Rich Pearson

Not trying to be deliberately rude, but at the moment there is nothing to develop, all the info there is is right here in the thread, and as I've said, when I get information, I'll post it here. But just so as people can see, below is a copy of the letter I sent to the council and then delivered by hand to the Town Leisure department who deal with this kind of thing: 14/06/05 Dear Sir/Madam, The county council of Taunton and Somerset is very good at catering for the sporting needs of almost all classified sports participated in by the population of Taunton. However; there is a growing number of people, mainly youths from in and around the Taunton area, who are taking part in a sport which has previously been looked upon as hooliganism or as a juvenile and unsociable activity; Mountain Bike Trials Riding. Trials Riding is a sport which involves a person and a bicycle getting through, over and across any number or kind of obstacles whilst keeping feet and hands upon the bike, the participant stabilizing themselves using only the skills they posses to stay on the bike. This sport has been around for more than two decades and is practiced by people across the world, in almost every country. There are national federations such as the BIU, and the UCI, which organize domestic, national, international and world championship competitions. It is a real sport and to take part in the competitions riders require a license and adequate insurance. However, the riders still need to practice. At the moment, the only place available to practice is on the walls and benches in the streets or on the rocks and play areas in the parks. By many this is looked down upon, and by others it is encouraged as an activity to keep youths and older participants from the darker side of what they may decide to do with their spare time. It keeps us fit, gives us a reason to do something constructive with our time, and has from many people earned us respect. But we understand that there are a group of people, be it a minority or a majority, who believe that what we do, is intended to damage public property or offend members of the public. This is not, and never will be the case, but we can understand how are actions can be misinterpreted. The county council provides facilities such as football fields and leisure centers for almost all main stream sports, and for even more unconventional sports, such as BMX racing, inline skating, climbing, etc. Over the last year, we have been given official warnings, threatened with assault and had details taken down by the police. Put simply, if an area is not provided where we may practice our sport, as there is for every other sport, then we will have no choice but to continue riding where we have been riding already. All we are asking for is an area to be provided, be it indoor or outdoor, which we can fill with our own obstacles (pallets, old skips, platforms, electricity spools, etc, all properly obtained from whichever retailers or manufacturers) and where this sport can be practiced and cause no harm or offence to members of the public or their property. All we are asking for is an area to be allocated for us to use, and we can fill it with our own obstacles. As part of the national cycling week, a group of trials riders will be performing demonstrations all day on Saturday the 18th at Goodlands Gardens. We invite you to come along and see exactly what it is that we do. For further consultation or information, my contact details are listed at the bottom of this page, and I will be happy to attend any kind of meetings or interviews to discuss the idea further. Yours Richard Pearson My contact details have been omitted from this copy of the letter. I will be taking a few petition forms with me to the next DJ comp and getting some signitures hopefully, untill then its just a case of waiting for the council to respond to the letter above. Until they do, there's nothing more I can do. If we don't here a reply in the next month or so, I'll go back to them and try again, but until then all the answers to any questions you could posibly have are right here. Thanks again for all the interest, the best way you can help is to get yourselves down here for a ride. The more riders who appear on the streets, the more seriously we get taken. Thanks again Rich

I sure as hell know I couldn't have made that gap. Nice one. (Y) Rich

Ineteresting, I'm sure they were longer than that. Oh well, thanks very much anyway. Rich

Have just spent half an hour trawling through the frequently asked questions and as yet can't find a measurement for an '02 Echo ES2, and was hoping someone could tell me what it is. Please help! Thanks Rich

Clive Leeson used to muck around with 130mm rotors on the front of Kris's trials bikes with specially machined calipers. Give him a call. Rich

Damn you, damn you to hell and stamp on your rotting carcass... :'( :lol: :( Wait, this means I have a good excuse not to go to nutcombe row again! Nice one mat! :P :P :ermm: Oh and I take back the above hate text, I love you really. Rich

At present I know sweet bugger all and they may reject the idea all together (cue militant agression and the soundtrack from 'Assault on Precinct 13'...) but there are a few places around the town which look very serviceable, as I say all I've done so far is asked for something to be provided, we'll see where it goes from there. Rich

Was just waiting for you to offer... :'( Sweet, I'll get in touch closer to the time. Rich

As the bigman said, pretty much all the trials riders from cornwall, devon and somerset are going to the DJ trial on the 25th, so PM Xdream (mat tupman) get an entry form, and come along. :'( Rich

Have just finished exams this week and have been going back and forth to the county offices waiting for a reply from the Town Leisure people who I put the proposition in front of on monday. Now its just a waiting game and then I've probably got to go to a few meetings with them to discuss it further, but the ball is rolling people, and if/when we need your support, we won't forget it. Thanks very much. :- As for the location of taunton, go on mapquest and type in TA1 1UZ as the postcode and zoom out a bit. Rich

This sounds fun. I'm there... Except, where is it? I know you said its at west moors, but can you give me a county so I've got something to go by. :- Would also love to come up the day before and help. Rich EDIT: Just mapquested it, much closer than I thought. I'm there.

Portland and West Bay are on the same stretch of Dorsets south coast, near Weymouth, they're both excellent. Ham Hill on the A303 coming up to Chard is pretty fun and it always changes. Then there's dartmoor. Enough said... Rich

I think ripped off is a bit strong as metallica got the permission from all the artists whose material appeared on the two albums garage days revisited and garage inc, but that is one of my favorite albums. Plus metallica just made it even more obscene by changing a few crucial lyrics, "and I've f**ked this, I've f**ked that, I've even f**ked a schoolgirls twat, so what." I used to play this super loud whenever I was driving past the primary school at the end of my street on my way to work... Can anyone else not download the trailers? mine doesn't seem to like it... :) Rich

You know I'm there Matt, and to my knowledge the following performing monkeys should be accompanying me; Alex, Byrne, WhiteBoy, Jack and Ben. Should be a good day. Once again, the offer of a place to stay the night before is extended to all and sundry that happen to be travelling a distance from the north. See you all there. Rich

Danny Oslo 2 Rich

Absolutely brutal strength + above average technique = TRA Completely revolutionary technique + liberal helping of strength = CLS Both amazing riders, they just bring differnt things to their riding. Rich

You mean you didn't think the rest of video was stupid?! :D Rich

So long as you don't mind the below par sound and video quality, this is probably the best riding in a video you will ever see. Nice one Craig, Sam said it was good, I didn't know he meant it was going to be this good. Rich

Downloading now. I know what you mean about the night-vision filming though, all of my footage from the party at Jon's is really dark, but you can still hear the screams. (Y) Will edit later. Rich

a couple of real tricky ones if anyone knows them, zoo video 22 (yaozhi on the python) TRA may 19th If anyone know the songs from these vids please reply. Cheers Rich

Cool vids, but does anyone know the song from the first video (the really short 1:40 one)? Rich

you a doctor or something? Sorry, couldn't resist it... ;) The Ribo's are pretty damn good and mine have shown no sign of ripping in the soles, however I have just broken off the damn ratchet buckle on one of them, a royal pain in the arse to try and fix. may have to try some of those ones you found :) Rich

Dartmoor Dropgap For all those unbelievers and those still not swayed by the pics as to how big the gap was, please follow the link above to eengoedidee and download the short video I wacked together after reading this post. Filming and editing all done by the loud-mouth b*****d behind the camera, who happens to be me. Enjoy. Rich EDIT: To all those who were just about to buy an onza ronnie rim and then saw this vid and thought it was a bad idea, please note that nick put the crack in it doing a similar sized drop gap earlier which had slightly less lethal potential.

From what I heard Kris gave it to one of his mates, as really its just not what leeson are about. Would definately have liked to play around with one for a bit. Rich

Was a f**king savage ride today fellas, all the footage I got will be in the next SWTC vid (whenever the hell it comes out...) so check it out. Oh, and for anyone reading this who wasn't at the ride, someone took a pic of nick vaughn mid gap which is probably the best pic you will ever see. Look out for it. Rich