PROLOGUE
When I decided that it would be a good idea to expand the network of blogs, the most important thing was to know what support I could count on. Obviously they had to be people Trial lovers, not necessarily with a high level of riding, but with hours and kilometers behind them of what is most important in Trial: hobby.
They say that moments should not be measured by how long they last, but by intensity. I haven’t known Víctor for too many years, but I have known enough to know the passion for trial that runs through his veins, the endless efforts he has been making for decades to make this sport great and his eagerness to reinvent himself to give more visibility to Trial in Catalonia.
At the end of last year, without going any further, the motorcycle club that he presides, Motocat, He organized the most important solidarity action that this sport has seen throughout its history: a charity Trial to collect Cancer Relief Funds… and at the Circuit de Catalunya facilities no less. The result? An entry of 610 riders and the world record of participants in a Trial competition.
For all this and much more, I think that the opinion of Víctor Martín, better known as “Bonaigua”, is very interesting and constructive for the fans. To conclude, I just want to invite you to actively participate with your comments in this Blog, called “En Primera” and thank Víctor for his selfless collaboration with Trialworld. [LEER MÁS]
Without further ado, I leave you with his presentation, which is not to be missed.
Thank you Victor!
David Quer. Director of Trialworld
A STORY OF PASSION
Very good areas!
David Quer asked me to collaborate with Trial World and I couldn’t say no. I have a short, but intense relationship with him (and his entire family). By the way… A family that deserves my total admiration. With my contributions I will explain everything that has happened to me, is happening and will happen with my fans, the best fans in the world… the TRIAL.
I couldn’t make this first intention of ideas without introducing myself, so, I leave you with my small, but for me, great story.
WHERE IT ALL BEGINS. THE HEIGHT 49
All the blame for this passion for mountain bikes comes from my father who, without being a die-hard fan, instilled in the three brothers a way of being, difficult to explain in two lines.
all started when, around 1967, (I was 6 years old) he bought a Ducati Mini Marcelino with which I would start to take my “first steps” until the chassis broke in a jump. It was then that he decided to change it for a Montesa Cota 49.
Since he was six years older than me, When he turned 18 he bought a Bultaco Sherpa and I also remember how he took me as a “package” to see trials such as Sant Llorenç de Munt or some in which he had participated in Olot, Girona and many other places in Catalonia, until he had to give it up because of a back problem.
The Cota 49 was of little use and my father saw that I took it seriously, so he decided to buy me a Cota 123 second-hand at Motos Isern and as it organized trial and motocross courses/races, you could already see us, father and son, with the R6 and the trailer bike up, bike down. On the same Sunday they organized a trial and then everyone started to race motocross.
In trial there was no color with Marcelino Corchs always winning and in motocross I don’t remember who won but, here a server, I was always in the top three so it was evident that I was better at cross country than trial.
A LOVE AFFAIR WITH ENDURO
Soon came the change of bike. After a lot of insistence and since the colors I liked the most were Bultaco’s, my father decided to buy me a Pursang MK7 125. This was the beginning of the end of my motocross career since The engine couldn’t even handle the training sessions and my father got fed up with motorcycles, mechanics, repairs, my tantrums, The cost of all this and, at the age of 16, when I was already starting to work in the family business, he told me that if I wanted to continue riding a motorcycle, I would have to bear the expenses that it entailed. Because I couldn’t afford it, the races were over.
Around that time my parents bought a little house in Calafat (yes, yes, where the speed circuit is) and that’s where I met my now wife, Mercè. I never left contact with the knobby wheels, because immediately and halfway with it, we bought an Enduro 75 L and, already at the age of 18, an Enduro 250 H6 with which I raced some enduro but the formula of this competition bored me and after doing my military service in the Red Cross of Barcelona (of course in contact with the motorcycles of the Moto Alpina Unit), At the age of 21, I decided to buy what was going to be my “downfall” in the long run: a Trial bike
.
With a Sherpa 199 I did excursions, training and some trials, but when things really started to work was when we moved the business to L’Hospitalet de Llobregat. That’s when, by chance, I met a number of trial riders older than me, who had made trial their life.
They are the ones that encourage me to start more “seriously”, the ones that force me to change bikes. We struck up a very personal friendship, both with them and with their respective wives and we created “La Peña del Cero” which was nothing more than five good friends who shared a desire: to enjoy the mountains doing trials.
All this made me go out of my way in a short time for trial.
THE GLORY YEARS OF MOUNTAIN ACCESS BY MOTORBIKE
After the birth of my only daughter, Marta -who has never wanted to know anything about trial until now, who has fallen in love with a Basque trialist, Asier-, trapped by trial and the mountains, I decided to buy an apartment in the Aran Valley, more specifically in Viella.
It was a glorious 15 years, excursions of all kinds, I did all the peaks, Montarto, Ratera, Forcall, etc… camping in the Puerto de la Bonaigua (do you understand my nik of the internet now?), bathing “in balls” in the lakes at 2000 meters high and where we had accessed with a trial bike, it was an inexplicable pleasure, The two Trial World Championships with Jordi Tarrés at the helm. I could spend hours and hours talking about the Val d’Aran and the trial but I don’t want to bore you either.
The bad times began to arrive for trial and the damned Law of Access to the Natural Environment made, among other things, me rethink the sale of the apartment in Viella and, with tears in my eyes, I put an end to a trial cycle in the Aran Valley.
In the meantime, I had already met the people of Ground Zero and competing in their prestigious Open, where I made new trial friends, I managed to cover up a very big sorrow of which the memory was the only thing that gave me encouragement to continue in this trial. And as you can also live on memories, I decided to collect all or part of the motorcycles that had passed through my hands, entering a vicious circle of buying and collecting motorcycles until today, when I have about 30, and participating in all the classic trials that are within reach.
NOTHING LIKE TRIAL
I have tried all kinds of hobbies, skiing, snowmobiling, jet skiing, water skiing, mountain biking, trail, quad… All related to my three passions, mountain, motorbike and sea, but none of them have been able to replace trial.
Suddenly, my wife (who deserves a monument for her total understanding of this hobby of mine) has her vein ignited and comments… If you love the mountains so much, Why don’t we look at something in La Cerdanya?, is closer to Barcelona and also to Andorra, where the The first edition of the Two Days of Arinsal and which I could not attend due to a recent injury in the Open.
Said and done, and in June 2002 we bought a house in All de Cerdanya, a small village of about 80 inhabitants and that, lo and behold, there were also people who were dedicated to trial.
As the dialogue between trialists is resolved in seconds, it was time to introduce myself and start sharing a series of ideas that would culminate in the organization of the first All Classics Trial.
MOTOCAT
Also with them we came up with the idea of setting up a motorcycle club (MOTOCAT) where we have a place for all the trial friends and where, if our politicians respect us as much as we try to respect the laws, we will capture a lot of trial ideas that we have in mind.
Finally, and I’m done, it’s been more than 35 years dedicated to mountain biking, of which 30 dedicated to trial , so I can speak with propriety but, above all, I think with common sense.
Lots of zeros!
Victor Martin
“Bonaiguá”
