{"id":76,"date":"2019-05-26T18:57:49","date_gmt":"2019-05-26T16:57:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/neu.gernot-menke.de\/?page_id=76"},"modified":"2025-11-18T22:06:45","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T21:06:45","slug":"ich-lernte-pere-pi-kennen","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/ich-lernte-pere-pi-kennen\/","title":{"rendered":"I Got to Know Pere Pi"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the course of 1979, I actually got in touch with Pere Pi \u2013 Felix Krahnst\u00f6ver had given me his address. I wrote to him that I had organised my first bicycle trial in Bad Nauheim in 1974 and I also enclosed the first article on this subject from FAHRERLAGER: \u2018Trialsport ohne Motor\u2019 (Trial sport without a motor). Pi was now familiar with the F\u00fcrstenhagen film, he knew the date of 25 May 1974, when the first bicycle trial known at the time took place in Bad Nauheim, and he had the article \u2018Trialsport ohne Motor\u2019 from FAHRERLAGER. At this point, the story with Pere Pi took a dramatic turn. One pricks up one's ears when reading sentences like this in his autobiography, published in 2012: \u2018Only a few can use the word \u201cinvent\u201d in the case of bicycle trials, unless they are patented.\u2019 1<\/a><\/sup> Is this the mentality in business, that everything that is not protected by patents is copied? I believe that historical facts are not suitable for patenting and take the position of the historian who \u2018should merely show how it actually was\u2019 (Franz Leopold von Ranke, 1795-1886). So how was it?<\/p>\n

\"\"
FAHRERLAGER 4+5\/1975 \u201cTrialsport ohne Motor\u201d (Trial sport without an engine), p. 19<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Pere Pi then gave the bicycle trial the name \u2018Trialsin\u2019 \u2013 \u2018trial without\u2019: \u2018The name Bici-Trial was replaced by Trialsin, as it was a trial without exhaust fumes, without an engine and without noise ... That was in 1979.\u2019 2<\/a><\/sup><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>Pere Pi thus adopted the exact title of the article \u2018Trialsport ohne Motor\u2019 (Motorless Trial Sport), which I had sent him a few months earlier. The article and headline were written by Sven Kuuse (1923-2003), editor of FAHRERLAGER magazine. The F\u00fcrstenhagen promotional film for bicycle trials, which Felix Krahnst\u00f6ver had brought with him on his second visit to Pere Pi in the summer of 1979, was copied one-to-one in the same way and a practically identical Montesita promotional film was shot \u2013 incidentally, in even poorer quality than the F\u00fcrstenhagen film. 3<\/a><\/sup> And the third element, the date 1974 of the oldest bicycle trials known at the time in Bad Nauheim, was also \u2018copied\u2019 by Pere Pi and from then on ran like a magic number through his historical accounts of bicycle trials \u2013 whether he (initially) tried to \u2018achieve\u2019 this date with changing (!) stories, or whether he (later) consistently concealed this date.<\/p>\n

The story Pere Pi used to reach the date 1974 was as follows:
\n\n\"In 1974, Ot \u2013 Pedro Pi's son \u2013 was four years old. It was quite normal for a child of that age to want a bicycle. (...) Pedro Pi then decided to build such an (off-road) bicycle himself, as he worked at the Montesa motorcycle factory. (...) The new bicycle was built with a special geometry that made it easier for Ot to manoeuvre. This allowed 4-year-old Ot to ride up an 18 cm high step without having to use his foot for support.\" 4<\/a><\/sup> It was on this occasion that he came up with the idea of bicycle trials.<\/p>\n

I first read this story in a magazine article that Pere Pi sent me months later, towards the end of the year, in response to a letter I had written to him after returning from Spain in the spring of 1979, together with brochures for the then new Montesita T-10. Today, I think that Pere Pi needed that time to get the story described in the previous paragraph published in a magazine and then present it to me together with the material about the Montesita T-10, which had been completed in the meantime. I found this story dubious from the outset and thought to myself that at the time in question I had not only had an \u2013 alleged \u2013 idea, but had actually organised an event. I showed the article to my parents at the time to see what they thought of it. My mother immediately became angry: \u2018That's mean!\u2019, \u2018Anyone can claim that!\u2019 and \u2018A four-year-old! That's ridiculous!\u2019 My father added: \u2018Especially since he has completely different opportunities in his factory than you do!\u2019 I have forgotten some things, but I have retained my parents' spontaneous reaction.<\/p>\n

Meine Mutter behielt recht. Aus einem in einem Interview, das Pere Pi 2014 f\u00fcr die Seite Retrotrials.com gab, ver\u00f6ffentlichen Foto ging 35 Jahre sp\u00e4ter hervor, da\u00df Ot Pi zwar tats\u00e4chlich \u00fcber die besagte 18 cm-Stufe gefahren war, aber nicht 1974 im Alter von vier, sondern im Sommer 1979 im Alter von neun Jahren. 5<\/a><\/sup> Das f\u00fcgt sich auch mit den anderen bekannten Daten \u2013 siehe hierzu das Kapitel \u201eFelix Krahnst\u00f6ver und Pere Pi\u201c.<\/p>\n

\n
    \n
  1. Pere Pi: No tengo 200 a\u00f1os, 2012, p. 255 ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  2. \u201eEl nombre de Bici-Trial fue sustituido por el de Trials\u00edn, por ser un Trial sin humo, sin motor, sin ruido,\u2026. Corr\u00eda el a\u00f1<\/span>o 1979\u2033; http:\/\/biketrial-spain.com\/biketrialpress\/historia\/<\/a> dated 25 March 2018. Also: \u2018The first official name for this sport was Trialsin, a Spanish acronym for trial without a motor, which was coined by Pere Pi around 1979.\u2019 (La primera denominaci\u00f3 oficial que tingu\u00e9 aquest esport fou la de Trials\u00edn<\/a>, acr\u00f2nim castell\u00e0 de Trial sin motor<\/i> ideat per Pere Pi<\/a> cap a 1979); https:\/\/ca.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Bicitrial<\/a> dated 28th October 2025. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  3. I saw this Montesita promotional film on the internet around 2007, and I believe I remember seeing it on the website biketrial-spain.com. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  4. This text was still available in April 2007 on the Latvian website www.karters.lv. It was a Latvian translation of Pere Pi's earlier account, which in turn had been translated into German by a translator and sworn interpreter for Latvian. The quotation is an excerpt from it. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n
  5. https:\/\/www.retrotrials.com\/15–pere-pi—off-road-motorcycle-pioneer-and-montesa-development-boss.html<\/a> dated 12 May 2019. Pere Pi had previously emphasised the existence of a photograph of the aforementioned ride over the 18 cm step, which then served as a template for the logo in the brochures for the new Montesitas T-5 and T-10, but this photograph was published for the first time in the interview with Retrotrials. If you compare the Ot in the photo, climbing the famous step on a hot day, with the Ot seen in a 1981 promotional photo for the then-new T-15 (https:\/\/ca.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Montesita#\/media\/File:Montesita_T-15_brochure_1981.png<\/a> from 17 May 2019), there is not much difference to be seen. Conversely, Ot appears in comparison photos where he is 7 years old \u2013 for example das erste Foto mit dem Untertitel „1977 – Primer Podium Motocross“<\/a> from the photo gallery on the site http:\/\/www.otpi.com\/en\/bio\/<\/a> (Web archive from 6 May 2019) or in Pere Pi: No tengo 200 a\u00f1os, 2012, p. 336 \u2013 significantly younger than in the step photo. I believe that the photo on the 18 cm step was taken in the summer of 1979 \u2013 the visible burn marks from welding the frame accurately match the creation of the prototypes for series production during this period. ↩<\/a><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Im Laufe des Jahres 1979 habe ich dann tats\u00e4chlich Kontakt zu Pere Pi aufgenommen – Felix Krahnst\u00f6ver hatte mir seine Anschrift gegeben. Ich schrieb ihm, da\u00df ich 1974 in Bad Nauheim mein erstes Fahrrad-Trial veranstaltet hatte und ich legte auch den ersten diesbez\u00fcglichen Artikel aus dem FAHRERLAGER bei: \u201eTrialsport ohne Motor\u201c. Pi kannte nun also…<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-76","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/76","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76"}],"version-history":[{"count":148,"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/76\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3343,"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/76\/revisions\/3343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.gernot-menke.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}