BACK IN THE VERY EARLY DAYS OF motorcycling, manufacturers would invite journalists of the day to try out their models in trials – tricky off-road courses that would prove the models’ abilities. This grew into a sport, and soon there were competitive trials all over the country.
The basics
Today, competitors negotiate a marked course made up of several sections. These can be as short as 30 metres or less, and the idea is to get through the section without putting your feet down or stopping. You might get a choice of class: these can be easy, clubman, or expert, which the rider chooses for themselves.
There will be up to 10 sections of varying difficulties in a trial, and each will come with their own challenges – it might be a deep and muddy stream bed, a shale slope, rocky terrain, or on a track through narrow undergrowth.
Observers mark the competitors based on how many times they put their feet down in a section. Get through clean, without dabbing your feet, and you get zero points. Put your feet down once and it is one point, twice it is two, three or more and it’s three. If you fall off, divert off the section, or miss the gate, it’s five points. Then, having negotiated the section, you are on to the next. You may travel the course four times throughout the trial’s duration.
There are classes for all abilities and ages, and no gender-specific ones. Everyone is in it together, from eight-year-old girls to 80-year-old veterans.
There are many two-day events around the country that combine a trial and a social occasion. There are also much longer-distance classic trials, such as the two-day Scottish event and The Beamish. These are similar to trials held when
