Thank you all for the help. I enterend my first trial on 8/9/15 (last Sunday) and had a blast. It was mostly a climb fest, in and out of a gully with a creek and loose shale at the bottom. I tried (and failed) at some of the easier sections, and skipped others.

The drop in to access the creek that the sections were based out of was intimidating. I shut the bike down and watched rider after rider dissapear over the edge. A young and inexperienced rider stopped next to me. He said " Wow! That looks scary! I'm new to this too." I agreed and tried to calm my nerves. He then started his bike, said "well here goes nothing", sat down on his bike and walked it over the edge.

This was what snapped me out of the fear haze. "Oh yeah, I can walk the bike anywhere, and the points don't matter." I started up the Fantic, jumped up on the pegs and rode it down to the creek bed.

The other thing that stuck with me was there was a rider that watched me make it 3/4 of the way up a hill that was required to get out of the gully. I laid the bike down to keep it from sliding back down. I got off and was able to slide back down the hill to the creekbed. I was apprently looked as defeated as I felt. The other rider parked his bike, came over, and offered to ride my bike up for me. When we got to the top his bigest concern was that I was still having fun. In fact everyone there was supportive of my lack of skill and was more interested in me having fun than what I was scoring.

I've dabbled in drag racing, circle track, and having my son race karts. This was the most supportive group I've met. The event was self scored, and really laid back. Trials is the best motorsports hobby I have tried. I'm sure that at the higher levels it's cut-throat but at the club level it seems pretty mellow. All of the other motorsports are cut-throat and poitical.

Not sure if the experience is the same in all trials clubs, but it seems to be that way in Western New York.

 

You will be dreaming about that day and those rides for years. Coming from New York myself and riding in D4 and 3D as a kid/teen and now in the mid west i can tell you that its that way everywhere. Terrain is different but people are the same and the fun factor is equal.

 

Enjoy and see you out there!

 

--Biff