What about Trials? - Dirtscrolls

Observed trials, once a popular sport in the USA, has gone into hiding. A cycling event that became a UCI world championship event in 1984 (six years before mountain biking), has disappeared from the collective radar of mount

By Nikolai A. Braun

As the mountain biking fad waned in the late ’90s and competition and overall race attendance diminished, NORBA was absorbed into USA Cycling. Observed trials events were dropped from the National Championship schedule, and resultantly, there was no national trophy for American trials riders.

Because of the sudden lack of organized national support for observed trials, some guys decided to do something about it. Tim Williamson, Robin Coope, Pete Wilk, Randy Vancil, Mike Friddell and many others—mostly riders looking to give back to their sport—formed a new national trials organization: The North American Trials Series (NATS).

Mike Friddell is the current administrator of NATS, and he describes its formation: "NATS from day one was basically meant as a loose-knit group of event organizers that agree on a ruleset and a points series—just to give the riders the opportunity to continue to travel around and get points and get crowned champion."

After NORBA cut observed trials loose, the sport would have surely died a quick death if not for the formation of NATS. If riders no longer had competitions to challenge them and competitive goals to work toward, and if pro riders no longer had a reason to compete, then the sport would have fizzled at both the top and the bottom ends simultaneously.

Unfortunately, nearly 10 years after the formation of NATS, competitive trials is struggling, both for grassroots events and the NATS competitions. Mike Friddell reports, "In 2000, an average event had 25-30 competitors. Today, the average is probably closer to 15-20." Although this is a worrying trend, there are other indicators of how the sport is faring which are more encouraging: website hits and bike sales.

ObservedTrials.net is the premier trials news, competition info, rider hookup, and chat site for the United States. Site owner Matt Lovewell comments, "I have noticed a steady increase in the average amount of users online over the course of the years, particularly the past two years." And Todd Gorman of Webcyclery, an online retailer of trials bikes, reports that trials sales have increased every year and are doing "very well." However, based on the kinds of trials products sold, Todd commented, "We are seeing trials move into more of a street/urban direction."

So people are online reading and chatting about trials, and they’re buying trials bikes, but they aren’t competing. So what? Does that matter?

It all depends on what your goals are.

Fun
Everybody knows Danny MacAskill, star of the viral internet video "Inspired Bicycles," which was released in April of 2009. He has a background in both observed trials and BMX, and he mixed the disciplines in an exciting way never seen before. Danny created a video that was instantly recognizable to cyclists and non-cyclists alike as something really cool.

Danny’s video clearly shows top-level riding, but it caught the attention of people in a way that top-level trials riding never has. Belgian rider Kenny Belaey, one of the best competitive observed trials riders in the world, commented, "We have been trying for years to get recognition and respect, and along comes some amazing rider who has never competed and gets it instantly."

How did Danny get this instantaneous respect, and how come the multitude of internet videos starring the worlds top observed trials riders have not?

Usually, a trials rider does not learn tricks, he learns techniques—movements specific for navigating obstacles, no matter how flashy they may seem. But Danny has taught himself how to do 360s, tailwhips, and turbine nose manuals—things that have zero application to competitive trails riding. Danny has learned tricks just for the sake of learning them.

"Competitions sometimes have a bit of negative image…the guys are way serious, and they have these tight clothes on and so on, so the whole urban street thing opens up a door to a whole different breed of trials riders. You see some of the top trials riders in the world, and people don’t aspire to be like them. They are more inspired to be like Danny MacAskill who just has fun and rides around and does cool stuff," commented Hans Rey.

Will this style of trials riding—urban riding without any focus on competition preparation, just learning bicycle skills for the sake of doing tricks—overtake traditional observed trials?

Besides the potential to produce a few internet stars, I believe this faction of trials biking will ultimately stay small—because without competitions, a rider is never truly inspired to excel.

Game
"If you don’t go to competitions, you aren’t challenged in that way that you are when you are pitted against a section," says Mike Friddell. It is absolutely true that the best and quickest way to improve at observed trials is to go to competitions. Until a rider is in a position where he or she has to ride a rock pile because points and honor are on the line, they will never know what they are truly capable of, and they will never realize the skill deficiencies they currently have.

Besides providing a rider with an honest assessment of their trials abilities, a competition also provides friends. Observed trials is such a tiny and dispersed sport that there is an instant camaraderie between riders of all ages and all skill levels.

Friddell comments, "It’s worth it to drive that distance just to spend a day or two [at a competition] with 20 other trials riders. You learn a lot, you progress, and you make friends that you can plan group rides with in the next month. It fosters your interest."

Making trials friends with whom one can meet up on the weekends—riders that have different riding skills and style, different riding motivations—and riding at different locations provides continuous challenge and motivation throughout the year.

A beginner rider might be attracted to the non-competitive riding of Danny MacAskill, and this could inspire him to get involved in the sport, but until a rider has their eyes opened by a competition and sees that trials is so much more than what they have been practicing, he or she will never know what it even is that they have to practice. Also, without the friendship of other riders to challenge them to ride better, they will never fully realize how beautiful and magical riding trials is.

But how does a non-trials rider make the decision that trials is something that they even want to try? How can the sport get more riders of any kind, if only to take sides in the street-versus-competition debate?

Obstacles
A survey of several mountain bikers in a northern Virginia park revealed that none of them had heard the terms "bike trials" or "observed trials." However, when asked about "those videos on the internet of cyclists hopping around on their rear wheel," everybody knew right away what it was. Exposure of the sport in the age of the internet isn’t a problem.

Jay Copeland of Burke, VA, a mountain bike rider for 10 years and a road rider since the ’70s, said, "I have seen that. It’s very cool," when asked about observed trials. But what is keeping him out of the scene is a total lack of organized support. "Where would I go to even find a group of guys that would get together to learn trials? I don’t know."

"There’s no infrastructure" is how Hans Rey summed up the problem to attract new riders. "Where does a new rider start? Where does a new rider go? The big difference between Europe and America is that in Europe you have clubs. The problem is America is a very big country. The sport really needs to grow regionally. [A beginner rider] needs to have stuff on his doorstep." Unfortunately, no trials clubs exist in the U.S. because there just isn’t a high enough density of riders anywhere for a club to make sense. Or maybe the converse is true—there aren’t enough riders because there is no club.

Mike Friddell understands this and is looking to reorganize NATS to focus on local scene development. Currently, the NATS championship selects more for the riders that can afford to travel all over the country to compete, not the riders with the most talent. Mike wants to retrain the focus of NATS on regional point accumulation and scene development, and have only one national final.

"[We would] have these competition regions that encourage more people to attend the events in their region, and more people to organize more events in their region, so the riders have more opportunities to earn points."

Mike’s reorganization plan sounds like it could be the beginning of grassroots regional club development in the U.S.—an exciting prospect if it happens.

Top Down
Hinmaton Hisler is a man with an unusual name and an unusual vision. He wants an American trials rider to compete in the top 10 in the world—and wants them to do it on an American-made trials bike.

After spending a weekend with Frank "The Welder" Wadelton learning how to weld, Hisler built his first trials frame. It wasn’t very good, so he built another. That one wasn’t very good either. But he kept at it, and he has built 13 trials frames that are good. Really good. His fledgling trials company is named Caelifera and it is a serious business for Hisler, one which he will continue only if it remains profitable. But there is also an altruistic component to his business, because Hisler wants to make more than bike parts—he wants to make role models.

"The reason why I started this was to boost the trials scene in America. Most of the top frames and top parts are coming from Europe. So even if we have a good American rider, they’re not riding anything American. They’re riding French or Spanish. Or Chinese," he says.

"If I can come up with a frame design and start building this company and start making high-end, competition-based products, eventually it’s going to trickle out and we’re going to find a rider that can at least compete on the world level and then we can start representing as a whole package."

Hisler is using a top-down approach to expand the sport—by creating world-class American trials bikes and securing world-class American talent, there will be a role model for all American trials riders to emulate. Developing a culture of elite trials riding in America will give more American trials riders the confidence that they can succeed at the highest levels.

Bottom Up
While the United States has a more acute problem in developing trials interest compared to some other places, even in a country like France or England where trials is "huge," it is still a tiny sport. Observed trials is simply a much more difficult sport compared to mountain biking or running or weightlifting.

Most efforts of trials rider recruitment focus on converting mountain bike riders. This is because every trials rider today started on some kind of mountain bike—playing around, balancing, hopping—until the trials bug took hold and they became full-fledged trials riders.

Since we can globally see that bike trials only ever appeals to a minority of bike riders, advertising and promotion and organization efforts are unlikely to change the probability of any single mountain bike rider moving to trials. So perhaps the trials community should not be asking "How do we get more mountain bike riders exposed to trials?" but instead "How do we get more mountain bikers?"

The best way to do that is getting more kids out riding around in their neighborhoods on their bikes, riding to school, and riding to their friends’ houses after school. The bottom of the observed trials pyramid isn’t beginner trials riders, it’s not more mountain bikers, it’s more kids riding their bikes around their neighborhoods.

Some of these kids will wonder, "How fast and how far can I ride?" and they will see how fast and far they can ride. Some kids will wonder, "how far will I fly if I ride off that ramp?" and they will ride off the ramp and take flight. And some kids will wonder, "Is it possible to balance on a bike without moving?" and they will discover that yes, anything is possible with a bicycle.