- Let me introduce you to a competition trials bike.
Now you may be looking at this bike thinking,
"What on Earth is that mountain bike I'm looking at?
"Why has it got no seat? Why is it so long? Why is it
"so low?"
Now, I'll grant you it's a strange looking thing
but this is an amazing example of a bike
with dynamic geometry, amazing strength,
and incredible lightness.
It weighs nearly nothing, just nine kilogrammes.
This is what competition trials looks like.
(upbeat music)
Right, let's start with the geometry because that's one
of the most incredible things about this bike.
It's a 1085 wheelbase, which is actually really long.
Next thing to know is look at the height of that
bottom bracket.
If you draw an imaginary line from the rear axle
to the front, you'll notice that the bb sits up from
that line 65 millimetres, in fact.
Now that geometry is really essential for trials riding,
when you're up on the back wheel but I'll come to that.
The rear end is really packed here, 380 mil rear
chainstay, now that is unbelievably short
and again, crucial for manoeuvres on the back wheel.
Look at that head angle, 72 degrees, really dynamic angle.
The moves this bike can make are absolutely stunning.
Now taking a closer look at this rear end, you can see
there's an awful lot going on.
Like I said, it's a 380 mil chainstay length,
which is incredibly short.
Now that's crucial for when you're up on the back wheel
doing trials riding, making those manoeuvres, you need a
bike that can turn really easily.
So, it's got an incredibly short end but there's a lot
to fit in.
You've got the brakes, you've got all of this chain set
up here, you've got a chain tensioner, it's really,
really cramped.
But you can see by making the frame really adaptive
to that amount of stuff they've got to fit in
that they've managed to do it because they've got the
rear brake coming down really tight on this tyre.
They've come up with up all sorts of clever ways to
adapt the tyre into the frame so you can see,
instead of having the seat stay, these seat stays
almost coming over and actually crossing over
the rear tyre.
It's incredibly compact at the rear.
Single speed, because it's a trials bike,
but check this out.
(bike chain cranking)
Oh, did you hear that?
Listen to how many engagements there on that
front free wheel.
(bike chain cranking)
That's so you can really engage the pedals really quickly.
Front free wheel also means that it's fixed at the back
so how are they keeping that chain tension?
Well if you look under here, there's a really neat
chain tensioner hidden away so it's not getting
hit by rocks.
It keeps the chain nice and tight
(bike chain cranking)
and the chain stays still.
Isn't that cool?
Now look at that rear tyre.
Two point five wide, absolutely massive.
And that pressure, that's probably about right.
You want that tyre really, really soft
and it giving you loads of bounces for those
massive side hops.
The rim, 47 mil wide, it's absolutely huge.
And there's cut outs all the way around to get that
weight down as light as possible.
Now look at this crank set up, it's got this little
bash plate tucked away under here protecting the
chain from any rock strikes or obstacle strikes.
You can have that set below there or if you've run
a left foot forward, then you can set it up underneath
so when you've got your front foot forward,
the chain's always protected and it's a minimum amount
of bash plate, optimum weight.
Look at those pedals, they're absolutely deadly.
If these things hit you in the shins you're gonna know
about it but obviously it's trials so you wanna keep
your feet on those pedals, you need all the grip
you can get.
Now the brakes are obviously very, very important
and on this bike, it's the Magura hydraulic rim brake.
Now this has become a stalwart in the world of trials.
When I first started riding trials back in 1990,
I used a Magura rim brake, not dissimilar to this one.
What the comp riders tend to do thought is grind their
rims down so this is a really rough surface
and then you've got maximum grip on these sticky blocks.
The brakes on these bikes are like lightning,
they literally work on and off.
You pull that front brake on when you're going along,
you're gonna know about it.
Moving up to the front here and things don't get
any less dynamic.
It's got a bolt through axle to keep the weight down.
A super sticky tyre on the front, it's got nobbles
coming right over the edges so that you can catch
lines on rocks when you're in those really
technical sections.
Look at the brake mounting, it's on the back of
the fork so it's really, really stiff.
It's buffering up against the fork leg itself,
instead of the traditional mounting at the front.
And look at this stem, you can see that cut away angle.
When the bike's up on it's back wheel and the rider's body
is right at the front here, this is giving them the
maximum amount of space possible.
The geometry on these bikes is so well thought out.
Look at these bars, really high rise and quite
an aggressive sweep.
Foam grips, which I've got to say are incredibly hard,
but it's about getting the weight down
and maximum control.
Sharp Magura brakes as I explained.
And then look at this tapered headset.
Look at that, cut away.
Taken out as much metal work as they can to keep the
weight down so you can actually see the steerer tube
through there.
Neat little graphIc on it.
Man, I just wanna ride this bike, it looks so cool.
Now admit it, when you first saw this bike you thought
the geometry looked crazy but now I've stood it up
on it's end, it all starts to make sense.
Look at those bars, suddenly they're lining up.
There's lots of space for the rider's hips in this
area here, the brake levers are level because these
bikes spend more time on their back wheel than
they do on two.
Loved taking you through this trials bike,
but I really want you guys to understand the difference
in that two wheel position and the rear wheel position.
So let's get someone on it.
Blake Sampson meet trials bike,
trials bike meet Blake Sampson.
- Hello mate.
- A trials virgin.
Now dude, I wanna demonstrate what this bike's like
to actually ride because the geometry's crazy
so jump on that thing and tell me what you think.
- First off, the bars are like facing the wrong way.
- Well, just in the balancing position, how's that feel?
- Easy to move around.
- Yeah, feel light?
- Very light.
- Very light, right.
Stand that baby up on it's back wheel.
- Don't know if I can.
- You can do it, you can do it mate.
That's it.
- Oh that's easy once you're at the--
- Once you're up on that back wheel.
- Yeah, when you're up, it's easy.
- It all feels right.
- Wow.
- I hope you've enjoyed my little run through
what is a trials bike.
I wanna say a special thank you to TartyBikes
which is the amazing trials website that lent me this
bike so I could show you it so thanks guys for that.
If you want to see what trials is all about
then why don't you click just here to see my
"What is trials" video.
- Well, if you want to know a dirt jump bike's all about,
click just down there.
(laughing)
- Nice balancing Blake.
Why don't you click on the logo to subscribe,
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Oh and give us a--
- Thumbs up, like.
- Don't take your hand off that brake dude.
(laughing)