The greatest Trials Rider ever!

Um yah, I'm a gonna have to go uh ahead and and uh, disagree with you there....

This discussion is extremely played out, we all know the euros could kick his ass any day, UCI, BIU, Urban, Natural, Street, anything....

 

Leech lost all respect from me as a "trials rider" when I saw how much of a joke he was at my first trials comp I"ve ever seen (didn't compete- motorama 2000). He couldn't do ANYTHING.

You statement is about as true as your ending statement, and you know silva would fucking ax murder you.

 

i respect the Europeans, they pull huge moves, and they are very confident people to be running around in skin suits. but when was the last time a tight ass suited euro rode a chain with his bike.

im sure once Manifesto comes out everyone will realize that Leech is the best again, but what do i know, i don't ride anymore

 

Yeah, but how many takes it takes Leech to do his moves? Will we ever know? In the comp you are live so to speak and have no chance to redo.

 

I don't consider what leech has done recently as trials, thats just me. I still think its the fucking BOMB- he's a great rider.

The dude couldn't get to the top of a car, with a 10 foot run up on CONCRETE. I was all about him too when I went to see it, I had only seen evolve (I couldn't pedal kick or anything) and I thought he was the greatest in the world. Then I see him struggling with the lamest shit- it crushed me


oh yeah and foot plants are key in street, yet I haven't seen leech do any of those? Maybe its too bmx...I'll use the hell out of them.

 

monkey style two is like an injection of bike crack in your mind. wrap your braing around some of the moves he can do street wise and yeah he is the best rider in the world in that aspect. call me crazy but i think leeche is the best flowing street rider i have ever seen but TRIALS... not the case. he is certainly better than me at trials so i cant talk really but i have seen better.

 

I've never seen a mtb rider blow me away in street, I'm hoping the day will come but so far they all put me to sleep :wtc:

Leech still used to be my favorite. I thought the chain riding thing was super boring :dunno:

 

Sorry guys, but the chain riding thing was lame, I could get as far as he did in 5 or 6 tries. Maybe in Manifesto he'll rider further, but in the trailer he barely goes anywhere.

I don't know, he just doesn't impress me the way other riders do.

That being said, he is an extremely respectable rider, immensly skilled, but IMO he isn't even top 10 in the world.

 

"This discussion is extremely played out, we all know the euros could kick his ass any day, UCI, BIU, Urban, Natural, Street, anything...."

I have that video koxx put out with all those crazy koxx guys. I don't even know their names (shows how much I care). 75% of the video is urban and it is absolutely unwatchable and boring. A top expert could do any and all of the moves in it except match the heights of a couple sidehops and a couple hooks. Sure when they finally get on some rocks its amazing.

It's way too much personal preference. Whatever you wanna call Leech or name his style he is undeniably the best at that. You can't name one rider who is even in any sort of league as he is at what he does. Don't argue this until you see manifest, you will see what I mean then. With other styles of trials there is a competition between who everyone thinks is the best. But with Leech's style he is undeniably on top. So give him credit for that.

He is obviously not a comp rider. No one is gonna try to argue that. But I've ridden natural with him a couple times and every time he outdid Mike Bentham at a line or two. Mike is number 3 in North America right now, so take that for what it's worth. He is good at what he does, but not necessarily great at what everyone else does. He is definately one of my favourite riders, but I don't know if I have a favourite. I think it could be Akrigg or Eddie, but I haven't seen enough of them to decide for sure.

"I've never seen a mtb rider blow me away in street, I'm hoping the day will come but so far they all put me to sleep"

I have to agree. But I've yet to see anything incredible done in any form on a trials bike either. It's just not that appealing. But just because bmx went and ruined any true appreciation I could have had for mtb riding doesn't mean I still can't understand what street line or what natural lines are pushing the boundaries or a mtbs possibilities.

 

THANK YOU! I've been saying this all along...how many times does it take Ryan to pull off a move with no hops? For all we know, it could be the 4000th time and that's just the one they put into the movie. Manifesto should be good, but I would rather watch people corrective hop a *gasp* little amount and then do a huge move, rather than fuck up a bunch of times, pull it once, and just have that on video.

 

Hey,

I think alot of whats being said is pretty true. However I like to think of riding a mtb on street in place of a BMX is sort of like trying to do skateboard tricks on a long board. It is obvious that it wont be on the same level. You sort of just have to appreciate things for what they are instead of making everything comparative. Those UCI guys are amazing at what they do, Leech at what he does, BMX at what they do. It is all different, Leech is probably my favoriate freerider, but again thats just another genre to a guy who is just having fun on his bike.

 

I guess Leech just has his own style, something that can't really be compared to anyone else.

So yeah, he is the best at what he does. I just don't appreciate that kind of riding. It is the kind of thing any pro rider could do with 15 or 20 tries.

There are moves in the first Polish video that I don't think too many pros could do. That holds true for most europeans. That is why I hold their riding at a greater level than Ryan's.

I'm going to go learn how to track stand or something....

 

RomanC wrote:
Yeah, but how many takes it takes Leech to do his moves? Will we ever know? In the comp you are live so to speak and have no chance to redo.


THANK YOU! I've been saying this all along...how many times does it take Ryan to pull off a move with no hops? For all we know, it could be the 4000th time and that's just the one they put into the movie. Manifesto should be good, but I would rather watch people corrective hop a *gasp* little amount and then do a huge move, rather than fuck up a bunch of times, pull it once, and just have that on video.

K I got to watch a bit of Manifesto filming and this is what I saw. Rubber a 3 foot high, 4 inch wide, 10 foot long cement wall. Ride to the end and gap about 4 feet down and 7.5 feet across to the same width wall but it was turned 90 degrees. But instead of going strait on he did it as a 90 gap and landed both wheels on it. (not your typical trials 90 either, usually you hit rear a bit first and cheat and twist. Ryan hit both wheels down at the exact same time.) Then a 270 off.

Here's the scoop.

Not once did he mess up the up to both wheels.
Did the gap strait to rear probably 5 times to get a feel for it.
2nd try landed to both wheels.
Took 4 or so tries to get the 270 out. (there was a root below he kept hitting)
Did the line probably 8 or 9 times in total.

Here's another example. During his demo he nailed a sidehop to rail second try.

Sure there is stuff that takes more than one try. Or even a whole ton of trials. It's called tech. All the new school bmx stuff coming out is dominated by tech riders.

That polish vid is amazing and I can't believe half the stuff I saw in it. But believe me none of those dudes would be doing the 90 to the ledge like i saw leech do it. Sure they could go to rear and twist. But not the full commitment. I've also seen him do a clean 360 up 5 stairs. A lot of people will be surprised by whats in his manifesto video. And a lot of people will have to try to shoot it down by trying to use the "how many tries did it take?" argument.

Again I'm not saying Leech is the best rider. Just defending some comments.

 

thank you brett I am glad someone is defending ryan. Ryan also does these things first, he is a very creative rider and mezmorizing to watch. Vincent hermance and bruno arnold and such can do big amazing things but the always look awkward doing "street" moves. Ryan reminds me of hans rey with the originallity. I'm sure if he put his mind to it, or was interested he could kill at comps.

 

Another excellent point haukass. I'm sure everyone has at least a move or two in their trick book that originally came from Leech. It is so easy to copy a move once you have seen it done, but so damn hard to come up with something on your own and figure it out for yourself.

"Vincent hermance and bruno arnold and such can do big amazing things but the always look awkward doing "street" moves."

Those were the two in the koxx video. There wasn't one move in there that I could not do. Move wise, not height or distance wise. These guys couldn't even hang onto a manual for more than 30 feet. And let's not bring up the ability to manual. Take a look back to the days of revolution. 1998 and that is what Leech was manualling. Take into consideration what was going on in biking at that time, how many years ago, and ryan's domination of the manual and that is probably mountain bikes closest chance to being able to hang with the world of bmx. At that time that would have been definately respected and it was done on a mtb (could anyone manual a mtb at that point? I remember when the only people who could were trials riders.) He was definately ahead of his time.

Again Vincent hermance and bruno arnold both prove that they are ridiculously talented riders later on the video when they get on some rocks. But don't for a second believe that they could touch Leech in his environment with his style. The moves and styles are about as far opposite of each other as can be and to try to say one is better than the other is wrong. However there is competition for who is better between Hermance and Arnold and a few other names. Believe me, there is no competition at all for Leech. Let him have his credit for whatever it is he does.

 

brett- i do agree with you here. leeche is amazing. the fact that he is in well... every mtn bike movie with the budget to include him is proof of that. manifesto is looking like the kind of bike porn i eagerly await instead of stumble across one day and think, yeah i guess i will buy that.

one thing to continue what pancho was sayign earlier- euros have some nasty balance. anyone who thinks a top uci rider could not ride a chain or sidehop to a rail is just plain ignorant (not in a bad way, just simply not exposed to it enough to know it well). euro uci riders have insan-o balance- so does ryan.

ryan also has some serious sidehop skills. he has nailed stuff as big and as precise as many top uci guys but on a bike that is well, not conducive to that kind of riding. so what if he is not a great comp rider, he has some of the most fun to watch style ever. we would probably all agree that aaron chase is a really amazing park rider but we dont lowert our opinions of him because he isnt an amazgin downhill or 4x racer do we? props to ryan for puching what is possible on a mtn bike. he is also making a living off riding his biek which how many of us get to do? o yeah, none here