Motorcycle trials

How do?

Been thinking about giving this a go. Been mulling for years, actually, but much more seriously recently. Pretty sure I’m going to enjoy it and give it a good go, rather than sell everything after two goes out. Anbd with try-out days costing the same as a helmet, gloves, boots, jeans and a top, I’m thinking about getting myself a bike and having a crack.

Any idea what would be good to start off with? I don’t want to spend oodles, but don’t want to get something I’ll need to replace quickly.

How much to spend?

Or another way round, could I get something reasonably good for for £1000 – £1500? Could I get something good enough to keep me happy through a few years of trials? If my mountainbiking is anything to go by, I’ll be enjoying the learning and improvement, competing against myself more than anyone else, not looking to improve results by spending money. I’m even vaguely tempted to get a twinshock with a little seat, so with a spare chain and rear sprocket, I’ve got a passable town bike too. That’s a bit of a tangent though. I’m not really after a town bike, just thought it might be a side benefit of a twin shock, as well as looking a bit different. I’m also massively keen on the idea of long distance trials (SSDT at some point, getting ahead of myself a bit there, though!), so something that’d cope well with that sort of thing would be great.

Any advice gratefully received however general or specific, even if it’s just links to sites, there’s a fair few out there, but not all of them are very well populated. Maybe I’m a bit spoilt by how much traffic this place gets.

Cheers!

Oh, Berko trials would be the local club, going to head up for a watch and chat for a trial, but might not be able to make it to one for a month or so. Might have a bike by then!

Forget the twinshock, a half decent one will cost the same as a half decent modern bike, but without the decent brakes, handling, suspension & reliability.
You want to go for something like a montesa cota 315 (250cc), these were made up until 2004 and had user friendly soft-ish power delivery & superb build quality as they were made by honda.
You should be able to pick up a really good one for your budget.
Get down to your local club trial and talk to people, trials is the most laid back scene & people usually are keen to help and offer advice.
It can also be cheaper than mountainbiking i have found.

Ok you have two choices to begin with. Twinshock or modern. Twinshock are exactly what they say older bikes with yes you guessed it 2 shocks ie Yamaha TY Fantic Bultaco Montessa Ossa Beamish etc.

Modern mostly means watercooled single shock discs etc

I have ridden Scorpa and Beta in the last few years. Both were great bikes but the Beta was a bit more fragile. My Scorpa cost me £1600 and the Beta £1900 you should be able to find bikes in your price range easily.

You only really need boots and a helmet I used to wear Ron Hill legs.

Trials you are only competing against yourself, my mates son and me used to buy the other a burger on the way home depending on who won.

I was generally useless but it is great fun and lots of banter, always say thank yu to the observers and enjoy.

Ive got two – a Bultaco thats 45 years old and a Montessa thats just a couple of years old.

Great fun and cheaper than mountain biking.

Buy a modern one – they will last forever, work properly and not let you down. 1 – 1.5k will be more than enough. Get a cheap open face lid and thats all you need. You can ride in a pair of jeans and some walking boots if you like – no need to spend money.

Trials competitons are very friendly, not really competitive, more like a bunch of mates. Quite addictive – youve got me started now, I will get mine out this Sunday for some fun.

Cheers, guys!

I’ll do some looking around on the bay and places, and wait till I’ve been up the club before spending. Reckon that’d be the best place to pick something up. Peer reviewed bikes, if they’ve been ridden at the club trials.

It can also be cheaper than mountainbiking i have found.

Thi is exaclty what I’ve thought, from looking at kit and spares a on webshops.

You only really need boots and a helmet I used to wear Ron Hill legs.

thought as much, good to know!

Other thing is that I’d have to keep the bike on the bit of gravel at the front of the house, behind the bins. If it’s not registered on the road, where do you go for insurance? Just stick it on house insurance?

Just seen yours, Trimix, cheers. I’m getting excited about this now!

Go for it, you’ll love it. Used to do it as a teenager in the south lakes where there was quite a following. Started off on a yamaha ty80 as a 10 yr old, moved onto a montessa cota 242 which were both twin shocks. My last bike was a yam 250 monoshock and the difference was night and day. Stopped riding when I was 17 to fund my suzuki RGV 250 road bike. It certainly helped me when I started mountain biking as well in respect of balance.

You can get specialist insurance but they will want it locked in a shed or something. If it is plain sight it will get nicked.

Look at Trials and Motocross News in smiths and this site is ok http://www.trialscentral.com/

The long distance stuff is a hoot all sorts of stuff gets ridden gasgas pamperas were the thing to have but very rare.

All good advice above, but i would try to get proper trials boots rather than hiking boots, your shins will thank you for it, trust me!
Don’t think that mx or enduro boots will be ok, they won’t.

Or you could get a TY 125 for nowt and see if you like it before flashing more cash to something more modern.

Just bypass the trials bit and go straight into enduro’s as all trials riders are wannabe enduro riders anyway. 😉

Nows a good time to buy as people are buying 2012 bikes and I have found there are generally more bikes on the market. I’d strongly recommend Steve Saunders of Saunders Extreme Sports, he is a brillaint trainer and from memory £65 a day and you can hire a bike for another £65. His website shows the next novice session on 22nd Oct.
Looking for second hand have a look at http://www.willbrown.co.uk/adz/
I’d try and find somewhere local to have a couple of rides before competing in a trial, it can be offputting trying to have to ride a section when a few people are watching you. Finally i’d recommend GasGas and Beta for excellent mail order parts supply, Trials bikes to tend to eat spares so this is important. As previously said a monoshock like a 315R will be a lot easier to ride than a twinshock, even a late one like my Fantic 200

I just got back into couple of months ago, did it late 70s-80s. Probably one of the cheapest motorsports to get into, picked up a Montesa 315 for 900 and a trailer for 150, still had my old boots, helmet was 45 and I just wear my mtb jacket, gloves and tracksters. Two local clubs have a trial each per month, 10 entry fee and 1/2 gal of fuel 🙂

I decided to get back into trials in 2009 (before I discovered mountain bikes) bought/won a 1999 Montesa 315R off ebay for £850. Obviously it was well used but everything worked and I entered a Trial 3 days later. Didn’t get roped into all the colourful kit, just had (my old) boots and bought a new lid, apart from that it was jeans and sweatshirt. Did a dozen or so trials and practice sessions, bike was 100% reliable but it didn’t really grab me. Ebayed the bike 12 months later having spent nothing on it for £865. Give it a go, you’ve got nothing to lose!

EDIT:just found an old pic, bought and sold in this 10 year old condition!

Who’s watching (or riding)the Scott Trial then?

I rode from the mid 70’s to late 80’s, best times of my life.
Here’s me on a 247 Cota (twinshock obviously) around 1983.

Happy days.

I’ll sell you this for much cheepness

pre 65 trials.
[/url]
enfield 1[/url] by TandemJeremy[/url], on Flickr

esselgruntfuttock – Member

Who’s watching (or riding)the Scott Trial then?

I rode from the mid 70’s to late 80’s, best times of my life.
Here’s me on a 247 Cota (twinshock obviously) around 1983.

Where is yer helmet !

Where is yer helmet flat cap !

That’s better.

Who’s watching (or riding)the Scott Trial then?

A mate of mine is desperatley trying to get fit enough for it. I think he’s left it a bit late. 😆

Got back into it 3 years ago after a 25 year gap
bought myself a Gas Gas 250 great fun fitted a slow action throttle
to soften the engine made a big difference
couple of local clubs all very friendly and laid back
and at trials events its more a day out on the bike and only as competetive as you want it to be
and as mentioned above cheapish sport,Trials Central site has a good
advice forum split into bike manufactures so any problem you encounter
theres plenty of advice availible
go for it

I only once had a shot on a 315R and thought that, as a trials bike, it would have made a great enduro bike, but then I ride in the traditional style.

A 200 Beta makes an excellent machine to start on (or for anyone come to that) as it has the power of an “old fashioned” 250 making it easy to ride but still fast across the moors for those real trials. Can’t say I have found mine to be fragile over seven years of use.

If you are going to park it as you suggest then just save the effort and leave the £1500 in a poly bag on your garden gate, there will be about as much chance of it still being there in the morning such is the way of things nowadays. Clever use of polythene sheet should allow “safe” passage to the rear of the house if you have a back door.

esselgruntfuttock much respect the hardest time and observation trial there is.

http://www.yorksclassictrials.co.uk/#/links/4543099444

http://pre65trials.blogspot.com/

get either a 250 beta or mont 315 for 1200 a fantic 200 for 1000 or my Francis Barnett for 6500

i tried it, but a combination of being too young to properly ride a 250 and my lack of throttle/clutch control meant i found it insanely hard. good fun though, its amazing what those bikes are capable of.

Where is yer helmet !

helmets weren’t even invented back then TJ! If it got chilly I’d wear a wooly hat. I did end up wearing one when they were made compulsory though. (always wear one on the bike now as a matter of course)

A mate of mine is desperatley trying to get fit enough for it. I think he’s left it a bit late.
2 weeks to go so he’d better be trying!

2 weeks to go so he’d better be trying!

I think it’s fare to say that despite the fact that he’s ridden trials for most of his life, done the SSDT & ISDE a few times he’s still in deep shit due to the fact that he’s not been on a bike for almost six weeks.

Will I laugh when he dies. Oh yes. He’d be dissapointed if I didn’t.

I think it’s fare to say that despite the fact that he’s ridden trials for most of his life, done the SSDT & ISDE a few times

Hats off to him if he’s done those two, at least he’ll know what to expect!
I’ll be at the Scottish, It’s a pilgrimage innit.

I used to know this guy, he lived in our village and we’d go and hassle him for stickers to put on our pushbikes as kids – 1pt for anyone who knows who he is without right clicking – used to present Kick Start – 5pts for knowing what bike he and John Short had made for them by Yamaha. The clues in the name.

Since you are local, Mick Surman in Aylesbury had a s/h modern-ish (as in, no ‘proper’ seat) trials bike in last week, can’t remember what it was but cheap.

I’ll be at the Scottish, It’s a pilgrimage innit.

Tis a bit. My Dad was SSDT secretary for a few years late 90s and I did some route marking with him prior to that (on road parts only, good fun but very early starts, 4:30-5am).
Cousin’s husband has competed about 25 times 🙂

cough.. mick and shirty had the frames made themselves and just pulled apart donor Yams.

Your Majesty

Yeah, ok shell, I was 10 at the time 😉

Majestys make crazy money for real ones these days.

I’ve always wanted to try trials as it seems to be a motorsport you can do without huge expense and the chances on injury are about the same as a day out on the hardtail. But the main problem for me is that I don’t ride a motorbike (and have no desire to ride one on the road either as I value my life!).
One thing in my favour is that i do have a bit of land I could use to potter around on. How would I go about learning to ride?

How would I go about learning to ride?

Like this.

One thing in my favour is that i do have a bit of land I could use to potter around on

I’m still toying with the idea of going halfs on a trials outfit with my mate. Now that would be fun/stupid. 😆

Who’s watching (or riding)the Scott Trial then?

I’ll be opening up the Scott.
A Montesa 315 or Scorpa is what you want, i have a nice 08 scorpa for £1950.

http://www.yamaha-majesty.com

totalshell are you same totalshell from Trials central?

damn you stw, i hate threads like this. they cost me!

i grew up on trials bikes (bultos and last one was an armstrong 240) but left the scene just as monos were really coming in. always fancied getting a modern bike and seeing what one could do.

….monty 315 for under a grand you reckon.

…an annual trial in the woods at the end of my garden that i could ride to, 2 more within a few miles, hmmm i can see a plan hatching!

Brilliant, Great to see all the enthusiasm!

Cheer for all the advice and the links.

I think storage might be a spanner in the works, I live in a 1st/2nd floor terrace flat in That London. Only place to keep it would be behind the bins out the front. I’d been planning a big chain, couple of anchors sunk in buckets of concrete and a tarp.

I had thought that there’s no difference to keeping a scooter out the front (which a few people do up and down the road), and a trials bike. I guess the difference is that the trials bike can become a lot more anonymous a lot more quickly, with no need for reg no, v5, MOT, tax and insurance checks?

And I got this email today that might interest some of you. (MTBcut are the guys behind the recent Danny Macaskill film)

Good news folks….the SSDT Centenary DVD is very nearly here!
 
MTBcut finished the first edit in late September and have been putting the finishing touches to the final edit over the past week.  We hope to have the final version with us at some point in the coming week at which point it will be put into production and we should be able to begin distribution during the last week in October, if not sooner.
 
We can now confirm that the DVD will be a full fifty minutes in length and will be distributed in PAL format.  It will be priced at £9.99 plus postage and packing – a veritable bargain!
 
Once we have a definite release date I’ll be in touch to let you know and to give you further details on obtaining your copy.  In the meantime, having reviewed the initial edit myself I can confirm that the DVD is most definitely worth the wait – it is something really special and I know you’ll be absolutely delighted with it when it finally lands on your doormat!

gav: sorry! 🙂 If it makes you feel any better about spending, this might end up prompting a house move sooner rather than later. The arguments are mounting up!

Yep got the same email from Mhari last week been looking forward to the MTBcut 6 days in May dvd since seeing the trailer on youtube
think ill get the bike out this weekend for a blast think waterproofs maybe required

Update: moved house. Deposit down on a 2010 Beta Evo 250 2T. Couple of things to work around before I finalise and pick it up, but hoping I’ll be riding Berko Trials’ “Easy Trial” on 3rd Nov.

😀

Good on you, get your self on Trials central, its a great forum, not quire as colorfull as this place tho 😉