Danny Mac on one show

[ashleys sugden]

As some of you know/ heard that Danny has just been on the one show... Don't you think it's a bit of a kick in the face? Trials is never recognised, I watched it and never heard the word 'trials' once. nobody knows what it is, and this is why the sport is so small, just think it's a bit sh*t how it all is?

[ben_travis]

Any mainstream media mention should be classed as good, no matter the size or quantity. That is if you want the sport to be as mainstream / big as you seem to be suggesting.

Please note the following is only my opinion / view of things at the moment:

I for one, am quite happy with the sport being the size it is. People who ride trials make a living from the sport (demo teams, shops, trials companies), and they don't try to just rinse the sport of all its cash then leave. Those in the sport do seem to have a genuine interest in doing it for the benefit of the sport.

If you were to increase the interest in the sport too rapidly, the numbers of companies just trying to make a quick buck from the sport would increase significantly. This would create a sharp rise in revenue in the sport, then no doubt it would drop just as quickly.

Many forget that trials is a difficult sport to learn, it isnt just 'pick up the bike and suddenly you are doing 6 ft hooks' it takes years of dedication to get to an average standard, and many people can't hack this. This makes it difficult for the sport as a whole to take off and become 'big'.

Futhermore, there is too much in-fighting in the sport, people come along and see that there is an unfriendly online presence which immediately puts people off. I never have an issue with people on rides and love a bit of banter, but on here people get offended easily if you don't have the same opinion as them, while 60% of the topics always seem to have a trolling / aggressive undertone.

I don't think we will ever be a 'massive sport', i quite like doing something a bit different, and I would quite like it to stay the way it is. I've been doing it for 15 years, people come and go, but it has survived none-the-less. It will always be around, but i don't think it'll suddenly become like the size of BMX'ing or MTB'ing because its a sport that is difficult to comprehend.

I have many more opinions on this topic, but I am going out for a beer / dinner with the other half

Aurevoir

Edited July 23, 2014 by ben_travis

[aaccJosh]

Trials may take a lot of time with a harsh learning curve... but nothing good is easy. For instance I've never gotten even slightly decent on a skateboard and put a ton of time into trying to learn- and thousands of kids do it with goods and gear available everywhere. Just my ¢2

[CC12345678910]

I personally like my sport (for want of a better phrase) punk rock, as in a semi-underground ethos, a can do attitude and humbleness of it's participants (be that the rider on the street or the brands and the 'pros' that represent companies).

Rapid growth would just encourage the integrity sapping cashing-in already talked about, large money ruins good things, happens time after time. Especially where the next big 'lifestyle craze' (eww, I feel dirty just typing that) is concerned. To me that phrase evokes thoughts of people coming in, getting filthy rich quick, sucking the blood out of whatever the sport/product/business etc. and then f***ing off that-a-way.

The millions of scooters that plague any skatepark riding would be the best eg that springs to mind.

Ive asked some of the older ones, the 13-18 crowd, how much they spend on what was 5years ago still an outdated childs toy, and some of the top kids spend 5-600 pound on stuff that most 1st year college engineering students could manufacture - i know that cos that's where i went when i left school - and it was completely beyond me where the money goes.

Then I found from an old friend who runs his own online skate shop that there is a 170% mark up on every scooter that left his door, and because he wasn't being completely greedy, he was still able to beat every last one of his rivals by up to 35%!

You are right that the growth of trials should be encouraged, or IMO it could shrivel and die, but in equal measure it should be controlled, weeding out the brands, the products and the schisters that are no good.

Well, thats my bit, hope it makes sense to all that can be arsed reading it.

EDIT: oh and apparently Danny Mac did a piece on the BBC commonwealth games coverage this morning, on a shipyard crane or something. Ont telly twice in a week - not bad eh?

Edited July 25, 2014 by CC12345678910

[Mark W]

I for one, am quite happy with the sport being the size it is. People who ride trials make a living from the sport (demo teams, shops, trials companies), and they don't try to just rinse the sport of all its cash then leave. Those in the sport do seem to have a genuine interest in doing it for the benefit of the sport.

I'm not 100% sure that's the case - it seems that for quite a few riders (who I know of personally), demo riding has to be supplemented by something else to make ends meet. Similarly, some of the gimmicky videos certain riders have put out recently have been a blatant attempt at a money-grab* without really representing trials is a good/honest/cool way at all. It seems only TartyBikes are in a position to operate being a trials specialist kind of place too, in that it seems (from what I've heard) Allied Cycles is what helps make TrialsAddict viable.

Trials being a bit bigger wouldn't really hurt. Brands going under, brands not paying riders money they're owed, brands not really being able to support events/competitions/new projects because they don't have the financial ability to - it isn't really an amazing state of affairs. How many of the top 5 placed riders in the UCI Worlds make a living from riding without having to do other stuff to make it work?

To offer a slightly different perspective on things, people frequently use skateboarding/BMX as a kind of yardstick as to what 'mainstream' is, and seem to generally suggest that that's "too big". The thing is, beneath the corporate Xtreme super radical gnarly X-Games/Mtn Dew Cup side of things, there's an awesome underground scene in both skating and BMXing. A recent example from the skating world: I lurk a skating forum. Someone on there mentioned that there was going to be a premiere of a new video that's been fairly eagerly anticipated for the past 4-5 years (they've been filming for it for the past 7-8 years). The video was filmed by a dude in America who was given support for the project from a variety of different companies which allowed him to meet up with a cool range of skaters from the US, the UK, France and Japan. The premiere was being held in a little independent kind of cinema in Birmingham that a few sponsors of the video had helped pay for, meaning it was free entry for people who wanted to check it out. As I was interested in seeing the video and it meant I had something else to do other than sit in a hotel in Leicester that evening, I went to it. There were about 30-40 skaters there, all local dudes/from the surrounding area. They were all obviously 'real' skaters rather than being people buying skateboards as part of a 'lifestyle craze' (to quote the above post). It was f**king awesome - the video was amazing, the atmosphere was really good, all the dudes there went for a skate together afterwards and it was generally a really good night. That was all done by people that you would never hear of if you just looked at 'mainstream' coverage of skateboarding, both nationally or internationally.

Similarly, when I was at uni in 2007-2008, I went to a couple of jams organised by a then little T-shirt company called Project5. They happened in Leicester, Birmingham, Coventry, Bristol, Newcastle and so on. They got backing from a couple of the UK distros so there was a load of product to be given out on the day (or vouchers to spend on at a later date for the shoe/clothing companies who backed them). I met some amazing people there - people I'm still friends with and chat to now - and had a cool time checking out a load of different scenes across England. Little groups of riders would come from all over the place and meet up, and consequently they became a really good thing for keeping that kind of 'underground' scene really strong throughout the UK. I even ended up moving to Newcastle because of how cool the scene was up there and how friendly/welcoming they all were.

One of the disappointing things about trials is that that kind of thing never happens (ignoring the Phoenix London jam coming up ), and to me that's a real shame. The people involved in those events were all people involved in 'mainstream'/bigger 'sports', yet the fact that a cheap, shit skateboard/BMX can be bought in JJB Sports didn't affect how they did things. I could probably reel off a list of 5-10 riders I know who've made really good DVDs in the past 5 years that aren't available in shops and aren't done as a money-spinner, just because they love making videos and putting them out there. There's a reasonable group of riders who make little print 'zines as well. Again, nothing you could go into a shop and buy, but it's a scene that's out there if you look for it.

If you're in something for the right reasons, you're not going to suddenly sell out. Similarly, if you're in something to try and whore yourself out and make some easy money while you can, the small size and stature of that sport isn't going to suddenly make you develop some integrity.

*Despite there being no money to grab...