Motorama 2004

Thanks for listing the thread to the K Holm trials system. I like the rules, but agree that when joining an existing competition, you have to respect their structure and system.

Maybe with enough interest and growth of the uni trials at Motorama, a future segment for be set up for unis only. Then the rules could be specific to uni riding.

All in favor of using differnet uni trials rules should make a strong effort to support the existing competition at Motorama. When there is a strong enough showing, then Motorama folks will listen better to proposed changes and needs for unis.

Bill

Erg, there’s no way I’ll make it.

NEWS:

Motorama 2004 will be held in a bigger space within the Farm Show Complex. Apparently all sections for bikes and motorcycles will be setup side by side, the day before the event. All of the unicycle obstacles built last year will be included.

This bodes well. Last year was pretty disorganized and it sounds like they’ve taken the steps to fix the problem.

Based on responses here, I would expect there to be somewhere between 15 to 25 riders for this one!

Joe

For those of you new to the bike trials competition format, this should be interesting. It should also give you a good idea of what goes on at Motorama. I haven’t seen it yet - just ordered a copy.

http://muniac.com/video/videoad.htm

Joe

I just sent the following message to participants of last year’s event and NJII (many of whom are not on RSU) in order to kick things off.

If you want to get on my mailing list for Motorama '04, contact me at nycjoe “at” aol “dot” com.

Joe

In case you don’t know about it already, the Motorama 2004 Indoor Trials competition is scheduled for Saturday February 21, 2004 in Harrisburg Pennsylvania.

Trials unicyclists competed at Motorama 2003 for the first time. It was a bit of an experiment – but it turned out to be a big success with 13 unicyclists competing in the midst of 150 bike trials riders. Scott Bridgman has documented the event on video. It’s available at http://www.muniac.com/video/videoad.htm.

I guess the show sponsors liked what we did at Motorama 2003 because I recently got a call from Charlie Clement (the trials competition organizer) asking if I could drum up some unicyclists for 2004!

So if you are thinking about attending, or are definitely attending and would like to be on the mailing list for Motorama ’04, reply to this email and let me know. I will not flood you with SPAM, but will limit the messages I send to important announcements.

For those of you unfamiliar with bike and motorcycle trials competitions, the following links may be helpful and interesting:

http://www.natrials.com/2003/motorama.php
http://momentumbicycletrials.com/photo.htm
http://www.natrials.com/phpBB2/index.php




http://www.trialsusa.com/main.htm

This time around we have some experience under our belt with the competition and we are a larger group. East Coast uni -trials riders are popping out of the woodwork! Combining mailing lists from Motorama 2003 and NJII Muni Weekend, this email goes out to 35 riders in the North East. Depending on who may be willing and able to travel distance for Motorama '04, we could have a major turnout this year.

In order for unicycling trials competitions to continue to evolve in a positive way within the bike trials competitive format, it’s important that we continue to be an organized group and not present problems and unnecessary challenges for the show sponsors, organizers and judges.

We are now a fairly large group, and there will be some things that we want to discuss. I encourage everyone to use the following link on Muniac.com which Scott has set up for this: http://www.muniac.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=15 I also encourage wide and open discussion of trials topics on other sites, unicyclist.com for example (RSU). However, threads quickly get buried/lost on RSU, and it is not the best place to organize an event.

As further details for Motorama ‘04 trickle in, Scott will post them on Muniac.com. The 2004 entry form is not available yet on http://www.natrials.com/2003/motorama.php but I will let you know when it’s there.

Several suggestions have been made about improvements to Motorama ’04. Please post your questions/comments on http://www.muniac.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=forum&f=15 , and feel free to email me as well.

I don’t feel that it is appropriate yet to consider an alternate scoring system. We need to continue to comply with the competition rules and format. If you feel differently, by all means speak up and let the group know how your suggestion would work without disrupting the bike trials competition.

Also, several suggestions about breaking the unicycle competitors into groups or classes have been made. One idea was to have a beginner and advanced class. The second was to skip the beginner/advanced idea and instead have a 20” and a 24” class.

I’ve given these ideas some thought and discussed them with some of you. I originally thought we needed a beginner and advanced group because last year guys like Ben and Joey cleaned everything, and others had a tough time with most sections. However, I think we are too small a group to break up into either beginner/advanced or 20”/24.” Splitting into two groups will make the competition unnecessarily complex.

Instead, I’m thinking along the following lines: Charlie Clement’s crew will be doing setup on Friday and he has assured me that they will finish the job on Friday this time. (If you remember, there were major logistical problems last year, with a tractor trailer arriving a day late, in the middle of the comp).

I will be there again for setup on Friday. In addition to last year’s unicycle props which Charlie is bringing back, I intend to bring/build more stuff. We made some pretty cool things last year. I think we can do a lot more this time around. If the course is laid out in it’s entirety on Friday, we can pick sections/negative lines and arrange a course that will be suitably challenging and fun for everyone.

So I’m suggesting a single unicycle course/class, with tough negative lines for the advanced riders. I would even go so far as to add any expert/pro sections that are rideable by the more advanced riders and treat them as a negative line or “bonus section.” For example, the entire section would be optional. If you clean it, you get a big negative bonus of say -5 points. If you don’t clean it, no penalty for trying. I think with any luck in building the course, we might be able to arrange alternate unicycle entry points on some of the pro/expert lines to avoid the huge roll-ups.

With enough time to work with the course builders on Friday, and expanded, custom-built unicycle sections, we should be able to have a great course that is good for all abilities. Nobody will be under-challenged or over-challenged.

My last point is that I think we need to agree that strato-dabs should not be permitted. The rules should be simple: If you UPD and a foot/hand goes down, you’re out and you take the 5 points. Some competitors utililzed a few strato-dabs last year, and I think most will agree, that they are bad enough on the bikes. On a unicycle it’s LAME.

The Uni trials competition will most likely start early Saturday morning and will last a few hours. Expert and Pro bike competition last into the afternoon. . Best bet if you are traveling any distance will be to check into a hotel in Harrisburg the night before. Or come down Friday and help build sections!

LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO BE ON THE MAILING LIST.

Joe Merrill

The Motorama 2004 registration form is now available at

http://www.motoramaassoc.com/m-11.html

If you are trying to fill out the form, simply circle unicycle and include $30. It’s a bit confusing, but it’s actually pretty cool that they went to the trouble to put unicycling on the form.

Once you submit your pre-registration form they will send you a list of hotels. Some of the hotels book fast, especially the ones close to Motorama. So if you know you are going, I recommend booking early. More details to follow.

Joe

Hey Gang,

Motorama is looking good. The rider list is growing. We have about 19 committed riders and another ten on the “maybe” list. Kris Holm will be joining us. The Virginia crew looks like it will show, and the Toronto crew is interested as well. Hopefully others will join us when they see the number of riders attending. If any of you know have others that want to be put on my mailing list, please have them send me an email. Don’t forget to get your application postmarked by Feb 1 and you will apparently save 20 bucks on registration:

http://www.motoramaassoc.com/m-11.html

After some thought, and conversations with Ben PS, Kris, Scott B, and the show sponsors, we’ve decided to do a u-system comp. Joey C should get credit for mentioning the idea first. Kris, Scott and Ben had some great suggestions and here’s what we’ve come up with:

We will build a full “u-style” unicycle course this year. Ben suggested that u-style point values be assigned to bike sections and these sections be treated as additional sections of our course. This will allow the u-system rules and scoring to be applied consistently across the board. The only thing different about the way bike sections will be treated is that only the set number of attempts will be allowed.

Kris provided a short description of the u-system which should answer most questions:

Many short sections are set (25-30 sections typically), from easy to very difficult. Each section is given a point value corresponding to it’s difficulty (higher difficulty = more points).

For a set competition time period (say 2 hours), riders are free to attempt any sections they wish. If they clean a section, they get the points. If they dab, they must stop and try again. There is no limit to the number of permitted attempts, but you can’t score on the same section more than once. At the end of the competition, the rider with the most points wins.

This style has a few advantages over conventional rules, such as:

  1. Judging is way easier- you either make it or you don’t.
  2. Stratodabs are eliminated.
  3. Comps cannot run late by definition- the time period is set.
  4. Section setting is way easier because rider categories only exist on paper for the purpose of awards- everyone rides the same sections (obviously the expert/pro riders ride more of the sections than beginner riders).
  5. Expert/Pro riders have more fun because without penalty for dabs, the sections can be set way harder and they can ride much more aggressively. Also it’s more similar to the way you normally go for a casual trials ride. 6) Beginning riders have more fun because it’s less intimidating with no penalty for dabs.
  6. Crowds like it better because they see top riders try repeatedly on
    spectacularly difficult sections, and can cheer them on until they succeed.

Let me know what you think.

Joe