Sunday 27th March 2011
New venue, great weather, and a new sort of trial to try as well…………what more could you wish for?
We set off from “Quakesville” under cloudy sky's with rain forecast. Hurunui rewarded us with blue skies and temps in the mid twenties. Over twenty riders made the trip, not a bad turnout considering it's a wee bit out of town.
GATED TRIAL
John “RAVO” Ravenscroft came along to set out and school us in the delights of a 'gated trial'. He set out three 'gated sections' for us to try and was on hand to guide us through the concept. Seven normal sections were set so we divided up into three groups, one took a turn at the gated ones whilst the rest tackled the normal stuff. I'll try to explain the concept best I can……….
Put your front wheel through the start flags (gate) and you collect 5 points !!!
Well how's that gonna work?? Might as well mark me card with 200 points and go 'ome!!
Oh but there's more… don't go away just yet !!
Get though the next set of flags (gate) and you collect another 5 points !!!
By the time you've made it (if you can) through eight 'gates' you could have amassed 40 points………
now I'm really worried !!
No worries…….. that's the idea………collect as many fives as you can !! The winner has the HIGHEST score……..now that's 'A' about 'T' (bottoms about bosoms so to speak!)
You loose one point for a dab and you can have five dabs in each gate !!
You can choose how many gates you attempt and which ones to use or miss out as you go further into the section (the sections are relatively long).
You really have to try it to appreciate how wicked and fun this type of trial is…..
Each section somehow accomodates all grades by having gates that reflect the severity of our normal grade system. Your choice to try for each gate is governed by your assessment of each gate according to your riding level. It can help push your comfort zone and improve your riding. Watching better riders do harder gates can give confidence to have a go yourself…….no bad thing.
The rest of the trial was brilliant as well. The seven sections were some of the best clubby A lines I've ridden. A fine mixture of cambers with tight turns, slippery stream and dry stream bed rocks. This is a property with huge potential, the owner wondered why we chose the area we did because he said there's heaps of better terrain elswhere on the property !! A big thanks to the Frazer and Ironmonger families for a great venue.
Hobbit