Cycle Trial in Engabrunn (1972)

In Langenlois – located a few kilometers north of Krems on the Danube in Lower Austria – there is a motorcycle trial and motocross tradition that dates back to the mid-1960s. The initiative for the trials came from Roland Georgieff, then Chief Inspector of the Vienna Police, who was active in trials, hill climbs, and motorcycle slaloms for the Jawa Club Vienna and was national champion in sidecar trials in 1971 and 1972. From 1966 to 1976, Georgieff organized a total of twenty motorcycle trials and other events for MSC Langenlois in Langenlois and the nearby towns of Reith and Mittelberg. ¹

Some trials and motocross riders from MSC Langenlois came from the small village of Engabrunn, a few kilometers east of Langenlois. Through their younger brothers and their friends, the enthusiasm for motorsports spread to the young people in Engabrunn, who not only held moped motocross races in their home village, but also actively helped out at MSC Langenlois events. Roland Georgieff writes: “As a thank you for this, I organized a small bicycle trial with a few prizes in Engabrunn in 1972. (...) They were ordinary bicycles, but everything had been removed where possible. (...) But the course was natural. A real trial with its own scoring system, just like with motorcycles.”

About fifteen participants took part in the trial. The aim was to give the participants some enjoyment and enable them to take part in a trial, even if they had not yet had the opportunity to ride a motorcycle.

Due to the popularity that bicycle trials had gained among these young people, a small bicycle skills competition was organized in Mittelberg in December 1974 as a side event to a car and motorcycle slalom. However, Roland Georgieff emphasizes: “The only real bike trial was the one in Engabrunn in 1972.”