lmizell

Yeah, I have a hard enough time using the front brake on a bicycle, and don't need the added stress of mixing up the levers! I don't have to pedal for more than a few minutes and my leg muscles start aching. You'ld think MCTrials riding would build up some muscle there, it's just not the same. Mostly just practice nose wheelies, moving the wheels around. My boys 13yr twins/ 12 yr/and 8 yr, can ride over big logs with the 26 inch bike. Gravity seems to work against me on the bicycle. I ride in the grass a lot as the landing is much softer. les

I recently got one of the new Veritas bikes...a 26 inch. All aluminum frame with cable brakes etc. Sells for $349. I took it to Kansas for the last weekend of the Central Regional rounds and there was someone straddling it all weekend. We've had the 20 inch bikes and they will cause a "faceplant" really quick. The 26 inch is slow and makes falling much easier. If this sounds like a commercial, it is. But if I don't get the word out, they will be all sold to the bicycle folks before the REAL trials guys find out. anyway, sorry if sales info insults you, but you'll NEVER find a 26 inch bike like this for this price. ever. only 80 were made. I will be selling them till they are gone. Next batch will probably be more. they are made by Tank, but have tremendous improvements since their first effort. (which wasn't a bad little 20 inch) Anyway enough rambling see it at http://www.etcycles.com/trialsbicycle.html

Don't remember if I posted this, but I've re-started the mctrials e-group. Eric lost all his data during a virus storm and passed the duty on. I hope I can keep it going half as well as he did. this e-group is dedicated to North America trials riders for correspondence on issues of national and local trials eventsa/bikes/politics etc. To subscribe go to. http://www.micapeak.com/lists/mctrials Lots of folks on already and there are no archives. Les

FWIW, The rest of the us in under winter watch and snow. We're perparing for our first round of the Tx state series. Gary Jackson memorial 2-day as it's billed. Great piece of property about 2 hours south of dallas and 2 north of Houston in Centerville Tx. Dirt ravines and creek beds with a few rocky sections. Gonna be a great event and a good time for your northerners to get some practice with no snow. If it rains it'll be a little messey ,but that is trials. Check info at http://www.texastrials.com/subwebs/txtrials/default.htm Les

This story was recieved from Don Hubbard. Thought it was good! Les The US Indoor in San Francisco was very good. Ted Gansberger and the PITS organization put on a very good event. Attendance was moderate - I'd guess that 3,000 may have been in attendance. I am constantly amazed at the obstacles that these top riders can ride; these sections were very difficult. The Indoor format is quite different from a regualr National event. The event starts with 7 riders. All riders rode the 7 section loop once. Each rider rode the first three with a 6 minute time limit; the riders gather penalty points if they run over past the limit. Then they each rode the last 4 sections with a 7 minute time limit. The rider with the highest score after riding the 7 sections is excused from the next step - the races. The remaining 6 riders are paired up and they race each other through two identical (key-hole) sections. The losing rider of each race has a point added to his score (plus any points he may have gathered while riding the section.) After the races, two more riders are excused. Only the top 4 riders ride the second loop. On the second loop each section is ridden by all of the riders before moving onto the next section; any rider exceeding the 90 second time limit receives a 5. Several of the sections (those that can be) are ridden backwards on the second loop. The riders are then paired up again for the final obstacles - the races. Ryon and Geoff were again clearly better on this night, on these obstacles, than the rest of the competitors. Ryon Bell won, Geoff was 2nd, Florin 3rd and Chaves 4th. Johnson didn't make the cut to the races and Craig and Peters didn't make the cut to ride the 2nd loop. Ryon finished with 9 points and Geoff with 15, but they were much closer than the scores indicate. While I didn't see all of the rides (I was minding (and unfortunately, wrenching...) for Peters) I saw Ryon get away with 5 free points... You'd think that 2 judges would be able to catch all of a rider's mistakes, but, Ryon crossed the tape with the front wheel when leaping off a big blue box (section #4) without either of the judges seeing it... Even the umbrella girl (who was standing next to me, hey I'm no fool... saw it and flipped the card over to a five before being told it was a clean! If the judges had seen this miscue, I'm sure the remainder of the event would have been much more exciting! Geoff had a similar miscue which cost him 5 points on the very next section, but it (dropping off the obstacle out of bounds) was obvious to all. But, oh well, without instant replay, I guess that judging errors are just a part of trials... All in all the event was very enjoyable. During the intermission before the 2nd loop got underway, a couple of bicycle trials guys put on quite a show. One of the riders was a current National champ (for the "modified" class, I think...) and it was amazing what he could do - without a throttle even!