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Was Nostop A Success Or A Failure ?


geeman
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Axulsuv # 41. I rather like the golf courses in Florida - the ones with alligators in the streams - No stopping in there or you would get your leg chewed!

I stand corrected but from what I remember Eddie Lejeune was a no stop rider, the time stop and hop really set in was just after Lejeune the Tierry Michaude / Jordi Tarras era when British WTC was held a Houghton tower in Lancashire.

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Maggar you are not the messiah. YOU'RE A VERY NAUGHTY BOY!!! There are people from overseas reading this who would not understand the Brutish sense of "humour". I liked it though. Eee lad, oi 'ad mi'sen a reet good larf. See if our friend from Belgium can decipher that!

Seriously folks: what of the FIM's stated aim, of revitalising the sport? Did it need it? Really? For most of us trials is cheap and won't land us in hospital, which would threaten our income and ability to support our wives and children. It's also a barrel of fun. For most it won't make much difference if we're allowed stop or not because we can't do the "tricks" (advanced technique). We shouldn't be arguing WTC anyway, most of us don't have the skills to qualify to have an opinion.

Where it gets us though, is when our national association thinks it has to change local rules to "fit in" with the way WTC is run. They don't have to you know! Now you have something to argue. I don't care what Raga and Bou have to ride. I want the right to make my mind up, along with the blokes in my neck of the woods.

WTC rules were changed over the years to accomodate better machines and better techniques. And to make the sport more spectacular, which it now is. And it's created an expectation, especially in young people, that what we do is, at top level, an extreme sport and thereby sexy. So: let's revitalise the sport by going back to the crusty rules of 25 years ago, thereby killing it for young people. Yeah right. Fricken' brilliant Mr Michaud. If we want to grow the sport we have to attract young'uns. Don't argue with me about this, your argument won't wash any more than those smelly old dungarees, Maggar! Right here is why I think Nostop is a failure.

We had a young'un here in NZ recently who might have gone to the top. He beat Pol Tarres by a nose in Australia. OK, Pol had an off day. But now our guy's off doing enduro. What's the problem? Maybe he lacks motivation, maybe the thought of having to beat the top 5 is scary. It is actually, like climbing a wall of glass. But the main thing? Money. It costs to travel from NZ, but the main problem is staying in Europe. You can't work if you are training hard enough to win anything. The fees our old mate FIM charge are, shall we say, a wee bit higher than entering the NZ championships. And of course you have to pay it 14 times. Travel to Japan or America, to Australia and back to Europe in one year as well? Support a minder too? Get outta here! Where's the sponsorship and the prize money?

To revitalise WTC would mean to make it easy for guys, maybe down to the 10th place in the Juniors, to stay in the game. Guys with talent, not necessarily rich Daddies. No, I don't know where the money would come from. Maybe we could get Bill Gates into trials. Fiddling with the rules won't cut it though, especially when those changes make the trial less sexy.

Here I am, arguing WTC and I can't even do a proper splat. Pathetic. You know what though: you can run a local trial that is both stop and nonstop using the self-same sections. You just have to divide the results accordingly and get the riders to wear different coloured numberplates or bibs, if it is observed. It would be interesting to see how the riders chose. Probably you would be forced to set multi-grade sections like we do in NZ because riders of similar ability will want easier sections if they have to ride nonstop. We actually set 5 grades in the same section, for those who care.

I talk too much and it's late. Hasta la vista amigos.

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"Eee lad, oi 'ad mi'sen a reet good larf.

This is what I think it translate to:

Hey kerel, daar heb ik eens goed mee gelachen.

:moon:

Nice comeback - seems he's on the British humour wavelength

Eddie Lejeune could ride either no-stop or stop and hop as sections demanded. The trick riding started long before Tarres and his Beta. Riders were stopping, hopping, reversing on twinshocks. The advent of monos just made it easier and riders like Tarres moved it on a level

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Money is certainly a barrier as the cost of competing is high but there isnt a big enough market to support many full time riders. Just seen another thread about extreme enduro. Where is the cash coming from in that sport ? Are they really selling 3 or 4 times the volume of bikes ? Enviromentally enduro will do much more damage looking at the videos, so you would think land access problems would be worse. Then costs of entry, amount of fuel per event, maintenance being higher. However I know a recent convert to trials just cant believe the price of plastics compared to mx and its the same base material.

So can anbody explain how a johnnny walker or alfredo gomez can't get funding for trials but can be a professional enduro rider ?

People say that there is nothing wrong with trials but economically there is. Compare the spec of an enduro bike to a trials bike, costs are similar. If you cartwheel your trials bike down a hill you need to remortgage !!

So if its not the rules what needs to change to get more participation to bring down the cost of bikes and allow young riders the support to compete ?

Edited by baldilocks
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