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The Spectrum of Bicycle Trials

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The Spectrum of Bicycle Trials

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flag jason222bike
Posted: Jan 23, 2010 at 21:05 Quote
photo

This spectrum pertains to the classification of trials riding styles. This thread is to help people better understand some of the different riding disciplines of bike trials.

Competition Trials: This is the most pure forum of bike trials. Riders show a strong focus on the more pure trials moves such as sidehops, pedal ups/taps, hooks, and other trials moves that are directly related to getting up, over, or across an object. These riders are very focused at being well rounded riders in order to do best in competitions. These riders use 26" or 20" wheeled bikes. This is an example of a 26" competition trials bike. Examples of Competition riders are Vincent Hermance, Gilles Coustellier, and Benito Ros. Euro Champ Video.

TGS: TGS stands for Tap/Gap/Sidehop. This term is more widely used amongst UK trials riders. This riding style is very similar to Competition trials in that it has a strong focus towards the more pure trials specific moves, hence the name. TGS riders usually only ride on urban/man made objects, whereas Competition riders train with both. TGS has been criticized for being boring or excessively plain by some because of the lack of interconnected moves known as "lines". In short, TGS is all about going BIG. These riders usually use 26" and 20" wheels, however, there have been some who have chosen to run 24". TGS bikes are often more heavy duty than their superlight competition counterparts. This is an example of a 26" TGS bike. Examples of TGS riders are Damon Watson, Craig Lee Scott, and Neil Tunnicliffe.

Mountain bike trials: This forum of trials pertains to trials riders that use a less trials specific bike, and choose to ride in a more diverse manner than competition or TGS riders. MTB trials riders may run suspension forks or other mountain bike parts instead of more trials dedicated parts. These bikes are often quite short and have very low bottom bracket heights. These bikes are often quite similar to 26" street bikes, or may even be customizations of them. MTB trials riders run 26" wheels. This is an example of a 26" mountain bike trials bike. Examples of Mountain bike trials riders are Ryan Leech, Johnny Korthuis, and Jeff Lenosky.

24" Street Trials: This forum of trials pertains to trials riders who like to throw in a street or bmx aspect into their riding. These riders are often even more diverse than mountain bike trials riders. 24" street trials bikes usually have short wheelbases, but comparable reach lengths as 26" TGS/Comp bikes. The bottom bracket height is quite high and head angle quite sharp, similar to a bmx bike. These bikes run 24" wheels. This is an example of a 24" street trials bike. Examples of 24" street trials riders are Danny Macaskill, Dave Marshall, and Gabriele Pampanelli.

There are also some other disciplines of trials riding, but they are more specific to the individual rider, and cannot be classified. Some riders like to mix in several aspects of trials into their riding, so they cannot be classed into any of these categories.

Feel free to add anything if you think it important.

Thanks!
flag Deuplonicus
Posted: Jan 24, 2010 at 4:28 Quote
sweet! now I'm going to make a goal of being a hybrid crazy man. just yesterday I was having fun hitting the local dirt jumps on my trials frame!
flag mattthibeautrials
Posted: Jan 24, 2010 at 9:33 Quote
This could actually be useful for people who are starting...
flag trialsn
Posted: Jan 24, 2010 at 14:08 Quote
You might want to revise your 24" category.

The head tube angles that you so claim to be steeper is indeed false. If you check out the mainstream companies out there building 24" frames (ie. Echo, Adament, Ashton, Inspired, Reset, Czar, Because...etc) the most of the frames, if not all have a 72-73 degree head tube angle.

This head tube angle is pretty slack compared to street frames which run into the high 60's. Most trials specific frames run a 72 degree head tube angle as well for the most part. There are companies trying out steeper head tube angles to give the rider a more aggressive/more responsive feel to the frame.

As for the bb rise; you cannot really compare the bb rise of a 24" frame to a 26" trials specific frame. The steep bb on the 24" is to make it feel like a 0 bb rise (or close to a 0 rise) as if you were riding a 26" frame.

Example: A 35mm bb rise on a 24" bike is equivalent to a 10mm bb rise on a 26" trials specific bike.

Resource...Tarty Bikes if you want to see for yourself.
flag cacklemuss
Posted: Jan 24, 2010 at 15:29 Quote
just ride whatever you have the most fun doing...
flag jason222bike
Posted: Jan 24, 2010 at 16:02 Quote
trialsn wrote:
You might want to revise your 24" category.

The head tube angles that you so claim to be steeper is indeed false. If you check out the mainstream companies out there building 24" frames (ie. Echo, Adament, Ashton, Inspired, Reset, Czar, Because...etc) the most of the frames, if not all have a 72-73 degree head tube angle.

As for the bb rise; you cannot really compare the bb rise of a 24" frame to a 26" trials specific frame. The steep bb on the 24" is to make it feel like a 0 bb rise (or close to a 0 rise) as if you were riding a 26" frame.

Example: A 35mm bb rise on a 24" bike is equivalent to a 10mm bb rise on a 26" trials specific bike.

Resource...Tarty Bikes if you want to see for yourself.
Head angles: I mentioned they're sharper because most are 73 with a few exceptions. This is sharper than the average comp/tgs bike that has a 71/71.5/72 degree head angle. It would be quite rare to find a comp/tgs bike with a 73 degree head angle. Many custom marinos have used 74 degree head angles as well...

BB rise: I don't think it's fair to compare the overall bb height on a 24" bike to that of a 26" because they may have a similar overall height, but each have very different ride characteristics. A +35 rise 24" bike will feel much spinnier than a 26" bike with 0 bb rise because your center of gravity sits higher in comparison with your axles. I've ridden 24" with high bb and 26" with 0 bb and they feel completely different. The same idea applies concerning bmx bikes, their overall bb height is quite low, but rise above the axles is high to give them that spinny feel. Likewise, a 24" bike with +35 bb has a much more noticable rise because of the short reach length.

I think I'm going to revise that section. Do you think I should change "sharp head angles" to "72-73 degree head angles"?
flag armadillotrials
Posted: May 24, 2013 at 9:15 Quote
What is the black and green TGS bike in the link. I have looked for the last few days but with no luck. Please help me
flag Jockular
FL
Posted: May 27, 2013 at 0:17 Quote
armadillotrials wrote:
What is the black and green TGS bike in the link. I have looked for the last few days but with no luck. Please help me

Just guessing, but it looks like a GU....
flag ogretrials
Posted: May 28, 2013 at 3:12 Quote
24" are also allowed in competitions... from my experiences comps are about your ability to roll everything than deliver specific movements (i only ride blue though)

TGS street is now putting more of a focus on lines, even if it's all linked with TGS; danny macaskill has definitley shifted our expectations from what riding street can be, i won't humour any video that doesn't have tgs lines, if it's free standing clips of individual moves i'm rarely interested unless they are perverse, needs to be moarrr. although we do still que to sidehop and gap stuff on big rides in the uk Frown
flag ogretrials
Posted: May 28, 2013 at 3:24 Quote
armadillotrials wrote:
What is the black and green TGS bike in the link. I have looked for the last few days but with no luck. Please help me

its a gu
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