Observed Trials

After 12 years of riding sportbikes (with a couple years of racing at the club level) I’ve decided to get rid of my sportbike and make a change of pace. My reason for doing so is three-fold:

• After a separated shoulder (my fault) and a totaled bike (not my fault) it was just a matter of time before my number came up again and who knows what the result would be. In addition to the fact that I never got a speeding ticket and Lord knows I deserved about a million of those.
• Next year I’ll be taking the kids to and from school, so I won’t be able to commute anymore on the bike and the only riding time my bike would get would be on the weekends. After all these years I’ve found its pretty hard to ride in a group of guys with sportbikes without something happening on any given day (less likely a wreck, more likely just general hooliganry). So rather than have my bike sit and depreciate I thought I’d turn it in and get the most cash out of it that I could.
• Finally, I was out of shape and spent way too much time at home. With the kids getting older (4 and 5) I needed to move back to a more outdoor and active lifestyle.

So, what I decided to do was trade in my 2001 Honda 929RR for a 2004 GasGas TXT Pro 300 Trials bike and a 2006 Kawasaki KDX-50 for the kids. For those that don’t know what a trials bike is (not trail - its trial) it is a highly specialized dirt bike that is designed for going over obstacles. Mine has a 300cc 2-stroke motor that has a very low 1st through 4th gear for obstacles and a much higher 5th and 6th gear for higher speed travel. The bike only weighs 146lbs without gas where a standard 250cc motocross bike weighs at least 225lbs if not more. A motor that repsonds well at all rpms, very soft and sticky tires and a very precise suspension make the bike very easy to ride. Although it can go 55mph, overall it doesn’t have the speed of a motocross bike but it’ll go over most anything with a heck of alot less effort than a dirtbike in any other class.

The sport of observed trials is much bigger in Europe and Japan, but it does have a decent following here in America as you can find a club operating near most major cities in every state. In my case, I joined the Puget Sound Trialers club. The goal of the sport is much like golf; there are sections (holes) you ride through where you try not to touch your feet to the ground (use fewer strokes) while you go through the obstacles presented. You do 9 or more sections on a loop and you’ll do 3 loops per event. Person with the lowest score wins.

I’ll updated my Motorcycle Gallery with my new bike and I’ll also create a new Trials Gallery to hold photos of me and the kids messing around on our bikes.