Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Today we went to watch a motorcycle trials competition. Dave has participated in observed trials riding before at the same place, but this year for obvious reasons, we were just spectators (click here for the post on his experience). We could only walk to the closest two courses, but they were the ones that experts had to complete, so it was a great experience.

The official observer watches the riders on each course to count any mistakes made, such as putting your feet down or leaning on rocks and trees. He indicates with his hand in the air and putting up how many fingers when mistakes, called dabs, are made. Then he records that number on the rider's score card, which are later tallied up and the winners announced.





 

 Riders can also walk the course to familiarize themselves with the obstacles and come up with a plan of action.

 

These bikes are really light and need no seat because you never sit down. An engine skid plate helps because we heard lots of scaping when they were going over the rocks.

 

Each class has a different route they must take through each of the 8 courses (done 4 times!). This was an expert rider and jumped his bike from the ground up to the top of this rock. Amazing!

 

 Oops! I think he has had his share of dabs from the count on the officials hand.

Challenging and the closed fist indicates no dabs!

This rock was almost vertical and sharp enough to catch some air. We saw one rider land on his front wheel here and ended up crashing. He got up and continued on the course.

It takes lots of concentration and girls are great at it!

 

 This was our favorite feat of the day....he flew over the whole obstacle!

 

Even though Dave has started riding his motorcycles again, he certainly wasn't up to participating. Next year though, he will return to try his hand (& wrist & leg) at this event. Hopefully during next summer he will even build his own trials course to practice on, here in our woods. We have the obstacles ready to go and our Ford 555 Hercules is up for the job. Now we just need Dave to be recovered and have the stamina to construct it!