my first post, got some ?'s

[kounterclokwise]

Hey guys,

first post here looks like a cool forum.

i pretty much got my first real bike (not a walmart bike) about 6 weeks ago. its a Giant yukon with discs. i didnt really know there was such thing as trials bikes. I knew of motorcycle trials, but in bicycles, i thought it was just road, moutain, and BMX (what does that stand for anyways???). so i got this nice hardtail mtb, and in huntsville alabama (way north alalbama) we do have some mountains, but not quit (at all) downhill type stuff. but anyways, its a 19" frame (bottom bracket toe the toptube i guess) pretty big.. im 5'10" and 15yrs old. the guy at the shop said id need a big bike cuz i would grow some more. Well now i dont really care aobut mountainbiking and i want to do more trials stuff. i would like to find a trials seat that is really low and out of the the way. Usually, when i ride around doing "trials stuff" i just take the seat off, but thats becoming a problem (nuts are taking a beating...)

i hate trickstands, i dont have the patience to keep working on it.. any pointers?
I can jhop about 18inches and clear everyting i can. I dropped a 5 foot plus loading dock thing behind a grocery store, but it put a nice big flatspot on the trim...which still havnt got fixxed/replaced.. I can also stoppie or whatever pretty well and can rotate about 90* and keep rolling.

what do i learn next?
how much is even possible on my bike? should i try to find a trials frame or can i make do with my frame?

thanks in advance.
scott

[rush]

Welcome, read and search through this forum and also www.biketrials.com (http://www.biketrials.com) , they will give you some good info.

I think most people on this board would agree that if you want to ride trials, you should go all the way. If you want to do that, then your giant Yukon wont last too long. I would sell it before it gets too used and buy a trials bike.

As for learning, if you dont have patience you wont get very far, check the beginners section here for some really good info on trackstanding. The most important thing to focus on is balance, and balancing in unusual situations, like going through creeks slowly, or over small rocks slowly.

Dont focus on going too big at first (although its fun).

Post all your questions in the beginner area and we'll all help you out, but the best bet is to search for the answers first as you'll learn alot more!

Good luck!

[Trialsking]

Well, even if you dont like your trackstands you still have to keep at them. Try doing them on a slight incline, with your bike facing up hill. Its easier to learn them that way. They will help you learn to balance on your bike.

If you really want to get into trials, you will eventually want a trials specific bike. But for now, just learn the basics on the bike you have. Once you start doing rear wheel moves consistantly, then you will probably want to upgrade to a trials bike.

[sharpe]

welcome to the board mate!
A specific trials frame would help a fair bit once you have got down the basic moves such as balance and endo's and what not, but while your learning i don't think it's a necessity at all. My point of view is coming from learning on a dual suspension vrs 3.0 mongoose that had poor working brakes and was really only designed for xc. At the time i didn't think it was particularly difficult to learn on it and i mastered all of the basic skills to a degree (a small degree!) and once i felt that i was being held back i bought a specific trials bike that helped heaps!
In my opinion i believe that you should get track standing down because it is the basic element of balance and is realllly important.
You'd be surprised at how far you can go on a non-trials bike!

[cousinkenni]

BMX=bicycle motorcross

Just practice trackstands everything else in trials comes from balance. If you wnat to learn some basics check out: http://www.biketrials.com/how-to/index.shtml . They have some descent discriptions of what the moves are and basics of how to. If you need to see what the moves are (that they are talking about on biketrials.com) check out: http://www.trials-online.com/ although the link didn't work for me just now. Trials-online used to have some ggod beginner videos in their video section.

As for your bike, it will deffinately be harder to do some of the trials moves on it considering the bike is most likely too big for you to even be riding nevermind doing trials.

[AndyT]

In the beginning just try to get your balance down, ride some little logs and rocks and curbs and stuff- just make sure you are having fun. Any bike is fine for the basics, you don't want to throw away cash on a bike for a sport you might not continue :)

[tomacropod]

having fun learning is the best learning you can do. I pretty much learned trials in a vacuum, I didn't know of any other riders around. DLd a few vids (from vtcz.ch, pick your vids wisely as a beginner, they will shape your ambitions) which helped a lot. I got to a sport-class sort of level before I moved from my 18" mongoose XC bike to a raceline rhino (cheap mod, didn't help much) and then to a planet-x zebdi. If you learn on an XC MTB, you will learn more in the long run, without relying on an ideal bike to help you. Stick with it (the giant) for a while, because you probably bought it to ride XC anyway, which is also fun.

- Joel