When Not To Do The Easy Course?

[matt_urban]

the easy route is the easy route.. it asks nothing of the rider just that its easy . the beginners route is for beginners and those who dont want to ride the novice etc routes. personally i've been riding for 15 years i rride the easy / beginners route i drop less than 10. if i had to ride a harder route i wouldnt ride at all.

if you dont finish last on only your second trial your doing okay you'll get better and if youth and skill are on your side in a year you couldnt care less what happens on the easy route

but if you won every one you entered would you not try the harder route ?

[pete_scorpa3]

There are riders who don't want to ride the harder routes for various reasons and there are also machines that aren't suitable for the harder routes. Just because a rider can get a bike round the C route for less than 10, it doesn't mean that he could safely get that bike around the B route.

The only thing that organisers must be very careful not to do, is to start setting the easy route out for the better riders so as to get a result.

I feel that this is exactly what has happened inthe Midland Centre with the Group Trials championship. A few years back they introduced a B route and it appealed to many riders who normally found group trials too hard. Call them beginers, newcomers, novices... what you will.

I rode the B route on my trail bike and it was perfect, the winner of the B route was an over 40 Expert who lost one or two marks but the rest of us had a good day out. The following year, the hard route got harder because there was the easy route option but this made more of the over 40 Experts ride the easy route and subsequently the B route was made harder.

In my opinion (and this really is just my personal take on it) the hard route then became elitist. Realistically only five or six riders could cope with the sections, then another ten or so didn't mind the challenge, everyone else dropped down to the B route or gave up. The B route then became harder again and thus the very novices it was aimed at also gave up. We are now faced with the situation where there are more observers than riders and it is less viable to run the trials. (I'm sure parallels will be drawn with other championships at this point.)

Back to the subject matter, there's no problem with anone riding the easy route and making it look easy providing the severity of the route remains as it says; easy. We're only in it for the fun

[matt_urban]

A lot of the time it depends who lays out the courses but if they end up with 30 in easy and 5 in the others they should ask why are you all doing easy ?

[wombat]

We used to have a rule stating, 3 wins in a grade you moved up. Now it's non-existent. I ride Clubman grade here in OZ, and although I was last at the last trial, I only dropped 53 points. 1st place dropped 1! But he is only 77 years of age and my TY250a is no match for the newer bikes. If I pick up any trophies this year, it's a bonus. I have my dust collection and now ride for fun. But beating riders of all ages on the TY in Clubman from 22 to 79years is a buzz, because the next oldest bike is a 2004 Gasser!

If you are not after the tinware, ride and enjoy! You can only get better with each trial.

[pete_scorpa3]

We used to have a rule stating, 3 wins in a grade you moved up. Now it's non-existent. I ride Clubman grade here in OZ, and although I was last at the last trial, I only dropped 53 points. 1st place dropped 1! But he is only 77 years of age and my TY250a is no match for the newer bikes. If I pick up any trophies this year, it's a bonus. I have my dust collection and now ride for fun. But beating riders of all ages on the TY in Clubman from 22 to 79years is a buzz, because the next oldest bike is a 2004 Gasser!

If you are not after the tinware, ride and enjoy! You can only get better with each trial.

Nicely put

[boorad]

starting trials in my mid 40's youth not on my side but road &motocross past beginer route was ok, towards end of first year when in contention for beginer championship had the rare thing of being clean for the trial.won championship but it was close, now moved to middle route no chance of being clean here but i think i'm still inproving but more important i'm enjoying it. trials is a group of friends competing and it sure beats d.i.y. on a sunday.

[_g_]

In club racing where it's a case of using of grip positions, there can be more question over 'glory hunters' trying to stay a rookie for longer, or go in a class where they're the big fish.

If such people are bothered by winning, it's reasonable to presume that others are going to be annoyed by losing.

Me, I entered a class two high in a cross country mountain bike race and managed to be the very slowest rider out of the whole day as I had to do more laps than I could reasonably do in a decent time - but I didn't enter to win, I entered to ride and enjoyed it for that regardless.

[ham2]

This can get complicated so I keep it simple for my own sake:-

Here's an idiots (me) guide to entering a trial:

A trials course is like a main course at a Curry House:

Easy course=Korma=

Very straightforward,great if you're not a regular,no big surprises,you know exactly what to expect.

Middle course=Jalfreizi=

A bit more of a challenge especially if some-one behind the scenes adds in a few naughty elements to spice things up.Could be a bit sore the next day.

Experts course=Phal=

Don't try it unless you are used to it all the time,'cos if you're like me (tried it once for a bet) you will 5h1t yersel straightaway.

We are also looking at a business transaction here: I pay my money so I choose which curry to have.