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Hi guys, The 2007 national schedule will be set at the NATC meeting the last weekend in October. We will offer to host a 2-day national round at TTC, probably in April/May time frame. We would be delighted to have Ross Danby and any of the other young riders come over for a time and will help arrange bikes however we can. If you guys can make it over any time during the off-season we'll make you welcome here. dan

Who left the door open from Lane's world, he seems to have escaped.

Although the wording in the FIM rulebook is not specific, I was told by FIM officials a year ago (I'm sure it was Dave Willoughby) that it was as if a tape was on the ground between the two gate flags. This is the way we put it into the AMA/NATC observer training video and the way it was explained to the observers at the Friday night meeting in TN. Copemech must have already drank too much beer to remember. I think it would be better if the FIM rules were modified to specifically clarify this point. We made sure to place two flags for each and every gate in TN, even though in some cases that meant a flag was attached to the boundary ribbon. When inspecting the sections, the FIM officials told me that it wasn't really necessary to place a flag on the boundary ribbon. But if you don't have two distinct flags, it seems to me impossible to judge precisely where the gate is that someone else might be forbidden to cross. Granted, crossing the gate by other classes is not an issue 98% of the time, but it seems to me that one must be consistent in marking. We had another weird issue in Sequatchie with a rider getting out of the "corridor", i.e., leaving the que without riding to clean his tires in the stream. Our strict observer on that section was ready to give him a 5 for crossing the tapes of the corridor, although he re-entered and rode in his turn. I made a judgment and instructed the observer by radio to give him a verbal warning but not a 5. In checking the rules, it says the rider will be penalised by 5 additional points for 1) leaving his machine in the corridor, 2) mechanic entering corridor, or 3) receiving any outside assistance to the machine in the corridor. So it doesn't precisely say that one must remain in the corridor, even though I mistakenly informed the observers that riders must do so (and this observer remembered! Hint: wasn't Copemech). It is impossible to remember every rule for every possible situation, so that is why the rulebook must be handy and must be consulted for specifics. Observing a world round is a challenging task, and the best observers are level headed, calm, deliberate, and not easily rattled by the pandemonium around them. dan

Bill does a fantastic job and is really working hard to help promote youth trials. He is a great blessing to all of us and really helped with both big events (World Round and Youth) in TN this year, as well as for all the youth events at all the nationals across the country. In my opinion, it would dilute things excessively to ask people to travel with their family and kids across the continent 2 times in order to compete for some championship title. After all, they are only children and families have only so much vacation time to devote to the sport. I would advise that the West Coast event be structured to be DIFFERENT from TN rather than a duplicate event! This could raise the appeal in a different way rather than doing another event of the same thing. The big draw for the TN event is to have a week long family vacation with lots of activities and the competition simply caps it off. It is the Loretta Lynn's of trials. Think about it, the motocross kids have several events each year and each one stands on its own and is slightly different from the others. Besides LL in TN, there are mx events for youth in OK, NV, FL (at Thanksgiving) and all are well attended. It seems to me that the big attraction for the west coast event is the connection with the El Trial. Perhaps it could be tied in more closely in some way. Perhaps make it a big event for teenagers up to age 18 or something. This would've been great with Pat & Cody this year. Perhaps focus it to be a 125cc championship event with different age-based classes up to age 18. You could also have an 80cc championship and a 50cc championship. And keep it connected with the El Trial, maybe even run it simultaneously. This would give the whole event a unique flavor all it's own. Just brainstorming here. I'd very much like to see this be a successful and well attended event. I feel badly that other obligations prevented me from attending this year, but next year I will make a strong effort to keep my calender clear for it. It would be great to hear other ideas. I'm sure Bill will be at the NATC meeting in the fall and we can discuss things together. regards, dan

I actually had Fuji's line in mind when laying out section 2, but thought to myself wow, that's insane, we can't make them do that, but if it's available somebody might try it. So we set the section with a way up and around the rocks with a steep downhill to an off camber exit that probably wouldn't have been so difficult had it not been so wet & slippery. I think it's good to have something spectacular that offers a potential reward for an aggresive rider, but is not necessary for the lesser ones to get through the section. Of course, most of the lesser ones never got up to that point in the first place, but that was the principle. Didn't see the section at Hawkstone, but I can say from experience that you really, really have to think about where these gates are located to try to avoid the potential problems of riders being tempted to cross another class gates. It puts pressure on observers if you have stuff like this that everyone has to watch for. The best section layout minimizes the potential conflicts and makes it easier on both riders and observers. But it really forces the organizer to study & think about sections from every possible angle. I learned a few lessons at the US round of things that could've been done a little better; if you pay attention, you can always find ways to improve. dan

In an initiative to encourage more women to participate in trials, the FIM are sponsoring a series of training camps at 4 locations around the world. One of them will be in North America at the Trials Training Center on Nov. 3-5, 2006. There is no cost for the school, and women riders of all skill levels are welcome to attend. Not sure who will be coming from Europe to serve as an instructor at the moment, but our top American rider Louise Forsley will be there as well as our own lady-killer Bruce LeRiche. In order to attend, interested ladies must fill out an entry form and send to the AMA by Oct. 13. More info and the entry form is available on the TTC website at www.trialstrainingcenter.com. On-site camping and cabins are available for a nominal fee, and nearby motels are listed on the website along with directions to the facility. -dan p.s., please spread the word thru all the North American clubs! also, not sure exactly the process, but Canadian ladies are certainly welcome but probably need to apply via the CMA, who will send the entries to FIM. If anyone from Canada needs to discuss this, Sue Mason or Chuck Weir at the AMA can probably give advice. And before anyone even asks, I'm not sure if Laia will be coming or not, although I have been trying to get them to recruit her.

Mark, the proposal doesn't require that any club actually use these designations for their class names, as that proposition would probably get nowhere at the moment. It is not realistic to expect every club in the U.S. to change their names to suit somebody else's idea of what the names ought to be. The proposal is intended to provide a common reference system. So if you guys have a class you call "amateur" or "senior expert" or whatever, you can reference the skill level for that class to a recognized national standard. So we won't call you D for dummy. dan

A summary accounting of the 2006 U.S. round of the Trials World Championship is now reported on the STRA website bulletin board. Dan p.s., we carefully considered any possible rules differences between US nationals and FIM and attempted to warn all the US riders what they were and advised them we'll be strictly following FIM rules. That doesn't mean they listened. Tony Bussing and I could only find two: 1) FIM has no warning whistle at 30 seconds left in the section, (which is ok by me and easier for observers) 2) FIM rules denote that a fault is "each contact with the ground or obstacle"; in the US we have traditionally scored a sliding foot as 3 pts. When I asked FIM officials about that, they informed me that, no, a sliding foot was still only 1 point. I was informed that this is referred to as the "ENGLISH FOOT"

Thanks Leo, your feedback is important, and I will attach this endorsement to the proposal as I have to finish this up & get it in asap. I have made a few editorial changes as the folks identified errors or typos but am planning to mail this in on Monday. LAST CALL!!! By the way, regarding the item in 4.d. about riding above a marker: that language is taken directly from the FIM rulebook but I understand the interpretation of "riding" to mean that the rider cannot jump over a marker. I don't interpret this to preclude a floater in which the wheel passes an imaginary line above the marker, that would be almost impossible to observe and enforce. As regards the class names, I think we have made it so that individual clubs can make their names whatever they want, but we wish to encourage that these classes are cross-referenced to a common standard. thanks, dan

I'm not peed about TTC not having the event next year. It is what it is, we probably couldn't do it every year without burning out all our volunteers anyway. We'll come back again in 08. What I am kinda peed about is that the U.S. should be on the calendar every year for a world championship. This shouldn't be a European championship with 2 fly-away rounds. But I think that it is up to us to build the sport in North America to the point where our market can't be ignored. The TTC can't make this happen alone. You can be sure that if the manufacturers demanded an event in the U.S., there would be one. And I don't fault the folks in Guatemaula, they are trying to build the sport there just like we are. Look for some great happenings at TTC in 07, we'll still have a big schedule of trials events with maybe a focus on participation rather than spectating. And in 08 we'll have the best world round ever. dan

The AMA proposed a USGP for 2007 to be hosted at the TTC again. It was the FIM decision not to come to the US in 2007. dan

It is worth noting the purpose of a specific rule. As I see it, the rule about a missed section penalty requires that you actually ride your bike around the loop and go to each section to get your 5 punched. If there wasn't a more severe penalty for missed sections, you could have a bike problem or injury that should force you to dnf but instead you just would get 5's for missed sections and be recorded as finishing. The intent of the rule is to force you to actually ride the course if you are in fact competing. NATC is a 10 point penalty for a missed section, in FIM it is 20, in the Scottish it is 50 (this trial obviously has greater emphasis on riding the course and finishing). Regarding the rule about riding sections in numerical order, it is the rider's responsibility to ride the course in the correct way and go to each section in order and to pay attention that you have arrived at the next section and haven't missed one. I realize that some clubs may relax this rule, especially if they are small and ride with group scoring, and that is up to them. But if you have a trial that has many riders then safety dictates that you need to have everyone riding the loop in the same direction else chaos! Better that the rule is in here and a club can say it doesn't apply than to not have the rule in the event it is desirable. Regarding the gates on trees where you can't see the back side, this is a problem of learning how to mark a section in the best way. Often the problem can be avoided by the layout person by just marking so that "you must go here" so as to avoid the need to be aware that "you must not go here". But I think the best designed sections are those that don't require a blizzard of markers like that. Better to just send the lower classes off to ride some ground to one side and the upper classes off to ride some ground nearby with a minimum of intermingling. But good section layout is always going to be a bit of an art. If you do it you will always make mistakes, just try to be open minded and ask people who are riding and try to learn from your mistakes. dan

All the gates are supposed to be 4', is that not clear? It would be acceptable to float a wheel over a marker same as it is to float over the ribbon, but one wheel must track through the gate. And yes, the markers are used as gates, as is the system for both FIM and AMA championship trials. Since this system has been adopted for all the major competitions, I think it is appropriate to use as the standard for AMA trials. I realize some clubs still think of markers as "splits" but perhaps everyone will eventually come around since the top riders in the club need to think in this way at the nationals. There is room for differences, i.e., no-stop vintage or indoor trials, but it is otherwise confusing to have many differents sets of rules. I think the Peters gate trials are fun as an alternative way to do a trial, just for an occasional "something different" As regards championship points, how many to count, etc., that is totally up to each individual club! I thought it would be useful to have a general guideline on these kinds of issues, kind of like a guide specification, that a club could use as a starting point. We should try to get the scoring rules standardized and consistent with the nationals, but the club organization and series points and work rules, etc., should be pretty open to whatever the local club decides to do. Thanks for all the positive feedback, I am correcting typos and things as you point them out. dan

As regards the 4" to 12" high tape and the 4' (1.2m) wide gates, these are the exact dimensions that are current in the FIM rules and in the NATC supplemental rules for the nationals. I think we've historically used 3' in STRA, although it now says 1m (which is 39.4 inches). We could add a commentary something to the effect that these section guidelines are strongly encouraged for all AMA sanctioned trials, but local variations may occur, consult your doctor, use as directed, your results may vary. dan

Comments are solicited on the proposed revised section on Trials rules for the AMA Sports Rulebook. The draft version of this document is available for viewing and comment at the USMTA website. You are welcome to send comments directly via that website. I'll also monitor this board occasionally to view discussions, which we hope will be constructive. We would very much like to have comments from the leaders and "backbone" members of each of the major clubs around the country, and each club has a couple of people that take responsibility and make things happen and you all know who they are. Some of them don't spend much time on computers, so please help by getting them to look at this and provide comments. Judging from recent posts on this board, there certainly seems to be a lot of interest in standardizing classes. The approach that has been proposed is to define a series of rider classifications using a simple letter system. similar to the enduro system, and to tie these classifications to specific skill sets in the lower classes and to the nationals at the higher levels. It is unrealistic to expect every club to change their names for classes that have been used in some cases for over 30 years to a different set of names, just because some other club thinks their names are better. However, if the simple letter system provides a universal point of reference, then progress will be made and there may be steps in the direction of acceptance of at least the universal reference system. Also there is a lot of room for improvement on the section about organizing a club or competitions or non-competitive meets, etc. This needs to be brief and concise but with enough real information to be useful to someone trying to organize a local club. Looking forward to discussion of the proposal. Dan Brown

Nov./Dec. is a great time of year to ride here at TTC. American kids have a long school holiday from around a week before Christmas until New Years and also during Thanksgiving, the 4th Thursday in Nov. We'd love to have some British youngsters come over and practice and get some of the American kids to join in the fun. They seem to do well to just go ride together and practice and push on each other. It's way better that they see their peers do something, then they'll try it themselves, than if a grownup tells them to do something. They have to figure things out on their own, with only a bit of help when they get stuck. When they have trouble doing something another kid can do then they realize they need help and will ask somebody. Maybe Tommi will be around some this year, I'll inquire about his availability when I get a chance. He is the kind of guy who would be great for some youngsters to go ride with. He will help when asked but not try to manage anybody. And I've seen him watching some of our U.S. pros when practicing and can immediately spot whatever is someone's difficulty. Sometimes instead of saying anything, he will just go ride the thing correctly so someone can see it. He is a great potential resource for American trials. dan

Bike trial national was Saturday (NATS), a bunch of our bike riding motorcycle kids rode and won 3 of the 4 classes. Patrick won the Expert, Cody Manning won Sport class with Karl Davis 2nd, Andrew Oldar won the Beginner class with Dean Bechard 2nd. We didn't have any moto-kids riding Pro class, although Patrick probably could have done it and finished respectably. The top bicycle pros are pretty amazing. dan

Most of them are still up, Bicycle Trial National and World Championship qualifier event this weekend so some may be moved. Then we'll use many of the same areas for the vintage trial in a couple weeks. dan

I'll make an announcement now that for next year we will have additional "YOUTH OPEN" classes to include advanced, intermediate, and novice classes for any youngster so that every child who is interested will be encouraged to compete. When we started this event 7 years ago, the focus was on a youth championship. We will maintain the excitement and challenge of the youth national championships and will maintain the age based championship with sections to challenge the top riders in each age level. But now with the popularity of the family camp we hope to continue to encourage participation in the competition by all youth riders and their families, even if the youth's skill level is not yet at a championship level. We'll have an additional announcement during the off season. Also worth noting that the RV sites are already booked for next year, and I didn't even officially pick the date yet! July 4 holiday is on a Wednesday in 2007, so the camp will be that week with the competition to follow on July 6-8. Check out photos on our website and look for a great story in next month's Trials Competition magazine. dan www.trialstrainingcenter.com p.s., lots of families are apparently planning an informal get-together during Thanksgiving; everyone's welcome!

I've been uploading Bill Ibsen's excellent photos all morning to the TTC website. Also overall results are there. It was a great battle, Josiah won the 1st day and then had a disaster first loop on day 2 and Alex Bedley won. Ronnie was 2nd each of the first 2 days. 3rd day winner would take the overall and Josiah beat Alex by only a few points in a real nail-biter (at least for all the parents and spectators). After his bad day 2, former pro David Chavez stepped in and helped Josiah by minding for him on the final round. It was a great event all around! All 3 of these guys and about 18 other teenagers are here at TTC this week for a week of practicing together. Bruce LeRiche, Cody Webb, Pat Smage, David Chavez are all practicing with them too. dan

Big Al & all, this is a good discussion you are having, let's try to focus the effort to actually do something. Now that the world round is over and I can think of something else, it's time to redo the AMA Amateur rules, section 4.U for trials. I've spoken with the AMA officials about the process, and we just need to develop a consensus document to propose to the AMA congress in the fall. This should include an update of the competition rules so that it is consistent with the national and FIM rules, and also can include a description of riding classes, how to set up an event, etc. Anyone can download the AMA rulebook from the website AMA rulesand send comments via the USMTA "contact us" link USMTA. We can use some more volunteers to help with redrafting this document. I hope to organize a revised draft of the thing in the next month or so and send it out to interested volunteers and maybe we can discuss it a the youth nationals among those who come. Or even post it on the web for discussion! As far as competition classes, it looks to me as though there is consensus about the novice - intermediate - advanced - expert progression, then larger clubs fill in the gaps or add to each end with other classes as needed to keep everyone happy. It would be good to describe the basic skills needed to call yourself an "advanced" rider, since that is the level referenced to competing at the support class level in the nationals. The most important thing is that everyone who comes to ride should be able to ride a class that is challenging without being scary or too difficult. This is our challenge for the leaders of local clubs, and maybe a key factor in growing the sport. Send me an email via the USMTA link if you'd like a copy of the draft trials rules section when it's done. It may be dangerous to invite comments from anyone as there seem to be a few nutcases out there, but democracy is messy, I guess. I hope we can solicit input from some of the club leadership around the U.S. so that we can get some consensus on a few basic points. This should be only the most basic set of rules, so that an individual club can use the AMA rules and supplement these with their own local special considerations (like series points, work requirements, etc.). The bulletin board debates are interesting and entertaining, keep it up! How about a list of basic skills required to ride a national support class (which could define "advanced")? I don't mean win a national support class, I just mean compete without totally struggling. I think most riders who are winning support classes are expert level in their clubs. Maybe this discussion should be a new topic. Anyways, I'm off travelling for a couple weeks and may not be able to reply but will check in later when I get back. Al B, you can call me tonight (Sun) or Monday before about 5 if you want to discuss. regards, dan

It has been our goal from the start that we will be able to handle a large group on Friday without lines at the sections. It will be a split start, 2 riders out per minute with 1/2 the riders starting on #10, a long loop, 18 sections instead of 12 to distribute the riders, and the sections will be straightforward with no experts or Pros to clog up the works. I'm hoping to avoid any lines and waits at the sections and we'll see if we are successful. If so, the Friday riders will go ride & ride & ride & ride and come back tired and happy. And then there will be live music and BBQ and beer and the rest of the weekend to watch the best riders in the world have a go. It can't get any better than that! dan

Hi everybody, We have 144 entered for the Friday national for support classes. The loop is around 8-9 miles, 2 loops of 18 sections each, and last weekend I rode it on an XR100 doubled up with my 4 year old grandson. We posted some "no whining" signs up on rocky top trail. The sections will include a few to challenge the best riders and a lot of fun sections, with a great variety of hillclimbs and rocks. It looks like it will be slippery, so the fundamentals will be tested. I expect the loop will take its toll and add a few points from riders who are not in shape. Anyone who thinks it is too hard can discuss it with grandson Joey and see what he thinks. I think that the Exp and Pros riding the Sat/Sun trial will be tested. There won't be any single digit scores. nuff said. Bring your A game to TTC. Some of these European kids on 125's can really ride, and the national Experts will be on the same line. It's really hard for me to judge, but right now I'd say that sections are tough and slippery and the Trial World Championship riders will be challenged and the scores will not be low. But what do I know, these guys are amazing. By the way, Joey and I ribboned out one Championship section and his comment was "that's a tricky section, Papaw. But I think Bruce can do it." I asked him if he thought maybe Geoff or Brent could clean it and he said "no, only Bruce". So there it is, from the mouth of babes. dan p.s., there are 7 Pros and 22 Experts entered for the weekend trial, along with the World championship, Junior, and Youth riders.

Info about hotels can be found at: http://worldroundusa.com/html/accommodations.html dan

Ringo, contact me offline about El Trial for 2006. If you don't have my email you can use the contact us link from the www.trialstrainingcenter.com dan