funtrials

Please inform us as to the correct reason why the scores were so high then.

Jumbo shrimp.....MIcrosoft Works.....rap music....airline schedules......government intelligence.....adult male....Progressive Conservative Party......skilled road-racer.....light-weight 4-stroke....motorcycle safety....religious science.....fair FIM rules....Accuforecast....socialist worker....religious tolerance....airline food.....British Intelligence (sorry, I should probably delete that one!)...Great Britain (ok, ok, scratch that one too, they ARE great riders, sorry again...how about "Great American"?)

HALF the sections the #5 rider didn't even make through once! Not once in three tries! Has the FIM changed the rules further to require all riders to ride TY80's? I've scored over 100 points in local trials and after those days I've thought about quitting. I am amazed though at how in most world trials they can have the points (usually) be pretty right on for the best rider in world history (Bou), AND ALSO for some 16 year old youth-class kid on a 125cc bike in his first world round, all w/in the SAME section (different lines, but that's easier said than done,) and the sections all seem to be pretty reasonable for all THREE lines. Pretty amazing.

I bet that they COULD have made some of those sections, had they been allowed to stop and gather their thoughts, to hop, to jump sideways, to jump in place on the back wheel, to roll backwards in a super-human effort to line up perfectly, to stop and catch their breath, to stop and study the obstacle ahead, to not have to divert mental energy to have to worry about "keeping forward motion or we hang you", etc. But we'll never know.

A rider in the top 7, French champion Loris Gubian, had almost SEVEN TIMES AS MANY FIVES as cleans! That's not trials, that's an Erzberg Rodeo on steroids. The last local trial I rode there were a grand total of 30 section-rides (total)....one rider in this world round had THIRTY-ONE FIVES (Pere Borrellas)! THIRTY-ONE! I assume he crashed violently on a fair number of those fives.....not what the crowd wants. Obviously something is wrong.

Yep, typical, the FIM puts an ENDUROCROSS rider in charge of an observed TRIAL world round in an attempt to change our sport into Observed Endurocross like I've been saying all along. :-) (I'm just joking! Seriously, I have nothing but admiration for Graham, I've seen him ride in person multiple times, and I'm sure he'd will do fine, as he's done well in designing previous British world trials rounds before.)

Test your GAUGE against at least 2 other gauges.....the first 6 months I rode I had about 60% too much air, as my gauge was simply off. A mere TWO POUNDS of pressure can make all the difference in a trial.

Yes, I hear you, as MY club has the same problem (well, when every single rider in the whole club shows up at the same trial in the same section at the same time, including all the observers, that is.)

That's ALREADY been proven.

Valid points, but in one Italian world round, even with all that in place, the riders BOYCOTTED one day, because the sections were too tough because the organizers REFUSED to listen to them. You can lead a trials marshall to water but you can't make him....

How can my trials club have this SAME "problem"!? :-)

So please give us your better-than-that solution, sir.

You're trying to come up with some valid ideas to help the sport. Good work. Perhaps two versions of the bikes, one high-tech ($), and one super-bare-bones, might work? Not just one cheaper version, though.

True. (Written from my Commodore 64.)

On one lap, a great rider who almost made the podium the very last round, and who finished ON the podium the last (no-stop allowed) trial of 2012, who is multi-time national champ of one of the best trials nations of all time, and who has won the biggest trial in the world many times, got TEN fives....in one lap! It's NOT his fault, it's the powers that be that messed up. Only the top FOUR made it under 100 points! That's not a motorcycle trial, that's a motorcycle drag-fest. I'm glad I did not witness this fiasco of a trial. What has the FIM done to our sport?

If Bou BREAKS A SWEAT then the trials is too hard.

Bou has his swagger back. Utter domination the last 2 events. He's a shoe-in to win it this year. How many points do you think the riders would have gotten if the old fun-rules were in effect? My guess is about 1/3 less, making the trial almost (well, almost) right on. Your guesses? The new rules, which handcuff the best of the best in our great sport, have created a sport where people are not, repeat NOT, seeing the best riding in the world...period. The FIM is puting out an inferior product from what they did last year. Are manufacturer profit$ worth all this, guys? Of course not. I can feel the tide turning in our favor.

Ok, after the verbage came out, it appears I was COMPLETELY wrong about the cause of the high scores. Regarding Pasquet, from what I understand, he only makes RECOMMENDATIONS to the powers that be (the trials marshalls....he's a liaison I think), so his powers are limited. But Bou getting 5 the previous trial, then over twelve TIMES that many the next event, does show that something is wrong. Heck, I myself would have only finished a mere 1/3 point per section ride higher than Pere (hey, I think I'll ride the next world round!) :-) Does Dibs need to hit the weight-room, or something (to help drag his bike through a trials with real hard sections)? Or maybe ask Matteo what he's taking!? But it was probably that the marshalls just didn't understand how much of a straight-jacket the riders are under with the new no-fun rules (especially on Spanish-type sections.) They just trusted that the FiM's new rules were not handcuffing the riders all that terribly much. They were wrong. That will improve over time, though, I'll admit, as the marshalls get used to the new funless rules.

Unexpected rain right before, or during the event(?).....and the sections were not creek-type sections where a lesser rider can paddle through for only a "3", but were make-or-break type ledges, or maybe hill climbs? Or maybe the FIM is indeed trying to destroy our sport, like one particular forum member has been insidiously implying for awhile now? :-) I smell a possible boycott coming on?

Bou was in a mere 5th place before he got the factory Honda, then he won 6 years in a row.....coincidence, or a tricked-out bike with factory $$$$$ behind it? That would be like Fuji (5th last year?) switching bikes and winning the whole thing for the next 6 years.....would that happen?

Say after one year on a factory Mont (Raga), and after one year on a factory Gasser (Bou), what do you think the race for #1 would look like, versus what it's been over the last few years?

If I had to guess, I'd say this guesstimate of their 2013 World Round budget pretty much sums it up: 2013 Ossa Factory FIM World Round Budget: Salaries: rider/mechanics/minders/crew: $194,300 Team truck rental, fuel, bike operations, supplies, etc.: $77,500 Food, lodging, etc: $45,321 Flights/travel to events: $20,400 Extortion money to FIM: $0

BTW, I admit I don't really know what the letters "F", "I", and "M" stand for. My GUESS is "Funneling In Money". It COULD be "Fattening Incomes of Manufacturers", but no, that would just be too obvious. My third guess is "Fédération Internationale de Moolah", which of course would explain a whole lot. Can anybody tell us what it stands for, on the off chance that I have not already guessed it? EDIT: Ok, ok, now that I've thought about it some more, I'm really leaning towards "Fédération Internationale de Manufacturers".

Looking at the full pdf of the FIM results, they wouldn't even tell us the BIKE, AND ALSO TEAM of said riders, for multiple riders, unless riders bow to their extortion. Because of the FIM's obsessive zeal for profits, it's pretty obvious their next logical step (which is only a matter of time), will be to ALSO require a fee for *OTHER* vital information about a rider to be listed in the results. Here are the published results of a typical 2015 FIM world round, I predict: .....RIDER..................BIKE......................TEAM 1. Tony Bou...........Montesa........Repsol Montesa Honda 2. ----------.............------------................---------- 3. ----------.............------------................---------- 4. T. Fujinami........Montesa........Repsol Montesa Honda 5. ----------.............------------................---------- 6. ----------.............------------................---------- 7. ----------.............------------................---------- 8. ----------.............------------................---------- 9. ----------.............------------................---------- 10. --------.............------------................---------- 11. --------.............------------................---------- 12. --------.............------------................---------- 13. --------.............------------................---------- 14. --------.............------------................---------- 15. --------.............------------................---------- I think there's some information missing here, but I just can't quite put my finger on it. (Don't think this can't happen.) However, looking on the bright side, this WILL make Andy's job a bit easier though.

Thank god you warned me, as I was just about to turn on the TV to watch it! :-) Actually, being in America kind of stinks, as normally, we CAN watch Paris Hilton, Kim Kardashian, and Honey Bo-boo (if you don't know who all of those are then, trust me, you don't WANT to know), but we normally can NOT watch Bou and Raga. Fake pro wrestling is always available to watch, but real pro trials is not. I'd love to believe in reincarnation after death because then maybe I'd be reborn in, say, Barcelona or Yorkshire (sometimes I hate being a Secular Humanist) to get my "fix" of trials on the TV.