Below is a reprint from a post by Todo-Trial
Todo trial which notes the retirement of TrialGP rider Toby Martyn and reflects on the reasons for it and the future of the sport.
It’s certainly ironic that Toby, who vehemently protested his injury in Arteixo in 2023 in an area without a support rider and championed this role as essential in trials, now finds himself expelled from the sport for not being able to afford the support rider whose role he defended as absolutely necessary. Such are the ironies of fate.
But beyond the anecdotal nature of this particular situation, its implications are much broader. Once again, the trials world finds itself struggling to manage the increasingly meager financial resources generated and received by the sport. Trials is generating less revenue and income. Fewer motorcycles are being sold, and therefore there are fewer payrolls: fewer sales directors, fewer sports directors, fewer chief design engineers, fewer administrative assistants, fewer HR directors… and fewer riders… and fewer support staff. This is the reality that, year after year, is gradually and inexorably becoming more pronounced.
Trial has distanced itself from the public and is now a mere spectacle of extraordinary and highly skilled professional riders who, although there are fewer and fewer of them and they earn less money, continue to do increasingly difficult things.
In 2023, the FIM made one last attempt to steer the sport in a new direction by marking certain sections without backpackers and maintaining the nonstop format, even though it’s likely not the preferred rule for any of the 12 or 13 TrialGP riders. However, abandoning the plan to gradually phase out backpackers and this year’s decision to forgo nonstop makes me think the FIM has definitively given up. They believe this situation is irreversible (which may objectively be true) and that all that’s left is to keep pushing forward and hope for the best. They’ve thrown in the towel. There are no tickets, hardly any spectators, and therefore no sponsors looking to advertise to this almost nonexistent audience.
The FIM is definitely going to limit itself to making money from the TrialGP and X-Trial broadcasts (I’d like to know what their annual revenue is from those… probably at the level of a very modest, provincial SME). The regulations and rules meant to try and redirect this sport are, in my opinion, a thing of the past. The FIM has spent 11 years, since the implementation of the Nonstop format, announcing imminent major changes that never materialized. Only after 10 years did they try to partially eliminate the role of the support rider… what a 10 years of hard work to save trials! They should have done more, even at the risk of making mistakes. The inaction has been deplorable.
Trial brands can no longer compete for the best riders. They can’t afford them. The best riders are paid by non-trial companies: Honda, Sherco, and KTM, with revenues that don’t come from trials. That’s why Bou is and always will be with Honda, and why TRRS hasn’t been able to pay Raga’s fees, which are financed with external money that Sherco obtains outside of trials. Similarly, Busto is paid with money that doesn’t come from the Trial Grand Prix but from its owner, KTM (money from MX, SX, MotoGP, Enduro, and Rallies). These brands buy titles with money they don’t generate in the sport. They operate in “dumping” mode from an accounting perspective. They artificially maintain loss-making divisions using funds from other divisions. Obviously, someone who focuses solely on trials can’t do this. They have no way to “subsidize” the commercial and industrial side of trials because there are no other divisions.
Honda’s Trial world titles are being bought with money from other production lines.
Further proof of the decline and complete lack of interest in Trial is the fact that this article won’t generate any opinions or discussion among fans. Nobody cares anymore. Nobody’s going to comment anymore… not even on this, the most important Trial website in the world (Yes, Todotrial is the most important Trial website in the world, including English-language sites like the legendary Trials Central forum in the UK). The fan, like the FIM, has already resigned themselves to it. Resigned and even vanished… perhaps they’ve already moved on to tennis, padel, mountain biking, or road cycling
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OK so to catch up on our regular stuff – answer to the last quiz was Roger DeCoster on a Bultaco Alpina – Harlow got it
-Funny story about an Alpina – back in the early 70’s, Ron Mallett the Calgary club Prez- decided to buy one and the following weekend had it out at Mclean Creek where we were all gathered for a Trial – Ron suggested I try it out- as I was a Bultaco rider – and this I did finally zipping up the hill onto the campsite and pulling a big wheelie !! unfortunately whoever put the bike together, had not tightened the throttle properly, and the whole unit came off in my hand !!! the next pic was not pretty!!! but luckily no damage to bike or rider.
Quiz today – who is this rider? and where is the section?
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We had a nice phone call with Jamie McGregor who caught us up on all the Ontario news plus gave us a report on his new TRS Gold complete with injector and estart. – here is one of the pics he sent us from back in the day. riding in Scotland.
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