Hi my name is Ben wibberley and I have been riding trials since I was 5. I have been a regular competitor in the British trials championship for many years.

I rode round 2 of the championship at Westwood near Barnsley and I have to say I think it was one of the worst trials I have ridden this year. I rode the championship class going up from expert A last year as the rules have changed to non-stop and they were meant 2 ease the sections. But I dropped over 100 which is more than I usually did last year. This is because the sections were not set to the rules and some are un-rideable without stopping!!! So where's the severity change???

With the current rules you are also putting massive pressure on observers. I felt the observing was very inconsistent with some riders getting away with stopping and others been given a second or so and getting away with it. This can make or break the top riders findl position!!

And finally I didn't speak to 1 person that enjoyed the trial. Every rider I speak to hates these rules so how nobody listens to us? The beginning of the year a survey was done for who does/doesn't want the non-stop rules? But no results came out?!!! Maybe I am the only 1 that is brave enough to speak out as others maybe contracted etc to ride these event but I for 1 will not be riding anymore BTC with current rules.

Cheers Ben

Good for u ben for standing up for u self lets hope others follow maybe then the ACU will listen

2 rounds in and it ain't working? who knows if it will? Who will have an answer after 6 rounds?

The first round was possibly too easy this round was possibly too hard and not set out to No Stop can I be Clerk of the Course it sounds like a great job!!!

Totally agree with you Ben, Westwood this year Wasn't a patch on last years round. All the ACU have achieved is that they have ruined it for spectators & for the majority of riders.

Ben, fair play for having your say. I hope it leads to some constructive debate.

Maybe the riders should get together and organise an event to show how hard the sections should be, and what format, rules etc are deemed to work best.

I'm not being at all critical when I say that, I just think it would be an interesting experiment.

totally agree ben blame the importers they are to blame

Hi Ben

Very refreshing to hear the views of someone who actually rides the sections. I'm a 50 something who does it for fun cos I love the sport [don't think I've won a trophy in my life] so it matters not a bit whether I ride non-stop or hippity hoppity [can't do that either]

BUT

it did seem ill-judged, to me, that the British championship should have different rules to the World rounds. We clearly have some of the best riders in the world, but how can they hope to develop and compete if their domestic championship walks a different path. It may have been the case that the entries were dropping off, and that may have been because the riders were perceiving the sections were too hard, but I can't see that knee jerking back into no-stop was the best-judged solution.

Would it not have been better for the ACU and riders representatives to try and come up with a formula that still allows the best of our riders to be tested as in world trials, whilst the next levels down can still feel able to complete.

Incidentaly, the point about being fair to the observers is especialy well made-it is SO-O-O difficult. [i have only observed once and would NEVER do it again after the abuse I got from some of the riders.....]

All the very best guys

Will-in-the-mud

Ps 2012 Ossa factory replicas rule!!!!

Ben, fair play for having your say. I hope it leads to some constructive debate.

Maybe the riders should get together and organise an event to show how hard the sections should be, and what format, rules etc are deemed to work best.

I'm not being at all critical when I say that, I just think it would be an interesting experiment.

But like thats gonna happen ? How many of these riders turn out each month to set out their clubs trials ? Hope you get my drift. Always get the moaners so you say "ok next time you come and help set out" do they turn up ? well what do you think?

Winner of the trial James Dabill had this to say shortly after on twitter :-

" Well even though i was happy with the win yesterday no stop still sucks!! "

Incidentaly, the point about being fair to the observers is especialy well made-it is SO-O-O difficult. [i have only observed once and would NEVER do it again after the abuse I got from some of the riders.....]

Thats why every club is now struggling to get any observers at all. Wont be long before all the observing will be riders observing each other.

Ben Hemingway's Twitter Tweet :-

Bloody non-stop is dangerous !!pic.twitter.com/4NhLTrRr

Thats why every club is now struggling to get any observers at all. Wont be long before all the observing will be riders observing each other.

Old Trials Fanatic , are you sure thats the reason why every club is struggling to get observers ? Of the last 3 trials i've attended , i have observed at 2 and ridden in 1 . The 2 that i observed at had a full compliment of observers and i didn't hear of any observer receiving any abuse .

The trial i rode in had 16 sections and probably about 4 sections were self observed , Any abuse to observers ? Nope.

By the way , from my recent experience , if i marked everyone to the letter of the 'no-stop' law , most riders would have fived my section at some point. But i didn't 5 anyone for stopping because i think the no-stop rules are OUTDATED , DANGEROUS , and IMPOSSIBLE to observe correctly.

And did i get any abuse ? Nope .

But what i did get were lots of smiling happy riders , thanking me for observing.

Here's a thought.

I suppose the problem with no-stop now is that the bikes are so good that you need the technical aspects of the modern rules in order to test rider skills, whereas with no-stop, the sections would have to be, of necessity, dangerous to be testing?

I don't know it thats true or not, but I'm sure riders like Ben and James etc would be able to give a knowledgeable answer...?

Will-in-the-mud

Old Trials Fanatic , are you sure thats the reason why every club is struggling to get observers ? Of the last 3 trials i've attended , i have observed at 2 and ridden in 1 . The 2 that i observed at had a full compliment of observers and i didn't hear of any observer receiving any abuse .

The trial i rode in had 16 sections and probably about 4 sections were self observed , Any abuse to observers ? Nope.

By the way , from my recent experience , if i marked everyone to the letter of the 'no-stop' law , most riders would have fived my section at some point. But i didn't 5 anyone for stopping because i think the no-stop rules are OUTDATED , DANGEROUS , and IMPOSSIBLE to observe correctly.

And did i get any abuse ? Nope .

But what i did get were lots of smiling happy riders , thanking me for observing.

When i try to rope people in to observe the most common reason they give for not doing so is that they have recieved or experienced in the past abuse or arguements from riders and they dont want to observe again because of that. Seriously thats the most common response i get. Second is they dont want to "get it wrong". It may be different in your area and clubs there are obviously inundated with people wanting to observe but i do know a lot of clubs struggle especially in this centre to get all sections observed. At our last trial only two turned up.

The fact that you decided to observe a non stop trial to your own interpretation of what you consider the rules should be is between you and the clerk of the course and nothing to do with me.

I wasnt there so I cant comment directly but my pal who was there last year and this said the crowds were only 10% of last year, no stop has not increased level of attractiveness.

Entries were down from last year.

Most importantly Ben has put his case clearly and as he has moved up a class was exactly the important part of the jigsaw as to whether the change to no stop would be a success.

i am assuming he would be thinking about either dropping down or dropping out, the opposite of what was envisaged when no stop was decided.