Decided to try a trials bike to use for trail riding after selling many conventional trail/mx bikes. I was sick of wrestling bulky over-engineered bikes in the tight woods that i like to ride. After one ride, im hooked. I cant understand why more people havn't caught on.

Have to up the tyer pressure to save the rims with trials tyers, at the cost of traction. Might be better off with nobbies in the forrests, No?

Trail riding is much more fun on a trials bike. I expect that the Scorpa Long RIde is the perfect bike for it.

It can be a bit tough keeping up with the big enduros on the power line trails and fire roads.

We have a few trails that we ride that are like a continuous section a mile long.

The best trail is in Utah, USA called "Five Miles of Hell". On a trials motorcycle it is more like five miles of heaven. What a Blast!

A guy here uses a Scorpa long ride in the ulster enduro championship. He recorded a 4th overall in a meeting a couple of weeks ago in the snotty Sperrin forests....

Perfect tool though I reckon taller people might find the going a little cramped on faster sections....

Yeah, but fire roads are boring anyway, gimme the thicker stuff anyday. Soon as you get off the two wheel roads, there is always a few fallen trees across your path. Thats when its great to be riding my trials bike with my enduro riding buddies!

...and they laughed when i said i was buying a trials bike.

A good freind of mine turned up for a sunday morning trail ride few years ago on a pre 65er

we all laughed at him to start with, by the end of the ride we were all hatching plans to buy one

I ended up having to build one ,on a modern enduro tool the only way to test the bike is up the speed you can get a trials bike in all sorts of trouble at not much over running pace

Yesterday I had a test-ride on THE next Trail and Trials bike.

www.fxbikes.com

This was just a prototype..but imagine what you could do on a 45 kg bike. My impression: rides like a (trick)bicycle, for now rather trimmed for (downhill) speeds then for trials..but a rake change is possible. And for transport: put it on a car bicycle rack... Suddenly my Montesa is quite a heavy chuck a metal....

Will have another(hopefully more extensive) try later this month and report back.

Stefan

I'd break that thing real fast. After fifteen minutes in my hands those wheels would look like taco shells.

It is probably great for someone coming from a mountain bike mindset but after being on motorcycles for years it would feel like a kids toy.

bronson,

I went trail riding on my 03 Scorpa SY-250 last summer with a group of friends near Grand Lake in Colorado. They ride enduro and dual sport bikes. We rode single tracks mostly. On the single tracks I was able to keep up with them very well. I rode a few jeep trails that the others with big bikes didn't even try and I had a great time. It was fun to hop over logs and then turn around and watch the others struggle over them. I wasn't able to keep up with them on the fire roads between single tracks but there was a fair amount of traffic that consisted of cars, trucks, mountain bikes, and 4 wheelers and it wasn't really save to speed. It would have been nice to have the long ride seat with the larger fuel tank but I did just fine strapping on a couple of Nalgene fuel bottles. All in all I had a lot more fun on the trials bike than I would have had on my XR400R. Having had both kind of bikes I prefer a trials bike.

Ciao

Doug Wilson

Glad to hear it Doug!

Must admit, I was mostly worried by the lack of seat when I bought it for trail riding, but the only time I found I missed it was when trying to take a very sharp fast turn- mx style with the leg out.

I didnt carry extra fuel, that's one advantage of riding with enduros. There gonna have plenny left for you if you do run out Truth is though, when you ride the tighter stuff you dont go through near as much as they do cos there reving so damn much!

Robee,

those down hill mountain bikes dont break with all the abuse they give em and they have even less susspension travel than the fxbikes. Dont forget it is already 25kg lighter! I can't see it folding, especially the titanium.

I think the modern trials bike is still too heavy and over engineered, take a good look at your swing arm. Like the mx bikes, they are built for the very extreme of abuse which probably less than 1 percent of owners can dish out.

Edited April 21, 200521 yr by bronson

I've used a trials bike for trail ridding for years. The only way to go! The uglier the trail, the better. The extra tank that Hebo makes that attaches to the forks work great. It connects into the main tank so you do not have to take it off to transfer fuel. It holds a little over a quart. As Robee said, "5 Miles of Hell" trail in Southern Utah is one of the best.

I use my Montesa quite often for trail riding, much to the chagrin of my riding partners. I'm still waiting for the larger fuel tank for the Montesa but the Hebo unit works rather well. A seat would be nice (I'm old) but I deal with it.

I just picked up a KTM 200EXC which is the closest thing to a trials bike on steroids I've ever ridden. It doesn't weight that much more than the Montesa but has 12" of suspension and a rocket for an engine. It's like riding a mountain bike with a Hemi.

I put X-11's on the front and back with a Rekluse auto clutch and I swear I could probably ride this thing on many sections with good results.

Needless to say I think the Montesa and the 200E will cause my KTM 400EXC to turn into garage art.

By the way, 5 Miles of Hell on the 400E was an interesting trip. I should have taken the Montesa.

Anything other than a Trials motorcycle would definately make the Five Miles of Hell trail live up to its name.

There were quite a few bike parts and pieces that were scattered on the edges of the trail from some of the casualties.

Four of us rode through it one way, checked our fuel supply and decided to ride it again backwards back to the truck.

scorpas dont have a long fuel range thats the only bad thing about them, while my little sherco 200 will run for ages on a tank, weh can you buy them hebo tanks?