sherconoob

could specify which section mags? e.g. 2m 34 sec into the vid or something like that? i do think they said there was a clubman section where there was no intro line because it was a bit too tricky. we had two new guys start that day, both had barely ridden their trials bikes at all. one did at least half the clubman sections and i think the other guy did all of them. i have yet to ask how many offs they had when it was pretty slippery!

yes, i'll check to see if betanoob is available.

first time ever in c grade yesterday. a few freaky bits but didn't need the incontinence pads after all, woohoo...

tackling some endurocross style obstacles on the trials bike first before attempting them with the dirt bikes. also a snotty hill climb with logs across it, especially a big log that has to be jumped over and a slippery moss covered one at a 45 degree angle. one or two language warnings, we were getting pretty frustrated with this hill.

not a training vid but more of a sample of clubman sections being ridden. we have quite a few new members starting at the club and a few were keen to see what typical clubman sections were like.

i agree that exercise goes a long way to reducing the need for protective gear. however, there's nothing wrong with being lazy... if you don't exercise just use more protective gear.

braces definitely help with any twisting motion or hyperextension... less so with any direct impact from just putting a foot down heavily i think. i usually wear a pair of those knee support sock thingies too - less chafing against the brace but also just more support and cheap at around $10 on ebay. comfort is a big issue if you'll be wearing them all day. a good thick sock that goes well above the knees makes a big difference. at the very least you may want to put a set on in the shop and go walking around for 20 mins or so if the staff would allow it? CTI braces below mags.... i can't make any recommendations as a relative noob to the sport. but i have a pair of EVS knee braces for dirt riding that i just find too bulky and uncomfortable for trials. they look quite similar to the CTI brace pictured. i also have EVS RS8 ones which aren't a true knee brace but are about halfway there, so lighter and more comfortable so used these for trials. the straps on them are next to useless so just made my own out of velcro which does the trick. poor quality for the money though imho. but now the knees are going well i'm just back to using knee guards for trials riding and those knee sock supports underneath.

hey mags, nice write up. would you mind if i threw some of that on the "buying a trials bike" page of our website, crediting you for the info?

sounds like we are in similar situations jimmie. i've been dirt riding for years but only got into the trials a year ago. it's completely changed the way we ride our dirt bikes now, we spend most of the time in first or second gear looking for logs, ledges, drop offs or just balancing at a standstill (or attempting to....). re: hitting that log in a precise spot, reminds me of a tough hill climb yesterday i hadn't been able to climb without dabbing then suddenly realized if i hit the 250exc's front wheel in a precise spot on the rock wall i could do a floater turn to line up for the worst part of the climb. fantastic stuff if and when it all comes together on either the dirt bike or the trials bike!

shoney it is demanding physically. i've introduced a few mates who thought they were fit and all were drenched in sweat within minutes and asking why it was so exhausting to ride so slow. most of us are discouraged (but still addicted!) on our first few trials because everyone else makes it look so easy, but of course it ain't. i had to just chill out and practice heaps of balance and tight turns on flat ground before i started to make headway in any clubman sections. interesting seeing all my mates now struggling with exactly the same issues, but all with huge grins on their faces despite barely being able to walk by the end of the day.

nice riding jimmie and lots of good advice in the replies, when did you start trials? it's all very smooth and controlled so looks like you've been riding for ages. re: the front wheel skimming, i had problems with that for ages. i thought i would be able to place the front wheel at the right point for double blips etc as i've donw wheelies for years on other bikes, but i was crap at landing the front wheel in a specific place. in my case, i think my subconscious was always saying "idiot, if you land the front wheel against the log you'll go over the bars" and kept forcing me to lift the front higher. eventually i picked logs that weren't too high so there was no danger of going over the bars, and just went round and round until i was nailing that spot. but the advice about a higher log may nail it for you too. video evidence certainly helps too!

i'll have to do a dirt bike specific one soon. our crew keep all their bikes quiet but there are some shockers out there and the guys wear ear plugs to prevent ear damage. :-(

nice ride, mags. and kudos for leaving the stock pipes on! on another forum a guy started a thread about "loud pipes are my right" which i felt deserved a tongue-in-cheek response. :-)

welcome fatty, you'll have a great time no matter what you ride. i'm still relatively new so would only pass on what the experienced riders have told me in the past... some of this, er.. wisdom, has been put into a "getting into trials?" page on our club's website that might be handy. see if you can get a bit of a test ride on each. any bike will be great and it will take you a long time, if ever, to find the limits of what each model can do. except for one or two exceptions (certain ossa gearboxes?) the later models are all very refined beasts and have no glaring issues you would have to worry about. personally i've got a beta 300 four stroke which has been great. even the two stroke die hards who have had a ride admitted they quite liked it... mellow response is great for beginners but plenty of grunt if you give it a handful. and i love the engine braking, especially because i'm crap at covering the rear brake in some techniques, hehe!

good question jimmie, i'd be keen to know too. i'm crap at riding along logs but need to work on it.... one thing i've noticed is that everyone seems to vary on where they look when static balancing - some look at the horizon, some down at the front wheel, others in between. i wonder if there's no ideal angle and depends on what suits the individual? with slow or static stuff only, of course. everything else i know the standard is look ahead.

rlk, static balance will give you a massive headstart, even in the lounge room! let your tyres down to 2 or 3psi and watch tv. if it's still too hard try out in the back yard with the front wheel in a small ditch so the front tyre makes lots of contact with the ground. most of us have identical stories to yours - completely addicted on our first ride but finding it much harder than it looks. i've introduced six guys to trials in the past year and they all said the same thing. one exception last weekend, a mate of mine is some kind of freak of nature. after an hour on my bike, he was having a go at static balancing, jumping tractor tyres, recovery from logs and tyres, doing rear wheel hops etc. admittedly he's been practising this stuff on the cross training rides we do on the dirt bikes, but it took me at least five rides into trials before i was at that level. cheeky bugger.... at least he couldn't get the hang of double blips after an hour of riding, hehe! he's hooked and getting a trials bike as soon as he can afford it.

not surprised 0007, i've heard guys say they think their road riding improved even on sports bikes. i've got a DR650 for adventure riding and enjoy trying to balance at a stand still, and even occasionally jump ditches and the like! i know it totally transforms dirt riding, about the only thing that's suffered is fast riding... occasionally i still ride with guys who go hard and fast and i'm not much chop at that any more since i've only been riding slow and technical terrain the past year. but the moment there are creek beds and big logs they are falling all over the place and i have a few runs through for practice as they work their way through. a mate got a brain injury from a high speed stack last year, plus quite a few others did ligaments or bones, so the change of pace and style of riding has been great... no injuries but far more challenge and fun nowadays.

Since a group of us have gone nuts with trials riding the past year, it's also dramatically changed the way we ride our dirt bikes as we apply the trials techniques to the bigger heavier bikes. As a result, we've slowed down a lot, get less injuries. do far less damage to the environment and (hopefully) have become better riders as a result! If anyone is interested, we've been posting these vids and articles. we've started a website about cross training techniques as well here. BEFORE YOU START Protective gear Setting up your suspension BASIC CROSS TRAINING TECHNIQUES Braking Feathering and dropping the clutch Riding across a camber or slope INTERMEDIATE CROSS TRAINING TECHNIQUES ADVANCED CROSS TRAINING TECHNIQUES These were put together from a wide variety of sources, including tips from the masters of endurocross and extreme enduro riding: Graham Jarvis, Chris Birch, Jonny Walker, David Knight, Taddy Blazusiak, Dougie Lampkin and Andreas Lettenbichler who are all ex-trials champions - may their names and bikes be blessed forever, amen. and#160; A huge thanks to Ruben Chadwick, our resident junior trials and endurocross champion for his riding and tips!

been lucky to ride three times a week for a while now and finally not aching all over for two days after every ride, so definitely agree if you are in a position to ride more it's way more fun than exercise. i don't know how useful it is, but whenever i'm standing still in a queue, doing the dishes etc i crouch slightly and balance on the ball of one foot, and alternate from foot to foot as one gets tired. i'm hoping it exercises the legs a bit but also develops a better sense of balance. someone else recommended also doing this eyes -shut. definitely gets WAY harder to balance so started doing that as well.

i think gap creek would incorporate the cost of insurance into their fees? e.g. i spoke with the mob who run queensland moto park and they said their $42/day entry fee is more than half taken up just by the cost of insurance. :-( i was going to take a look at SQTA but being brisbane-based i found their properties all situated even further from bris than the other clubs and from memory i think their days are around $30. being a tight a*** i like the cost of WDTC club days being only $15 (although the occasional big events are $30 to pay for the trophies etc). i'm not sure what SQTA does liablity-wise. possibly they have organised insurance for the property owners? i had a look at one of their entry forms and it definitely has the standard disclaimer to sign, and a strong suggestion that riders obtain their own personal insurance before the event, but not an actual requirement. some SQTA guys must have the MA licence as i see them at our club meets, and i know some of our guys who live out west go to their events too.

unfortunately the insurance setup restricts it to club members... members of WDTC, MTCQ and LRTC all join motorcycling australia which covers the insurance at any event or get together. there would need to be special insurance taken out to cover non-members, which is done for the "come and try trials" day held in feb by the clubs each year. via glorious is probably shortest, but with all the twisties may take just as long as via kilcoy or ipswich. it's a 90 min drive for me so i tend to make a weekend of it when i go out. the summer practice series was great... head out early sat and camp over. just chill by the river during the hot parts of the day but ride early morning and later afternoon. once you join any club you can attend the events of all the others too, but it's a bugger they are all south or west of brissie.

awesome to hear, mags. re: the looking ahead, a few years ago i read something about that when you look ahead there's a subconscious part of your brain that is processing the earlier info it picked up about the terrain ahead and gets you through the immediate stuff, while the conscious part of the brain can process the more distant terrain. can't find any reference for it so it might just be made up by god knows who, but i'm pretty sure it had a sound neurological base to it. whatever, it works!

it's unbelievable the effort this property owner puts in to each club event, apart from just the use of the property. and the whole family pitches in too! he's keen for the property to be used more as we are all down at one end and well away from the house... the main issue was getting qualified coaches to get around the insurance issue if it's not an actual club competition. we now have four so should be easy getting regular social stuff happening. re: the legal side, i did a pile of queensland-specific research a while back for this thread: negligence, duty of care & legal mumbo jumbo on informal social rides. if you aren't charging money then it would be hard to hold you accountable. If you stress that it's just an informal get together with no central organiser that helps too. if you wanted to be ultra careful then you could just get everyone to sign a disclaimer. i figure it's extremely unlikely you'd get someone ever suing but if you own your own home and/or have quite a few assets then it pays to be overly cautious sometimes!

sounds good mags, i'll pop along if it's happens. our club is keen to push the social aspect of trials riding. over the school holidays last summer they had the summer practice series... club members could camp and ride all weekend for $2 a day (they get a good deal on insurance rates) on the 300 acre property out at esk. two of us also just did the MQ coaching course so we can organise free informal training weekends throughout the year at the same property and the owner is covered insurance-wise.