Trials and tribulations with Karen Ramsay

This entry is part 14 of 18 in the series Adventure Rider Issue #18

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Karen Ramsay and some friends take the toughest skills test of all.

It always starts innocently enough – friends having a joke with each other…a bit of harmless teasing, maybe.Then you start to egg each other on. Daring each other. Before you know it you’re not only agreeing to something way outside your comfort zone and ability, but you’re upping the ante way beyond common sense.

And so, there I sat at the computer, having paid for not just a beginners’ riding course, but a trials-riding course. And not just a trials-riding course, but a five-hour one.

Suddenly the pack mentality and risktaking behaviour of teenage boys (and middle-aged adventure riders) made sense. The only saving graces were:
• It was a ladies-only course, and
• I was doing it with two completely wonderful friends and riders, Meg (aka Liladv) and Lianni.

Start up

I knew very little about trials riding other than the bikes don’t have seats…that and I’d had a couple of people recently tell me how good trials riding was for improving riding skills in general.

My biggest concern before the day was how we would actually get going on the bikes. No matter how I looked at it, I couldn’t figure it out. Did you put a foot on, give a few hops then throw your leg over? Did someone hold you like a kid with training wheels? Do you start in some sort of holder?

Be prepared

As we’d booked months in advance there was plenty of time to get fit before the course. We all agreed five hours of standing up on a bike was going to require some degree of stamina. Lianni embarked on a gruelling routine of daily hikes with a 15kg backpack. Actually she was training for an upcoming trek, but it was ideal training for the course, too. Meg and I each managed a session of squats a couple of days before.

At her place she gave me coffee in a mug with the quote, “You can’t fatten a pig on market day”.

Hmm.

Who you know

We found out there was another lady doing the course with us. Rachel turned out to be an amazing pocket-rocket who’d
ridden in various places around the world.

We were already in awe of her for driving some six or seven hours that morning to get there, and even more awestruck when she turned around after the course and drove home again.

It wasn’t long before her naughty sense of humour shone through and we were all laughing and encouraging each other.

As it turned out, she was a lady I’d spoken to a number of times on social media.

It truly is a small world.

Curses!

I rediscovered how small the world was recently.

We fuelled up at the general store at Drake and were telling the owner we’d met a friend of theirs. She disappeared inside as we moved the bikes, then reappeared with the very same friend.

On that same day Dave suggested we go up Sugarbag Road – a road that, a few years ago, filled me with fear and highlighted my poor riding skills. Subsequently I met a lady who lives along that road who said she ‘puts a curse on all those awful bike riders’ that come past her place.

Anyhow, when Dave came up with this idea, I told him I wouldn’t ride there and then ashamedly told him why not (somehow I thought saying I wouldn’t ride because of a curse seemed less embarrassing than saying I was scared of the road… go figure). While we were standing around chatting, who should turn up at the shop but the same woman! I had to share the story with her and she said we were welcome to ride along there and please drop in for a cuppa.

Environmental impact

The trials course turned out to be fun and well-paced for us trials newbies.

Initial concerns that it was all taking place on the side of a hill soon faded as we concentrated on learning as much as we could. Although none of us will be called up for the Australian Trials des Nations team any time soon, we all came away with achievements (and one good bruise to prove it was a big fall – good work, Meg).

Each of us found some strengths: Rachel’s was embarrassing the instructor and climbing rocks, Lianni’s was wheelies and log jumps and Meg excelled at perseverance and figure eights. Mine was riding in a straight line along boards.

Each of us developed some skills and awareness that we will be able to use in our everyday riding.

As we rarely get to ride with other women, we also really appreciated the opportunity to share our experiences and take part in some training in a girls-only environment. I was delighted that I was able, on some level, to do all the activities. Now that I’ve done it, I don’t know how I couldn’t work out how to get on a trials bike.

What I’ve learned

• Sometimes the hardest thing to overcome is your own fear
• Stupid decisions aren’t dependent on gender or age
• I now know how to get started on a trials bike
• Embarrassment is all a matter of perspective
• When you push yourself, you often find your limits are a lot higher than you thought

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