Early Cycle Trials

The oldest known bike trial, the Windlesham Wheelers Trial, which took place on 7 December 1947, had been forgotten for seven decades before it resurfaced at the British Library in London in 2018 ¹. This discovery showed that the motherland of observed trials is also the motherland of bike trials. This was to be expected, but until then there had never been any confirmation of it. This is precisely the second significance of the discovery of the Windlesham Wheelers Trial: just because there is no information about early bike trials, it does not necessarily mean that they did not exist!

The question arises as to whether bike trials may even be older than that. The photo below of the Scott Trial in Yorkshire dates from 1924. At that time, many reliability trials were shifting their focus towards style scoring – including the Scott Trial in Yorkshire, where it was introduced that very year. In the background of the picture, two young spectators can be seen with a bicycle. Motorcycle trials have always inspired children and young people to try out what they have seen on their own bikes. This was especially true when something was new – and style scoring was new! In any case, British track racing, which apparently followed a very similar course over time, encouraged imitation on bicycles on tiny ovals suitable for bicycles even back then. ²

Motorcycle trials were also new to the Windlesham Wheelers Trial. After the war, they finally emerged from the shadow of reliability trials and established themselves as a separate discipline of motorcycle sport. Delayed by the war and the subsequent period of hardship, the first British Trial Championship took place in 1950. ³ The Windlesham Wheelers Trial in 1947 was part of this spirit of optimism after the war. The same was certainly true of the cycle trials on the Channel Island of Jersey in the 1950s ⁴, where motorcycle trials were also held. In this context, it is worth remembering the imitation of motocross by ‘Fietscross’ in the Netherlands in the late 1950s ⁵, where motocross was very popular. All of this was later forgotten and had to be rediscovered.

In addition to Great Britain and Ireland, the Netherlands and, above all, Belgium are also possible candidates for early cycle trials. Due to their geographical proximity to England, there were already contacts between motorcycle clubs in these countries in the 1920s, which held joint events. Even before the war, trials based on the British model were held in Belgium, and shortly after the war, the Lamborelle Trial developed into an important international trial, starting in 1953, where the top English riders acted as mentors to participants from other European countries. Belgium thus became the cradle of trials sport on the continent and the starting point for its international development (beginning with the Challenge Henri Groutars, held from 1964 to 1967, which became the European Trials Championship in 1968). ⁶. Would it be surprising if all this had escaped the attention of local children and young people with their bicycles ...?

In 1958, the Hellkuhlen Berg Trial was established in Ebstorf in the Lüneburg Heath and was part of the German Trial Championship, which was launched in 1960. The Ebstorf Bicycle Trials Club was founded in this spirit of optimism. ⁷ In 1965 and 1966, Gustav Franke, a German, won the Challenge Henri Groutars – could there have been imitators on cycles in Zirndorf near Nuremberg, where Franke came from? So far, nothing of the sort is known.

An interesting report by Crius (Christian Christophe) on the Clamart Trial near Paris in 1962, which he originally wrote for Das MOTORRAD magazine, is available. ⁸, Five years later, Crius included this report in a slightly expanded form in his highly successful book ‘Sport mit Motorrädern’ (Motorcycle Sports), the first edition of which was published in 1967. The book states: ‘With the momentum of the counter-slope (...) you don't go back up again – even children on bicycles do that here – but along the slope ...’ ⁹. Even though the passage about the children and their bicycles is one of the additions to the book that were not included in the original report in MOTORRAD, and it may be just a stylistic remark by Crius that should not be taken too literally, the observation as such is nevertheless correct and revealing. In many places where trials events are held, children and young people have imitated what they have seen on their bikes. Whether this remained mere child's play or whether serious bike trials were held or even events organised is another question entirely.

In the 1970s, trials riding experienced a tremendous boom. In the same way, attempts at bike trials became more frequent, as trials sport was new in many places and enthusiasm was correspondingly high. Bike trial activities did not fall dormant again, but (as with the then almost forgotten Challenge Henri Groutars a decade earlier) were linked to cup competitions which finally went beyond region and developed into today's bike trials. For this reason, the 1970s can be regarded as the birth of modern bike trials, as there are direct lines of continuity from the 1970s to today's bike trials.

However, the first attempts at cycle trials, which are unrelated to developments since the 1970s, are significantly older.