This is a bit late but I forgot to post. Anyway last weekend (27’th 28’th Nov) the 2004 NZ B!ke trials nationals were held in Nelson. I was stoked to have such a cool event in my home town so of course I went along to compete. It was held at 88 Valley Road, Wakefield, at what is soon to become a permanent bike trials park. The setup was awesome, the best in NZ apparantly, though they say it is only a fraction of what it is to become, it will soon become the NZ trials Academy.
Because I was the only rider on 1 wheel I was registered in the ‘Clubman’ or beginner class, and kept it simple by riding under bike trials rules. The first two sections didn’t go too well for me. I completed the first section with no problems, go to the last obstacle, hopping over an angled ladder thing, the ground was all mushy and when I hopped I got no height, slipped of the ladder and face planted into the bog, and instant 5. The second section never really go going for me, concentrating more on the end of the course I came off right at the beginning, another 5. After that was a tricky technical section with rocks and logs, the bikers were having trouble with it, but it was more suited to one wheel, I got through clean. The rest of the round I either got 5’s or 0’s. Of 9 sections I ended out with four 5’s and 5 0’s. In the second round I cleaned every section, with a total of 20 points for the hole day, winning clubman (though they pretty much ignored me and because I was on a unicycle I didn’t get a trophy) and getting lowest points overall. The next day things went really well, the courses had been changed, but the same rules applied. Now being a little more experienced I cleaned the first round, and then the second too. No points for the whole day, leaving me with a total of only 20 points for the whole competition. I even won some new pedals (which I needed). Overall it was great weekend, the bikers were all really nice to me and not one clown joke! I can’t wait until the trials park is finished, its going to rock!
Here are a few photos of the event. The first one is a group photo (spot the unicyclist), not everyone though (I think there were 58 in total). The second is less then about a quater of the total setup they had. The last is just me and the two guys (both called Peter aswell) I went around with checking out one of the courses:
