garyc_2008

Thanks for all your comments and suggestions. I managed to get rid of the tendonitis for a while with a combination of things, but I forgot to wear my wrist support last sunday and started to feel it flare up again, luckily only on the last few sections. So for anyone else suffering here's what I tried: 1. Wrist support. I got a simple stretchy velcro one that you can wrap as tight as you like. It left my hand free so I hardly noticed it. At the very least it keeps the wrist warm. 2. Lot's of ibuprofen to reduce inflammation! tablets and gel, before, during and after every time I rode, and initially regularly for a week. 3. Repositioned levers so that I'm pulling right on the end to get maximum leverage. I adjusted the bite point and reach and to slide it along the bar further had to loosen the banjo bolt on the line. Did the front brake too and can get quite a bit of extra force on the lever. 4. Holding my wrist in cold water for half an hour twice a day. After the initial constriction at about 10 mins all the blood vessels start to open up and the increased blood flow helps healing. Try it! your hand will initially go white and then after 30mins will be bright red. I found out about this here: http://www.davemacleod.com/articles/coldtreatment.html 5. Regular stretching of the fingers and wrist, to increase blood flow and healing. I think what I've got is a bit different to arm pump, but perhaps repositioning the levers and stretching while your waiting to ride the sections might help. Gary

Hi, I've somehow manged to get tendonitis in my left wrist from using the clutch on my trials bike and I'm getting desperate for ideas on how to cure it. I think it started about 2 months ago from a mild sprain and now , about half way in at a trial I suddenly can't pull the clutch in anymore without sever pain in my wrist. I've tried resting it for over 2 weeks and it didn't seem to help. I also had quite an amusing time at the doctors trying to explain that it only hurts when I use my index finger and why I couldn't use my other fingers to help pull the clutch in. I'm pretty sure it's the tendon running from my index finger thats inflammed from overuse, so a form of repetitive strain injury. Has anyone had anything similar from trials and if so is there anyway to get round it, other than not riding or riding without using the clutch? I thought maybe I could alter the position of the clutch lever?? Any suggestions/ advice will be greatly appreciated Thanks Gary

No no, I live in Cambridge and so am most definitely inside the South Midland Center boundaries. I travel a lot though in search of harder stuff to ride on, like to the south eastern center and nationals. Perhaps the reason there aren't many who can cope with it being hard is becuase to actually get to a decent level in the south midland center you have to venture outside and only a handful of riders are prepared to do that. I guess what you are saying is "why mark out a route for only 10 riders? (perhaps less sometimes)" but which riders is it that actually create the most interest for spectators, obeservers, clerks of the course and other riders (especially the kids)? If you look at the trials that pull the biggest entries they pretty much all tend to be rated highly by the top guys and once an event gets it right the reputation builds and you'll get enough experts to really make marking out a proper expert route worthwhile and then the huge entries follow. Everyone likes riding a "good" trial right? regardless of ability. I think that as a general rule, unless someone like Sam Conner turns up, organisers should aim to take 20-30 genuine marks (as opposed to slack dabs, missed markers etc.) from the top expert, which generally means marking it out as hard as possible on the land available. When my dad ran events back in the nineties in the southern center, this is roughly what he did and we had really good trials and good entries. I guess one thing that does cause issues marking it out hard for the experts is the intermeddiates not being able to cope. I find it strange though that we have three classes novice, intermediate and expert and usually three routes, but I guess the novices split and pick one of the easier two and the intermediates and experts ride the hard route! Why can't it be simple? Novice on the easy route, intermediate on the middle route and expert on the hard route? You get better, get promoted and move up the the next class and difficulty level at the same time! and I agree I hate 8 sections in a lap, it just somehow feels a bit mickey mouse, but then 8 good sections is better than 10 poor ones so it's not always so bad.

I think there have been a lot of interesting points raised in this discussion. I have to agree that on the whole south midland center trials are too easy, even a lot of the expert championship rounds. The lack of land is something that is out of the organisers hands, but what annoys me is when I'm sat in a queue about to ride a dull section and I look around and think "why didn't they send us up there??" In a rather flat center, organisers really need to get as much as they can out of the land. A good example though is the brian stonebridge, the severity of the land is not particularly good, but cambridge matchless turn it into a really good trial that takes marks. All Experts like the biggest meanist looking stuff thrown right at them, if in doubt stick it in you'll be amazed what is doable, just look at the bayford wood round last year, thanks to Chris Koch for setting it out hard, that was one of the best trials I've ever ridden in the south midlands. If anyone disagrees then there's always an easier option! In fact instead of moaning about trials being too hard, moaners should either see it as a challenege, something to aspire too, or drop down a route. With regards to the whole road trial issue, although I ride the Novogar rounds and therefore have my bike taxed etc anyway. I think it is completely unecessary at stokenchurch. The steep banks make for far more interesting and difficult sections than the mud (which is actually quite a distance away) and by including the road part, you effectively force everyone riding the championship to register, tax and insure their bike for the entire year for a one off few sections in a dull bit of bog. If they ran he whole trial on the steep banks it would be awsome and arguably one of the best rounds in the year, provided Mr. Rees doesn't practice all the sections beforehand again. Really steve it's not very sporting. Regards, Gary Chandler