Matt Tilley, Steve Jose, Ali Gilbert, Yours trulySo I had this phone call a few weeks ago, ‘do you fancy doing a trial?’, ‘what on an enduro bike’ I replied, ‘yeah no problem, we can enter the trail bike class’, ’I’ll give it go then’, And so the story begins……………………………….............................
So it was a short trip up to Bude to meet up with Steve (Jose) who’d help organize the whole thing and who said it would be ok for a few of us with enduro bikes to enter the thing. Upon pulling into the car park which was about the size of my back garden, I managed to get my van squeezed in and park up amongst the general look of the riders thinking ‘who the bloody hell is that then’? as they were all milling about talking to each other around their trials bikes. I then went off to get signed on, £10, that’s right £10!!!!!! Ten bloody quid for a days event, not bad eh? Then it was back to the van to get out the ‘strimmer’ in full view of the other riders, must admit to feeling a little bit out of place there amongst the ‘feet up brigade’. Good news though as this didn’t last long as Matt Tilley was also there parked up riding his ‘ginger’ EXC 250, so after a brief chat and a quick change, it was on the bike and with the usual ’bring a ding ding’ sound after she fired up ringing in my ears, it was off to the riders briefing.
Now I must admit, I’ve never even been to see a trials event, let alone ride one, so this was a whole new ball game and I was feeling a bit apprehensive I must admit, but I needn’t have worried because their were 5 of us all on enduro bikes competing today, 3 ‘ginger’ KTM’s, my Gasser, and a Yammy WRF. The plan was to all ride round together so we could all take the piss out of each other and have a good laugh when we mucked a section and scored a ‘5’, and also have a bit of banter whilst going round as well.
The course in the woods gave us 8 sections a lap, and we’d be doing 4 laps each, so plenty of time to get into it and find your feet as it were. All of us were doing the novice route, but I’m telling you, that was bloody hard enough on our bikes, especially with the turning circle that an enduro bike has compared to a trials bike! The climbs were ok, but we all struggled a bit with the tight sections, however, Matt Tilley was a superstar and ‘cleaned’ one section that none of us had managed to do all day! What cheesed me off was I had a ‘5’ twice on the same section, not through putting my feet down, but bloody well stalling the bike and stopping dead in exactly the same place two laps running, what a turkey!
So with us all having a ‘dab’ or two (that’s putting your feet down, not taking a class A drug by wetting your finger and dipping it into the powder) and a few ‘fives’ dotted about here and there throughout the event, after it was all over it was back to the finish to get a free hot cup of steaming soup and a bread roll. Hold on a minute, I thought this was a Christmas pudding trial? Where’s the Christmas pudding then? In fact the only thing that resembled a christmas pudding was the shape of Steve Jose’s physique!!!! After being fed and watered it was off for a bit of fun on the bikes round the woods doing a few climbs and having a bit of a laugh where Ali Gilbert on his ’ginger’ 125 showed us skills by launching himself sky wards at the top of a steep climb, although this cannot be said of Mr Jose who was riding his big 450 4 banger who showed us all how not to do it coming a cropper half way up much to the delight of us all which was greeted by a huge amount of laughter and cheers.
To be honest I thought it was a cracking day out and I’d definitely do it again, it’s not too serious and it’s bloody good practice. Thanks to Holsworthy Mcc for a good event and for letting us compete on our bikes.
