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I was wondering if anybody has tried this saddle.  Absolute noobie question, but, what role/benefit/use does the saddle play in Street Trials bikes?  I understand a lot of people will use them to rest on but does it have any use in maneuvers ?  Thanks

Thanks for your response La Bourde, Merci Beaucoup! I found your advice to be excellent and will implement it into my training routine.  I found the video of the Japanese gentleman very, very inspiring.  It is exactly the way I envision trials.  I love the compactness of the sport and the fact that besides your bike all you need is a very little area with a few obstacles to practice.  I remember as a child I made a trial section in the backyard, much to my mother's dismay, and I could spend hours doing it over and over.   Hopefully, one day I will have the ability to post a video of myself. Again, thank you so much for your advice. Be well!

Hi and welcome,   I think there is less risk to be injured in trials than in many others sports. The reason is that you can control almost all parameters. There is nobody that tries to catch the same ball and the weather conditions do not affect the sport in a unpredictable way. There is less speed than other MTB disciplines and thus less energy. Nevertheless, injuries related to the body (muscles, joints) are not uncommon due to the stress applied by the sport. My recommendation is then to warm up the fill body first, then slowly start small and slow moves without intensity.  After 15/20 minutes you can then do bigger moves and ride at your best level.   I will also recommend you to learn the basic tricks first and not to focus on a single one, but to train 10 different and complementary ones during the same session.  For example, you can first try to learn the static balance on two wheels using the different techniques: using the pressure under your foot, by hopping both wheels simultaneously, by pivoting on the front wheel and the rear wheel. But during the same session, I encourage you to try to ride logs at slow speed to improve your balance, to try to ride within the smallest area possible, to learn to do some small stoppies, to pivot 90 degrees on the front, on the rear, to ride big steps down, to learn to hop with both wheels(no bunny hop, an American hop), to only raise the rear wheel while riding, and to learn the pedal kick on two wheels. The cool thing in trials is that all the different techniques could be somehow combined. So if you focus on a single one each time, it will be boring and you won't have the impression you get better as you could have. Last recommendation: on each session, try to do three moves you never did before. I don't mean necessarily new tricks, but tricks you already did at another place or with a variation (e.g. less speed, other angle, with less hop, in combination with another trick, with the wrong foot forward, etc.) Even if it sounds stupid, it will improve your skill set a lot (because it is not exactly the same move, it forces your body to assimilate the move deeper, so that you can execute it while focusing on something else).   By the way, there is a Japanese trial rider who is more than 60 and has a YouTube channel:  

Insane