Trials riding (Bikes in general)

Member Name: drew_greenday

Product:	Bikes in general
Date:	26/07/02 (257 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: really fun to try

Disadvantages: a bit expensive, A lot of thing's to learn

If you have reached this opinion by the several biking link?s then I take it you either like biking or you are curious about what styles of biking there are. Well, there are loads, but the specific one I will be focusing on is "Trials".

Trials is a style of biking that involves huge amounts of balance, and, believes it or not, balls. Putting trials in a nut-shell it's basically getting up and around objects. That doesn't sound all that hard, but these objects can be as big as two meters, getting up it doesn't require all that much ball's, but when you?re up there looking down it seems a lot taller than it is.

These courses can be either man-made or made from natural surroundings e.g. tree trunks and boulders. I personally find the man-made course's easier to do.

A "trials" bike is not your average two wheeled appliance. I'll run through what you need and why you need them and my personal opinion of the best makes.

14" or less, frame;
While you are trials riding, you need a lot of room on the bike to manoeuvre, with having a 14" or less sized frame there is nothing in the way that increases the manoeuvrability. When you are jumping off objects, having a small sized frame means if you bail (fall off) you will have less change to hurt your "jewels". I ride an Orange Zero.

Rigid forks;
Trials involves being on wither one wheel or the other, having a rigid fork you have less work to do when on your front wheel because it is more stable and therefore you conserve energy.

Brakes;
The brakes on your bike, while trialsing take a hammering so they must be up for the task. Different people prefer different settings. I personally use Magura HS33's all round. Magura's are the best hydraulic rim brakes going, no challenge. Other people prefer discs or a Magura on the rear and a v-brake on the front. Having a v-brake
on the front makes it more "spongy". Deciding on your brakes is a personal thing.

Three piece cranks;
When you are attempting to get up an object, your crank's can play a big part. If you do not get up on your rear wheel, you will land on your bash guard, putting in a pedal stroke will allow you to get up, don't be amazed to see the crank's getting scratched.

Bash-guard
Trials bikes only usually have nine or less gears. The front cog is usually 22 or less toothed. You only need a Low ratio because you need power to get up objects. The bash-guard goes outside the front cog and is bigger than the cog. When you attempt to get up an object and you land on your bash-guard, it stops the cog from getting hammered. Without having a bash-guard, your front cog is naked and asking to be bent. DMR make kick ass bash-ring.

Strong wheels;
When you jump off a 10 foot wall, the last thing you want to happen is your wheel to buckle under you. Having strong wheel's can prevent this. Trial's bikes wheels are usually 26" and therefore are as not as strong as a 20" wheeled bike. I run on Mavic D521's, quality wheels

That is the main spec of a trials bike, now all you have to do is ride without fear. I do!!

UPDATED!!

Trials riding is not just how you ride, it takes a lot of skill. There are many tricks that you have to learn before you can succeed in being a good trials rider.

Trackstand/rocking;
While you are waiting to either go up or down a object, you need to be able to balance while not moving. There are two ways to do this. Trackstand or rocking. While you are rocking you are moving your front and rear wheel but staying put. Trackstanding is where you move your front wheel at an angle and feather your brakes so keep still. Rocking, in my opinion is the easier one of the two.

Pedal hopping;
This is the main trick and therefor
e is the hardest to get in to the rhythm of doing it. But on the other hand, once you have it, you can progress on to huge amounts of pedal hop's and if your lucky, you maybe pedal hopping off walls.

Lunging;
To be able to lunge, you need to be able to either pedal hop or rear pogo, and to be able to wheelie. Lunging is when you ger up a object with either landing on your rear wheel or front wheel.

Balance;
This may sound obvious, but can you balance on your front wheel or rear wheel for long periods of time, if not, practice. Balance is the key to a good "trialser"

Summary: