few years back I could get around this route for under 20 marks lost, last year I was loosing 70+, so this year I've stopped riding these trials. A number of very good centre riders now ride the B route.

[trialsnutterman]

Change the rules back to how they used to be, that's my answer anyway.

These new rule make it much easier for the better riders and make it harder for those who are struggling on a route.

[lowbrow]

The trouble is that the opposite is happening.

The Hardest route is becoming elitest in that only half a dozen good riders can cope, but they cope well.

This means that the other 'only just good enough' riders tend to drop down to the Middle route. This then has the effect of making the middle route seem too easy, so organisers make the middle route harder. Then, the better riders who've dropped down stay down and the rest begin to struggle.

You've summed that up perfectly, Pete. Is there a solution? 50/50?

[dixie]

The trouble is that the opposite is happening.

The Hardest route is becoming elitest in that only half a dozen good riders can cope, but they cope well.

This means that the other 'only just good enough' riders tend to drop down to the Middle route. This then has the effect of making the middle route seem too easy, so organisers make the middle route harder. Then, the better riders who've dropped down stay down and the rest begin to struggle.

The Midland Centre has a B route for our Centre Championships and the Group trials. A few years back I could get around this route for under 20 marks lost, last year I was loosing 70+, so this year I've stopped riding these trials. A number of very good centre riders now ride the B route.

Exactly what has happened in the southwest ,I may go back to twinshock, last years c class winner and runner up have said the same about the clubman rout,

[dixie]

Change the rules back to how they used to be, that's my answer anyway.

These new rule make it much easier for the better riders and make it harder for those who are struggling on a route.

here here

[dixie]

What is wrong with the winner of a trial finishing on clean???

Seems like they need to take 20+ off the best riders . Just look at the results, a lot of trials now have winner 10 runner up 30 third place 100 .

The clubman entry makes up the majority of the trials income, if there was say two hard stopper sections per lap to sort the stars out and the rest were set out for joe average everyone would come away happy, I am not knocking the blokes that do all the hard work,And still enjoyed my ride but it was to hard and i only did one lap then went for a practice,still good value.

Fivemeister, I dont consider myself a star but i was a regular top five finisher and have 20 years + trials experience, probably more a middle of the road CLUBMAN....

[pistonbroke]

I was observing at a trial yesterday with three routes , beginner,novice and expert. A rider on a 70's TY 175 yamaha was riding the novice route and on my section got four 5 's even though he attacked it with vigour so to speak . After his last attempt , and the fourth time that I had helped him pull this really nice bike out of the stream , we chatted for a while and came to the conclusion that when his bike was manufactured , this section would easily have been a national class section and he couldn't have cleaned it then , so what chance would he have now !!!! The problem being was that the easy route , or beginners route , had been set for young kids on small wheel beta 's and so on and it was literally to easy but the next course was to hard, and I think it is a problem with a lot of trials that i have seen , but I don't want to criticise anybody because I do realise that marking a section out is very difficult and you will never please all of the people all of the time .

[proc]

Round here it tends to be clubman, green, expert on most occasions it's spot on but there is sometimes when you think what the #### i remember back in the 90's when one of the clubs only had one youth a rider because the clubman route was too easy but the hard route was too hard, i think it may be in danger of happening again unless something changes

[bilc0]

I think the club's need to start putting in the reg's that a certain route will require stop and hop.

I don't get this idea of making a couple of sections in a route so hard that only 10 rider's can ride it and the rest get off there bikes to ask for five's,what's the point in that.