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Webmaster E-mail Interview (4/23/00) by Jeff West, Pedal Stroke Productions Jeff West: Hello, first of all I would like to say great site. My name is Jeff West I am a junior at E.O. Smith HS and I am a sport soon to be expert stock/mod rider from Willington Ct. I am composing a report for my english paper on trials, where it came from and where it is going. I was hoping I could ask you some questions and use them as an interview source. JW: Can you describe the purpose of BikeTrials.com? Stephen Maeder: The purpose of BikeTrials.com is to provide the world with information about the sport of Bike Trials. It is meant to serve everyone, from the person who has never heard of the sport, all the way up through every kind of rider to the master class or elite riders who want to see what the American scene is like and learn from my video footage of great riders! BikeTrials.com should fulfill every need and desire a trials rider may have. Need for information on what parts to run and why... Desire for video footage of a particular move... When I got into trials, there were very few websites about trials, and none of them really offered what I wanted. I wanted to make available to others what I had wished would have been available to me. Furthermore, whatever information I had, I shared. For example, I shared thoughts on how to do certain moves, even before I learned them myself, just passing on advice I received from better riders... This is how the how-to manual started! The website had it's origins in February 1998, I think, shortly after I started riding (Jan 98) with "Stephen's Trials Page," then turning into "UCLATrial," and then finally becoming "BikeTrials.com" on July 19, 1999. The website has steadily been added to and improved upon since the beginning. The influence and reach of BikeTrials.com has been steadily growing, and I am careful to keep it heading in a positive direction. From the beginning of BikeTrials.com, I have been concerned with the attitudes of trials riders. I really want to have a positive impact on this, as I feel it is one of the most important things to the true success of bike trials in the US. JW: Aprox. how many hits do you recive a day? SM: About 20,000 hits a day... About 3,000 pageviews a day... About 650-750 visitors to the website daily (increasing steadily). JW: What are your future plans, goals for the site? SM: More full event coverage, international event coverage, better how-to manual (with an accompanying video cd or vhs tape), more articles on all the various facets of trials, more video footage for riders to learn from/be entertained by, more video cd's, professional-quality VHS tapes that show bike trials in it's true form... The site will become more commercial in the future, but at the same time, more useful as a byproduct. The more money I make, the more work I'll put into the site. People have e-mailed me saying that my website has kept them riding when they were ready to give up! It is encouragement like this that keeps me going. Well, that and that I see what the website is doing for the sport. BikeTrials.com has created a community of riders for this small sport. One of my goals is to make this as accessible and as useful to people as possible. The Ambassador program spreads the BikeTrials.com name to a lot of non-trials riders and gives them a tremendous resource which facilitates their getting started in the sport... JW: Can you describe the BikeTrials.com Ambassador program? Yup, http://BikeTrials.com/VIP/ :-) JW: You recently came to Motorama, how do you feel the east coast scene compares to the west coast scene, in terms of difficulty and rider ability? SM: Were the Expert sections at Motorama representative of most east coast sections? I can't say it was difficult, as I had my lowest score ever (9 dabs, 3 of which were from the evil swing fiasco, where they raised the swing for the second loop without informing me). To me, urban stuff is really easy. The Motorama sections were really short, and just had big move after big move. I think if I hadn't been sick, I think I could have had a 2 for the whole day. 1 planned dab for the twisting stair section for 2 loops. I think urban/artificial sections have their place, but I really strongly feel that riders have the most to learn from natural sections. Here on the west coast, we have rock sections, steep hillside sections, sections along felled trees... Things that really test your balance, accuracy, and trials skills. At Motorama, I could do a sidehop and have loads of space to land. I'm used to hitting things with extreme accuracy because I ride natural stuff. Anyway, I'd have to say that west coast Expert class sections are of significantly greater difficulty than the Motorama sections this year were. East coast rider ability? I don't know enough to say, really... The rider I was most impressed with was Chris Pascucci (who is of course an Ambassador now), who is an east-coaster. I was also impressed with Matt Robinson, but he's not an east coast rider. I didn't really pay attention to other riders. I ride competitions in my own little world, just like I practice... When I finish a comp, I'm either happy with how I've done or I'm not... When I turn my card in, I have no idea where I placed. I'm not interested in it. I compete against myself. Don't get me wrong, though, winning Motorama was awesome! When I turned my card in, I thought maybe I was top three, but didn't really expect first! JW: What do you think about dual trials? SM: I think dual trials is a good way to get trials more exposure in the US. It is a more friendly format for us stupid Americans. Bike trials has too many rules and exceptions. Dual trials is easy for people with no attention span to grasp. Whoever finishes the course first wins... Anyone can appreciate and understand that. Yes, it's a perversion of trials, but it does bring the sport attention, and as long as people see that what these dual trials riders REALLY do is this different, more interesting sport called bike trials, I think it can be a positive thing for our sport. JW: Where do you think the sport is going competition wise? SM: I think the sport is going Euro... We're beginning to see sections more like what Europeans ride. Really technical lines as well as big moves... I hope to see more of this trend. If you really want to see where the sport is heading, watch the Europeans. That's the bleeding edge of bike trials, in my opinion. JW: Where do you see trials in ten years? SM: I see more people in the sport than there are now. I see the level of competition as much higher than it is now... I see more categories of competition, definitely one between sport and expert, and a semi-pro between expert and pro, which will essentially be for riders who are as good as last-year's best pros (since the level of competition will go up so much each year). JW: Will there be more stock or mod riders in 2010? SM: Mod rules! But, honestly, I think that stock bike will be even more fun to ride in the future, when they become really incredibly light for everyone, and even more customized to trials. I'm going to guess on there being more than half stock riders. JW: How many hours do you ride per week? SM: About 6 hours a week, give or take 2 hours. This doesn't count travelling to riding spots, tying my shoes, fixing my bike, et cetera... I ride alone, for the most part. This really lets me get into my own little world and concentrate on what I want to learn. When I ride, I'm practicing. I'm always trying to learn something new. When I ride, I spend a minimal amount of time resting. I sweat profusely... I guess what I'm saying is that my 6 hours of practice a week is intensive, and every week I look back and see how far I've come. JW: What is the biggest change in ability, eg begginer to sport to expert to pro? SM: Ability in what sense? I'm going to answer a different question: What is the hardest upgrade to go through? Since I am not yet Pro, I shouldn't really comment on the Expert to Pro transition, but since I know what to expect in Pro sections, and have ridden some Pro sections after competitions before, I would have to say that the hardest jump is Sport to Expert. The reason I say this is because of the mental aspect of the upgrade. I remember coming home from a Sport competition at Fontana with my confidence totally shattered. I had not done very well, and had been intimidated by the sections. There were parts where I feared for my safety! I saw what the Experts had to do, and couldn't believe how dangerous it looked! I thought to myself that I would NEVER be able to do Expert sections, and, furthermore, it would be dangerous to attempt to do so! Not being one to give up easily, I started practicing the things that scared me on the very next day, and started to build my confidence back up. This was the turning point for me. Eliminating the anxiety I felt about what I would be expected to do in the future and focusing on what I need to learn now. It was at this point that I became truly focused on competition skills and began to become more confident. JW: Any closing statment? SM: Hey, where's your @BikeTrials.com e-mail address!? :-) 2000 Stephen Maeder |
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