Ben Swales

Gilles Coustellier after Champéry - An exclusive interview with Gilles Coustellier ! The Big Boss talks about the 2011 World Championship, in which he was the main attraction, and the rest of his exceptional season and makes his statement of intent for 2012... "Win everything"! Koxx: Abel leaves, Hannes arrives - Koxx recently announced two big transfers: Abel Mustieles is leaving their dream team after several years of loyal service, and Hannes Hermann has signed up! Adrian Lengyel & Trevor Bodogh, Gravity Riders 2011 - Big, stylish and smooth... a feature length video of the latest adventures of Rockman and Tribal Riders Adrian Lengyel (Hungary) and Trevor Bodogh (Canada) in North America!

Vincent Hermance after Champéry - The next in our series of end of season interviews (witha slight delay in translation). In Champéry he came very close to taking the world title. Vincent Hermance tells us about "the most intense final of his career", an exceptional 2011 season and his plans and hopes for 2012... "I’ll still be there!" Mattia Slaifer official K-124 Photographer - He was by our side this year to take the official 2011 K-124 Days photos. In 2012, Mattia Slaifer will be the official photographer for the K-124 team! Join the 2012 Ozonys Team 2 - Ozonys are recruiting new riders for their team 2 in 2012, with the aim of promoting the spirit of the brand in competition and online ! Read in for more information.

The 2012 K-124 days will be twice as intense! - K-124 Days is the extraordinary competition of exceptional intensity that traditionally opens the international season. In 2012, they will also close it! Dominik Raab in Vienna - Dominik Raab, UMF’s talented street rider, is back with another video filmed in his home town and Austria’s capital, Vienna, with bags of style and finesse on show! Ozonys test the Hope Trial 2012 - The Hope Mono Trial has for several years been the reference point in trials disc braking. Hope will soon be bringing out a new version of their famous brake, and it is currently being tested by the Ozonys team! James Davies Tribal Rider - James has been riding for Tribal Zine for a while now, but I've only just got round to translating the announcement (sorry James!)...

Nice. Also, lol: http://www.sporza.be...llend/1.1180244

Good find. I laughed out loud at some of the front wheel stuff in that - so cool.

I was thinking about this the other day and 2011's been a bit of an annus horribilis for me; I'd probably give it 4/10. In summary: Riding-wise, it started of well, got a new bike that I really like, my level of riding was getting steadily higher and I was having a lot of fun. But then the rest of the year was plagued by injury; I broke a rib at Lee Quarry (doing a silly but innovuous non-move) which meant that I missed around three competitions in a row, including one of the Fort William rounds, I knocked myself out at RadFest which meant I couldn't finish the competition, and then I badly broke my ankle at the Bracken national in September which has meant that I've been in hospital, on mental painkillers, in plaster, on crutches and off the bike ever since and probably won't be riding again until well into the New Year. Work-wise things have been pretty dire as well. Our company has expanded, or what my semi-competent boss thinks is expanding - taking on a new office, more IT equipment that we don't need, but no extra staff or work, and, it turns out, all based on an accounting error to the tune of 20,000 pounds, meaning that financially the company is pretty much up the creek. He also has no clue how to manage a company or interact with people, which means that everything is either confusing, unproductive, unpleasant or frustrating. When we had a company meeting and made some suggestions for how to take the company forward he took it as a personal attack and is now trying to make the HR rep, who took the points to him, redundant in the most horrible way (could amount to unfair/constructive dismissal) which is making the atmosphere pretty poisonous in the office. I've been nominated as her colleague representative, which means I have to be in all of the meetings and read all of the correspondence, etc.; no fun at all. I've been looking and applying for jobs for a long while now, got down to the last two for what would have been the perfect role for me and didn't get interviews for the rest, so I'm stuck in a job that I hate, which is spilling over into the rest of my life and making me quite miserable. In March, my girlfriend, who I was about to move to a different city to move in with, chucked me for no real reason. Since then I've started seeing someone else and my ex has started texting me saying she made a mistake, really misses me and wants to see me. On the plus side however, I've still got a job and am fincancilly pretty stable/secure, I've started seeing someone new, which seems to be going well (plus she lives next right door, which is convenient as I'm still on crutches), my ankle's on the mend, and despite all of the above, I've still had plenty of good times and managed to enjoy myself. Hopefully 2012 will be an improvement (although I always think it's quite odd to compartmentalise one's problems in such a way, especially as most of them will continue, despite the fact that 2011 has ended)!

Very sad.

You don't need a licence or permit to enter any Biketrial Federation events - anyone can enter and ride if they like. The nearest rounds to London would be the Barrow Farm/RadFest round in July or the Hook Woods round in September. Feel free to email me at membership@biketriluk.co.uk if you would like any more info

Me neither! Just hope my ankle's fully sorted in time!

As Dave said, there isn't a club specifically for the North West. Your nearest club would probably be Tyke Trial; we run competitions in Yorkshire and Lancashire (Lee Mill Quarry being the closest venue to Manchester, although I'm not sure if we're going there in 2012). There are national events up and down the country as well, so there should be a national near you at some point. As for the rules, Tyke Trial (and several other clubs in the UK) comps are run to Biketrial Federation rules. You can read them here: http://biketrialuk.co.uk/Rules.htm, although please be aware that the Biketrial Federation annual meeting was held on Sunday and there have been a few small changes. An updated version should be available in the next week or so. If you want to know anything else, just let me know

Fort William will be in June, alongside the UCI Mountainbike World Cup and British national round, so the weather *should* be fine. Blistering sunshine and midges the last two years! I'll hopefully be up for a couple of rounds this year - been wanting to ride the Bob McGregor park for ages now!

Kenny Belaey after Champéry - Tribal Zine caught up with four-time World Champion Kenny Belaey for a few questions on the 2011 World Championship and his exceptional 2011 season, both on the bike and off ! Its a bit late, but here's the English version...

I fell for the topic title hook, line and sinker. This is a pretty big hook: EDIT: you know hen you look at a word for long enough and it loses all meaning and stops looking like a real word? Yeah, happened with hook for me just now.

The British Trials Cup Final - The final round of the British Trials Cup took place on Sunday 23rd October at Shipley Glen in Yorkshire. Jack Carthy took the win on the day, and in the series, finishing off the 2011 season with his fifth national title ! The first ever Scottish Bike Trial Championship: end of year report - The first ever Scottish Bike Trial Championship was organised and held in 2011. It was a successful and enjoyable series, with six rounds held all over Scotland. Kevin Duke, the man behind it all, tells us how it went.

Right, something to bear in mind! I'll bring it up at the next committee meeting and see what we can do. If we have enough riders, we'd be happy to do it, I'm sure.

We don't currently I'm afraid, we haven't got enough over 30's to fill a class. However, with a few of us pushing 30 and some of us already there, there might be one in the next couple of years! Unless you've got a few mates who fancy giving it a go next season?

These are realy cool! Nice work!

How did it go today?

That's cool! Hope you have fun! Wish I could be there, already absolutely dying to get back on my bike!

Probably going to show my age a bit here (although I was born 4 years after it was published), but I really love Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy trilogy (actually five books, plus a 6th written after Adams' death by Eoin Colfer). They're well worth a read if you haven't already, can't recommend them enough! I once read one of the Rats books, it reminded me so much of this: In fact, there's a scene almost exactly like that in the one I read; blah blah, burgeoning, throbbing member, blah blah, mossy cleft, blah blah thrusting, pumping, blah blah, then they were eaten by a horde of giant rats.

I liked the move on the tree at about 02:25, and some of the gaps up to rear were pretty impressive! I thought the edit and music worked, but as Steve-O said, I would have preferred a more chilled out vibe. That's just personal preference though.

It was a great day - I'm glad I made the trip up, even if watching everyone else riding and enjoying themselves got a bit frustrating! Can't wait to get back on my bike! It was great to see so many faces from all over the UK, especially those who travelled from so far North/South! As the season comes to a close, I'd like to thank everyone that has helped out with the events, whether by organising, setting up, observing or helping on the day or simply entering and riding! Especially big thanks to Barbara Wright, without whose tireless effort and committment these events would surely not be happening! She does a fantastic job! There are some fantastic photos from the day on the No Limits Photography Facebook; thanks for coming along guys - hope you enjoyed it! Write-ups of the last two rounds coming soon

I'm completely the opposite, I thought the smooth, fast way he rode the terrain was reall nice, particularly 01:24-01:34. Really enjoyed the video, it's nice to see some stylish riding on a 20", and some of the lines were reslly impressive! I found it interesting that he wore a helmet for he trials stuff, but not for the BMX. Not judging at all, just something I noticed. Cheers for posting Scott

I don't see why not! We'd have to look into the safety/insurance aspect of wearing kilts though - we might have to force you to wear trousers!