Oh look what showed up in my garage

[VTNewb]

More pics tomorrow when it's light out and I mix up some gas.

It's 80:1 (!)

[scratch]

Oh-ho!  Sweet!

[ohgood]

Just look at all the play pretties !

One, two, three, FOUR wheeled devices of FUNction. Ya, a mower too.

Yikes, a UFO (aka kayak) from outerspace!

Cool fun machine you've spoiled yourself with there. Does it hop right up on a wall like those things on YouTube ?

[GeeP]

Decided to give trials riding a try?  Let us know what you think about it, I've had the urge from time to time.   

[jake42]

ooooh... I want one of those bad.  It's a Sherpa right?  It was kinda hard to see the lettering, but it's definitely not a Gas Gas.  Dr. Love who used to post on here a bit was into trials riding.  We want some action photos.

Jake

[CasiUSA]

NIIICCCEEE!!!!

I rode biketrials with a Monty X-lite, and I've always wanted to have a go at moto trials. Let us know how it goes. Do you have experience on trials, or is this a learning thing for you?

[jdanna]

where do you sit?
doesnt look very comfy

[yamahonkawazuki]

afaik you DONT sit

[jdanna]

afaik you DONT sit

wierd. im not quite sure i get it

[Egaeus]

afaik you DONT sit

wierd. im not quite sure i get it

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motorcycle_Trials

[VTNewb]

This is new for me. I did local "thursday night dirt rides" with a bunch of folks, got "promoted" to the AAA group and eventually got bored. I wanted to get into enduro but no trailer.

I traded in the CR250 for this Scorpa SY250 because they have local AMA trials events.

tons of pics and full newbie write up tonight!

[jake42]

I want to see some awesome boulder scaling action.

[VTNewb]

OK here it is.

Today I took my new trials bike to the trail, and viewed my $50 dollar instructional DVD and tried to teach myself some skills.

First things first:


It's a 2001 Scorpa SY250. $2795
I had a choice between this and an 02 Beta 250 Rev 3. I took this because it was 10lbs lighter, had a flexier frame, and had a Yamaha YZ250 engine (parts). The Beta had a French Beta engine and a beam aluminum frame, it was less forgiving. They were both the same price.

Plug for the guy that sold it: www.motoconnectionvt.com

Initially It felt weird with the foot pegs so far back. You can't use the shift lever with your foot on the peg. You have to remove your foot and bring it forward to shift. No shifting on the fly. It's remarkably comfortable standing up. You can sit but it's very very awkward.

The bike has loads of low end grunt. I don't think the bike is capable of stalling. It's amazing. It can chug uphill at idle with me (135lb) on it. First second and third gear all feel like first gear to me. You can barely tell the difference. 4th is for slow trail riding. 5th is much much taller than 4th, it's for hauling ass in trails. 6th is for cruisin' (if you can do that on this) It has a hydraulic clutch, one finger is all you need, and is recommended so you can hold on tight. The lever pull is very low pressure, half the force that the CR needed.

So what can you do with it. Answer:



It's amazing how easily it comes up. When I went trail riding I was able to hop over some nastier obstacles the CR couldn't The suspension is so flexy that you can actually hop back and forth on the bike. If I use 4th and go about 20, if I approach a small bump, I can compress the springs and launch off of it 4-5 feet in the air like I hit a real jump.
It stoppies just as easily, but I'm not comfortable enough with it to get over a foot off the ground.
It trail rides better than the CR250. It can go over ANYTHING. If you approach a big log, compress both front and rear, pop the front onto the log, you can pop up the rear and launch right over. The steering is laser sharp though, no forgiveness. Have to keep control. Turning is clearly super tight.

Anything you do on this bike is amazingly physically demanding. Stoppies especially. No seat means your arms and legs take all the brunt, it's all weight transfer so you're moving around a whole bunch on the thing.

Things I couldn't do right off:




My video explained to me it would be beneficial to go up a steep hill, wheelie, then turn around in the wheelie to come back down. Nope. I've only done it once properly in 10 tries.

Balancing is very difficult. I've managed to hold it for 10 seconds a couple times. You have to keep your body and legs and weight transfer perfectly still, keep the bike slightly leaned with the steering at lock, then move the front wheel with your arms to stay up. This will be long term. 10 seconds is enough for me now.
Another option is to "front end bounce" which I can't do at all yet. Hammer on both brakes, then knees down and weight back to rock the front wheel as if you're going to wheelie, but without the power. It allows to you bounce back and forth instead of falling.

The only issue is the front tire doesn't like mud. I wiped when I was railing around a muddy corner. When I went today I often wheelie and jumped over things. I went out of my way to do it. It's amazingly versatile.

Tomorrow I'm going to practice turning while the front wheel is in the air ala my picture, as well as turning in a stoppie. I want to do a bunny hop as well. Wheelie and compress the rear, move all the weight forward and gun it at the same time to jump the bike in the air up to 2 feet(!)

I've found some giant rocks, but I'm pretty exhausted from stepping up and down off the bike 1000 times to attempt to balance, so tomorrow for action trail pictures.

[The Buddha]

Ooooooo ... nice georgian ...
Trials ... yea ... OK cool ...
Cool.
Srinath.

[Jake D]

I bet that has greater fuel capacity and range than my Super Hawk.

I bet that is a blast!!!  Makes me wish I still lived on a farm.

[Stephen072774]

nice bike, that looks fun

[RVertigo]

Boing!  That's freakin' sweet!  (Don't hurt yourself).