Ballet On Two Wheels

The Age

Wednesday February 6, 2008

Karl Quinn

Every week at Southbank, a small group of cyclists practices their unique craft, aiming for the world stage. Karl Quinn reports.

NATHAN Mummery makes it look easy, but the scars on his legs tell a different story. The 18-year-old has been riding bike trials for two years, and each of the marks on his shins is testament to the steep learning curve he is on if he's to make it to the world championships in Europe in September, as he plans.

"They're from the pedals, mostly," he says, pointing to an array of scars that seem to owe a slight debt to the work of Jackson Pollock. "You have a lot of accidents when you're starting out."

"We've had a fair few broken teeth over the years," adds Kleat Wilson, at 28 the oldest of the small group of riders who've turned up to practice their craft at Southbank the evening The Age catches them in action.

"Some jaws, too."

Every Tuesday night, somewhere between the river and the Eureka tower block, you'll find Mummery, Wilson and a handful of others riding their $3000 bikes, leaping from the ground to the top of bluestone ledges a metre up, from ledge to ledge and along narrow railings. It's an amazing sight.

Bike trials - a pedal-powered variant of mototrials - is all about balance and the transition from stasis to rapid movement to stasis again. In competition, riders move over an obstacle course and lose points for touching their feet to the ground (zero is a perfect score). They compete against the clock and the terrain.

Even in freestyle riding, as this evening, there's something quite balletic about the manoeuvres.

Riders pirouette on a front wheel, or leap from a standing position to a ledge above while making no more than a single rotation of the crankshaft. The riders don't use cleats, so the thrust is all their own, through their arms and chest as much as their legs. The bikes have just one gear, and there's no seat - these craft are made for tricks, not trips. This is an extreme sport built on a dainty blend of strength and finesse. Little wonder, perhaps, there are only 70 or so people riding competitively in the country, and not a whole lot more riding freestyle.

Tonight - helped in no small part by the fact that our photographer has set up lights and is coaxing the riders to display their smartest moves - a fair crowd has gathered to watch. It's not always like this, though. "People are usually muttering under their breath about 'delinquent youth', blah blah blah," says 19-yearold Joe Brewer, who spent last season on the European circuit and finished a creditable 19th in the world for his efforts. "The camera definitely helps."

This year, Brewer is looking to start a tertiary degree. But his sights are firmly set on 2009.

That's when the world championships come to Australia.

By then, Mummery is hoping to be good enough to challenge Brewer and the rest of the field on his 26-incher. Wilson, though, has another tactic. "I'm going to try and compete on the 20-incher," the apprentice plumber says."

There's even fewer people riding them, so I reckon I've got a better chance."

KLEAT WILSON Kleat Wilson has been trials riding for 13 years, but it's only in the past five years or so that he's had the luxury of specialised trials bikes. "Before that, I just used a standard mountain bike and changed all the gear." The most obvious difference between a mountain bike and a trials bike (other than the lack of a seat) is that a trials bike has just one gear and a free-wheeling hub, which allows the rider to pedal backwards in order to maintain the best point of balance. Less obvious, but just as important, is the strength of construction."

I used to go through a frame every six months," Wilson says."

These (trials bikes) are built a lot stronger. They need to be, to take the punishment."

NATHAN MUMMERY Two years ago, Nathan Mummery took up trials bike riding. Not long after, he also took up mototrials (or motorbike trials), a sport at which his Scottish father excelled in the 1980s. Was it inevitable?

"Well, my father stopped riding long before I came along and there were no bikes around the house, so no," Mummery says."

But he really enjoys watching me ride."

JOE BREWER Nineteenyear- old Joe Brewer headed to France in March last year, determined to see if he could cut it on the procircuit.

He had about $1000 to his name - money earned from a part-time job at Safeway and labouring for his builder father - and a part-sponsorship deal with bike manufacturer Koxx. He bunked with world champion Vincent Hermance, and spent six months riding and absorbing as much as he could.

What he learnt from Hermance was less a matter of technique than of dedication."

He just goes at it really hard," Brewer says. He also discovered that bike trials is a tight little world. "There are only about four guys in the world who can really win, and everyone else is competing for fifth place."

Brewer finished 19th, but thinks he can do better. He's about to start an arts degree at Melbourne University, which might play havoc with this year's world championships - they're in Italy in June - but next September's title in Canberra is the one he and everyone else is aiming for. "After that, who knows, but I want to give it my best shot."

ONLINE Vist the theage.com.au for video footage

© 2008 The Age

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