January 22, 201412 yr According to a friend... Jordi Tarres is setting up again in Barcelona... Has anybody else heard anything??
January 22, 201412 yr Info here. http://translate.google.co.uk/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&u=http://www.trial-club.com/&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dtrial%2Bclub%26rlz%3D1T4ACAW_en___GB360
January 22, 201412 yr Crikey, spreading the buyers even thinner again. Good luck to all our manufacturers - they're going to need it!
January 22, 201412 yr Sad we can't make one here in the heartland of motorcycle trials. I'm sure many would like to ride a home built machine. Anyone know why Spain is a hotbed for trials bike makers
January 23, 201412 yr It would be more than interesting to see what you would come up with Ross ? Rigid frame with girder forks ,perkins diesel and solid rubber tyres springs to mind Something like that yellow submarine you sailed on Sunday..
January 23, 201412 yr "Sad we can't make one here in the heartland of motorcycle trials. I'm sure many would like to ride a home built machine. Anyone know why Spain is a hotbed for trials bike makers?" Easy. An Iberian historic obsession with small motorcycles, having the climate and older urban environment that suits them. An understanding of 'flair' in design so that the engineering side is combined with style in frame, plastics and graphics design. A local economic and political framework, that supports small manufacturing companies. Currently Artur Mas, President of the Generalitat, Catalonia (i.e. Birmingham plus Manchester but more stylish and much warmer!) has appeared with the local trials fraternity. Even El Rey, Juan Carlos himself was once famously photographed on a 'Taco. The UK can do it with Formula One so it is possible here, and I am sure Princes William and Harry would swing a leg over a genuine UK bike at a show to help it along.
January 23, 201412 yr It would be more than interesting to see what you would come up with Ross ? Rigid frame with girder forks ,perkins diesel and solid rubber tyres springs to mind Sounds a bit ambitious !
January 23, 201412 yr Lots of Bicycle Frame makers so I believe one could turn their hands to a Motorcycle frame pretty easily. The Engine is another matter. Norton Villiers have a Fuel Injected 2T engine in Design that uses standard fuel with no Premix. If that could be applied to Trials it could be a world beater. The rest of the parts are really sourced from Suppliers, shocks, forks brakes etc. so they are not really a problem. The stumbling block is the Number of Machines produced. Total worldwide sales of Trials bikes is below 10,000. Hence why Gas Gas, Beta, Ossa and Sherco have Enduro's. The Market worldwide there is over 100,000. Unless you have a company who use Trials as a research lab or a man who treats it as a Hobby company it's a expensive market to compete in. Edited January 23, 201412 yr by telecat
January 23, 201412 yr A local economic and political framework, that supports small manufacturing companies. Have you seen the state of the Spanish economy?
January 24, 201412 yr The sales numbers are depressingly low? I suppose by making bikes so specialist hasn't helped this. It's hard to see a way forward. Edited January 24, 201412 yr by breagh
January 24, 201412 yr Basically Trials came from Riders modifying road machines to fit the sport. There was a small number of bikes produced in the UK but the manufacturers basically dabbled with specialists "adding value" by taking away weight adding stronger or better parts etc. The Problem is that if the current crop of makers went, the sort of bikes favoured by the "road" crowd do not lend themselves to Trials conversion. That leaves MX/Enduro conversions which would take a while to get competitive. It also means the sport is in the hands of the DIY-er's with second hand bikes that work well costing high prices for those not as good at wielding a spanner.
January 24, 201412 yr I like that "sport is in the hands of DIY ers. Right enough most Trials riders I know sort everything themselves. Most would rather visit the dentist than take there bike to the local shop.
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