Trials Blog - Feeling good, getting better - Trials UK

Trials Blog - Feeling good, getting better

• 21st March 2010
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This weekend was the turn of Bradford DMC – my 4^th club.  I decided to join following a phone call I had received from Dave Horne.  Dave, who has only been riding for just over a year, is extraordinarily active in most of the trials clubs round here and seems to be known by everyone.  He’s also a pretty good judge when it comes to knowing the difficulty of each clubs novice and beginner trials.  He was the one who put me on to the Yeadon & Guiseley club – and their trial was marvellous.

Bradford’s novice and beginner trial was to be just as Dave had described – in fact, it was made even better because there were only 5 of us who entered for the novice and beginner, so we ended up with our own private trial.  It was right up my street.  The only downside was that it was being held at Rough Howden – and that’s where I broke my wrist.  That, of course, was my fault and was done when I knew little about bike control.

We were marshalled round the course by a chap who was introduced to me as Barry (a very helpful bloke who absolutely understood how to deal with 5 rookies) and Barry observed each of the 10 sections that he had set out for us.  He’d got it just right, too with section 1 being a nice easy start, section 2 slightly harder and section 3 harder still.  By section 10 he really had us working hard to get through the section.  Barry had chosen a fantastic set of section which included hopping over rocks, making sharp camber turns, weaving through very tight gaps in trees and had us snaking in and out of a pair of tractor tracks (much harder than it sounds – or looked).

I thoroughly enjoyed the whole thing and felt more confident than ever.  I was going to go and do something that had crossed my mind as soon as I drove in to the venue – ride the double rock step where I broke my wrist.  I had ridden up to it earlier in the day and stared at it, just to see if I could work out what I did wrong.  I took a deep breath and closed my eyes, visualising what I needed to do to get up the rocks.  I went for it and ... I pissed it!  It was so easy!  I had another go, and another – and another!  Oh yes.  It just went to show how much my riding had improved.

Oh, there was no stopping me now.  I wandered over to one of the bigger rocks at the venue.  It stands a good 3’ 6” high with a nice flat top.  Nothing for a seasoned rider but for me, well, if I could get up that I would be on top of the world.  Someone had put a kicker in place so I had a go with that and got up easily.  I took the kicker away and, using the technique I had watched over and over on the Ryan Young video had a go.  Before I knew it I was on top of the rock and had never felt a thing.  I went at it again and again and again.  I think I have confidence to go at even bigger stuff now – and it feels good.