beginners guide to motorcycle trials

1) You will need an open faced crash helmet typically worn by all Trials riders. Must be ACU approved
2) A decent pair of riding gloves is recommended. Again these can be brought from a trials dealer
3) Riding Jeans are designed to be waterproof and comfortable. Again your dealer will advise you
4) The rider here is wearing a Berkhamsted Jacket. Underneath will be a riding shirt that will perhaps be part of the matching set when you buy a pair of jeans. A Jacket is a must in the winter to keep warm and if your riding a trial like the Scottish Six day then you will need a waterproof one.
5) A pair of special trials boots is a must, these are designed to be more flexible than motocross or Enduro boots and have different grip as you will be walking the sections a lot. There are a number of makes on the market and basically its what suits you and what fits you best. Try some on at your dealers.

5) Join our club and the ACU

Now its time to get your membership and your ACU licence. If you join our club you will be able to ride in other clubs affiliated to the south Midland Centre. You will also qualify for points and silverware in the Meteor Club events which Berkhamsted Club is a member of. (check the details on the Meteor group page) Then go to our membership page and read the information and then download the forms and send them off to the Membership Secretary
click here for membership page>>

At the same time go to the licensing section of the ACU website and download and print off an application form. Fill it all out, again carefully reading all the instructions and checking the correct boxes.

Pre 65 trials rider at a Berkhamsted trial
trials is a sport for all ages

Send this off with your membership forms to the Club Membership Secretary BOTH at the same time once again TO THE CLUB MEMBERSHIP SECRETARY. The club secretary is required to officially stamp your application form and sign it before you can get your licence. He/she will then seal the envelope that you have provided along with the stamp YOU have provided and forward this to the ACU. Then and Only then once you have both, your licence and your club membership card, you can enter our trials events and competitions. Trials Registration/Licence with the ACU, cost £10.00.
6) Enter an event

Next its time to clear it with your wife that you will NOT be doing jobs round the house because from now on as you will be riding around and falling off your bike each and every Sunday morning in some mud. Joking aside this is not strictly true; you can enter as many events as you like. Some people enjoy it so much they find an event to ride every Sunday. But you can ride once a month if you like or once a year it’s up to you.You can see the full list of events we are holding by clicking here >> so you can take your pick oh and there is also a list of South Midland Centre Championship events organised by other clubs click here >>. If you buy the Sporting Motorcyclist with your membership each month you will receive a small magazine which also has lots of events and entry forms. Fill in your entry form and send it off. Alternatively again in the weekly newspaper ‘Trials & Motocross news’ at your news agents every Friday you will find a list of fixtures in the back pages.

Above Left: Get to the trial early to get a good parking space off road
Above Centre: You will need to transport your bike to the event for example with a trailer
Above right: In Berkhamsted trials you will be required to have a riding number on the back as well

Regs Permits and entry forms

NOTE:- For all the information tips and recommendations you need about regs permits and entry forms click here

That’s it you have entered.

Note:- If your not ready to ride an event straight off you could use our practice ground Nash Mills to get to grips with your new machine or check to see if we are holding a special beginners & wobblers trials or better still if we are holding a training event specifically for beginners.

7) What Class to ride in and on what route

Like most Centre trials our courses will be set out to incorporate three different routes for different abilities.
1. Expert / Hard route – White route - ridden by Expert, Intermediate and normally Youth A.
2. Clubman route – Red route or middle route as its often referred to as– ridden by clubman and normally Youth B
3. Novice / Beginners route – Blue route - ridden by Beginners (non award) and normally Youth C & D
Any rider can with permission of the Clerk of the Course upgrade to ride a harder route and can down grade to an easier route on a non award basis.

NOTE:- For all the information tips and recommendations on what class to ride for Adults and youths with detailed information click here >>

8) Get to the event with your Bike

Of course you are going to require some means of transporting your machine to the event. You can ride it to the event if you want but we don’t recommend you do that. Simply on the grounds that:-
A) you will need to have your machine road legal
B) You will not be fit to ride by the time you get there even if you do get there.
C) Most bikes don’t have a seat
D) Most bikes have a total fuel capacity of about 2.5 litres of fuel
E) When you have ridden the actual event the last thing you will want to do is ride the dam thing home!

There are four methods of transport 1) using a trailer 2) using a Van 3) using a purpose built trials rack that fits to the back of your car 4) Get a lift on your mates trailer or in his van.

riders queue before entering a section good time for a chat

Above left: If your lucky there may be a toilet at the venue!
Above centre: Before you enter a section queue and wait your turn.
Above right: Before you ride a section have a walk around it first.

9) Go to the toilet

You may just find out that if, say, you have had a Vindaloo the night before, there may not be a public place suitable to offload the after affects. Often trials are run somewhere far from civilization. Our advice is to make good use of your toilet at home before you hit the road. If you are lucky a club like ours may well have a ‘carry on camping’ style toilet behind the signing on Gazebo!

9) Turn up and sign on

Next thing to do is turn up and sign on. If you are not going to make it or know this in advance its courtesy to phone up the trials secretary and inform them. Some trials are held on land where parking is tight and few and far between. Get there early for the best spot. Once you get there you will need to find the signing on area and sign on against your name. The signing on area may just be a Gazebo or someone sheltering from the storms and rain inside their car or van communicating to you outside through 3cm of window they have wound down. A tip here is to look for the queue of riders stood in a line with very loud and brightly coloured clothing and skin tight lycra one piece suits!. You won’t miss them against the backdrop of the beautiful English Countryside. Once you have signed on, collect your riding number at the same place and fit this to the front of your bike. Normally in the allocated slot supplied by your manufacture. At Berkhamsted trials you will also get an additional number to stick on the back of your helmet, this is so the observers always makes sure they have you marked even if you fall off and then try and zoom off out the section and away from them.

Rest your bike against a tree while you inspect the section to ride

10) Start the trial

At around 10.30 you will hear the whistle or horn blow and you will be expected to ride over to where everyone is mustering about. Tip -Turn your machine off before the official gets angry with you and everyone gives you a mean stare as they cant hear what he is saying! Here the clerk of the course will give you a briefing (by shouting or talking loud if someone’s bike is still running, hint hint!) of how many laps you have to do and how many sections there are to complete.He / She will also give you information of any particulars to the land they are holding the trial on, for example stay clear of the field with the baby lambs!

That sort of thing. Oh if it’s someone’s birthday as well that has been riding trials since wood could float everyone may sing a song! The official will then say OK enjoy yourselves! And you will start your bike and ride off in search of a section to ride.

11) Find a section to ride

Say there are ten sections to ride and in the briefing you have been told to ride them, say four times each, it doesn't’t matter what order you do them in so long as you do them all. Most people start at section one where ever that may be ride and then move onto section two. If you want you can start at section 2 and ride that then move onto section three. You can start at section ten and ride your way back through them.

It doesn't’t matter so long as you ride them all four times or however many laps that particular trial may be. This is where the top riders begin to play mind games with each other sounding each other out and watching every move to follow in their routes if it is a successful line to ride. It has been the case where dusk has fallen and they are still kicking about section 1 waiting for someone to ride it!

Top tip if you had a skin full the night before perhaps start at number one and ride the sections each in logical order just in case you get a little confused what you have and haven’t done. Some trials however will require you to ride the sections in order, but this will be explained to you during the brief. Oh here's another top tip as well if you are thinking of riding a trial up north, like say a Bradford ‘open to centre’ and you have been to a party the night before hosted by, lets say a northern trials rider! don’t bother turning up to the trial, it’s not good for your own health and safety let alone the other riders health and safety!

Each section is numbered and marked clearly especially if it is a 50/50 route

12) Inspect and Ride the section.

When you have found the first section you intend to ride park your bike up against a tree or use a stand or throw it on the ground (make sure you don’t loose fuel, its an environment thing right). Walk into the section taking care not to obstruct a rider who may already be attempting the section. Find the ‘section begins/start’ pegs (which will be obvious) and begin to walk around the section making your mind up how you intend to tackle it. If you see a bunch of centre experts do a little ‘gardening’ as such or moving rocks about with a digger, ignore it and don’t take on their bad habits, it’s against the rules!
The advice here is to look for a good line or perhaps watch one or two other riders who are riding between the same markers as you.

Watch their lines and see where they make mistakes. Don’t hang around too long or you will find they will be packing the course up before you have finished. When you have had a good look and clearly understand which way you have to go (ask the observer if you don’t) collect your bike and get ready to enter the section. There may be a small queue but just wait your turn and chat to the old geezer waiting next to you on a big fat pre 65. When the observer is ready they will call you in by waving an arm, shouting next rider, or just giving you the nod if you have eye contact. Then ride the section best you can. Once you are out the ends cards/pegs go and look for the next section and do it all over again. When you have ridden all the sections once, and if you haven’t got a hang over from the sat night before, you will be able to remember the routes and the next time round on the second lap just turn up without getting off your bike and ‘ride em cowboy!’

13) Complete every section

The time to complete the course varies on factors like volume of riders amount of sections and the severity of the conditions on the day. In general it won’t be much more than a few hours perhaps as much as four. If you want you can stop and have a rest take a drink fill up with fuel back at your vehicle. It’s all pretty much a relaxed environment. When you are riding the sections don’t be afraid to ask anyone for advice or of their opinion on the route to take. Unless you’re competing for the title of best expert in the centre then most people are happy to talk of their chosen lines and what’s best for you.Oh and if you intend to give up because its hard for you or your machine has broken down, tell the organiser's that you are retiring which helps them when they are compiling the results.

The observer will see you through the section

The Observer will call you into the section when they are ready

Tape in your rear wheel means well it means a 5!

Above left: Trials is very relaxed if you want to stop for a cupa after a couple of laps you can
Above centre: Ok if you end up with section tape in your rear rim we can assume you have had a 5!
Above right; Expert riders all kicking about waiting for one brave sole to make the 1st attempt!

14) Penalty points and the scoring system

When you ride a section if you compete it without putting your feet down at all, falling off stalling the machine and putting your foot on the ground at the same time, or rolling backwards you will score no penalty points. This is the best score to get; in this game Points DO NOT make prizes! If you put your foot down (known as a dab) once you will have one mark placed against your number on the observer’s sheet i.e. one point. If you dabbed twice with your feet then you would get two marks/points and three dabs of the old foot then you would get three marks/points. If you dabbed more than three you are only marked down as three maximum, you may as well put your feet down a hundred times you will only be marked up as three marks lost, its just the way it works otherwise the poor old observer would have to be watching every single second and be fed up and loose count at more than twenty. If you Fall off, stall the machine whilst putting your foot on the ground at the same time or roll backwards you are going to get maximum marks/points which is five. You will also get a five if you go out of the section run over tape or markers or run over the observer! At the end of the event when everyone has finished and the observers are sure there is no one left to come through their section they report back to the trials secretary with their marked sheets. These are then all put into a spreadsheet and the final scoring and positioning is recorded. The rider with the least marks/points overall in their class wins. Remember points DO NOT make prizes in trials! Simple really. Compiling the results often takes a few days and these results are then posted to you and posted on this website click here >> Top trials like world rounds and British Championships will have the scores done on the day on a big score board for everyone to see, but more people are running these events and the final scoring is easier to handle.

15) Go to the Pub

That’s it you have finished now its time to go to the battle cruiser (boozer) and enjoy a pint with friends just to take the edge off things. Its here that you can talk bullshit about how you cleaned the hardest section of the day. Oh and moan about the observer in the far corner who wasn't prepared to negotiate a small fee for forgetting about that five you had that effectively lost you the silverware!

16) Bike Maintenance

Go home have a bath while your kids jet wash your bike down and prepare it for the following Sunday while your wife gets the Sunday roast ready!

Complied and written by Billy Bishop March 08

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