Bike Trials Comp - Round 3...

General
1

Yesterday I ‘competed’ in my second bike trials comp. It was fantastic, for the first time in my life I got the chance to hop around on old cars which was a lot of fun. They really suck your energy with their suspension. It’s good though because it forces you not to do too many messy little correcting hops.

I rode intermediate again which I think suits me well. Most of the lines are ‘cleanable’ but I never come close to getting a perfect run of zeros. For those of you who were wondering, the scoring in bike trials is from 0 to 5, 0 being the best. You get a point when you ‘dab’ (put your foot down) and an instant 5 for both feet down…so naturally I got a few 5’s. :slight_smile: They counted a dab on the unicycle as touching the obstacles with your hands as well as feet. We had to finish a little early and didn’t finish our 2nd and 3rd rounds. My score was 32. We ended up doing all 10 zones first time around then just 5 of them on the 2nd round and 4 on the third.

So for the first round my scores were:
5, 0, 0, 0, 0, 5, 5, 0, 0, 5
And the second round:
0, 1, 1, 0, 0
And finally:
0, 0, 5, 5.

As I said, hopping on the cars and utes was really interesting. I managed hopping from the bonnet to the roof which I was really happy with given the ‘suck’ of the car’s suspension. I also almost attempted a rolling hop to the bonnet but chickened out. :frowning: I’ve only just started trying rolling hops to get up to stuff and that would have been my second obstacle ever rolling hopped onto. I’ll try next time there’s a car at a competition though.

We had our own unicycle category (although we both rode intermediate with the bikes) as I had a mate there who’s just starting out at trials.

After the comp I pedal grabbed (or rather went from pedal grab to crank grab and then up) an 86cm high (approx 33-34") truck tyre after quite a few attempts which I was really happy with because it was my second object I’ve pedal grabbed to. That was seat in because I haven’t yet worked on seat out.

Next up is the trials demo I’m doing with a couple of other bike guys in two weeks. It’s a pretty big event with flyers and all so I’m really nervous about it but I’m on holidays so I’ll get heaps of practise in. My hops are only at about 55cm so that’s the main thing I really want to work on. I want to try to make 70cm in two weeks…any chance do you think? :slight_smile:

Then there’s the national trials competition which will be all natural trials…which is perfect for unicycling on. That’s in about 4 weeks I think. We’ll have at least three unicyclists riding in that one. One of the bike trials guys is going to unicycle in it. He’s ridden a unicycle twice (at both competitions when I had mine there) and is already getting the hang of it. It’s not fair…after about a total of 30 minutes of riding he can ride the thing, hop, do 180’s, and yesterday he landed about a 50cm drop!!

So yeah, lots has been happening lately for me in the world of trials. I love it!

Here’s a video of the competition. Sorry, I’ve only done a 15MB copy (I didn’t think it would be that big) which is a bit under 2 minutes long. It has some great bike trials footage though.

http://gallery.unicyclist.com/albums/albuq18/Trials_Comp_2.wmv

Andrew

2

Didn’t do a rolling hop onto the car? You wuss andrew :stuck_out_tongue: So that guy can do a 50cm drop after 30 mins of riding. That’s not possible, I’m just not gonna accept it, it makes me look so bad. It prolly puts most people to shame tho.

3

That was crazy. Keep it up.

4

I am soooo envious

Andrew,
It sounds like your having a cracker of a time up in brissie!
Well i’m stuck here all on my lonesome down south so just you wait till i come up there!
Well, good luck with it all,
Mark

5

Thanks guys. Mark, you’ll just have to pull a Dougie Houser and finish school early…then you can come to UQ to study and join us riding in Brissie. :slight_smile:

Andrew

6

Well done! About to check out the evidence now… :slight_smile: Do pedal grabs count as ‘dabs’ in either unicycle or bike trials comps? Or in your case, unicycles in bike trials comps?!

7

According to the NATS rules, which dont apply to australia, but are probably the same, as long as the shoe never actually touches the obstacle it is not a dab. of course this is really hard to judge and usually the judges give it to you.

8

Trials look really cool and I want to try one but I was wondering how do you train for a trial without spending lots of time and money to make huge things in your backyard?

9

The trials bikers I ride with practice “worlds” rules, whatever those are (I forgot the name, but they say it’s what’\s used in international comps). In those rules the only hting that can touch an obstacle is the tire. No going up to bash, and no pedals. I guess they’d have to make an exception for unicycles, as pedalgrabs are an itegral part of unicycle trials. Try pushing your limits on a ride without using a pedalgrab. It just doesn’t work.

Sounds great Andrew! I can symapthize on all the fivers. On a unicycle in trials you generally ethier clean or five. I rarely ever footplant.

As for going from 55cm (21") to 70cm (27.6") in two weeks, don’t hold your breath. It took me about 3 months to make that leap. I landed my first 27" hop sometime around mid-March if my memeory serves me correctly, and I landed my first 21" hop around October. Don’t worry, though. You don’t really need big hops to put a good showing at a trials comp as you have shown. I would also like to hear the opinion of other trials riders out there, such as muniracer, who it seemed went from 22" hops to 30"hops in no time.

10

Well they will take a bit of time to make but it might be worth checking out the trials obstacles at www.unicycle.2ya.com . Also, no matter what country you’re in, there are trials lines everywhere…you just have to know what to look for. Since starting unicycling a couple of years ago I’ve converted my eyes to trials mode. :slight_smile: I can’t help spotting potential trials obstacles and lines whenever I’m anywhere. I’m sure plenty of people can relate to this.

Andrew

11

Oh yeah… I got some serious trials-vision over here.

12

oh is that where these insane thoughts for stunts i should try are coming from?

13

Yes and it can be very annoying if your meant to be paying attention to something else. When I learn to drive I will REALLY have to learn how to switch it off.