Pedal-drop: Know your trials-riding history
Originally posted on November 28, 2007 at 13:43 pmMany bicyclists may not realize that trials riding originated in England and Spain on small lightweight motorcycles in the 60s and 70s. But of course a lightweight bike has significant advantages over a lightweight moto — chiefly that the rider is the center of gravity, rather than the ride, making the bike more of an extension of the rider rather than the other way around … and coincidentally making a whole lot of seemingly impossible tricks possible.
Still, there is another even more dramatic difference between bicycle trials and moto-trials, and it’s made pretty darn obvious in this video of moto-trials rider Julien Dupont: That little internal combustion engine allows for some pretty dramatic anti-gravity tricks like wall-climbing and uphill stairs jumping.
Then again, there is that dude who the world record for riding his bike up the stairs of many of the world’s tallest buildings. Gravity just doesn’t apply to some people.