When the Motorcycling New Zealand (MNZ) role of Trials Commissioner came up, Bevan George jumped at the opportunity to give something back to the sport that has given him so much in his own life.
Bevan George, the new Motorcycling New Zealand Trials Commissioner, in his element on his 2004 GasGas 250 TXT Pro. Photo: Darren Stanley
“Essentially no one else was wanting to do it,” George laughs. “I’m someone who takes action to do things – I want to see the sport grow because it’s been absolutely awesome for me.”
George said he wanted to see other people benefit from the sport into the future.
“I want to change things around because, like a lot of sports at the moment, we’ve got a reducing and ageing demographic,” he shares. “I don’t know what our average age is, but it’s probably closer to about 55 or 60. So, we need to encourage new people in the door.”
Bevan George. Photo: MNZ
George lives in Edgecumbe and had just turned 40. He learnt to ride trials at high school thanks to his “problem child” brother.
“I’m the oldest of three boys and my middle brother, Warwick, he was the problem child of our family, if mum and dad tell me correctly,” George laughs. “They wanted to get him into something, and it happened to be trials bike riding. So, dad and him started off and then probably a year or so later, I saw some videos and thought ‘yeah, I can do that. That doesn’t look so hard’.”
George was 15 at the time and soon fell in love with trials.
“It’s a great sport,” he adds. “I’m not one of these die-hard fanatics though that goes to every single round and competes hardcore, but it’s a really good outlet for me. Trials is an absolutely brilliant sport – the best form of motorsport around, I reckon. Plus, it’s a foundational part of all motorcycle sport – it’s all about control and confidence.”
All riders, from road racers to motocrossers could benefit from learning trials skills George said.
“You just learn so much about how to control the bike,” he explains. “You have your control and confidence, and the other one is your body position. And what makes a good rider compared to a not so good rider is how they move their body. Trials riding hones all those foundational skills.”
Trials bikes, which are still mostly 2-strokes, weigh 60-70kg and throwing one around is no easy feat.
“I consider myself pretty fit, but when you have to really ride a section, you come away absolutely buggered,” offers George who came into trials from a competitive mountain biking background. “Mountain biking led straight into trials; they were complimentary sports. More balance and putting power on at the right stage, and control.”
One of George’s first tasks was to set up a leadership group for moto trials, which has nearly been completed.
“We’ve come up with the concept and everyone’s happy with it,” he adds. “We’ve got about 90% of the places filled. We’ve just got to fill the last remaining places.”
Part one of his plan is to reduce the load on the commissioner to encourage more people to put their name forward for commissioner in future years. But he said it was also about sharing knowledge, and creating communal knowledge across all the clubs.
“I’d like to grow the hell out of the sport – that’s what really excites me,” George admits. “We’ve got a real good chance now to change the trajectory of trials. If we do nothing, well it’s just going to keep going how it’s going and that’s not good. I’d like to think in the next five to 10 years we can change the trajectory and have 200-300 percent more riders than what we have now. I think that’s achievable.”
The leadership group is tasked with creating a “road map” to achieve this. That will be bringing ideas into play and implementing new strategies.
“We do heaps of events at the moment, so it is not necessarily the events, but I think it’s getting people to come along to events,” George said. “At the moment, trials is held out in the wops on random people’s farms. We don’t necessarily do very good advertising to the local community. We have started developing some brochures and getting in contact with people, and then developing a focal point at these events.”
The team is developing brochures for the clubs to share. The brochures have information about the sport, and contact details to help newcomers start their own journey in trials. They are also looking at revamping the Trials New Zealand website and invigorating the social media accounts for the sport.
“We aim to do better at getting a broader spectrum of rider abilities, because some of the stuff the crazy top riders are doing – a lot of people would see them and go, ‘Geez, I couldn’t do that. I’m not even going to even try’,” George explains. “So, it’s important to also show that you don’t start at that level. And that’s the brilliant thing with trials. You don’t just go in at a crazy level. You work from literally the ground up of learning to ride your bike and just following the pathway and you slowly build up from there.”
“The brilliant thing with trials is that there are so many levels, and you’re just doing what you can do. If you’re not comfortable with something, well, it’s quite easy you don’t do it. Or you ride it down a grade or something for that section.”
Bevan George said trials riding is a foundational sport that can benefit every other discipline of motorcycle racing. Photo: MNZ/Bevan George
George would love to see a dedicated space for trials – even if “we have to consolidate and start by creating one for the North Island, and one for the South Island”.
“Most of our motorcycle clubs have dedicated motocross tracks,” George considers. “Are we able to bring in some concrete rubble, rideable sculptures, containers or stuff we can use as obstacles and make sections, not so much within, but on the same property as the motocross tracks? That would be awesome.”
George and his team also hope to develop a fleet of bikes that can be used to help introduce new riders to the sport.
“Imagine if your motocross guys could come off their bikes, borrow one of these for the day or something like that and experience it?” George asks. “Then they can go further or they can hand them back at the end of the day and learn from that experience.”
George admitted that they had a lot of great ideas and a lot to discuss and work through.
“That’s all part of my grand plan with the structure – essentially that’s one massive working group,” he shares. “I’ve got some ideas, but I don’t want to provide all the solutions. I want it to come from other people to get their buy-in and everything like that. We want to get everyone’s buy-in and want everyone on the same page and just try to grow the hell out of the sport.”
In the meantime, George can be found feathering the clutch and massaging the brakes on his 2004 GasGas 250 TXT Pro.
“It’s an older one,” he laughs. “But this bike’s reliable – it has been the rider letting the bike down most of the time, if I’m honest. Until that goes the other way, I won’t upgrade.”
