The price of progress
Triple European Trials Champion D R (Don) Smith penned ‘Trials Bike Riding’ in 1980, published by E P Publishing Ltd, ISBN 0 7158 0727 7. The first two paragraphs of Don’s opening chapter entitled ‘So what is trials riding?’ sums up the sport he enjoyed and remains relevant today.
Don wrote: ‘Motorcycle trials is the art of riding a specifically designed machine over seemingly impossible obstacles without putting your feet down. The obstacles are known as ‘sections,’ and a trials course can vary from an indoor arena with artificially constructed hazards, to the route for the Scottish Six Days event, where terrors such as Ben Nevis lurk in abundance around an average daily distance of 150 miles (240km).
“This is, of course, not to say that a trials rider will ever find himself in an event in which it is illegal for him to come to a halt for 100 miles or more. The length of the sections in a trials course may vary from 25 yards to perhaps 300 yards each, and the longer hazards may be further divided into three or more sub-sections. The area between sections in ‘neutral’ ground where a competitor can park, rest, work on the bike, or gratefully accept a cup of tea from the flask of a kindly spectator…’And in DR’s case enjoy a roll-up.
A perfect summary – but trials weren’t always like this.
As well as road racing, late Victorian competition cyclists competed in trials,
