[edit] Riding styles

There are also arguably 3 different types of riding. You won't know which type of riding you'll be into before you buy a bike and learn the basics, but it's worth knowing.

• TGS (Taps, gaps and sidehops) Street - This type of riding is all about power moves and going big. This area focuses on perfect technique to pull off some of the biggest and impressive trials oriented moves. Good examples of this kind of riding are the later Zoo Videos from Craig Lee Scott and Neil Tunnicliffe, although there are a lot of other riders that are certainly worth watching!

• Street - Yeah, there's kinda 2 types of street, and they tend to be called the same name. Anyway, this kind of street is usually done on 26” bikes, and most 24” are designed around this type of riding. Street riders have a much more flowing style, manuals and spins (360’s, 180’s etc) are used much more often and street riders tend to pick lines and combine several moves. You could say street is a more BMX oriented side of biketrials. Good examples of this kind of riding are shown in the 2 trials media videos, TM1 and TM2, they are feature length videos that show street in its best form.

• Natural - Riding on rocks mainly, although natural will cover a large assortment different terrain, anything that hasn't been created by man basically. There tends to be a lot less videos of natural riding, because it generally looks less impressive in videos and the small technicalities go unnoticed. However, there are some videos on tartybikes which show some well filmed natural riding, and competition footages is always worth a watch.

However, some don't believe a rider should aim to be classed in one of these categories. After you've learnt the basics, you will naturally prefer one out of the 3, or you might like 2 out of the 3 as much as each other. Just ride what you want to ride for your own reasons, and you'll get on fine.

[edit] Rules & Governing Organisations

There are also two other categories which coincide with all three of the above types of riding; UCI and BIU. These are organizations that set rules and safety regulations for competitions. However, these terms have become less known as organization and used when describing someone’s riding style. UCI rules state (amongst other things) that if a pedal, crank arm or bash plate / rockring comes into contact with a obstacle, that person gets a dab (a mark against the rider), where as in BIU, you can freely use the previously mentioned parts and not get a dab. For more information, see Competition rules.

We very rarely see BIU style of riding in videos, we usualy only ever see it in competition footage. All of the street videos and even some of the natural riding these days are UCI.