sherconoob

that's an unfortunate possibility. our club shows the locations of our main properties on the website but also mentions that said properties are gated/locked, and owned by people who are extremely welcoming to trials riders and spectators coming to an advertised event,.... but warns any othr visitors of mine fields, automated machine gun nests, and to anyone who navigates those bits a personal welcome message from the end of a shot gun... well not quite, but you get the gist.

bump. i know this is an old thread but the two stroke vs four stroke debate will always be of interest to new riders. having just swung over from 2T to 4T i'd agree with all the points raised so far, and also add many of which feature in this enlightening video.

Mods, hope this new post is okay. I compiled info from a previous thread here but added a pile of new stuff I got from other clubs internationally. Thanks to all for the great tips. Anyone got tips for getting more people into trials? I know it's big in the UK and Europe but elsewhere it seems to be the best kept secret of motorcycling. Of course none of this applies if a club wants to keep to a certain size, but is more for growing a club or at least maintaining club membership levels over time. I've been chatting with a few overseas clubs, checking some good threads and got the following ideas so far: INTRO TO TRIALS DAYS: Have a dedicated day to get interested people on some loan bikes and give them some basic instruction. Can also be just for an hour or two before a club event, as then they can spectate as well and see how it all works. Some clubs get local dealers to provide loan bikes and get a chance to sell some bikes too. I know a lot of clubs participate in the Come and Try Trials Day in Feb every year across the country, a great start! Some larger clubs even have a club bike so that newcomers can borrow it for their first club event (but must pay for any breakages). TRIALS DEMOS AT COMMUNITY EVENTS Get some upper grade riders to do their thing over some portable obstacles at community fairs and shows. Bigger events will actually pay for this sort of show too, which can go into the club's coffers. PROMOTIONAL LEAFLETS & PAMPHLETS At any event, have these on hand to give to visitors and spectators, or mail out to anyone who enquires through a club website. An online version can be set up on a club website too in the form of an "Introduction to trials" page. CHAT WITH SPECTATORS WHO SHOW UP AT CLUB EVENTS Chances are spectators who show up are interested in trials. When possible, stop to say hi and ask them how they found out about your event. Every club member is the face of your club and they'll be that more motivated to join when they see your club is supportive and friendly to newcomers. WORD-OF-MOUTH Most riders only get into a new facet of riding when they have mates who are into it. So if you know guys on road, adventure or dirt bikes encourage them to have a think about trials. Almost every dirt rider I speak to says at some point they have thought about getting a trials bike but often it was because they didn't know how to get into it, or didn't know anybody else who was into it. Some people say trials seems like a secret club or it's all a bit mysterious - the best way to counter that is talk about it and how easy it is to get into it. USING ONLINE MEDIA: If anyone in your club is handy with a video camera and basic editing, film some of your events, post them online and use a Facebook page or your website to make them publicly accessible. It gives newcomers an insight into your club and it's members. KEEP CLUB EVENTS FRIENDLY TO NEWCOMERS I've never heard of this being an issue in Australian clubs, but some overseas clubs found they lost members, or didn't gain new ones, because the more skilled riders made even basic sections too difficult. It seems a healthy club is one that always keeps the newcomers and less skilled members in mind, or simply those who prefer to have more fun than challenge when they ride. GET MORE EVENTS HAPPENING One criticism of trials can be the lack of events - a new rider may just see there's one club event a month and think why bother? Some clubs make their events open to each other so there are events several times a month. As as club grows, it should be easier to start putting on training events and social ride days too. A PROMOTIONS DUDE: One guy said the most successful strategy they ever used was a club member at each event was the promotions guy... he or she would just go up to any newcomers who looked interested, and ask if they'd like to come back at a set time and have a ride on a trials bike. He started a club from scratch in a tiny country town which grew to 40 members quickly (along with most of the strategies mentioned on this page too). MAKE CLUB EVENTS SPECTATOR-FRIENDLY If you plan on encouraging spectators, keep them in mind with signs to your property from the main road. Think of spectators when laying out your sections - how far it is to walk between sections, and how well sign-posted are they? Will they know which are upper grade and which are lower grade? Provide instructions on how to get to the event on your website. The previously mentioned pamphlets could come in handy if they explain how the scoring system works too. Being spectator-friendly becomes quite important if your club ever hosts a championship! BIKE SHOPS Put up posters in the bike shops in your area... especially if they are a trials bike shop, but all the others too. GET ARTICLES INTO THE MEDIA & COMMUNITY PROMOTION If anyone in the club is good with words, put articles in the local rag about trials riding and your club. Explain how it is a great sport for parents to get their kids into. Send in articles after the event with the scores and outcome. Include a photo of smiling club members. Put up posters in your local community each a club event rolls around that would be good for spectators. FOCUS ON THE KIDS The youngsters are the champions of tomorrow. Consider a sub-group within the club that focuses on the kids. Have a cool name like "Rockhoppers" that Taffy used in a club he set up. A USA club I chatted with said they have two sherrifss and two school teachers who ride, so they have set up a law camp for youth that has 500 kids attend. They reckon it's a fun way to get paid to ride... that's thinking outside the box! Good tips from the AJS crew... they have quite a few juniors so have three classes - Junior A follows the clubman line, Junior B have free run of the section and should be suitable for the automatic small wheel bikes and they also offer Mini Trial which is not competitive. A family pricing structure reduces the cost burden of having multiple children riding from one family. ONLINE PROMOTION Have a look at your website and see it through the eyes of a newcomer? Can they easily find info about trials? How to join your club? How and where to buy a bike? Can they come to your next event, and how do they get there? If you are part of forums dealing with other aspects of motorbike riding, every now and then mention trials and see if you get any bites. Search for any trials-related threads in these forums and put in your two cents worth. Find interesting videos of the world's best riders like Toni Bou and post them in video sections just to raise the profile of trials riding. I discussed using vids with Trials Australia and it resulted in the video below. Feel free to pass it on to any non-trials mates who you think might be interested in riding without a seat.

mags, i wonder if it could work? you've obviously put a bit of thought into it. i know getting govt bureaucrats pushed into anything new takes a huge amount of effort, often for little chance of success. but it does sound very interesting! EDIT: i've sent an email to motorcycling qld to see if they have any tips on this idea. also, the brisbane motorcycle club over at nudgee have a motocross track there. a mate of mine races vintage mx out there so i'm going to get him to sound them out on the idea of having a trials practice area out there as well. it would be awesome to have an area like this in the suburbs.

how goes it, dieselwitch? lots of great tips here, another might be to soften the bike up a bit. a 300 can be a handful until you grow into it, but a slow action throttle can make full lock turns etc easier. if you have a mapping switch, try the soft setting. i've heard some guys put an extra washer or two on the spark plug to lower the compression, but can't say if that's a great idea or not. in any case, welcome to an addictive habit that will be hard to shake!

bump. what a great thread. i hope you guys don't mind but i grabbed a pile of these ideas and slapped together a post over on trials australia here: http://www.trials.com.au/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=9401&p=33706#p33706 i don't know what the policy is on duplicate posts, but would it probably be okay to post it up here as well? i'd be keen to see what other ideas might come out of the woodwork on this forum.

latest vid. builds on the earlier how to balance vid.

hehe, i'm wondering if any older guys will get up in arms about that bit! alan did an incredible job of narrating that vid. basically i just shoved the gopro in his face at the end of a day's riding and said can you say a few things about trials riding for me to shove into a promotional vid for the usa clubs? and off he went. pretty impressive ad libbing! mags, how did i miss the fact you are actually a brisbanite? i thoroughly agree that port area would make a great trials playground. i'm bang in the middle of brissie so it's between 60 to 90 mins drive to all the various private properties or club properties. it would be brilliant to just pop down to near the mouth of the brisbane river hey? i think though it would wind up like queensland moto park... $42.50 entry fee each day to cover insurance and all the bureaucracy they'd insist on. btw i'm uploading an australian version of that intro vid. it will be live in about 40 mins time.

this vid might help with setting up your bike to suit your height etc.

my first six months were on a 2011 sherco 290, no problems at all and the guys in the club on shercos never seem to have particular issues outside of those you get with any brand. the experienced riders in the club usually say there's not much between the brands in later models as they keep refining them and working on the small niggling issues...

+1 on all the above, it is an addictive and awesome sport. at our last club meeting our president said to be sure we had a chat with any spectators who showed up. so i did for the first time and turns out they were all there because they were thinking of getting into trials. all of them said what a friendly bunch we were and had decided to get into the sport. i'm overwhelmed at the generosity of property owners, club officials and volunteers who put so much time and effort in... it's always great to see riders thanking them, especially observers who are out there all day in sorts of weather, breathing in smoke and watching others have fun.

this is our next step in the evil plan to convert the world to trials. we had a usa rider visit and he said trials is extremely rare in america. he did a voice over for us and we stitched together this vid which he is going to promote around the states on forums etc. it's a lot more popular in the UK isn't it? i was thinking of getting one of our resident poms to do an english voice over but i figure trials is widespread in the UK, and the scenery is so obviously not the UK in the vid!

any other tips? i can add them in at the end of the vid...

latest vid, thanks for those who contributed tips...

stitched this latest training vid together but can't help feeling i'm probably missing some crucial points. i'm only clubman so basically have never done any spotting, only filming the upper grades doing it. i've made a typo in the vid so will be redoing it shortly... if any experienced riders can suggest tips i've missed please let me know and i'll incorporate them into the revised one. thanks in advance!

actually it takes quite a bit of effort to get the sounds right... some good (and bad) examples in this video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Jki4OQA5D4 on a serious note, i practice balancing on the ball of either foot any chance i get... in queues, watching tv, doing the washing up. i figure it can't hurt and hopefully might be developing a better sense of balance.

perhaps a motocross option for younger riders, doing the section in fourth of fifth gear? :-) some of the young guys rip through sections when they are just messing around... i like the idea of being able to roll backwards, it seems to be just another skill to exercise on the bike and would be cool to learn - i can't do it yet. some of the guys here ride up trees and reverse down again which looks like fun.

thanks, lover of bulls (er, that doesn't really sound right does it?). forgot to thank you for running the training last weekend too, nice job!

yep, western districts trials club and at the esk property. the property runs up the side of a big hill that tends to push away the rain clouds when they roll in from the west so its even drier than the surrounding area is as a rule.

got some interesting pics from this training day. i only brought the camera out when the guys started messing around on their lunch break. almost got the camera knocked out my hand a few times as i got a bit close but made for some interesting angles...

thanks alan. we had about 70 bikes all up but only three in the expert class. one of those riders came out last saturday to run a training day for the upper grade riders. they all had a mess around on their lunch break so go the gopro out and filmed them.

there's a nice set of beta rev 3 clutch & front brake levers on ebay. google all over the place and there's a suggestion these will also fit late model beta evos... i've got the 2012 evo four stroke and would just like to confirm they use the same levers if possible. if it's any help, the ad says: "Beta Rev3 Clutch and Brake Levers - Sold as a pair Fit the Grimeca master Cylinders on all '06 and 07 models, and the 200, 250, and 270 in the '05 range. Supplied with adjuster and pin." thanks in advance for any tips.

hehe, that's what all the bultaco riders in our club say too! as a relative trials noob i've argued on both side just to up the (er, mostly friendly) rivalry.

great pics, mags. yes i was definitely knocking the cruisers and harleys but definitely tongue in cheek as i was just having a go at mates of mine who ride them. i didn't know the video would get so many hits so i better put another disclaimer in before some hells angels come visiting about my harley references, hehe! i reckon anyone on two wheels has found their own little slice of heaven, whether it's a scooter, cruiser, harley or a trials bike (with the exception of bultacos of course).

dandabs, lots of good points raised already. a lot of guys in my club ride dirt and have been adapting the trials techniques to our enduro bikes. there's a list of written and video tutorials here: http://www.wdtc.org.au/cross-training-enduro/cross-training-enduro-techniques.htm at first balancing on the 250EXC seemed next to impossible but with practice it's not much harder than the trials bike now. it's been awesome going down a steep snotty hill to just balance at a stop before a big drop off, choose a line then go again. this is the balancing vid. i should say i'm not qualified in any of this stuff but it's been based on stuff gleaned from graham jarvis and other extreme enduro riders, and added to stuff our state junior trials champion is teaching us. he's also the national endurocross champion and appears in most of the vids and knows his stuff!