Motorcycle or Cycle trials, Heath Brindley does it all.
I started riding when i was 6 on a cut down nsu quickly moped.. this
was followed by a 25cc montesa cota and all sorts of Ossa's, Bultaco's
and tl125 honda's. Then SWM, fantic, 250rtl mono Honda, GasGas etc etc..
i try to forget the 350 Italjet, it was that bad!! One day i will sit
down with my dad and try to list all the bikes..!
In between this i went to Agri college in Plumpton for 2 years and also
spent 2 years living in Australia.
I rode as a schoolboy in the Eastbourne club and later the GEST club..
i think i won 6 or more club championships... will have to find the trophies
in the loft! I also won the inters nktc in 94' ish by winning every round
and then top 5 finished in the experts first time out... i then had a
year of just the odd club trial riding and sold all the bikes to move
to Somerset. 7 years later i rode a trial again and got 5th in experts...
but i stress, this is southern trials.. no rocks.
I reckon i am riding better now than i ever have, and because of the cycle
trials i am having a go at more technical and bigger stuff. I think also
because i only play these days... i am doing it just for the enjoyment
and to challenge myself. In the 4 trials i have ridden in 2 years i have
had mixed feelings... 3 i have enjoyed even though 2 of them resulted
in ripped apart rear tyres. I won the expert class in another, which was
a really friendly club trial with a bbq at lunch... i won a bottle of
wine in the raffle as well!! The last was in the midlands... living in
weston super mare you get pissed off with Brummies ... and one observer
decided to use the no-stop rules on a section that you had to hop on...
the no-stop rules were responsible for me giving up in 1996... and he
5'd me 3 times when i cleaned the section. Now i know it was a club trial
and didn't matter but it really pissed me off... showing me why i don't
bother with events too much.
I used to crave competition, and believed i could beat everyone before
i turned up... it went that deep! But it got to the point that i wasn't
enjoying the riding, just the result. And then they took the enjoyment
of trick riding away from me as well!!!!!! I wasn't that good at it but
it was a new challenge and i used to hop about like a demented Kangaroo.
If i could i would give more details but when i moved and couldn't afford
a bike i tried not to think or have anything to do with it, so the remaining
trophies went into the loft and i didn't get a tmx for 6 years... still
bugger all in it!!
One thing i do remember... in 1986 organised a trials school with John Lampkin... he had won a world round recently and was the star of the time along with Steve Saunders (who i now get bits for my bike from in BVM's). When i was organising it with him he quoted me a price plus b&b expenses... i asked where he wanted to stay, and mentioned we had a spare room and he said "that'll do!". He turned up in his Fantic sign-written van, with new works 301 mono and we went down the woods. In this wood, in Northiam, there is a 6 foot rock step which at the time was huge... for us southern softies!! After seeing him go up and down it in first gear he convinced me to have a go... i tried 3rd!! 2 big crashes later and it was time for a bit of teaching. He stood at the top and asked "how many times are you going to be asked to run over the foot of a world round winner... now do it in 2nd!" and put his foot at the top of the step. I ran over his foot first go!! ... the next day was the trials school and we didn't mention to anyone that we had been down there.. after a few hours we went to the step and everyone thought he was joking when John pointed up it and said that was the next lesson.. he then volunteered me to demonstrate, i made out that there was no chance etc etc but got on the bike and made my way to the step. Using the preload the legs and clutch technique he had taught me the day before i cleaned it first time... and instant hero! I don't know whether i have ever let on to most the riders on that day that i had spent 2 hours doing it the day before!!!
