Many of our older readers will be familiar with the name of Deryk Wylde, a man who has a long history with the sport of Trials, amongst others. We are delighted to announce that Trials Central has entered into a global exclusive arrangement with Deryk to publish all of his historical work right here on our website with images from this massive archive available to purchase.
Whilst we looked at various ways to publish his collection, for the sake of speed and to avoid complexity whilst encouraging user interaction and comment we have created a new section of the highly popular Trials Central forums where Deryk will be posting a number of historical images daily and where users can partake in conversation and debate. With a global reach now in excess of 56,000 unique users a month (Source: Google Analytics) there is no better platform for the publication of this valuable insight into the history of the sport and we’re very pleased and proud to be working with Deryk on this project.
For those perhaps younger readers who are not aware of his work, Deryk was an electronics engineer/communications consultant who rode in Trials for relaxation and fun in the early 1970s and was very much involved in organising the very first trial of a type that was later described as 'pre-65'. At the time he was also writing columns and features in T+MXNews, British Bike Magazine, Classic Motorcycling Legends and Classic Bike, as well as photographing events with his late wife Mary, to accompany reports of the events.
In the 1980s Deryk decided to concentrate his efforts on publishing Offroad Review, a subscription only magazine, and a series of books, the Rich Mixture series dealing with many aspects of offroad motorcycle competition. He was involved in the creation of a series of pre-65 long distance trials, specifically utilising well known sections that had been used for many years, then left to go dormant as 'pocket handkerchief courses became the norm in the current trials scene. The series, the 'British Bike' championship (due to sponsorship from 'British Bike' magazine) was renamed, later the 'Sammy Miller Series'.
Along with Ian Rennie, Deryk researched all the routes and obtained landowners and county authorities permissions to recreate the 'Arbuthnot Trial' in the Wiltshire/Hampshire borders for rigid machines only - the trial had last been run in 1929. He was equally involved in the creation of the sport of pre-65 and classic scrambling, being a founder member of the Golden Valley club and the founding President of the Bath Classic club. was honoured by the award of a Millennium Gold Medal, along with his great friend, Ralph Venables, for their 'Contributions to sporting motorcycling journalism'.
Deryk has a massive archive of images used in the various publications he was responsible for plus a great number taken by him and Mary, that have not previously been published - alongside a wealth of experience and knowledge of offroad motorcycle sport all of which will be posted right here on Trials Central. Everything is viewable completely free of charge, but to take part in any conversation about the images and stories posted you'll need to sign up to our forums. This too is totally FREE and very simple.