lowside

Hello mate, I'm one of the few English folks to have visited your fair state (Bass Pro resort in Branson - what a place!). I never lived in MO, but just down the road in TX for a few years and NOLA for a few more. Right, with trials bikes, it's a very niche sort of interest, especially stateside. I am new to trials myself, but not to motorcycling. I reckon trials was invented in Europe because, generally speaking, we lack the space you guys have. We can't just go off adventure riding in our national parks, it's mostly all banned. So somewhere along the line (1940's??), someone thought it might be a good idea to take road bikes, strip bits off them and ride them up their friends hills, streams and so on. Their friend of course, being a farmer with some land ownership. If you really fancy giving it a try, I suggest connecting with a club as close as possible and see if someone is swinging by your town at some point. Have you got all the tools and mechanical knowledge to keep a bike going? A Beta Techno or Rev at 125 shouldn't be too hard to find at a decent price. I guess you have Branson, Springfield, Tulsa and maybe KC to go clubs wise? Patience will be key, but if you want to speed things up, setting up a trials course on your farm would bring them to you for sure! I struggled trying to find a 125cc when I was looking for mine over the past few weeks. Ended up getting a used 250. I'll need to be careful, but, it's all in the wrist.

Thats what I thought to be honest yet there is definitely a dot in the "every ride" column. I also thought it might be a typo or translation error, but apparently not. I'll just do it every few days out.

Just looking at the maintenance schedule, it says you should replace the gearbox oil after every ride. I wasn't expecting that and it sounds excessive. It's a Fajardo rep if that matters. How often would you chaps change the gearbox oil, typically? I'm a novice rider just starting out. Thanks

Thanks in large part to feedback from you kind folk, we are now expecting delivery of two bikes on Thursday. After much deliberation I settled on a Sherco 250 Fajardo Replica (need to change the stickers to say Desert Eagle .50...) and a spanking new Beta 80 Jr for my lad. I very nearly bought a used Beta 80, but it would have been a sight unseen purchase (some 200 miles away) and I figured the support of my local dealer was more important than cash, thinking long term. The 250 is too much bike for me, but I had a ride and even in my dimwitted hands, it pootled around the carpark just fine, without trying to kill me. What sold the 2T was it's weight. I love the Montesa's and I can see myself owning one in the future, but the extra weight I felt might hamper me starting out. Lack of choice of 125's locally dictated the larger capacity. I'll just have to be careful. Wish I was 6 inches taller, kicking these things over when you're older and inflexible is like a weeks worth of the gym. Thanks again everyone. I'm off to start umpteen other forum threads about every subject imaginable whilst I work this all out...!

The consensus seems to be 70:1 or thereabouts. So for simplicity I'll go with 75ml:5 litres. Going with Castrol Power1 Racing to start with. Thanks everyone, so grateful to this forum already. It would be impossible to get into niche pursuits like trials without support from folks like yourselves.

Thanks faussy. Ticking things off the list one at a time. So many questions being entirely new to trials and off-road in general.

I wonder if someone could help me a bit. It's been decades since I've touched 2 stroke anything! Two bikes, one Sherco 250 Factory and a Beta Evo 80. Sherco say it needs a 2% premix, Beta say 1.5%. In this situation, can I get away with carrying a single 10L can mixed at 50:1, or should I go 60:1 and split the difference between the two bikes, or should I carry 2 separate cans at different ratios, which I think are 50:1 (Sherco) and 70:1 (Beta)? We will not be ragging the bikes around, as we're just novices. Also, can anyone recommend a premix oil that might suit both bikes (UK based)? Thanks

Having just watched my first youtube videos of the SSDT, they do seem to get a very hard time indeed. The stream sections look like they would be much easier if just on the back wheel, so I plan on bringing my entire 2 hours experience to bear on my first trial and sparing my bike the danger. 😂 I wish.

You guys are great. Theres some really solid information here and I thank you all. I have a bit of an update for those who are interested. I've been out bike hunting today. I must have looked at 30 bikes or more, had 2 out and running. It was a lot of information to take in, but I might have made a decision. OSET is now definitely going to be off the table for our lad. It sort of was already (hence me going on about Beta). I think because we plan to have full days out riding and treat it like a day at the seaside (picnics etc) that they just don't have the battery life and I don't want the logisitics of carrying, or indeed charging multiple batteries in advance. I'm going to confirm the size of Beta 80 he requires by taking him to our local dealer. The guidelines from Beta don't really help, as they say 8+. He's just turned 8, but already 142cm tall (4ft 8"), so I have a feeling he might be better off on the senior, but need to check to be certain. As for my bike, I looked in detail at 2 bikes today. One was a 2020 Sherco Factory, the other a 2021 TRS OneR. Both 250 2T. I've concluded that I will likely outgrow a 125 in time and if I'm after a late model bike, I might as well double down and invest in a 250. I went balls deep as a youth in the same way, going straight from a 125 to a 1200. It's all in the wrist, isnt it? Condition on the bikes I had out in daylight was good, but neither was a minter. Out of all the bikes I viewed today, the best condition according to age belonged to a 2018 Montesa 260 Repsol which I had a brief look at but dismissed, perhaps wrongly. It had been well used, just seemed to weather it better, or maybe it's just pure chance. Anyway, as a result, I've added the Montesa 260 to my list of possibles for me. It's a different proposition I think, but it's hard to argue with Honda's build quality and reputation. I realise they ride differently to 2T and require a specific approach in mud, but as I'm not converting over from 2T, maybe it's doable. A question for my instructor maybe. It was a worthwhile day out, as I've now much more of an idea of the fit, finish and equipment levels of various brands/models. It was an eye opener actually in some respects. Let's just say, if I'm paying £8000 for a new offroad bike, I'd expect frame bungs, yknow, so the paint doesn't get chipped, leading to rust on the frame. Baffling. I've put some enquiries in, so either they will pan out, or I'll keep looking. A special note regarding Vertigo, who win the award for most complicated model naming. Goodness me, what was it again, a Vanilla Ice Horizontal Combat Ninja 250 RR? Still, did see a nice red one.

Following your post, it just occurred to me. If I go for a 125 now, I could keep it whilst my son is on the 80, then hand the 125 down to him, part-exing the 80 against a 250 for me in 3-4 years time. Aside from the obvious capacity difference, is the rest of the OEM kit on a bike generally the same between 125/250/300? The prices seem to suggest so.

Sounds as if I should try to test ride if I can, although not sure how dealers are in that regard. Appreciate the info and I'll keep it in mind.

Were I not so heavy, I'd definitely go for a 125 based on my experience so far at lessons. It was just a little jittery, which might have been fuelling, but I think more likely to have been my weight. lol. The only ones I'm ruling out are 280's and 300's, even though, particularly the 300's seem to be cheaper.

Been caught out before on eBay with a Firestorm that had been front ended, so was hoping to find someone selling who might have a good reputation within a club etc. I'm not dead set on a Beta (except for the 80). I'd probably consider anything for the moment. All of them will be capable of far more than I ever will be, so it's just reliability and parts availability that is the focus I suppose.

So far we've been doing 1st gear work on tarmac, with some very easy sections in the forest. Lots of low speed turning. I think I only got up into 2nd on the flats, just wasn't needed on the sections, so you make a good point, that essentially it's just learning what the clutch lever does to start with. At these speeds I guess I can walk alongside and catch him if he stalls out, but the 125 I was on had enough torque to pull me along without any throttle or slipping the clutch. So surprising to me. It was a little juddery, but considering my size...good going for a 125!

Thanks majesty, I was a subscriber on there for quite a while. I think I can see the post you mean, if it's the Rev3? Thats a bit older than I'd like to take on. I think we're ideally looking for 2018 onwards, give or take.

Hello everyone, My son (8) has been learning to ride motorcycles. He's also just recently had his first trials lessons (with me learning too). I'm a lifelong road rider with some experience of dirt riding in Spain, but nothing like trials. I'm a bit indecisive about whether to buy bikes just yet. On one hand, whilst I think I know what we need, I probably don't, but on the other, we're going for instruction, but then can't practice what we are being taught, which isn't efficient considering the cost of the instruction. Our lad hasn't ridden clutched before, but I'm confident I can teach him the basics of how a clutch works, without too much trouble. He has decent aptitude for learning things. We've only had 2 hours of trials instruction each. I'm a heavier rider at about 17 stone. For me, I think a 125 might lack a bit of grunt (having 2 hours experience on one....lol), so was thinking of going for a more widely available 250. A 200 might be ideal for me, but they are hard to find and carry a premium. For my lad, the bike that fits him would be the Beta 80 Junior, but again, hard to find used, it seems. Do you think we'd be better aiming for more instruction before trying to purchase bikes for ourselves? We do have somewhere to ride, so have that advantage, it's just apparently difficult to find bikes that aren't nearly new from dealers, which are costly. New is out of the question as we will be dropping them a lot. To cut a long story short, do we dive in, or accrue a few more hours of practice? He's on an OSET for training and I'm keen to get him on a clutched bike, so theres also that aspect. Lastly, other than ebay and dealers, do legitimate (road regged) bikes often change hands between club members? I suspect I'm probably looking for something like a Beta 250 Factory and an Evo 80 Junior for my lad. It's just hard to find anything for sale that isn't just a year or two old and costing £4k+ for the 250. Was hoping we could do this for about £3k for the 250 and maybe £2k for the 80. Am I unrealistic? Phew! long first post. Thanks for reading if you got this far. Appreciate any pointers.