Trials Blog - Practice Makes Injury - Trials UK

Trials Blog - Practice Makes Injury

• 4th August 2009
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Whilst looking into trials riding on Google I had stumbled across a venue in Tong just outside Bradford.  Parkwood 4x4 centre – a specialist off-road training centre for 4x4 vehicles - occasionally opened its doors to trials riders and its 100 acres of woodland is nothing shy of a haven for trials riders. 

Nige and I were there at the first opportunity and we soon discovered that the wide open spaces and gentle hills suited us both superbly.  We spent 6 solid hours on the bikes, finding ever increasing challenges as the day went on until eventually we both rode successfully over the ‘frighteningly big’ log that greeted us as we rode into the complex.  OK, to your average trials rider this log would be nothing more than a simple hop over, but to us poor rookies, it was like being faced with a ride over a transit van. 

Not only were we enjoying our riding, we were starting to get a bit of confidence and we’d started loosening up a bit.  Neither of us looked anywhere near as rigid as we had on that first day and I could see that Nige was really beginning to enjoy himself.  As it was me who had done much of the convincing when it came to buying trials bikes I really wanted us both to feel that we’d done the right thing.  Our day at Tong was slowly making us feel that way. 

Such was our enjoyment of Tong that we actually only stopped twice all day; once to take on water and again later to feed ourselves.  By the end of the day as the sun was dropping in the sky we were both exhausted – but utterly jubilant.  Once more, we’d both come off our bikes.  At this point I should point out that both Nige and I are a little accident prone.  We had given each other the nickname of ‘Calamity Mike’ and ‘Calamity Nige’ when fishing because if something could go wrong, it would. 

One of Nige’s comedy off’s had been to fall uncontrollably sideways into a deep puddle.  He was half coated in brown mud, had one wet ear and a single squelchy boot.  His right elbow took the brunt of his second ‘off’ and was beginning to swell up, whereas my falls were less spectacular, but just as embarrassing and undeniably as painful. 

We were battered and bruised after our day at Tong but in no way put off - on the contrary.  As we strapped our bikes to the back of our cars, we both commented on how much we had enjoyed the day before we both set off for home. 

I wasn’t prepared for the news I would get from Nige 3 days later.