Gymkhana

borrowed from "drill team" thread in this forum.

Pretty amazing, and very relevant.

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This guy is gooooooood...

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Heh. I wondered how long it would take for the Trials / Gymkhana comparison to be made. I've got a Fantic lined up, just need to secure the pingas. Gymkhana with mud, rocks, trees & 4 psi in the tires. 3d Gymkhana!

Any hoo. After zero riding for eons, maybe longer, we set off for a run & a bit of conery to get back in the groove on Monday. Arriving at the "track" Jas mentioned a metallic clicking noise on the DT. Uh oh... The clip from the chain split link was AWOL. Luckily a mate lives round the corner so we rode the bike to his shed, the link plate was hanging on by a gnats eyelash when we got there.
Silver lining, though. I scored 2 new chains for the price of one from the original owner. The existing clipless one is just about poked. Back on the road tomorrow. Yee Ha!

Watch this space but curb your enthusiasm. It's not that exciting.

Welcome Bent_boot42, ErikDK and Sckill. I admire your fortuitude in reading through all the posts in this thread!

To answer a couple of questions. No the stoppie followed by swinging the tail around to change direction is not a faster way of doing it. It's great fun, but it's not fast.

Moto Gymkhana on a trials bike is fantastic fun. We waive the rule that riders should remain seated due to the fact they haven't got a seat!

The weather is just about turning from snow and ice to wind and rain, so it's time to get the bike out and start rotating like crazy. Our first event of the year is coming up in a couple of weeks time and we have riders coming over from The Netherlands to have a go and show us how it's done, so we are really looking forward to that.

Can't wait to see the photos and videos that you will be producing of your efforts as they really do inspire other riders to have a go.

Big welcome also to another riding group that has just started up in Cebu in the Philippines, expect to see some video from them fairly soon.

This is what they are getting up to in Viet Nam. The weapon of choice over there is what they call an 'Underbone', or scooter to the rest of us. This rider is a bit good considering he has only got 135cc to play with.

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First course set-up of the season. Me and my friend.
He is on KTM, I'm on my trusty Triumph.



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At last after a long, hard, cold winter the new season is under way in the UK. Our season opener is a Moto Gymkhana demonstration at the Prescott Bike Festival where we grab the lunctime break to show the gathered crowds what the sport is all about.

Here is some video of the riders getting to grips with the very narrow course that we set up on the hill-climb track.

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The dutch team is doing its last preparations in the south of england. See you saturday.

Sorry guys, I did try and film the attempts but the footage (from the smart phone I had to film with) ended up looking super crappy and was too far away. I will try and get a buddy to film me next time.... not that I should really bother as obviously MotoGman was correct and I took WAY longer around the GP8 when trying to use the stoppie/endo method.

RE: TheWall's off-topic trials query..... Get on a trials bike ASAP... it is the most fun I have ever had on a bike (better than sport bike/enduro/supermoto/dual sport). I would really recommend finding the nearest trials club and going to watch one of the events .... someone will lend you there bike to try out if you ask... trials riders are a notoriously friendly bunch.

I'm in total agreement. Gymkhana is deceptive in how hard you have to work, looks easy but.. Trials is a different league but equally approachable. I'm planning on having a few sections on the new property & after a squat on the Fantic a few days ago Jas is onside. Perfect size for a lady of her stature. She wants to learn how to wheelie... heh heh heh.
Massive bang for your buck & very little time in A & E.

What constitutes a "trial" bike? Is it built specifically as a trial bike from a ground up, or is it a conversion, like SuperMoto is a conversion of a dirt bike?

This is a trials bike... My aspirations aren't quite as, er, high.<iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/i0UiDUcIys8" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" width="420"></iframe>

Meanwhile in Japan. Git over!
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Oh, somebody asked if Toni bou is the best of the best & an inmate replied "No. He's better than that."

Is that a kid at 1:18 mark, or somebody on a pocket bike? Thats awesome!

On the moto G vid? I noticed that too. Gotta be cheating!

To answer your question Vulfy, trials bikes are off the shelf. Very light, very torquey, very grippy (4psi in the rear tire) and exceedingly agile. For us mere mortals a 20 year old bike is more than adequate to start on & also allows you to sit when your legs give out after 20 minutes. Brilliant fun, all you need is a bit of a lump somewhere.
You need similar bike control to gymkhana too. Very complementary.

Usually no seats are the most obvious

send on a small touch screen by a guy with fat fingers

Yeah I noticed no seat, those guys must be rocking thighs of steel. Thats basically pogosticking on a wheel. Dunno if its for me right now though. Maybe in the future.

... and today's session.

Three people total today, we are growing, yey!
Great group! Great time!
Here is the video. Still learning logistics of setting up course for more than one person, lol. Wish the guys would have filmed me running between the cones trying to figure out the set-up. LOL

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Ive been looking to buy one. But. Unsure where to really ride one. Where as a road registeted trail bike i can ride anywhere legally

send on a small touch screen by a guy with fat fingers

Hey Vulfy, great to see that the you are finding a few more practice buddies. Pretty soon three will become six and six will be come twelve and before you know it you will have fifty riders desperate to do some timed attacks.

If you want to design a course that allows for more than one rider on at a time, then you should think in terms of a big circle. You can then distribute your obstacles around the circumference of the circle which then avoids riders coming into conflict with each other. It's all to easy for riders to crash into each other especially if they are concentrating on the course rather than whats happening about them.

On another note, the Trials Bike and trials riding in general is a very good way of finding the balance of the bike. Of course the bike remains pretty well upright during trials, whereas we are banked over, but there are a lot of similarities and many benefits from each to each.

Our friends in Viet Nam are getting rather good at the various Moto Gymkhana competitions. Here we see them putting in some very good times in the GP8 challenge.

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