What Got You Started

[copemech]

My dad was riding Enduro's all through out the 70's in upstate New York. He found that a tire lasted two events. Chains lasted one event and Monday mornings were hard to move. He got my sisters to ride motorcycles but never really endorsed them riding competitions. In about 79 he was talked into riding a trials with a buddy on my sisters hodaka wombat and was hooked. I was 3 at the time and broke just about any bike i got my hands on riding non stop. In about 84 I had saved enough allowance to buy my 75 tl125. I couldn't touch the ground so to start it i used the kick stand. Broke off many o kick stands that way. I loved that bike and my parents knew it. The would punish me by draining the tank and not giving me fuel. In about 86 i started riding competitions in western new york. Eventually in about 89 i updated to a ty350. All through out highschool i was the nerd who led this double life on a trials bike. Eventually when college rolled around and several bikes later i decided that women and cars were more important and i sold the motorcycles but kept the trials bicycle. Cars were so much more important that I decided that I wanted to get into the industry. Durring my 8 year tenure I found scca and road racing. Realizing that i would never have the money for anything like that women aren't as stable as a trials bike i decided to buy myself a gasgas as a graduating present. My job allows me to ride when i need to ride and this sport allows me to keep getting to work on mondays so i am hooked. Only since college have i really taken the sport as serious.

--Biff

Hey Zipper, can you loan Biff a kid or two, that should fix him! Trials Nerds ride trials because it is CHEAP!

[feetupfun]

My Dad was a road bike rider from his teens, only having a rest from bikes when he had to build a house so he and my Mum could raise kids. When my sister and I were old enough (in about 1968) his bike passion took over again and he started fixing up old bikes for himself and us to ride. There was a 100cc MANET scooter, a 125cc CZ road bike, a 16H Norton with sidecar, a Tiger Cub and an early Yamaha 80cc road bike (G1FD).

I became hooked in a flash and by 1974 I had a TS185 which I then modified for Trials so I could ride with a kid from school who had a proper trials bike (RL250). I soon learned that the TS185 was hard work in sections so bought a M85 Alpina, which was only a bit less hard work. Practice was a daily thing after school at the local bush and that place was also used by the state trials champ of the time for practice so I had a pretty good guide to what was possible to do on a proper trials bike. This led to buying a TY175B second hand in 1976 which was like a breath of fresh air to ride compared with the Alpina. I rode that TY175 till 1980 when the girlfriend thing became too much of a distraction. Then it became a wife thing and it wasn't till 1988 that I rode trials again. The Ty175 was still quite competitive at that time but it was getting very worn out and I kept hitting brick walls trying to buy parts or even parts from wrecks to fix it. Long distance Trail rides and Enduro competition took over until about 1994 when I learned of the VMX and Twinshock Trials movement and I got very interested in trials again. I bought the first going twinshock trials bike I could find (a TY250A) and rode a state titles event and loved it - riding against other old bikes. Things then sort of spiralled upwards out of control as over the next 10 or so years I bought every Twinshock trials bike I had wanted as a kid (most of them not going) and brought them back to life. The arrival of the internet in the late 1990s made it incredibly easy to get old bike parts and it keeps getting easier. By 2006 I had gathered all the twinshock trials bikes I wanted except a 250 Yamaha Majesty (they are very rare in Australia) and had contacted people all over the world trying to get one and tried to borrow an original to make replica Godden Majesty frames locally. Later that year I got THE phone call from a guy in Western Australia who was ready to sell his unused Godden 250 Majesty frame kit. At the time I had made plans to make a replica of the first Majesty 250 (the one that is made from a TY 250 frame) and was very close to starting. Soon after getting my Godden Majesty going new replica Majesty frames became available which is just another example of how things have improved as far as being able to buy parts for the old bikes.

I keep most of my twinshock trials bikes close to standard for the purpose of being able to compare what they would have been like to ride in their prime ie not moving footpegs, shockie mounts, fitting different forks, doing frame chops or swingarm extensions. One exception is a TY175 that I like to try all sorts of mods on and has become a bit of a beast. It is great to be ride the bikes back to back and compare what I feel to what the magazines of the day said about them and to hear other twinshock riders opinions about how they compare.

Riding twinshock trials has become quite popular here but is still nowhere near the fanatical level seen in Spain - here it is mainly riders who started their trials riding on twinshocks in their youth and still love riding them.

Edited December 10, 2008 by feetupfun

[zippy]

copemech Posted Yesterday, 10:47 PM

Hey Zipper, can you loan Biff a kid or two, that should fix him! Trials Nerds ride trials because it is CHEAP!

Actually Biff gets along with my boys quite well.

He talks computers and video games with the older two and acts totally silly with the youngest.

He's a good friend.

[ham2]

I had a few 'crossers and trail (not trials) bikes when I was in my early teens but that soon died out.

About 20 years later I went on holiday to Cyprus with some mates and we hired some enduro bikes (suzuki DR?) and that re-kindled the off-road urges .

When I got home I hassled a few of my contacts into letting me try out a Honda CR crosser .

As you can imagine that 20 years of progress on the MX scene caught me by surprise and I thought; ''If I buy one of these I'll be dead by the end of the week''.

Out of the blue, one of my mates came good and delivered a box to my door with a dis-mantled Montesa 242 in it.

He said ''If you can put it together it's yours''.

I did,and it was sh**e,but there was no shortage of twin-shock loonies to buy it from me.

At the same time on't telly Steve Berry on Top Gear was highlighting indoor trials and I'm sure? it was Dougie doing a 15 ft standing leap from cable reels..I thought that looks easy!! I'll get a modern trials bike ('93 gasser) and I'll be doing that in no time

Several years ,and bikes, later and I'm still trying ..6ft is my personal best.

After starting off on 'crossers the strange thing is I now detest the high speed aspect of trials (getting between the sections) and love the slow/technical parts.

P.S. ''love'' does not infer any level of competence.

[baldilocks]

Are you based in Scotland/Uk ? Aberfeldy 2day was a great trial when I rode it.

North East England, it was four hours in the transit to Aberfeldy and I rode it in 82 when they had a schoolboy class and from 85 to the last one in 88 as an adult.

It was a fantastic trial

[copemech]

Actually Biff gets along with my boys quite well.

He talks computers and video games with the older two and acts totally silly with the youngest.

He's a good friend.

I figured as much for him, good guy! You should take advantage of that! Maybe he will get the little one an OSET for Chrimbo! That you can all ride!

Edited December 11, 2008 by copemech

[motojojo]

When I was young I had a little ct-70 but wanted(real bad) a Suzuki 250 trials that set down at the local bike shop. But years latter after blowing out my knee in MX I had quit riding, at about the age of 24 a friend got a OSSA MAS and I bought it for $70, I've been riding since. Now about the OSSA I sold it to a friend that has restored it back to original shape, its so sweet he won't ride it.

Edited December 14, 2008 by gtgasgas