Sections & Flags

Section severity, route choices and flags
(Flags used are explained here – NB there are usually 2 Middle routes, see below)

Note; When starting out, all riders are classed as ‘Novices’ by the ACU and the vast majority will remain so throughout their Trials career. Riders experiencing success at Centre Trial level (i.e. winning or being well placed) will be classified, on a yearly basis, as ‘Intermediate’ or ‘Expert’ for the very best.
Refer to ACU handbook to see how a rider can be classified as such quick look here
The term ‘Clubman’ in trials does not have a specific definition but includes a broad spectrum of competent riders who are neither beginners at one end nor Experts competing at top level at the other, covering the majority swathe of experienced Novice riders. For the purpose of defining eligibility for Yorkshire Centre and Clubman Trials (see below) this also includes older (over 45) Intermediates and even Experts.

HORSFORTH CLUB SERIES TRIALS (the main Trial only; Kids Conducted info can be found Here ).

These are steady trials ideal for beginners to competent Novices therefore a route referred to as say ‘Clubman A’ will be significantly easier than the ‘Clubman A’ route on a Yorkshire Centre Championship trial.
They are run on the ‘Stop Allowed’ observing rules so a stop does not constitute a fail (5)

In order to cater for a wide spread of riders’ ability there will be 3 courses plus a 50/50 option resulting in a total of 4 Routes. Riders catered for range from Beginners (but capable of controlling the bike safely) on the easiest Route through to good Novice riders on the Hardest Route

Starting with the Hardest,
Route 1, Hard. Only suitable for our better Novice riders, (Any Experts and Inters should expect to remain close to clean) but much easier than the Championship (Hardest) route on a Yorkshire Centre Championship trial.
Follow Red and Blue flags, Red on the right.

Route 2, ‘Clubman A’ the harder of 2 ‘Middle’ Routes, for competent Novice Clubmen. A sign at the start of the section will indicate whether Clubman A riders will ride the Hard Route, if no sign they ride the Clubman B route (see below)
Where they ride the Hard route, those 50% of the Hard sections will be less severe than the others that only the hard course riders tackle.
Where Clubman A ride Clubman B route, those sections will inevitably be easier for the Clubman A riders

Route 3, Clubman B, for less competent novices but who are beyond the beginner stage.
Follow ALL Red and Blue flags and also All White/Yellow alternative ‘gates’ where present (white on the right)
50% of the sections (the ones which Clubman A also ride) will be slightly harder than the other 50% which ONLY the Clubman B ride. This route is still ‘steady away’ in terms of severity

Route 4, Clubman C or Easy.
Apart from the Red and Blue start and end gates, Easy course riders ignore all other flags and just follow the green flags (the flag on the right has a white spot on it). This course is beginner friendly (see ‘How Hard…’ below) and therefore suitable for our most senior riders

Riders must only ride through the gates (flags) designated for their specific route (except of course where other routes share the same gates )

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YORKSHIRE CENTRE CHAMPIONSHIP trials have different routes and rules but we run just one, the BASIC in March at Blubberhouses.
The section severity on this and other Yorkshire Centre Trials is significantly harder than our other trials.

The routes are designated;-
Championship, (Exp, Int, Nov, Youth A),
Clubman A route (Exp O45, Int O45, Nov, Youth B) and
Clubman B route (Nov & Youth C).
The middle route, Clubman A, is a 50/50 (or 60/40 or whatever) using either the harder Champs or easier Clubman B routes as indicated at the start of each section (ride ‘hard’ where it says so otherwise ride the easy)
This trial is No-Stop, unlike most of our other trials which are Stop Allowed.

**New for 2025** YORKSHIRE CLUBMAN CHAMPIONSHIP
(this replaces the old West Yorkshire Centre trials)

The Horsforth event is the Barrie Fairburn Trial on 11^th may 2025

As per Centre rules, Yorkshire Clubman Championship events will have the following

routes and are open to the following classes: –

Clubman A: Classes: – Clubman, Youth; A & B.
Clubman B: Classes: – Clubman, P65, Twin Shock, Air cooled mono, Youth A, B and C
(Severity still to be specified – observing rules are No-stop)

Experts & Intermediates aged 45 and over may enter and elect to ride Clubman’s ‘A’ route, however, when so doing they shall be classified as a Clubman ‘A’ and shall be eligible for Clubman ‘A’ Championship points.
Experts and Intermediates under 45 can elect to ride on a non-competitive basis.

Riders may also choose to ride out of class on a no points basis.

The severity of the 2 routes will be the same as the Horsforth Club Series Clubman A & B so this is an opportunity  for our middling club riders to enter a Yorkshire Centre Trial and earn points for the Yorkshire Centre Clubman Championship

There is an (optional) Small Wheels/Conducted Championship at these events – Classes C, D and E, stop allowed

Our other trials; Rebbecca Hoare usually in April/May and Bob Owen in November
These use the same routes as our Club Series Trials with the exception that the sections on the Hardest route which are ONLY ridden by riders choosing the Hard Course (as opposed to Clubman A) will be more challenging to suit better riders who come to ride these trials.

HOW HARD ARE THE SECTIONS ? – This is for the main courses, the kids conducted courses are a different bag of beans as you would expect.

If you’ve only just started riding, it’s likely that the only suitable course is the Easy on our Club trials

Firstly there is a minimum skill requirement before anyone can ride a Trial and that is that they can exercise basic control of the bike! An absolute beginner who has never ridden a bike before will be a danger to themselves, property and other people so here’s what you need to be able to do;-

Full lock, feet up, figure of 8 turns; if you can do this then you should have the basics of clutch, throttle and brake control, steering and balance. (Make sure you practise using both brakes). The beauty of this exercise is you can do it in a back garden or driveway. You will also need to be confident of riding up a 30 degree slope (1 in 3) on mud or slippy grass and more importantly riding back down under control (luckily we have Swaine Woods to practice that) and there will always be rocks to deal with so you will need to be able to get up a rounded or sloping step of about spindle height or an upright step or rock a bit lower, say 6-8″.

The Easy course will not contain any tight turns, big steps, drop offs or long, steep climbs or descents (unless there’s a big run off at the bottom!). Generally speaking the Easy course will tend to run either; round the outside of the other routes, on grassy banks etc, so that the turns are wider; or (say in a stream section) the Easy may well run straight up the middle with the other routes being made harder by criss crossing. Every section, easy or otherwise, is intended to be cleanable by the average rider we expect will choose to ride that particular route – but that doesn’t mean everyone will clean it every time!

As an example of how easy the Easy route is, we would expect that a competent rider (i.e. NOT a beginner) should, after just a quick look at the section, ride the bike round clean just using bottom gear and probably without the need to feather the clutch or even brake, because there are no tight turns etc, the route is easy to follow and needs little more than throttle and steering inputs. That’s what we aim for when we mark it out. Try it!

The next route, the easier Middle route or Clubman B, is intended to encourage riders up from the Easy course as soon as possible. These routes are suitable for riders who have got beyond the beginners stage but might still struggle a bit negotiating rocky ground feet up or finding grip in slippery conditions and generally feel they are still having trouble keeping feet on pegs! Alternatively they are ideal for reasonably competent riders who have been riding for a while but who prefer not to tackle any bigger or trickier stuff or be falling off too often – typically our senior members.

Pre 65 bikes or twin shocks will have no trouble on the Easy course or the Clubman B
The harder Middle or Clubman A route is a 50/50 where the riders tackle either the easier Clubman B routes OR more challenging Hard routes according to the sign at the start of the section. A decent rider could tackle this on a twin shock or even a Pre 65

The Hard route will have sections that are cleanable by say the top 30% of novices in the club but are a bit more testing than the middle courses. We aim not to put a turn in that requires a hop of the front or back wheel to get round (but it might be tight!) although better riders may choose to do just that to make it easier to set themselves up for the next obstacle. We will try not to put any drop-offs in that require the front wheel to be lifted to avoid going over the bars! (ie you should simply be able to let the bike roll down for instance into a stream bed or off a slab).

So the Hard route on our Club trials will typically be ridden by the better novices and those who are striving to improve their riding. Inters and Experts should be expecting to keep a clean sheet – but all it takes is a slippery ascent or a jumble of small rocks to take dabs and even a five, so concentration will be needed.

We always try to make sections as interesting as we can for each category of rider. Things we try to avoid are;- anything that’s dangerous, anything that’s boring (there’s not much ‘Trial’ in a straight ride through flat ground from beginning to end flags) and anything which might prove to be a ‘stopper’ like a climb that becomes so slippy no one can get up it.

So that’s the theory – sometimes we get it right, but not always.

Trials at Addingham Moorside and to a lesser extent Deer Park can end up taking more points than anticipated, it’s a bit more physical dealing with rocks especially with sections coming up in quick succession so it takes its toll if you’re not fit.

The other main reason for trials ending up harder than anticipated is rain falling or an overnight frost between marking out and riding. This can have a big effect on severity at places like Stump Cross and Greenhow in particular (Greenhow having the worlds slipperiest grass when wet).

How do we tell if we have set the courses right?
Subjectively – you, the riders will tell us.
Objectively, every section should be cleanable by the better riders in each category so theoretically there could be some zero scores at the end of the trial but in practice that doesn’t happen too often. Everyone has a slack dab or takes the odd flag out on the day. What we try to avoid is having too many retirements at the other end of the table (as a result of the sections being too tough – we can’t stop bikes breaking, having punctures or riders being frightened off in the rain).
Achieving this on all the routes in all the trials with such a wide spread of rider ability is sometimes a bit tricky what with overnight rain, frost and never quite knowing how the sections will hold up after they have been ridden for 4 laps or so.

COMPLAINTS PROCEDURE For all the theory of how to get the severity of sections right we suffer from the failings of being human so the only thing that is guaranteed is that it won’t work out exactly as planned. If we produce a bummer that ends up like a game of dominoes (all 5’s and 3’s for our younger members who have probably never played dominoes) please feel free to let us know. The cost of hearing each complaint is one pint of the appropriate currency in the local hostelry.

Toni on top of the world 2013 ish