A game of patience

As you might have seen from my previous posts I have been extremely lucky to have been given the use of a trials bike which I am really enjoying and think it will help with my overall bike handling ability.

Now when this all started I had no plan to start competing but James has been really enthusiastic and he was keen for us both to do a competition. Now the racer in me can never say no to a bit of head to head so naturally I agreed.

The course consisted of 10 different sections of which we had to do four laps, so we had to do each section 4 times. Some of them were quite easy and others were near on impossible. There was one particular hill climb which proved to be very difficult as it seemed impossible to get enough traction. Impossible until a more experienced rider sailed up it of course. After attacking it a good few times I was stuck for ideas. I tried it slow, I tried it fast, in a high gear, in a low gear and I still couldn't make it up.

The competition between James and I was very close and by the end of it we didn't know for sure who had won between us but we knew it was close. I was leading for the most part until I started to get a little cocky and made some stupid mistakes. One thing I realised is that trials is about patience and consistency and about giving each section the respect it deserves.

As you can see from the photos, it was also an opportunity to try out my new race gear provided by Urban Air. Trials folk aren't down with Fox and Tech 10 boots so as you can imagine I got some funny looks. However I was proud to be a motocross racer and for people to know it.

We got the results back on Monday and James and I were tied for 5th. How crazy is that. After doing 40 sections we had exactly the same score. A great day overall, thanks to Cooper for coming along and taking some photos.

A change up

So hopefully you will have noticed the change up on the old blog. I was inspired by DC to explore some of the customisation features here on blogspot.

The blog is now entitled 'To the stop...'. I love this phrase, it seems to get me going in some way. Ultimately thats what this whole thing is about, the reason we train and practice is so that we can ride a dirt bike faster. How do we go faster? Simple, twist the right hand grip until it won't go any more... if only it was that easy.

The next step

After having some beautiful weather in the week it all went to pot on Saturday. I decided to take the trials bike out again. We managed to get about five hours of riding in on Sunday and I think we definitely took things to another level. There were a few sections which actually got my heart pounding. Its such a good feeling when you feel all nervous just before you do something and then you attack it and conquer it. You get a similar feeling in BMX or Motocross when you go for a big jump that you have never done before.

Another thing that made me smile this weekend was South African rider Tyla Rattray going 1-1 at the first GP. I was checking out his site just last week where he was saying that he likes to get out on the trials bike for some cross training. Well done Tyla, lets see you get that championship this year!


More great news is that Rich at Urban-Air has hooked me up with some awesome Fox kit this year but I will be doing a dedicated post on this when I get some good pictures of the kit. Thanks Rich!

Birthday weekend

Last weekend was my birthday and it turned out to be a pretty awesome one. Friday night we went out for a meal and it reminded me once again how awesome my friends are.

I was hoping to ride Peakdale on the Sunday but the weather forecast kept saying it was going to turn pretty nasty on Sunday afternoon so I decided to go and meet James for a bit of trials riding instead. The weather turned out to be really good so I could have gone to Peakdale but I had a really good time riding the trials bike. We started riding at around 11am and finished after 4. I couldn't believe how much we had improved over the course of the day.
There were obstacles that we were struggling to do in the morning but when we came back to them later in the afternoon they were really easy. There were also a few obstacles that I thought I wouldn't be doing for a while yet but then found myself having a go and completing them. Although James rode trials as a kid he is still getting back into it after a long time off the bike so he is a good man for me to chase. He's super enthusiastic and even has some competitions for us planned. I'm always up for a compo or race so we'll see what happens.
I think I'll definitely be investing in a open face helmet as I found my full face a bit restrictive.
After we were done James sent the trials bike home with me to maintain and look after, so the bike room has yet another addition to it. Thanks James!

I'm still a motocross racer through and through but there's no denying that trials riding can be really fun not to mention the various bike skills it teaches you. I also read that Ryan Villopoto has a trials bike that he plays with at his house so even the pros are lovin' it!