Want the best Winter riding tip? Head South! We gathered a few riders together and went to the Trials Training Center in Sequatchie, TN to get some warm weather riding in. Slippery leaves and mud made for some tough sections, but a wet weekend in Tennessee beats riding in the snow any day!
Pat Smage, Aaron Thistle, Sam Fastle, Whitney Fastle, and Mitch Littlefield all had fun here at TTC last weekend. Watch this 5-minute video of their antics:
If you like this, then come out and ride! $20 a day for motorcycles, $10 a day for mountain bikes.
Pat Smage and Marc Freixa traded wins for the second-straight weekend during rounds three and four of the 2016 SWM US National Championship MotoTrials Series held at the Trials Training Center in Sequatchie, Tennessee.
Smage (Team RYP/Zip Express/Dunlop/Maxima/Sherco) kicked off the weekend by winning a nail-biter over Freixa on Saturday. Due to the threat of rain, the organizers set the sections on the easy side in anticipation of slippery terrain and when the rains didn’t come the result was a trial that saw the top two contenders, Smage and Freixa, finish all three laps with clean scores, although, Freixa was given a five point penalty when his minder moved a rock in section 10, which is against the rules. Smage would have won the event anyway had it not been for Freixa’s penalty, since in a tie situation the win goes to the rider who finishes the event with the fastest time, and the Sherco rider finished the 12-section, three-lap course 16 minutes quicker than Freixa.
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Freixa (US Montesa/Honda) was fired up and came back with a vengeance on Sunday, taking just one point on each of his first two laps, both coming on the difficult seventh section. The former number three in the world then cleaned the entire last lap, which included a perfect ride on the difficult seventh section… Freixa’s total score of two gave him the overall win for Sunday and put him in a two-way tie with Smage in the series points standings.
The 2016 SWM US National Championship MotoTrials Series kicked off in Ocala, Florida this weekend where eight-time and defending US Champ Pat Smage (Team RYP/Zip Express/Dunlop/Maxima/Sherco) and former number three in the world, Spaniard Marc Freixa (US Montesa), split wins over the course of the two-day event.
Freixa is a welcomed addition to the American series, and in addition to competing in the championship he is also here to help develop American talent for Honda/Montesa. The 37-year-old retired from the world championship series five years ago to work on new tires with companies like TreadHunter.com and hasn’t ridden in competition until this weekend, so he came into the Florida event as somewhat of a dark horse. However, Smage had a good idea of what Freixa was capable of.
The series continues with Rounds 3 & 4 next weekend (May 28-29) here at the TTC with the with the help of our Southeastern Trials Riders Association (STRA) friends. Details in this TTC blog post.
They got accepted. The Smage Bros Riding Shows AGT page has this background text (containing one large error, which I’ve corrected and highlighted in bold):
Phil and Pat Smage are The Smage Bros., two motorcycle-riding brothers from a farm in Elkhorn, Wisconsin. This riding duo developed their love of motorcycles from their parents, who first met at a racetrack. Growing up, the brothers were taught by their parents how to ride. Finding they had both similar talents and a love for performing, the two formed the trick-riding group, The Smage Bros.
Phil and Pat began performing their act at local motorcycle shops, races and fairs during the spring and summer. The other part of the year found them competing in action sports competitions, including motocross, snowboarding and snowskating, with one following the sunand the other chasing the snow.
Their pursuits brought them a great deal of success. In 2007, Pat realized his dream of becoming the youngest National Endurocross MotoTrial Champion in the history of the sport. He went on to win the National Championship three additional times. Phil, who spent his free time traveling towards the snow, collected three national championships in snowskating at the Winter X Games. Even though the brothers were pulled to opposing climates, one thing always brought them back together: their love for entertaining people on motorcycles.
Here’s a video of their first appearance on AGT in New York in June.
Here’s the video of their performance in Las Vegas:
Here’s the video of their performance in Hollywood:
Here’s the video of the judges’ decision in Hollywood, moving them to the semi-finals:
Patrick Smage collected his fourth national title in five years and along with it claimed the prestigious Geoff Aaron Achievement Award with a 1-1-2 performance at the final three rounds of the 2011 AMA/NATC National MotoTrials Series held at the Trials Training Center, in Sequatchie, Tennessee, topping defending champ Cody Webb to do so.
See Brian Behling’s posts on the NATC MotoTrial blog:
I had more fun on this trip than I have had going to Europe in the past. But, to be perfectly honest, that isn’t saying much. Between the extremely long flights, down time between events, the different culture, not speaking the language, and pretty much everything else, I just do not enjoy it as much as I really wished I could…
Pat Smage was clean both days of Round 2 of Junior World Trials Championship in Portugal this weekend. On Saturday (FIM press release on Trials Central), he finished 2nd due to a tie-breaker on time; on Sunday, he took first by 6 points, his first-ever win at the Junior World level. He now leads the series by one point over Spain’s Alfredo Gomez. The series resumes in Japan in early June.
Three-time AMA National Trials Champion and occasional TTC instructor Pat Smage is in Europe this month, competing in the Junior World Trials Championship.
In the opening round last weekend in Spain, Patrick took 6th. Portugal is next weekend. Ryan Young (RYP/ShercoUSA) is with Smage as his “manager, mechanic and minder.”
The U.S. Trial des Nations men’s team of Cody Webb, Will Ibsen, Keith Wineland and Pat Smage finished 5th this past weekend in Darfo Boario Terme, Italy. This is the best finish ever for a U.S. team since we joined the ‘A’ class in 2006.
The women’s team of Caroline Allen and Sarah Duke finished 8th. Louise Forsley was unable to compete for reasons that are not yet clear.
I had more fun on this trip than I have had going to Europe in the past. But, to be perfectly honest, that isn’t saying much. Between the extremely long flights, down time between events, the different culture, not speaking the language, and pretty much everything else, I just do not enjoy it as much as I really wished I could…
