cg125

I got mine from MotoMerlin. Always helpful and posts here as hrc1John

Could do, but it's quicker and easier to move them directly I don't mind putting my money where my mouth is! Wouldn't do me any harm to look through some threads about how to ride either! John

This new forum is a great idea. Thanks! If any of the mods have the time and inclination it would be really handy if they could trawl through the forums and move some of the existing relevant threads here to get things going. It may even be possible to add new moderators whose only extra power is to move threads (handy when you add a new forum, and also for general housekeeping!). Just a thought!

/ posted reply instead of new thread /

I must admit that I had discounted the Serow as they are always being touted as great trail bikes for small people!I think I've decided that I'm looking for a tall, 4-stroke 250 enduro bike with e-start [1]. It won't be ideal for LDTs, but it will be good enough. [1] But who knows what I'll end up with!

I went to have a look at a Hare and Hounds for the first time at the weekend. Judging by the tightness of the course a bit of trials experience would probably come in very handy!It looks like a whole lot of fun. Much more technical than I expected, and not just thrashing round like a long distance MX race which was what I had imagined. I am now definitely looking for a 250 enduro bike for next year. I'll keep the Rev3, so I'm not completely crossing over to the dark side!

I'm still on the sharp end of the learning curve because I haven't been riding long and I'm crap. That means that every outing is still an adventure!In lots of sports and activities it is common to reach a plateau once you get reasonably competent. From then on the rewards are harder to get, because you improve at a much slower rate and it takes much more work to improve. At this point there are really three options: - quit and find something else to to - continue less competitevely (and often less frequently) for fun - keep working at it I have no idea how well you ride, and I may be givign an egg-sucking lesson, but it might be worth considering some training to help get you past the plateau. Have you tried Steve Saunders' trials school? If you haven't I'd bet good money that investing a day and

That's OK. I do that anyway!So would a 30 year old twinshock trials bike still be more trials-capable than a modern trail bike? A TY250 vs a TTR250 for instance?

I'm looking at a variety of bikes and trying to get my head round what makes them good for a particular task. How would the trials ability of a twinshock compare with a modern trail (not trials) bike? Just curious.

Thanks. Definitely sounds like something I'd like to have a go at. Now I just need to sort myself out a road legal bike . . .

I haven't tried either LDT's or enduros but I fancy having a bash. I don't really have any idea how many of each I would do. There seem to be more enduro type events around though. I think my riding ability is likely to be the biggest limiting factor in any discipline. I'd like to finish, but that's about the height of my ambition for now. A DRZ was at the top of my list for a while, but I think I'd prefer to go for versatilty rather than speed. Ideally I'd like one road legal bike that I could use for a bit of green laning, easy trialing, LDTs and the odd enduro. How would an Alp compare with a twin shock for regular trials? And back to the original question, could I ride one without my kees up by my chin? Or is it a lost cause? Ta!

I'm thinking about getting something for some LDTs and a bit of green laning (and quite possibly entering a Hare and Hounds as some sort of moving roadblock!), and was thinking about a Beta Alp. I like the e-start too! I've never tried one for size though. Is it a practical proposition? Other possibilities on my list at the moment are XR250 or possibly DRZ400, but I'm open to other suggestions. What do you reckon?

I want to find out about LDTs, but there doesn't seem to be much information here or elswhere on line. What's involved and what's the best way to start? Thanks!

Does anyone know of a trial or practice day in the South East this Saturday (11 Aug) ? Ta!

That link's broken, don't know why. Try this: http://www.trialsschool.co.uk

Steve Saunders runs an excellent trails school (search here and you'll find several recommendations). According to the web site thay can provide bikes too: www.saundersextremesports.co.uk

Like Jordi says! But if you do find anywhere that we can legally ride for a bit of practise, please let me know too

Just had a read through here, and no one has mentioned shifting your weight back so it's on the pegs and not the bars. May be a factor? I'm very new to trials, but it made a lot of diffence to me when I consciously started to keep my weight on my feet and off my arms. John

Yesterday, after three and a half weeks, I finally got the chance to put it to the test. I went along for an evening trial at a friend's club, and was a bit alarmed to discover that they didn't have a yellow (novice) route. After walking the first section I nearly packed up and went home, but pulled myself together and had a bash at the red route (round here it goes yellow, red, blue, white). It took a few sections to get some confidence up (it was mostly steep climbs and descents), but I found that it wasn't too bad. The Trials School had made a huge difference. Instead of feeling completely out of my league, I felt that I could basically ride these sections with a bit of practise. I even cleaned a couple! I am going to start wearing my knee and elbow pads though . . . John

I agree, and it's definitely a mistake I have made (and still do sometimes!). It sunk in when I saw one of the juniors whizzing round a section, twice as fast as me without touching the clutch. There was no need for the clutch on this simple section, and leaving it alone and going a bit faster made everything easier.I think it's probably worth getting into the habit of riding with a finger on each lever though, so when you do need them you don't need to change your grip on the bars. John

I like the idea of all the skinny blokes riding KLR650s

I've been going over some of the things I learned at the Trials School last week. It was mainly to help me remember them, but I thought that they might be useful to other people too so here are some notes. I learned loads more, but these are bits that I recall as being particularly significant. I claim any errors or omissions as mine and not Steve or Dave's! I'm a complete beginner, so some (or all) of this may be old hat. On the other hand, there may be things that only become obvious once you know them . . . Keep your weight back, on the pegs, off the arms Your legs are better at supporting you than your arms. With your weight firmly on the pegs you can relax your arms which gives better control and is less tiring. I knew I was getting better when my legs hurt more than my arms. Turn your shoulders with the bars This helps with balance, and keeps the throttle constant. If you keep your shoulders square to the bike you will open the throttle on left turns, and close it on right turns. Bend your knees outwards Bow them out sideways. They don't really like to bend like that but it is possible. This allows the bike to move under you and gives you space to correct your balance. The bike moves more naturally and everything becomes much easier. Practising these three things round a simple section for half an hour fundamentally changed my riding. Everything became smoother and more controlled; it took less effort and allowed me to concentrate more on my line rather than fighting the bike. Watching the more advanced riders was very interesting: very often when things started to get tricky their knees would come in towards the tank as they tensed up, and they had more difficulty negotiating obstacles. When they were reminded to get their knees out, their riding became much more fluid again with impressive results. When you've got both feet down, or you're off and pushing, get some weight back on the pegs This won't improve your riding as such, but it makes life a lot easier when things aren't going too well. It's really obvious when you think about it but I wish I'd worked it out for myself earlier. If you're paddling the bike with both feet, or walking next to it trying to push it up a muddy hill, the rear wheel will just spin. If you can manage to get at least one foot on a peg, even if you end up "scooting" the bike, once you get some weight on the rear wheel things start to happen and the bike is much more likely to move. Downhill control Going downhill under control is something I still need to work on, but I made some good progress. I found that if I could manage the descent purely on engine braking it was fine, but as soon as I started to use the brakes and clutch it started to go badly wrong. I tended to go careering down the hill with the clutch in, revving the engine like mad as I tried to hold on. First thing to practise was riding down a slope, still just using engine braking, with the clutch and front brake covered -- but leaving them well alone and not pulling on the clutch in a panic. Once I had mastered that, I could think about actually using them. I found that it helped if I consciously reminded myself to shut the throttle as I rolled over the top, then push forward with my arms, then brake. Off the throttle Push arms forwards Brake and clutch I might get some funny looks muttering "Off, Push, Brake" at the top of a hill, but it seems to help. Balancing As an exercise, Dave had me balance the bike while it was stationary. He held it so I could get the feel of how it works: bars turned, brakes on, knees out, looking forward. It went pretty well, until he told me that I was balancing and he hadn't been holding on for a while -- at which point I immediately lost it of course. Later on I tried it a bit while I was queuing for a section, and it really works. Knees out seems to be key. I found that I was balancing almost effortlessly, to the point that I thought there must be someone behind me holding onto the bike as a wind up (there wasn't!). My riding has improved beyond recognition by lunchtime on Saturday, and continued to improve for the rest of the weekend. I'm really looking forward to my next trial now to see how much difference it really makes in practice! John

Thanks Bob. I owe you a beer!Tried this at the weekend and it works a treat. Freed off by the time I got into third gear; took all of five seconds. This has got to be better than messing around with cable ties and string . . .

I just want to say a huge thanks to Steve, Dave and Alex for all their help and encouragement at the Trials School this weekend. Despite being a complete beginner amongst a rather experienced group, I was well looked after and my riding improved massively over the two days. Steve has had lots of recommendations here before, but I want to add another one: Everyone should go on one of his courses if they possibly can. Going as a beginner means that you learn the right way of doing things before the bad habits get too ingrained, but more advanced riders clearly get a lot out of it too. I would be surprised if there's anyone here who wouldn't come away having learned something. Booking up my next visit right now!

Assuming it's understood that the markers are paired making "gates" then going straight up is clearly wrong. I can see how it might be confusing to keep track of which markers are paired though.In the few trials that I have done so far the routes have been marked out with pairs of yellow, red, blue and white cards (in ascending order of difficulty). There's no indication of left and right, but it doesn't seem to cause any major problems. I would definitely prefer to follow one colour throughout the section. The "variations" system mentioned above sounds like it might be overly complicated. For absolute clarity how about having the paired cards numbered with, say, the right hand one underlined? It's going to make laying out more time consuming though compared with just using plain cards, but might be easier than arrows.