Trials Questionnaire for a school project

[BGS_90]

I am doing some research for a project about Trials Bike safety features and would appreciate anyone who would answer the questions below

Thanks

Durability and Safety of Trials Bikes 

How often do you damage or need to undergo repairs to the bike? (Give examples)

How easy are these repairs to fix?

Do you ever hurt yourself when riding a trials bike? (Give examples)

What, if anything, do you think could be done to improve the riders safety?

Trials bikes have many safety features, do you think they go far enough to protect the rider?

 

 

[BGS_90]

oni nou - This is a genuine school project of a 15 year old trials rider, if you don't want to answer the questions that's fine but please do not spoil it for others who may like to help. Thank you.

Edited August 30, 2018 by BGS_90

[jonnyc21]

1 hour ago, BGS_90 said:

I am doing some research for a project about Trials Bike safety features and would appreciate anyone who would answer the questions below

Thanks

Durability and Safety of Trials Bikes 

...  

1) How often do you damage or need to undergo repairs to the bike? (Give examples) Almost never, in 6 years I have replaced a rear brake peddle, rear fender, and a single lever.

2) How easy are these repairs to fix?  Very easy to replace.

3) Do you ever hurt yourself when riding a trials bike? (Give examples)  a few bumps and bruises from light falls where I land off my feet such as a tumble or on my butt.  Worst being a bruised rib and a sprained wrist.  

4) What, if anything, do you think could be done to improve the riders safety?  Riders taking training to improve there riding.  Most of my more pronounced incidents came when pushing myself before I new how to ride correctly sense taking a trials training my rider attentiveness went up and I have had less and less sever injuries sense.  

5) Trials bikes have many safety features, do you think they go far enough to protect the rider? I personal believe they do.  If riders want more protection than the bike offers they should get good quality riding gear and even the extra safety gear that is available.  

 

Funny but I have been hurt more often and much worse on my bicycle than I have ever been injured on my Trials motorcycle!

Edited August 30, 2018 by jonnyc21

[BGS_90]

Thanks for the response! i agree with the pushing yourself before knowing how to ride correctly 

Thanks for taking the time to answer thoughtfully 

[lineaway]

1 hour ago, BGS_90 said:

I am doing some research for a project about Trials Bike safety features and would appreciate anyone who would answer the questions below

Thanks

Durability and Safety of Trials 

 

What, if anything, do you think could be done to improve the riders safety?

Trials bikes have many safety features, do you think they go far enough to protect the rider?

 

 

The magnet type tether is a very dangerous devise that causes more crashes and points lost than it saves. An alternative devise is needed. 

[jrsunt]

Your answers will be massively different from rider to rider, e.g, when I used to ride virtually every day and pushing the limits of my skill to improve i would break many things on a regular basis, work basically funded the trials habit. Sump guards, brake pedals, gear and clutch levers, engine covers, chains, tensioners, discs, handlebars...... You get the picture. The harder you practice, the bigger the crashes. 

As mentioned before, it's the new or beginner riders that tend to have nasty crashes, not knowing when to get off, or hang on. The expert riders will come off bigger obstacles, but they jump off when it starts to go wrong and land safely.

The nature of trials requires the bikes to be durable and easy to work on and fix. If your stuck in the middle of Ranoch moor during the ssdt, you've only got the contents of your rucksack to save the day.

Injuries, yes. Many. Broken tib and fib, knocked teeth out, elbow doesn't straighten, knee once had yama printed on it, plenty of gravel rash and the usual bumps, scrapes and bruises.

Do we need to make trials safer? I'm not for the wearing of body, very restricted movement could mean more crashes, how about bubble wrapping every rock or even take them away? If your not prepared to get hurt now and again then get a different hobby.

There will always be accidents in whatever we do, everyone has their own risk and pain threshold. Rider training would help beginners initially, but as their skill grows so do the sections.

[BGS_90]

a simple typo. This is a genuine project for product design. Please don’t spoil it for others

Edited August 31, 2018 by BGS_90

[BGS_90]

13 hours ago, jrsunt said:

Your answers will be massively different from rider to rider, e.g, when I used to ride virtually every day and pushing the limits of my skill to improve i would break many things on a regular basis, work basically funded the trials habit. Sump guards, brake pedals, gear and clutch levers, engine covers, chains, tensioners, discs, handlebars...... You get the picture. The harder you practice, the bigger the crashes. 

As mentioned before, it's the new or beginner riders that tend to have nasty crashes, not knowing when to get off, or hang on. The expert riders will come off bigger obstacles, but they jump off when it starts to go wrong and land safely.

The nature of trials requires the bikes to be durable and easy to work on and fix. If your stuck in the middle of Ranoch moor during the ssdt, you've only got the contents of your rucksack to save the day.

Injuries, yes. Many. Broken tib and fib, knocked teeth out, elbow doesn't straighten, knee once had yama printed on it, plenty of gravel rash and the usual bumps, scrapes and bruises.

Do we need to make trials safer? I'm not for the wearing of body, very restricted movement could mean more crashes, how about bubble wrapping every rock or even take them away? If your not prepared to get hurt now and again then get a different hobby.

There will always be accidents in whatever we do, everyone has their own risk and pain threshold. Rider training would help beginners initially, but as their skill grows so do the sections.

Thank you so much for the reply! It’s really appreciated thank you  

[BGS_90]

16 hours ago, lineaway said:

The magnet type tether is a very dangerous devise that causes more crashes and points lost than it saves. An alternative devise is needed. 

Wow. I’ve never thought of that and now I think about it that’s a great point with the whole kill switch part. Thank you 

[oldgit]

21 hours ago, lineaway said:

The magnet type tether is a very dangerous devise that causes more crashes and points lost than it saves. An alternative devise is needed. 

Could you explain this, please? Not intended as a criticism - just interested in your reasoning as it's something I'm not aware of.

[markparrish]

I was a Product Design teacher for far too long! and recognise the need to identify a rewarding project at the start of the year. Many parts (most/all?) of a modern trials bike are now highly evolved so I suspect it will be hard to identify any modifications that the manufacturers haven't, but there may be some mileage in identifying equipment for training needs, or perhaps accessories. You might also think about kit storage/transport to events. Maybe a way of helping observers to keep score in the rain? I'm sure there are loads of areas related to trials that you can work with.

If you need any advice, I'm happy to help.

Good luck!

[suzuki250]

I broke my hand last year

The bike was fitted with a sub-standard rider!

[lineaway]

On 8/31/2018 at 7:55 AM, oldgit said:

Could you explain this, please? Not intended as a criticism - just interested in your reasoning as it's something I'm not aware of.

 I guess you have never scratched your nose while at high speed? You have never seen the magnet remove itself from a hard hit into an obstacle? You have never seen a thorn kill the bike and the rider crashes from a sudden stop? Said device does not work properly and there is no other kill switch on the bike to turn off a high rpm motor. These things all have happened many times. Also if you lose the magnet (A bush grabs the tether and it takes off like a missile into no mans land) you now have a non running 150lb Strider.

 Tell me of another moto sport that uses this cheap device.

Edited September 4, 2018 by lineaway

[section swept]

1 hour ago, lineaway said:

 I guess you have never scratched your nose while at high speed? You have never seen the magnet remove itself from a hard hit into an obstacle? You have never seen a thorn kill the bike and the rider crashes from a sudden stop? Said device does not work properly and there is no other kill switch on the bike to turn off a high rpm motor. These things all have happened many times. Also if you lose the magnet (A bush grabs the tether and it takes off like a missile into no mans land) you now have a non running 150lb Strider.

 Tell me of another moto sport that uses this cheap device.

Decompressor....or pull HT lead cap off ....prepare for take off!!!

[feetupfun]

On 8/31/2018 at 12:44 AM, BGS_90 said:

I am doing some research for a project about Trials Bike safety features and would appreciate anyone who would answer the questions below

Thanks

Durability and Safety of Trials Bikes 

How often do you damage or need to undergo repairs to the bike? (Give examples)

How easy are these repairs to fix?

Do you ever hurt yourself when riding a trials bike? (Give examples)

What, if anything, do you think could be done to improve the riders safety?

Trials bikes have many safety features, do you think they go far enough to protect the rider?

 

 

Unless I ride beyond my endurance limit, I don't crash in trials at all. I've been riding a very long time and at 59 years old seem to be much more fragile than I was young so I'm both conservative and a very good judge of what I can do without crashing. I generally don't do stuff that pushes my limits, just riding for the pure pleasure of it. However for some reason if in a trial I keep riding after I get knackered, sometimes I misjudge things and crash.

Because I only very rarely crash, I very rarely break anything on the bike. Usually it's only a small thing like tearing the end of a handlebar grip. Maybe one broken mudguard per year. Overall I would say I would only break something about once in 10 trials and the practice sessions between the trials. When I was first riding trials I used to smash things every time I rode including broken frames, bent handlebars, dented exhausts, tanks etc

Yes I've done a bit of body damage riding trials but only a small fraction of the body damage I've done in off-road racing and trail riding. The worst injuries at trials were once getting knocked out by the handlebars hitting me under the chin and once breaking my ACL when I landed on my feet the wrong way after jumping off. I think trials is way safer than the other forms of off road motorcycling.

Improving rider safety would best be achieved by good training for beginners who often have no concept of what they are capable of doing safely.

Modern trials bikes are pretty good for safety. They are much lighter than the old bikes I ride and their controls like brakes give much better feedback than old bikes. Recent improvements like shrouding of the brake discs and the rear sprocket look good but the type of incident that they protect the rider from are vanishingly rare. I suspect cut-out lanyards have made a more significant improvement in injury rates. Exposed exhaust headers still burn people. I've had two fairly bad leg burns from trials bike headers in 44 years. Helmets are very good nowadays. If there was shin/knee PPE and forearm/elbow PPE that didn't affect your riding I would use it.