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The Ashton Guide to Trials




This is Martyn Ashton's guide to trials.......ok so it's not actually by him but all the content is from past interviews,MBUK how to's and the truly essential video, Tricks and Stunts.

As Mrs Kensit says in the vid, trials is accesable to everyone. But iv'e found that as Mr Ashton says, the only way to do this is Practice. It's all about practice. Practice,practice,practice..............................

First lets get the essentials down. You want brakes that work, lower your seat so it's out of the way and let a bit of air out so your tire pressures are a little lower than usual. Through personal experience i have also learned:

  1. Dont try it on a full susser, stick to the downhills.

  2. Buy a riser bar, it's essential kit.

  3. Get some flat, grippy pedals. Cages are perfect.

  4. Buy Tricks and stunts!!

Have a look at some recommended bits

 

Finally work out which is your 'chocolate foot'. This is the one that you'll have forward when you do tricks or land. Then get yourself a gear it needs to be low, but not too low so that you have no power. Play around and see which feels right.

 

Every one ready? Here we go then....................

 

The Trackstand

Come on you knew we were going to go here first! To begin with turn your front wheel 90 degrees against a rock or wall to get a little balance then try and keep the bike upright. This is just a practice thing, the more you do it the better you'll get. Most people will turn their front wheel to the side of their chocolate foot, put their chocolate foot forward and then shift their body weight and push the pedals to balance out.

The Bunny Hop

This really is an essential part of trials, get this nailed as soon as possible. First of all start by trying to lift the back end of your bike. Ride along at walking pace, then push up and back into your pedals effectively hooking the back end into the air. This is called 'unweighting the bike', remember it.

When you can do this to a reasonable standard, add the front end too. Preload your body weight towards the ground to get spring in your arms and legs, then as you hook up the back end pull up on the bars and gaze in wonder as the bike flys!!!

The Side Hop

This is as simple as the bunnyhop so you'll pick it up in a snap. Practice over a line on the floor to start (it could get nasty if you start on a wall) as you preload your bike to do a bunnyhop, lean your body weight in the direction you wish to hop. Then before you fall over jump the bike up and into the air, if all is going well you should be going sideways.

Now you'll be going sideways but the bikes not coming without a fight so pull it across and under you. The only thing left to do now is to bend your arms and legs to absorb the landing. Watch out though, you might still be going sideways a bit so shift your weight to balance this out.

The parallel drop off

Handy one this. Good show off move and it's a powerful trials tool to have at your disposal. In all effects this is just a sidehop all over again but this time you need to have a few more balls, start small (curb, little wall) and build up until you can hop with the best of them. Stop on your desired object and use small bunnyhops to position yourself as close to the edge as possible. At this point it's all in or all out, don't go halfway your bruised body parts wont like you much if you do.

Throw out a sidehop big enough to clear the wall safely, don't go nuts - you've got to land this remember!! Because of the drop a flat landing will hurt your bike, so push the back wheel down with your legs as you drop and absorb as before. Finally ride off looking smug............


The bucking bronco

Don't ask me where i got the name, but it hasn't really got a sensible one that i know of. This lets you bunnyhop BIG things.

For this it's useful to set up a twig or something across a couple of bricks to hop over, this will let you practice without damaging your precious steed (or your precious body). Approach the object at a jogging speed, just before you reach it pull up hard on the bars and then as soon as you know the front wheel has cleared the object unweight the back end. Use your legs to pull the back of the bike under you to make sure the back wheel clears the object too, and wahey! all things gone to plan you'll be jumping like a big old bronco................................apparently.

If your trying to get up really high, like a table or a wall you can try bouncing your front wheel off the object in question. Make sure it's only a glancing blow though, and don't miss alltogether. Get it right and this will give you enough upwards momentum to hop you up there.

The Endo

Ok, now were in to the intricate trials stuff. The endo is another essential and once you can do it consistantly, you'll learn how to move your bike where you want it to go. To do the endo ride along at a walking pace, with your weight loaded slightly forward. Apply the front brake with your weight still forward so that you unweight the rear end. You'll feel the rear end lift and at this point you should push the bars forward and shift your arse back over the saddle, this will stop you from eating any tarmac associated dishes. Once your up milk it for as long as possible then keep your arms straight and use your legs to touch down nice an soft.

The Front Pivot

This is an endo with a twist, literally. Do as you would for a normal endo but this time your going to turn the bike on the front wheel so decide which way feels best to turn. As you ride along point your hips in the opposite direction that you wish to turn. Turn the wheel round 90 degrees in the opposite way your back end should swing and at this point apply the brake. As the back wheel starts to lift flick your hips across to push the back end into the rotation and then you should be spinning. Decide where you want to stop (if you get to decide) and release the brake as before, turn the front wheel back and take in that landing with your legs, sorted.

The Wheelie

Last of the trials fundamentals, useful for hundreds of trialsy moves and at the top of every poser's dictionary. Get your self in a lowish gear to start with, as long as your on the 3rd cog on the back and the 1st/2nd on the front you'll be fine, but find what suits you. Ride along at walking speed with your butt on the saddle, have your arms compressed ready to pull up on the bars and have your chocolate foot in the back. To make the initial lift your timing needs to be good. Bring your chocolate foot to the front with a hard pedal stroke while lifting the bars and simultaneously throwing your weight backwards. If all went well you should be up so KEEP PEDALLING!!

Now this is the trick to the wheelie, the rear brake. By applying the rear brake softly you can stop yourself from falling over the back. To keep the wheelie going you should find the balance point, between going over the back and letting the front wheel drop, and when this is apparent using a combination of more power from the pedals (bars dropping) and dabs of rear brake (falling backwards, ouch) you too can be an insurance salesman. sorry, that was wrong..............

The wheelie drop off

Travel along at a slow walking speed but this time stand up. As your front wheel approaches the edge put your wheelie motions into action, you dont need to go very far so concentrate on getting the front wheel up and pedalling all the way to the edge. Pedal off the edge and good old gravity will pull you down but if your going for something a little bigger than a low wall that back end needs to come down first. Push the rear end down by straightening your legs. At this point jam your rear brake on to stop the wheel slipping out when you land and as you hit the floor let the front wheel down easy. Trackstand to get yourself set and then ride away.

The Trials Hop

One of the most amzing tricks in trials and also one of the most precise. get this down and you can go anywhere......To start off with you'll wanna pull the bike up to get into position, lean back and jerk the bars, no problem. Staying there is slightly harder. When you first start it will seem natural to hop backwards as this is where your weight is going, but you should try and correct this as soon as possible. Try hopping your backwheel slightly forwards so it is under your weight then the difficult stuff begins.

Initially it is only a pedal stroke and a hop, but this is difficult to put into practice. Practice by doing single pedal stroke wheelies and braking after each one before you put in the hops. Pedal, brake, pedal, brake....and so on. Once this is fluid then your onto pedal, hop, brake, pedal, hop , brake and so on again..... As only a tiny part of the bike touches the ground you can go anywhere with this move....but it will take PRACTICE!

Going For Distance

On this own the trials hop is great, with this technique it's better. Basically the technique involves lowering the front of your bike befor the pedal stroke, this inceases the power of the hop. The lower the front end the more power you can acheive and larger distances will be possible. Another use for this technique is dropping off, lowering the front brings you closer to the ground and therefore the hop down is a lot softer. Ready? lower, pedal, hop, brake........