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Week 150 - Make Trials Central Your Bible


Andy
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some way of providing a common tool (or spreadsheet format) for results and then a way of automating the results would be great. Add a few words and a report would be excellent. I stopped buying TMX a few years ago, but there still aren't the regs online for some centres (East South Wales) and some clubs (WVAC relies on the excellent Western Centre website) and only 20% or so are on TC.

Also, I only use my cheque book for trials entry fees, I've entered one West Glos event using Paypal and a emailable PDF file, but that is very much the exception. Modernisation for regs, entries and results seems to be essential.

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Perhaps we could also suggest a different role for TMX.

Its not the results service it once was simply because for my own centre Gordon Imrie posts the results on a sunday evening or very early the following week. The North East report on TC is often accompnied by 100's of pictures courtesy of Hilary, Ray, Bill and Peter, before TC a north east centre trial report with a single picture was very rare in TMX.

So in my view TMX needs to move away from results and more into features such as real tests of products and bikes, interviews with riders and teams and a different kind of review based look at events from a riders perspective.

For me it would be very sad to see TMX go but its not worth buying for results, its often five days later than TC, TMX needs to move on...

and if TMX needs advertising to survive it surely needs readers

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So in my view TMX needs to move away from results and more into features such as real tests of products and bikes, interviews with riders and teams and a different kind of review based look at events from a riders perspective.

And this is also the way TrialsCentral has to move to take it forward,Spains TodoTrial are much more together in this department.

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Perhaps we could also suggest a different role for TMX.

Its not the results service it once was simply because for my own centre Gordon Imrie posts the results on a sunday evening or very early the following week. The North East report on TC is often accompnied by 100's of pictures courtesy of Hilary, Ray, Bill and Peter, before TC a north east centre trial report with a single picture was very rare in TMX.

So in my view TMX needs to move away from results and more into features such as real tests of products and bikes, interviews with riders and teams and a different kind of review based look at events from a riders perspective.

For me it would be very sad to see TMX go but its not worth buying for results, its often five days later than TC, TMX needs to move on...

and if TMX needs advertising to survive it surely needs readers

It would be interesting to see their year on year circulation figures,or "readership" figures as they prefer to call them. I believe if a readership of say 40000 is quoted,this usually equates to 10000 copies, as the circulation figure is multiplied by four,based on the assumption that one copy is read by four people.

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T+MX was useful for emptying the vacuum cleaner out in and wrapping rubbish in ready to chuck out. I tried it with Trials Central and my laptop's never been the same since.... Oh look I've just managed to put some rubbish into it with this comment... does that count?

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have to confess we, in my large club, a terrible at this. yes i've registered (some time ago) with Andy to publish news, but am too lazy/busy to get off my a*** and put up our trials in the calendar or publish the results up. i'm defiantly not the wordsmith to throw together a report and we in the south east defiantly lack a person who can report on events. Sean Fowler covers many but with so much on (often a grass track, mx, enduro and several trials - sometime as many as 5), one man can't be everywhere at once.

But from the readership perspective it is good to see reports/pic/results up here, and i look if there are my end of the world (South East, sometimes southern, south midland and eastern).

as to the role/future of tmx - that's a tough cookie to work out. the industry (off road as a whole), needs to reach the consumers (you riders, fans, etc) and it does work....

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A good column mike...

I have been writing reports and sending pics in for our Oxford Ixion Events for some years now to T&MX News infact ever since journalist Norman Bainbridge retired and MCN stopped off-road reports.

There is still exitement when opening the said 'Copy of' on the day to see if the report and pics are in so how do you replicate this glee when after all once I press my send key to Trials Central it's as good as published.

When one has been waxing lyrical after a long days riding/organising and swallowed a few ciders surely it's a good thing to have an editor to remove some of the spiel put down on paper and lastly what about the pics.

PS...We use use Trials central for advertising our events on the calender and I personally log on dailly as it is a superb site for a tenner a year.

Ken O'Brien Clerk of Course /Course Plotter/Author/magician and more.....

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I know exactly what you mean about the "glee" of seeing ones report in print, and yes it's not the same pressing the send button and having it appear on screen. However, getting online feedback through the forums more than makes up for this.

There's nothing better than taking the time to write a report, upload some pictures for someone to then comment on the lines of; 'fabulous event and thanks for the excellent report' within a few minutes of submitting it.

I also get a kick of seeing how many people have viewed the report on line.

As for T&MX News being read by four people in my house, three of the others can't read (yet) and the other one would think she was reading a foreign language, so it's definately one copy-one reader here.

Pete

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have to admit that all 4 of us study in detail all off road publications that we regularly lay our hands on (TMX, DBR, Moto, Moto X, TBM, etc - the trials one occasional, haven't found the new enduro one yet), then dispatch old copies to the "show room" of my old man's tyre centre, where the poor non motorcyclists must be baffled by the stark choice of off road, off road or err off road ....

Edited by rabie
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