With the weekend off for Paul, I managed to convince him to join me, Hannah & Jane along to Round 1 of Manawatu Orion’s club champs held in the Pohangina Valley. Having never ridden a trials bike in his life asides for a brief ride once or twice around our bush block at Hunterville he wasn’t convinced this was the best use of his day off.

It rained most of the way there, but thankfully once we arrived it was short lived, this however made it rather slippery, with most of the sections based around large rocks or through a small creek bed. We were both planning to ride clubman lines, and thankfully, Merv offered to chaperone us around the course and offer a few pointers.  I couldn’t get the better of my nerves for most the day, so fudged my way through most of the sections, just happy with an attempt at some of the trickier obstacles, not really worried about how many points I was accumulating. Paul on the other hand picked it up really fast and was good competition for Merv George. A few occasions it looked like he was riding the old beta techno like a MX bike but it worked(mostly) and he managed to get through the sections with relative ease. We both really enjoyed the day, and I think now Paul actually ‘gets’ how riding a trials bike well, could make you a better rider all round. Needless to say I think we are both hooked. Hopefully we can make it to another round this year.

Results from the day – http://www.silver-bullet.co.nz/news.php?id=4784