Puget Sound Trialers Training

The 2023 Puget Sound Trialers (PST) trials school was a big success for the riders, instructors and club. Students covered the spectrum from first-time trials riders to those riding advanced lines, all looking to knock off the winter rust, from their steeds and themselves, and work on becoming better riders. All of the instructors were club members - many of our advanced and expert ridersvolunteering their time and sharing their understanding of how to excel in our sport. The club had another opportunity to introduce trials to Northwest two-wheelers and continue to grow our ranks.

The school was conducted on a beautiful piece of private property owned by a PST member and his family. The club has hosted numerous events there. Over the years, we’ve developed an impressive array of loop trails and sections suitable for all levels of riders. The heavily treed natural terrain features small hills, a creek, some massive rocks and logs of every size imaginable. As a bonus, each windstorm brings down more trees that become logs for us to play on – it’s recycling at its best.

Students of the school had the opportunity to work on fundamentals: body position, clutch & throttle control, balance, cornering, etc. and then progress to learning new and/or advanced techniques while pushing themselves a bit on higher level obstacles and sections. All the while, they were getting insightful feedback and assistance from their instructors.

At the end of the day there were 54 Pacific Northwest trials riders who were more confident, skilled and excited to take on a season of feetup competition in 2023. Some were tired, all seemed to be smiling and several were making plans for their next day to ride and practice what they had learned.

The students themselves said it the best.

Andrew Kazantsev is starting his trials adventure the right way –“Great event, organization, and people. First time on a trials bike outside my backyard and it was a blast!”

Sara Redfield’s stoke level was high - “Huge thanks to Jesse and the others in my class for pushing me to try some advanced lines and obstacles! I wouldn’t have the courage to try without the coaching and support!”

Scott Squire’s experience perfectly illustrates why we host this event each year – “I had some lightbulb moments and I really learned a lot.”

Pretty much all motorcyclists understand the “n+1 rule” in which the right number of bikes owned is whatever you have today (n) plus one more. Oftentimes, fully committing to that +1 doesn’t happen until you’ve spent some time riding a few of the bikes under consideration and can make a more informed, confident decision. For the second year in a row, Puget Sound Trialers has loaned a trials motorcycle to each of a dozen local - mostly enduro - riders who are interested but not fully committed to trials.

In conjunction with the club’s annual season kick-off school, which requires a trials bike to participate, a special class called “Need a Bike” provides loaner bikes and a day of instruction to experienced motorcycle riders who want to give this segment of the sport a try.

Loaners for the day were both demo and privately owned bikes provided by Vertigo dealer OlyMoto - owned by PST member and sponsor Will Giese - and the personal machines of various PST club members. With five 4-strokes and seven 2-strokes of varying displacement, riders in the 2023 Need a Bike class were able to get some meaningful experience on a wide variety of motorcycle brands.

The Need a Bike curriculum includes a review of the high-level differences between enduro and trials bikes, instruction on correct body position, cornering, small wheelies, hill climbs and descents, small log crossings and the nuances of section riding. It’s a great introduction to the sport in a safe and structured environment.

In the months following our 2022 Need a Bike class, four riders purchased their first trials bike. By mid-week following this year’s school, Need a Bike attendee and first-time trials rider Joe Feldhaus had picked up his own trials bike, a nice compliment to his KTM 300 XC-W. Will the 2023 class eventually beat the 2022 class by swooping up five or more plonkers? Time will tell, but most of them seem to be excited about finding and obtaining their own +1 in the form of a trials bike.

Regardless of the number of new trials bike owners that come out of this special segment of the school, we have created an experience that few dirt bike riders get and those riders are going to spread the word about how cool trials is. It’s a win for the riders who participated, our sport and our club, no matter what happens. Proof-positive are the following post-school comments.

Lisa Denzler had no idea how this might change her life – “I seriously loved it and I’d do it again! And what a workout!!! Oy!”

Sarah Forney was similarly excited about experiencing moto trials – “I am still excited about how awesome of an experience yesterday was. I want to personal[ly] thank everyone who gave up their Saturday to get us two wheeled addicts a different perspective of riding. Lori and crew, you were all amazing, knowledgeable and so encouraging. At some point soon, hopefully sooner rather than later, I will see you all again on my own trials bike.”

Katherine Cade and her son Alex had a blast trying out trials – “I thought the event was well put together, fun, entertaining, and full of wonderful people with so much knowledge that were willing to share, such a great combination.”

This annual school is the purest example of riders giving back to the sport. Not everyone is down for giving up a day of riding or a day of instruction themselves, but the club managed to pull together fourteen volunteer instructors to do just thatgive up their day to help others learn. With an average rider to instructor ratio of about 4:1, there was lots of coaching and attention given to each of the 54 students signed up in 2023. It often surprises new instructors how satisfying coaching can be. This year was Dan Warner’s first time - “It was a lot of fun and coaching revealed that I really don’t know the basics as well as I should, or at least not well enough to teach new riders as well as I’d like. It was still a blast though”.

It was also Jesse Estrin’s first year coaching at the school. He said afterwards, “I really enjoyed my class of 5! They all had different skill levels and all wanted to be able to hop - haha. It was incredibly helpful to have sections set up that I could play around with and rearrange to help push each person in their levels. Honestly a lot of what we worked on was slowing down and breathing within the section. Once they had that figured out, they were riding a lot smoother and consistently. Hopefully I can pull it off again next year!”

It is clear that no school is possible without instructors. The club is lucky to have so many active and skilled members. The school’s student attendance has grown from 20 students in 2021, to 35 in 2022, to 54 this year. We were stoked to pull off another success amid such rapid growth.

Puget Sound Trialers was proud to celebrate the 50th anniversary of our club in 2022. We look forward to continuing to grow the sport through events such as this school and hosting fun competition rounds on a variety of terrain around the Puget Sound area. Things are looking up for our sixth decade of riding between the ribbons.