interesting thread and topic! we have quite a few dirt riders coming into our trials club and of course at first it's all wheelspin, locking up the rear wheel, uncontrollable wheelies and generally too much throttle and hitting stuff hard instead of with finesse.

would it work the other way - dirt riding bringing needed aggression to trials? i think it could. as you probably know we've been doing all that cross training for the past year trying to do all the trials techniques on dirt bikes and having heaps of fun trying.

i think it has helped me with being aggressive on the trials bike at times e.g. big handfuls of throttle to big climbs or logs. whatever the case hmrad, i'd concur with others and say you are doing really well! i figure why not get a nice light weight dirt bike with easy power and have a try?

one of our guys is a hard core fast rider who's only recently got into trials-style riding so thought this video might be timely. :-)

Thanks for the encouragement and for the video. I had a go on a mates xr400 the other day, only in first gear going slow, but the trials riding really changed how I rode the xr. Knees bent, legs not hugging the bike but free to move and generally just being more relaxed.

I'd love a KTM freeride 250 or a wr250f but the budget won't stretch that far, 2 years down the line I'd love to buy a brand new ossa tr250i either that or a nice twinshock. So everything will probably go into that, going to take a lot of saving.

I've got a riding buddy who tends to fly around like a motocrosser on his beta, but he's taught me a lot and by following his line I'm starting to get more confident with the throttle. He has a bmx background and has ridden crossers when he was younger, it definitely shows in how quick he is picking up trick riding.

Conversely the wet weather has helped as well, hitting mud hard at speed seems to make the bike carve a path through it rather than get stuck and start spinning, it's really counter-intuitive. Add in a new quick action throttle, once past the nerves I'm having a blast!

I think guys with a bicycle trials or DH background would also have an advantage in trials.

Anyways, have you got any more trials videos coming up? Or are you only focusing on the enduro-cross side of things at the minute?

Edited February 4, 201511 yr by hrmad

I found practicing basic trials at a quarry on my 450 ktm gave me so much more confidence on the trails, especially in deep mud, while the fast guys are starting, stopping and paddling through but going as fast as they can, I'd be going as smooth as possible without a dab, once you get confident in mud with balance, throttle and clutch control, you're on to a winner.

I can jump logs, do drifting etc on my ktm, but once I get on the trials bike then, it feels like a bmx so the two bikes/disciplines compliment each other in my opinion.

...Anyways, have you got any more trials videos coming up? Or are you only focusing on the enduro-cross side of things at the minute?

sorry on the late reply, which i guess shows i've been focusing on the cross training more with the dirt bike!

i don't envisage any new trials vids for a while as I'm not learning new stuff at this stage but just applying it to the dirt bike. in fact i'm tempted to sell the trials bike and just put some trials tyres on the KTM and use that in clubman for something of a challenge. it'snot easy trying to hop the rear wheel on a dirt bike... lol!

sorry on the late reply, which i guess shows i've been focusing on the cross training more with the dirt bike!

i don't envisage any new trials vids for a while as I'm not learning new stuff at this stage but just applying it to the dirt bike. in fact i'm tempted to sell the trials bike and just put some trials tyres on the KTM and use that in clubman for something of a challenge. it'snot easy trying to hop the rear wheel on a dirt bike... lol!

That's mint mate!

I've seen a guy doing clubman style sections on a gasgas pampera, impressive stuff! It can be done!