Rock climbing bikes

Coming back from my weekend walk I came down through Shipley Glen. As I paused to enjoy an ice-cream from the van that is nearly always parked there, I noticed there was some kind of event taking place. I went over to investigate and discovered it was a bike trials. I couldn't figure out quite what was going on, but there were several young lads on cycles (special ones with quite small wheels... and no seat!). They were doing what I can only describe as rock climbing on their bikes... leaping from rock to rock, jumping up onto rocks and all sorts of other fearless manoeuvres. It looked as though they needed an incredible amount of strength in their legs and a keen sense of balance and ability to twist and turn the bike in mid-air. Quite amazing. The pictures don't really do it justice actually. It was a bit like watching youngsters skate-boarding, except that instead of a board they had a bike and instead of an artificial park they were using the rocks on the edge of the moor. I was told that each bike costs around £2000 - not a cheap hobby, then!

There doesn't seem to be much on the internet about trials riding but I did find this site.