mich lin

dman makes a good point, Pressure makes champions. I totally agree with this young man on that point. As an old timer who has had a lot of success, let me point out the obvious. Life is choices! Some riders will choose to shoot for the stars "world Championship" some will aim for Geoff Aaron and some will be happy simply riding with dad, his pals and others for fun. All is good. We choose to step into the lions den, it's not forced on us. Its tough up there at the world championship. It's not for the faint of heart! It's sort of like aiming for an Ivy league college, the Olympics or speical forces. It takes total dedication and commitment, not everyone is cut out of that cloth. Which is OK, we are not bad people for not going to Yale, the Olympics or becoming a Navy SEAL, not everyone can be the best of the best at something! What I'm simply pointing out is giving our youngsters quality choices and oppertunities is important. I'm one of the few who have consistantly fought for the young riders of the USA who desire to strive for excellence. That fight has cost me plenty, it would be a lot easier and smarter for me to simply hideout and say nothing or sacrifice nothing for young American trials riders. Personal gain has not always been my motivating emotion, otherwise I would not have been AMA sportsman of the year.

dman, one more thing! Your right talk is cheap but Consider this, I've not only talked the talk but walked the walk. As an individual I've scored more world championship points than the entire US pro class combined. I've lived and ridden trials in Europe! One of my team's riders scored the first FIM world championship points of any US rider since the mid 1980s, that was in 2000 in Spain. We have been to 4 TDNs with one of our riders being a member of the team twice. So we have also walked the walk in the FIM sections in Europe, not just talked! I've been there, seen the competition, had our rider banned from competing at the European championship. So I'm not a novice at world championship trials or what is needed to improve the chances of our up and coming riders. Respectfully, Mich Lin

dman, the adults run the FIM and make the rules, even if we don't always agree with them. The FIM has banned US riders from the European championship which was always the stepping stone to the world championship. That was a HUGE roadblock to Americans ever getting into the world championship game again. Now with the introduction of the 125 world championship, US, Canadian, Aussi and other international riders again have a shot at getting noticed for a world championship ride. If an American can have a BIG impact at the 125 world championship, his chances are very good to move into the World Wide One and do well. It's unAmerican to force people onto 125s! Giving riders interested in contesting the 125 world championship the best oppertunities possible is the only logical stepping stone to another American World Champion. By offerning a 125 national championship in the USA, youngsters have a solid reason to stay back on the little bikes that are a big disadvantage at some trials and sections. If we fail to provide that reason for them to say on 125s, they will move up to the full size bikes. Which appears to be a major failing point for further rider development against our European and Japanese competition.

All kids dream until their dreams are dashed! That's what happens to adults, they stop dreaming. A couple years ago at the youth nationals I asked the question of about 20 kids at the logs "who wants to be world champion?" Every kid raised his hand, including yours Alan! Now we know that not every kid will have the talent or the drive to be that good. Those are the kids who won't want to or cannot stand the pressure of world championship or even Pro level US trials. That's OK, those are the sportsmen riders of the future and the backbone of the NATC nationals. What about the gifted few? Do we leave them without the grooming and support that the Spanish, English or Japanese potentual world champions and TDN team get? Comparing ourselves with Germany, France, Italy and Cech Republic will be easy. Lets see if our USA Trials De Nation team can stay in the A division against these teams this year. Or will they be forced to drop back to the B division again? If they can stay in the A class and not drop back. Then we know they are improving! Then each year after that we try to pick off one, two or more of the European teams like Germany and France. If they can't, we need to radically change the program to improve our best riders and TDN team! Do we agree!

Now that's one great flick! I need to rent and watch that again. In the past 6 months we watched some classic SCI-FI flicks and loved them. They included George Pal's time machine and his version of War of the World's, both simply fantastic. Two others were The day the Earth stood still and Forbidden Planet, which is still great today. I'am doing well, I'm laying on the couch with my foot up. I've managed to push back the redness and pain without having to have antibioics, simply by resting. Thank God! Tomarrow is a trial at Mr. Bills, I have to wait till morning to see if I'm well enough to go minder.

Alan, we have done nothing for the team for the last 6 months, we stopped riding trials altogether. We just started up again. Thanks for your question on pressure and the youth nationals. Pressure is subjective and cannot be put on kids unless they want it. If a kid wants to win, he has decided to put that pressure on himself. If the pressure comes from daddy! That might be a mistake, how to deal with pressure must be a decision a rider must make themselves. Do we agree? Now if the adults fail to organize the sport in a manner that allows kids to strive for excellece like English rider Wiggy has shown through the British system. Then we are not providing an atmosphere for excellence to florish. Now that's our fault not the kids! What I have done in the past 6 months is the proposal to the NATC requested by it's chairman which included a revision to the US nationals. His request was a plan to help riders who would like to excel into the world ranks while not in any way detracting from riders wanting fun no pressure nationals. Which I sincerely believe I provided to the NATC.

Great, we agree on standard class names and rules nationwide. More power to the USMTA, I support them also. We also agree they are off to a slow start! Wow, four points of agreement Alan! Pressure on kids? I think we also agree there as well! In your opening post you pointed out my position that kids should not be pushed. To clarify My position, it is that if kids WANT to strive to the the best, we should offer them that oppertunity. Wow five points of agreement! My position is that we are dropping the ball there and our rider results tend to support my opinion as fact that we fail to support our kids who want to strive to be the best. I think we also agree that there are too many classes! Is that correct? I don't want to make any assumptions. Maybe where we disagree is I would like to see the fewer classes at the US youth nationals by using the same youth classes they do in Spain or England. I also beleive that the US nationals should use FIM rules and classes. Then of course age classes to whatever extent the NATC wishes to use. These points need much clarification before we can decide for sure if we agree or disagree.

Alan, where do you feel we disagree? Maybe we don't disagree as much as one might think. Do you believe in standardized classes and rules nationwide? I do!

Staph sucks! The break I had was so bad the the world famous surgion that treated me came in and informed Debbie and I that I'd never do any sports again ever. Nothing but Chess! I bounced back fairly well but then during the hardware removal I picked up staph infection. It's been horrible, I was on antibiotics for over a year strait. Then finally I was able to go off it but everytime I tried to diet or exercise it came back. Now I'm doing well then 6 months ago in came back and I had to go to the hospital for an IV and another run of antibiotics. That cleared it up and then again about 2 weeks ago my leg began to hurt again. This time I've simply been resting trying to beat it, I don't want another round of antibiotics, it always makes me feel terrible. TooFast, it's in my right leg also.

Staff is an infection that resides in hospitals in big cities. Once it gets into one it's very hard to get it out of the hospital. Sadly I was unlucky enough to be it's victom. I've had several flare ups at the worst possible time. The worst injury I've seen or heard of are the fingers of David Chavez being cut off in the sproket while minding. Then there was Andrew Oldar having his head cought between the rear wheel and the airbox at a national while the engine was racing. both these guys are OK. A few weeks ago one of the riders at a Bill Markem event was playing around after the trial and went over the bars and landed on his head very hard. Amazinly he was released from the hospital that night but his bell was rang really hard. For me the worst injurys were spraining my wrists when dropping off something. I did that several times.

Was that the Calgary round? That was a good event! Mountain Lions are something I give a lot of respect too. We have sightings all the time around here, I've never had the displeasure of spotting one. I have seen tracks around the water hole however that is accross the street from my house.

Great story! I've seen a lot of critters riding trials. Snakes, deer, bobcats, foxes, coyotes but I yet to have any of them chase me. Thank God! I just hope to never meet a mountain lion. They are extremely stelthy and are rarely seen.

I sitting here right now trying to recover from an MX injury! After shattering my leg riding MX in 99 I picked up a staff infection when the hardware was removed from my leg. Sadly the staff infection flares up now and again, which it just did. Which really sucks!

I love MX! Sadly it's a very tough and dangerous sport.

The topic of your favorite "section pal" came up at the ITS Mr. Bill awards dinner last Sat. night after the trial. Talking with Mark Oldar he mentioned two very large rattlesnakes had to be killed this week and he asked me about snake shot. I informed him that Snake shot is great, it's similar to birdshot! My favorite " section pal" is a 357 hammerless S+W stainless model. I carry two rounds of snake shot, then 3 rounds of 38 or 357 mag. The big rounds are for bigger wildlife than snakes. I doubt that even 357 would stop a Califorina brown bear that live in our local mountains but it makes me fell better. It should stop a mountain lion that appear once in a while, for sure it would run off a pack of coyotes! It amazing living in the wild west! Bear, mountain lion, coyotes, vipers or bandits is something most trials riders never think of as a hazard.

Undisputed facts about trials *Trials will not become the next BIG sport! That's never been my goal. My hope is to have the US sport as large as it is in GB. * Anyone with any sense knows that a young rider must be on a 125cc machine to impact the 125cc world championship. * The 125cc world championship is the stepping stone to the World Wide One, which is the open class world trials championship. * Young US riders need a reason to stay on a 125cc machine when all his friends are contesting the NATC nationals with the advantage of a full size bike. The 125cc national championship gives a rider that reason to stay back on a 125cc bike until the FIM allows him onto a bigger machine. * Training camps, one upsmanship and riding together by great riders will always help improve the riding level. Simply common sense, not a statigic plan! * The ideas exchanged and worked through here DO MATTER! There is not time at the NATC meeting for real debates or to run a think tank. Here on Trials central ideas either sink or swim in the arena of ideas. SO THIS IS REALLY WHERE THE FUTURE BEGINS. * I like Alan but it makes me mad when he calls me a liar!

Man, your really tough on me Alan! If I'm not mistaken you have called me a liar several times but hey, that's your right to say whatever pops into your head. I'd also like to reserve the right to disagree with you. I will agree with you Alan on the standardization of rules, classes and section marking nationwide. That's an important step foreward that somebody needs to make for the sport. It appeared that there was great hope for the new national trials organization put together by the importers and the TCC staff to do this. There hasn't been any movement there yet, maybe later the new trials organization can make this happen? We do agree there bud! I've got to agree with a lot of points made here about the 125cc national title. It must start somewhere, contested on some line and be pushed in some direction from the get go. The proposal presented to the NATC was the prelimary qualifying event be run on the sportsmen line to start with. I thought that was stated clearly time and time again. Then the top 5 riders contest the finals sections of world championship caliber while the rest of the field becomes part of the gallery. So to repeat the answer to the line question, SPORTSMEN LINE first, then the finals on 125cc world championship caliber sections for the top 5. Now if there is only 2 riders entered, everyone rides the world class sections. Got it? To clarify another point, I'm not allowed at the NATC meeting unless I'm the SoCal NATC rep. Bill Markem fills that position and he does an amazing job at it. I agree with the statement that the NATC system has had 30 years to create another American world champion. It would have developed another world champion by now if it could but it didn't. It took Debbie Evans coming out of an 18 year retirement to be the first US rider since the mid 1980s to score FIM world championship points. That was in Spain, the year was 2000! Where was all the NATC world beaters and FIM points scorers since Ryan Young in 1985 Alan? If left as is, the NATC series will never create another world champion. The proff is right under everyone's nose. Why are we not entering the best of the best American riders at the US world round coming up? If the current system could bring World championship success, why are the US's best riders riding down a class in the Jr world championship? There is proof positive that the exsisting system will not produce another world champion without a move to standardization of NATC trials with the rest of the world.

Let me mention again, it was the Dr Wagner plan to transform the US championship into events catering to elder riders, not Pro riders. Which is OK but difficult or impossible to sell to outside corperate sponsors. He did an amazing job of reaching his goals of no professional riders in the USA. Keeping the NATC serries fun for the sportsmen riders. Plus keep the series alive. The NATC of the late 70s and early 80s wanted a hidden small sport, that would be fun for themselves to ride. They reached their goals with amazing success, it's simply not marketable. The fall out from the Dr Wagner plan is that in todays unforseeable video game and promotional sports market. The NATC national series catering to elder riders and no superstars will not sell to the public. Now the question is simply, is it time to change?

Alan? Again you simply don't know what your talking about! I was there, I don't remember you. This is another time you make me mad, Alan! The US championship today as nsaqam has pointed out has 5 riders contesting the whole series. How can you package and sell a series with 5 riders? We have 3 ladies, one American and two Canadians that's 8 riders if you add the girls into the mix. 8 riders out of 280 million people in the USA championship. Wow impressive! Hey, 2/3s of the US ladies championship entry comes from outside the 280 million American population. Wow, that's a great turnout! In the 70s the US championship series had more riders than today's series with its combined entry of Pro, women's championship and 15 plus age classes it needs to fill an entry. The NATC has to dip way down into the intermediate ranks of club riders to fill the entry today. We had two classes then, Pro and sportsmen with a biggerr turnout than today, later the over 35 class was added, then another and another and another. In the 70s the bulk of the entry was the Pro class, with factory teams from Honda, Yamaha, Bultaco, Montesa, OSSA and factory support riders from Suzuki and Kawasaki. We also had some smaller brands like Sarecen, GRM, Cotton, TMI and Fantic. A lot of US riders made their living riding only trials! These same American Pro riders also scored a ton of world championship points. Today our US champion won't even enter the US world round for the US spectators to cheer for him.

I've got to come clean nsaqam, I know exactly who Beckman is and the Spice girls! I really loved the movie "Bend em like Beckman" a really great peice of filmwork. To be honest, We might be some of the few Yanks who know who he is! Remember we run a world championship baseball and football series that nobody else competes in but Americans. We constantly get flak from the Europeans on this board about those American world champions. Let me say it's been refreshing having you come on board here! You are a clear thinker, write well and see the BIG picture. I'd like to enlist you in rewriting the NATC proposal to be presented at next years national meeting like you offered to do. If we can get the proposed revisions of the US Pro class, Women's US championship passed and bring in a 125cc US title. Then we will definetly be on the road to another American world champion other than in US football or baseball. Let me also add, Americans in the world championship would also position the sport to outside corperate sponsorship. Outside sponsorship will simply never happen with a sport that relys on elder riders that don't appeal to the video game buyer.

Alan, I get a chance to hang with some of the greatest freestyle riders of all time. That's part of my job! They are very gifted athletes, they could do great at trials but bike riding has a much better payday than trials riding. Any rider who is good at freestyle would be really dumb to switch to trials which is an amatuer sport.

Adam, that's a great post! Working in Hollywood I'm with loads of world famous sports figures like Jorden the basketball star, Tony Hawk the X-Games star, Phil Mickelson the Masters winning golfer and others. Who's beeckman by the way? I know Dougie Lampkin but never heard of Beckmen, is he a cricket star? Where the athletes like Tony Hawk have made their fortune has been in the tie in's like video games. Tony was flat broke, then the first X-Games came along, the studio decided to make him the star of that show and he's been doing really well since then. Almost blind luck but hey luck comes to those who are prepared. His biggest income comes from his name being on his own video games, his own sportswear line of clothing and to a smaller extent the sale of his signiture skateboard line. The MX stars have also cashed in on the video game market simply because it can be packaged as cool, so it sells. Of course the games also need to be fun to play but that has nothing to do with the athletes or the sport, it's the programers that make that happen! There is nothing in your post I disagree with, give the parents, kids and the sport a chance to become cool. Then it can be marketed by the Pros who smell the oppertunity to earn some money. In that respect American trials has really hindered the sport worldwide in my opinion. Most of the marketing oppertunities are in the United States! Because USA trials is a hidden sport that is supported by older riders at the US NATC championship it cannot be marketed in say a video game foremat to kids. There are no cool stars like Tony Hawk or Ricky Carmicheal to promote or cash in on! Now if the United States produced a trialsport that could be marketed and cashed in on by the big corperations, trials worldwide would benifit. As long as the USA refuses to create a cool sport that can be marketed by the advertizing and game people the sport worldwide suffers and will remain tight in terms of outside sponsors. As much as I like Clive, the 40 year old national trials champion of the USA and the best sportsmen rider in the NATC series. He is not marketable to the video game world! Neither is Geoff Aaron but a modern day Bernie Schriber riding against Raga, Fugi, Lampkin would be. Getting America back into the game would help everyone worldwide!

Spinner, Debbie's bike is the machine she rode at the 2004 Trials De Nations for Team USA. She did not pay retail for it but would you expect any rider representing the United States of America on the offical world championship team to pay retail? I believe she paid a little more than importer cost and slightly less than dealer cost for it. She did not get a new bike for 05! She buys her own parts and gear, I believe she pays retail? I've never asked! RYP and Sherco has been very good to her and we are very thankful. Without their help and the help of Dale at GASGAS we would not have been able to return to Europe for the women's world championship or the TDNs she has done. My bike is a 2002 model I paid $2000.00 for from a private party. I buy my parts from RYP, not sure if I'm paying retail or he gives me some sort of discount, I've never asked.

Atom, amazing post and insight! I believe it's really healthy for the yanks to see the level that UK riders are thinking at. Sure cash will always be an issue for motorsports, that's the lifeblood of motorsports, cash. Where the UK and USA differ is we are still arguing if it's good for our riders be in the game with you guys. While you are figuring out how to win. That's quite a diffence!

Clive, maybe we can party sometime when you come to Hollywood. Have your people call my people. I'm with Joni's! The Whiskey on sunset is a good place to party. I've got connections with one of the bands that plays there. Buddy if your not getting rider support from the US importer? You need a new agent, a bunch of age group champions get the loan of bikes and other support from American importers. Do you pay retail? Does Gary Hoover the 50 year old champ pay retail or buy bikes? I know Dr Wagner got the loan of one of the Marland Whaley "works" Hondas to ride RMTA and NATC events. Making him one of the "elete" people in the world ever to compete on the 4 stroke Honda wonder bikes as a factory rider. Yet he was never a top Pro class rider but a senior sportsmen champion. Maybe you need a new agent? Like I stated in another post, I'm not against sportsmen rider support. We do need to decide on what our view of the PIE will be. Can the US trials pie get bigger? Or must it be kept small like now? I'm of the opinion that if the sport grows, it's better for the sportsmen, the US Pros and the kids coming up like Cody, Smage, Oldar and the rest. Increased bike sales is partly a product of more interest in trials, Americans in the world championship creates more for the press to write about of interest to the general Cycle News reader. Motorcyclists from other types of riding will always be our #1 draw for new trials riders. At the US world round, Americans in the hunt also creates more American reader interest. nsaqam is a trials rider because of a world round! Would more American motorcycle enthusiasts following world trials, be better for the sport? Sure, no doubt! But that can only happen with some organized effort! The proposal to the NATC made last year was a good start for that reintroduction of American's back onto the world scene. We simply need to comply with the standards that the FIM has clearly layed down for us.