gordonblackley

Thanks for all the advice, I have just bought a 2004 Sherco 290 for

The thing is, whilst what you say is correct, likening it to other forms of the sport. If you ride a Ducati then you need to keep on top of the maintenance, whereas you don't need to do so as much with a jap bike. As in the enduro world with KTM's you need to keep on top of the maintanace, on a yamaha for example you don't need to keep on top of them so meticulously and can ride them, wash them and throw them in the garage with the minimum of baisic maintanance ready for the next time. With the KTM's and the Ducati's they have on average more problems, but better performance than the jap stuff. My point is that for us newbies it is probable that the bikes performance is largely irrelavant as as all the bikes are way better than us, it will be our lack of ability/experiance which will hold the bike back and the most likely way for the bike to hold us back is if it lets us down mechanicly due to the newbies simalar lack of experiance at looking after a trials bike. Being able to actually ride the bike rather than spend time maintaining or fixing it and therefore gain experience is in all motorsports worth more to the beginner than any performance difference. So if I were giving advice on road racing I would advise a reliable easy going jap 600, not a highly strung TZ250 or Ducati. So over to you experienced riders, what is the trials equivalant?

Blimy, Pete a blast from the past! I'm down near Swindon, so not too far away, I might just come for a look on Sunday, what time does it start? I could do with coming to an event but have trouble finding local ones as an outsider to trials it seems like a friendly but secret society where you get info like "Trial at Johns farm on sunday", which is great if you know Johns farm or who to speak to to find out where it is. Anyway thanks everyone for the advice, I may stretch the budget a little further. And Peter, might see you on the weekend. Gordon

After years of Road racing (BSB) Enduro and some moto-x, I would like to give trials a go. However I have some questions. 1. Which brand of bike is the best (most reliable) when going for a cheap Approx