It is all about ascending natural or artificial obstacles using the bicycle, trying not to rely on anything else but the wheels.

There are stories of a whole sport that cannot be understood without one specific person. And in the Trialsin there’s a key name: Pere Pi, sixties motocross and trial star, in fact several times world champion, who also worked for several years in production for the motorcycle company Montesa.   

In an unusual combination of talent, curiosity, knowledge, coincidence, and entrepreneurial skills, Pere found one day something that happens to most parents: his son Ot wanted to be like him, an obstacle jumper with a metal machine. But, obviously, the little one could not have a motorbike, and he wanted a bicycle as well. And there weren't trial bicycles on the market, so Pere decided to build it. The first model was the T-05 for his son; but soon the T-10 arrived for everybody: the bike specifically for trial had been born, at the end of the 70s, and we can say that the current Bike Trial bicycles are only an evolution of that one.

Once the company Montesa were convinced the project had a future, the trial bicycles were manufactured in series (the T-15 was especially celebrated), and championships began. The first person to draw up regulations, similar to the motor trial ones but with pedal machines in mind, was Pere Pi himself who, not happy with that, tried to federate the sport, then called Trialsin. The UCI also made the sport official internationally, four years later, and in 1986 the first World Championship was held, in which Belgium-born Daniel Crosset was the winner.

Besides, it was Pi himself who was in control of the material side of the business, as Montesa stopped making the new human driven machines and expert Pere decided to found the brand Monty and manufacture them himself, until today. Pere has been the key person in promoting this sport, as well as the numerous world titles (more than ten) picked up by his own son Ot.      

The split
According to some sources, the appearance of the Bike Trial happened simultaneously in Spain and the USA, more or less, because there is evidence that while the Trialsin thrived in Catalonia, at the same time bicycle trials were being organised in some parts of the American country. Slowly, these two parallel worlds were broadening spheres and getting in touch with one another, beyond the international tournaments: in 1987 Ot Pi spent a few weeks on the other side of the Atlantic, giving exhibitions that are still remembered, and putting these two spheres in touch with one another. This global tendency has spread, as even in Italdori (Japan), where Bike Trial is the king sport, there is a museum dedicated to Ot.

But the break up, which has happened to other sports too, was no exception for the Trialsin. Federated within the International Cycling Union (UCI), many opinions from within the industry felt that Trialsin was looking like the ugly duckling of the organisation, which was dedicating immense resources into other categories of cycling. This is why at the end of 1991, a federation exclusive to this speciality emerged. It was called Biketrial International Union (BIU) and was based in Japan.

The reality is that this division, with or without motives, somehow weakened the sport. And even though a great number of their practisers participate in both circuits, UCI and BIU, the truth is that the regulations for both have small differences and that there are even parallel World Championships, although some riders have managed to succeed in both. Without going into who is more right, the unification of both federations would be a fantastic push for this sensational and anti-gravitational sport.