I’m currently nursing an over-excitement headache from waiting for a new bike to show up. 😀

I’m not sure I’ve treated myself to the right bike (it was between a new BFe or a trials bike), but after not riding BMX for nearly 10 years (after spending all my teenage years on one), I took the plunge on a 24″ street/trials bike.

Distract me with any tips or advise for getting into trials? Is there a scene for it in Sheffield?

(I already accept I’ll look like an old wally on a kids bike and will probably hurt myself before I can do anything good!)

You mean trails surely, not trials? Trials bikes are very different to a BMX trail bike

He probably does mean trials…

Get yourself over to http://www.trials-forum.co.uk, there is quite a large scene in Sheffield and surrounding areas. Go on a group ride and see if you can hook up with some local riders. Stick at it!

Yep, Trials. Hopping’n stuff. I went for a 24″ bike as it’s a mix between BMX and trials bike. Will hit a few skate parks and jumps too.

Thanks Swillybey, will check it out later.

Gis a look at your new bike fella 🙂
Have you gone for an all out tiny seat, massive standover, huge long stem, tiny sprocket dedicated trials bike, or something more versatile?

haven’t ridden for years but i (mis)spent my youth hopping about on the back wheel.

practice practice practice. lots of moves involve being on one wheel or the other and some amount of precision.

silly little games are great fun to practice, put out some playing cards/ beer mats in a row try and hop from one to another. as they move around the game gets interseting.

natural trials is much more difficult than urban stuff; but never looks as good on film.

One of these –

It’s way old now but it taught many a person back in the day, myself included, how to ride trials. May I present the legendary Tricks and Stunts.

Haha, that’s a blast from the past! My brother had that on VHS. 😀

Snap! Still reference my “chocolate foot”.

Be prepared for a lot of frustration, when learning to pedal kick I found that I’d hop backwards twice for every leap forward. It’ll come though.

Be prepared for a lot of frustration, when learning to pedal kick I found that I’d hop backwards twice for every leap forward. It’ll come though.

me too. it comes from learning to back hop and then adding in the pedal kick.

you need to add in a third stage which is to drop the front wheel a bit. before the pedal kick & simultaneous hop, which can be up; not back.

lunge – Member
It’s way old now but it taught many a person back in the day, myself included, how to ride trials. May I present the legendary Tricks and Stunts.

😀 love the baddies trying the moves out

Been a while since I’ve touched anything remotely trials related, but I remember spending a lot of my early days on Trashzen;

http://www.trashzen.com/index.php

And also watching Ryan Leech instructional videos on youtube;

But most of all, practising non-stop! Albeit distinctly easier when back in school and lots of free time!

Wrong thread! Good luck though! Practice, practice and more practice!

You are me, apparently, my Fourplay just arrived (a scabby first gen one, with HS33s, appropriate for my station) 😆 Got an Onza mod bike too but I cna’t ride the bloody thing at all, it’s just too weird feeling but the Inspired is a constant laugh. I have no idea what I’m doing but having a good time not doing it.

If anyone wants me, I shall be ineptly sidehopping up and down kerbs.

I have no idea what I’m doing but having a good time not doing it.

Sounds good to me! 😀

I’ve already found a spot a few mins away from home with kerbs, big square concrete blocks, small and medium sandstone rocks and a few big logs. Even a large flat sandstone bolder, in front of a waist high concrete block, in front of a chest high square rail – dreaming big there, but one day I’ll get over it with no dabs! Most importantly, it’s very quiet so only the odd squirrel will be able to laugh at me when I fall over!

I’ve recently picked up trials after a good few years away from street riding. Used to ride on a p2, but I took the plunge last year and picked up a Marino with geo like an Inspired. Best purchase ever. It’s the bike I always try to take out by default. Anything resembling dry weather and it’s outside with me. Advice, be patient. Nothing comes easy. Focus on technique. Height will come later. Anything you want to learn can be tested on various kerbs first. Focus on getting your fakie roll out down pat. Front wheel against the kerb, push in, fakie out, turn. At 90-ish degrees have your lead foot forward and apply pressure to bring the bike around. Sometimes hop, but you don’t need to. But getting that will open lines that you never thought possible. Static sidehops are terrifying… endo drops require a good set of brakes. And remember, there is always another line hidden there, you just gotta see it.

Finally, cheater rocks are never a bad thing. I find they’re a great way of mentally turning a wall into a ‘flight of steps’ so I get the timing of my hop easier. Glad to hear someone else is trying it out. I’ll second the trials-forum suggestion… just, ehh… don’t go into the ‘general chat’ section while in work.

Feature length film of me on Trashzen

As Trashzen was mentioned above, good shout. Julian is a good bloke and loads of tips on there.

Had a good couple of hours on the bike this morning (yep, it were dark, but I wanted to get out!).

Good news is my body seems to remember a lot from my bmx days. 180 endos and hops are doable, as are roll backs and blunts/fufanus (? Spelling) on kerbs, trackstands ok, all once I was used to how twitchy the thing is. Managed a few 10m ish manuals, and back hopped from one kerb to another across a road (not in one hop!). It wasn’t pretty, but I managed.

Bad news is I’ve already made and ripped off a callus on each hand! Need my hands to toughen up…

Hope trialzone brakes are epic. Flat pedals after 10 years on spds are really strange, Still twisting my foot off the pedals…

I was eying up a half meter tall concrete block when the callus’s riped, prob shouldn’t try to run before I can walk though…

Hopfully hands will harden a bit and I can get back out later. 😀

I’ve been following Ali C on youtube and his chums and given me a similar urge. I have no muscle memory to fall back on either. The inspired looks lovely but i’m too self concious to make a chump of myself on such a bit of kit, like you (op) was looking at something like a BFe as a more all rounder starting point. But having got rid of all my 26″ stuff earlier this year might not be popular move at home. But do fnacy a cheap little bike for throwing around and developing some missing core skills. If you havent watched AliC on yt you should.

Yea, I’ve watched him a lot, It was watching Ali C for the last year that inspired me to give it a go really. Used to love finding a random obstacles with riding mates and seeing what everyone could do on it, everyone had their own strengths and style so you’d always see something new and unexpected.

To be fair, you can get a proper 20″ trials bike for pretty cheap on eBay, I just had the spare cash and felt the N+1 itch. Also, Hans Ray managed pretty well on a bog standard hardtail with v-brakes. 😯

Update on the first month of trials riding –

Tore holes in my hands on the first ride that took nearly a week to heal up, pulled my back in the second week, after getting my first good hour ride in on it I couldn’t walk or move properly for a few days after, and this week trapped a nerve in my hand and it hurts like hell every now and then! So its going well. 😀 Balance is coming along, and so is the list of things “I can do, but badly and need to get better/smoother at”.

Can happily ride the thing for a hour every other day now, which as I’m on my own is pretty continual riding for the hour, no standing around/talking/looking at phones etc…

I’m still finding my upper body is taking a beating though, and doing any kind of line that requires linking one thing to another with back hops is super draining and can finish me off in a few goes. Those guys on youtube make it look so effortless! Although I’m pretty sure my back hop technique isn’t very efficient at the moment…

grenosteve – Member
Also, Hans Ray managed pretty well on a bog standard hardtail with v-brakes.

I just wish that I could do half the stuff that Tom Oehler does on a Liteville 301 – just to be able to casually throw some of those moves into an afternoons trail riding is the stuff of my dreams…..

Don’t skip the warm up and light stretching before and after your sessions for mobility and reduced injury risk
Have fun