Yesterday there was a really fun trials competition in Whistler BC., part of a weeklong event at Whistler called Gravity Festival.
The event was invitational (basically any expert or pro bike trials riders in the nearby vicinity were invited) and was held right in the middle of downtown Whistler.
The very cool thing about this event, though, was that even though the event was for bikes, the event organizers decided to use the unicycle trials rules instead of bike trials rules.
I haven’t heard of other previous instances where unicycling influenced anything in the biking world, so I was hoping it would go well.
There was a bit of confusion at first because it’s a new system to riders who were already experienced at a different system, but in the end people loved it!
Most people agreed that it was a much more exciting way to hold trials comps than the conventional bike rules, both for riders and also spectators. Based on this precedent, I think we’ll see a growing number of events held using the Unitrials rules.
I don’t have many pictures unfortunately but a few are posted here:
Whistler looks like a gorgeous area!
Question-- What are the differences between unicycle and bike trials rules? Is there somewhere to get a copy of the rules? I didn’t know uni trials was that organized. Shows how much I know.
About 2 years ago I wrote a set of unicycle trials rules that differ significantly from normal bike trials rules. These were introduced (non competatively) at NAUC '99 and were used at UNICON 2000.
In regular bike trials, riders are penalized for points for dabs, with a maximum of 5 points allowed during an attempt at riding a section. There are various rules for how you get penalty points for dabs but one rule is that one foot on the ground = 1 point, but 2 feet on the ground equals 5 points and you’re attempt is finished. This is a big problem for unicyclists because of course it is very difficult to put just one foot down when you wipe out- often your only two point possibilities are zero or 5.
The unitrials rules are based loosely around bouldering competitions in climbing, and are significantly different.
In short, instead of getting penalty points for dabs, you are rewarded with points for succeeding
A much greater number of shorter sections is set up (usually 20-25 vs. 5 or 6 in biketrials). The Course setter gives each section is given a point value corresponding to difficulty- harder problems have higher points.
Within a set competition time period, all riders are allowed to attempt any problem they wish, in any order, and multiple attempts are allowed. If the rider manages to clean the section, they get the points; if they dab in any way then they must try again. At the end of the specified time period, the rider who has collected the most points wins.
This has a number of major advantages over regular bike trials:
It’s less intimidating for beginners because multiple attempts are allowed.
It’s more exciting for experts because you can ride much more agressively without worring so about dabs on the first attempt. Sections can also be made a lot harder and more interesting than for conventional bike trials, because of the multiple-attempts allowance.
It’s easier to explain to spectators and more exciting to watch because it’s cool to watch someone try and try and finally get something. A bit off topic, but no one would have cared nearly so much about Tony Hawk’s 900 if he had gotten it first try rather than on his eleventh attempt.
Competitions won’t finish late, like biketrials comps usually do, because the competition time period is set from the beginning.
The setup is virtually the same as the way we ride when we’re not competing- ie finding a line and working it until we get it. This makes it seem a lot more natural.
There’s way less waiting around than normal biketrials competitions because chances are you will always have something to work on that you haven’t gotten yet.
Everyone is allowed to ride all the sections, which means that sport level riders don’t end up looking longingly at the cool expert and pro lines they’re not allowed to ride, which often happens to unicyclists during biketrials comps.
One big loophole of biketrials rules, Stratodabs (dabbing on purpose to help negotiate an obstacle you might otherwise have fived out on), is totally eliminated with unitrials rules.
It is way easier to judge, because all the judge needs to do is observe whether the rider made it or not.
Anyway, there are lots of reasons why this ruleset should become the world standard, in my opinion, for both bikes and unicycles.
About 2 years ago I wrote a set of unicycle trials rules that differ significantly from normal bike trials rules. These were introduced (non competatively) at NAUC '99 and were used at UNICON 2000.
In regular bike trials, riders are penalized for points for dabs, with a maximum of 5 points allowed during an attempt at riding a section. There are various rules for how you get penalty points for dabs but one rule is that one foot on the ground = 1 point, but 2 feet on the ground equals 5 points and you’re attempt is finished. This is a big problem for unicyclists because of course it is very difficult to put just one foot down when you wipe out- often your only two point possibilities are zero or 5.
The unitrials rules are based loosely around bouldering competitions in climbing, and are significantly different.
In short, instead of getting penalty points for dabs, you are rewarded with points for succeeding
A much greater number of shorter sections is set up (usually 20-25 vs. 5 or 6 in biketrials). The Course setter gives each section is given a point value corresponding to difficulty- harder problems have higher points.
Within a set competition time period, all riders are allowed to attempt any problem they wish, in any order, and multiple attempts are allowed. If the rider manages to clean the section, they get the points; if they dab in any way then they must try again. At the end of the specified time period, the rider who has collected the most points wins.
This has a number of major advantages over regular bike trials:
It’s less intimidating for beginners because multiple attempts are allowed.
It’s more exciting for experts because you can ride much more agressively without worring so about dabs on the first attempt. Sections can also be made a lot harder and more interesting than for conventional bike trials, because of the multiple-attempts allowance.
It’s easier to explain to spectators and more exciting to watch because it’s cool to watch someone try and try and finally get something. A bit off topic, but no one would have cared nearly so much about Tony Hawk’s 900 if he had gotten it first try rather than on his eleventh attempt.
Competitions won’t finish late, like biketrials comps usually do, because the competition time period is set from the beginning.
The setup is virtually the same as the way we ride when we’re not competing- ie finding a line and working it until we get it. This makes it seem a lot more natural.
There’s way less waiting around than normal biketrials competitions because chances are you will always have something to work on that you haven’t gotten yet.
Everyone is allowed to ride all the sections, which means that sport level riders don’t end up looking longingly at the cool expert and pro lines they’re not allowed to ride, which often happens to unicyclists during biketrials comps.
One big loophole of biketrials rules, Stratodabs (dabbing on purpose to help negotiate an obstacle you might otherwise have fived out on), is totally eliminated with unitrials rules.
It is way easier to judge, because all the judge needs to do is observe whether the rider made it or not.
Anyway, there are lots of reasons why this ruleset should become the world standard, in my opinion, for both bikes and unicycles.
Here is a link to the unitrials rules, including a draft of the U-system for unitrials, and guidelines for course setters:
www.geog.ubc.ca/~kholm
Note: the list of example obstacles for different grades in the U-system is a draft, and probably needs revision.
sorry sorry sorry!
I asked before I read the official rules. now I know, and to anybody wondering you can pedal/crank grab as long as most of your foot is on the pedal and you dont put weight on the part off of the pedal after you have established your balance.
Oh, man! I was planning on going to Whistler this weekend! It would have been a blast to see all the trials going on, ecspecially if Mr.Holm was there on a unicycle. I wouldn’t try these things myself as I would be afraid to, but jeepers creepers I wish I would have gone.
Are there any unicycling plans in Whistler for the future?
Congratulations, Kris. That’s quite an accomplishment. It seems as though it would be more exciting to watch.
Does your system require more judges than the bike system? How does a rider let a judge know that he is beginning a section?
What happens if there is crowding at a section, and how are logistical disputes like that resolved?
What is a typical time limit? Two hours?
Unfortunately I’ve never seen a biketrials competition, so my only experience is the great competition at UNICON 2002.
At the time, even the easiest problem seemed amazing to me, but watching Kris and a few others try and finally get the hardest sections was very fun from a spectator perspective. Also, there was always something to watch. Every direction you turned there was excitement. Watching less experienced riders havng trouble with a section made the experts look even more impressive, but also made the sport look more possible to the uninitiated. It was also very interesting to watch strategy changes among riders as they repeated a section. A lot of this would be lost in television coverage, but not to the crowd.
I guess the hardest part of the setup is determining a point score for completing the section. How is that done? Seems like I saw guidelines for that somewhere.
All of these are great questions, and things that are being resolved as more events are held.
Re the questions:
>Does your system require more judges than the bike system?
Since there are more sections than the bike system, originally it seemed like judging might be more difficult, but it actually seems to be easier.
We’ve discussed a few ways to make judging easier:
At the smallest, most grassroots events, riders waiting to try something could simply judge the rider attempting the obstacle, ie. “self-judging”. This is also what happens at the most grassroots bike events.
One judge can be assigned to a group of sections in the nearby vicinity. This is what we did at UNICON. It worked fine, as long as riders understood that the onus was on them to ensure that a judge was watching them while they attempted a problem.
The riders can be split into groups, and one judge can go around with that group as they try different obstacles. The judge keeps all scorecards for his/her group during the entire competition time period. This hasn’t been done yet but was a suggestion made at the Whistler event.
Also, judging is easier than regular bike trials because there’s no need to keep track of the number of dabs during an attempt; the judge only has to monitor success/failure. This means that anyone can be a judge increasing the likelyhood of obtaining volunteers to do this.
>How does a rider let a judge know that he is beginning a section?
The onus is on the rider to communicate with the judge and make sure the judge is watching them; a successful attempt does not count unless it was seen by a judge.
>What happens if there is crowding at a section, and how are logistical disputes like that resolved?
If a rider fails on an attempt and there is a lineup at the section, they must go the the end of the line and wait their turn. Near the end of the time limit, riders who have yet to attempt a section have priority over those riders who have already tried a problem. Essentially, the more sections the better, as long as there are enough judges, because this reduces any crowding.
If sections overlap then riders must take turns at each section. If two riders are on overlapping sections, the one who started first has the right-of-way.
>What is a typical time limit? Two hours?
Two hours seems to be a good minimum time. I think 3 is ideal, any more doesn’t seem necessary.
The main challenge of this type of system is that it really depends a lot on the skill and experience of the course setter, both to make good problems and to rate difficulties properly. The course setter has to set aside their own strengths and weaknesses in order to assess section points in an unbiased way (for example, to avoid make all the hopping-oriented sections high point values because the judge is themselves bad at hopping).
Here are a couple of things we’ve learned in the last couple of comps:
When assessing point values for each section, the only real requirement is that the points make sense relative to the other sections in that competition; there isn’t a critical need to make point values consistent between different competitions. Ideally they should be, but it isn’t a big deal.
It is very important to set at least a couple of sections that only one rider or perhaps no riders will be able to do. This is the only way to eliminate ties for first place; in Toronto for example 4 of us completed all sections so theoretically all tied for first. Plus it’s more interesting for the expert riders if they have something to work on right until the end of the time period.
Section design is critical for success of an event. For example, to eliminate judgement calls, there is no requirement that a rider exit a section in control: if they fall across the finish but don’t dab inside the boundary, they have succeeded. The best way to force riders to ride a section properly and in control is to include a couple of meters of easy ground between the last obstacle and the finish, so the rider is forced to finish in control before exiting the problem.
We set up about 21 sections in a really small space, relying entirely on written instructions instead of tape to define sections. There were a lot of overlapping sections, although there should be a limit to this- we had too many in Whistler.
Writing instructions for sections is also a LOT faster than setting standard taped sections, although the best is to use both.
No one objected to eliminating stratodabs- I think the consensus is that stratodabs are generally bad for the sport but are unavoidable under the standard rules, so the fact that they are not possible here was welcomed.
Re: Whistler Gravity Festival Freetrials Competition
That is absolutely huge! Congratulations on being the first to bring unicycle rules to bike competition! I think only you could do it.
Meanwhile, the folks in Japan are working on translating the 2002 IUF Rulebook, and came up with some questions in the Trials area. I will forward that email to you now, Kris.