Hello

We are often asked our story! Trials is such a unique sport, and all good shops have some history that's worth a read. Ours is slightly different! And here it is...

The Roots

Motorsport has always been in our blood. My Grandfather Ted was a keen motorcyclist. Working briefly as a motorcycle dispatch rider for the Coldstream Guards during WW2. I would later go on to serve in the same building as Ted in London some 70 years later with the Irish Guards. Ted's son/my Dad Mike was even more keen, and entered the world of off road. Mike enjoyed several years of on and off road motorcycling despite a horrific injury when colliding with an unlit skip in Birmingham in the 70's. This changed Mike's life, and he has suffered with the injuries from that day ever since. As a keen motorcycle mechanic, and with his disability, Mike found himself in a career in the mobility industry.

After working for several companies, Mike and his wife Karen decided to open up their own mobility shop in Droitwich Spa in 1999. While business was slow at first, things did progressively improve and within a few years, the shop was well established in the local area.

One of Mike's other hobbies was jetskiing. After passing a lake and seeing some people enjoying the sport, Mike popped in, hired a ski for half an hour and was hooked. In 1999, Mike purchased his own Yamaha GP760 for him and the family. While my brother shown little interest, I absolutely loved it.

One thing this particular ski had was a dashboard with a digital stopwatch. After previously just using the ski recreationally, Mike challenged me to a race using this stopwatch, purely for fun. After getting fast times, Mike then encouraged me to begin racing. The youngest you could start by the rules was 14 and I was 13 at the time. Mike purchased me a more competitive ski, a Yamaha Waveblaster 800, and I spent the winter practicing until I was old enough to compete.

It was an amazing time, and has brought in some of the best memories I've ever had. I joined the Irish Guards as a 17 year old in 2003, and served until 2008. While the racing was more difficult while serving, by the time I hung up my helmet in 2012, I'd won 6 British Championships.

I was also keen on motocross, and then enduro. While never been very great at it, I really had fun. I left the mx scene and concentrated more on enduro. Eventually winning a club championship in 2018. I also competed in several British championship events, timecard events and my favourite, the British extreme events. While not particularly good at extreme events, I had good results as the pure survival aspect of it really appealed to me.

After leaving the army in 2008, I drove articulated lorries for 3 years. In 2011 my parents decided to retire, and passed the shop onto me and my wife Caz. In 2008 our daughter Kayleigh was born. In 2012, Jack was born.

I've never thought of myself as a businessman. If asked, Id see myself as a soldier. This is pretty common amongst ex soldiers. It's difficult to let go of the mindset. Id also see myself as a racer. It's quite funny that as i'd sit in the shop, surrounded by mobility aids I personally didn't need, I felt like two things I was no longer! I've always enjoyed having an aim, a goal, something to work for that I found important. My problem was the shop was well established and well setup by my parents. The customers came, by word of mouth. But it's one of the most unpredictable trades going, and a busy day or week can be followed by days or weeks of silence. I needed to find something else.

I kept seeing OSET's! It was like someone was trying to tell me something, but I kept missing the signs. As I think back, there were always kids on them in the pits at mx/enduro. Id see them at motorcycle shows. Id see demo areas at Stonleigh for the dirt bike show. It wasn't until a visit with my brother Baz to the motogp at silverstone in 2014 where I really paid attention. We got there early and had a good walk round, rather than just finding our seats. We watched the demo bikes for quite some time, impressed by what these bikes & the kids were doing.

In early 2015, I broke my wrist practicing enduro. I sat at home that evening, feeling a bit fed up, I was sat on the laptop at home, surfing aimlessly. I suddenly thought, maybe we could sell these Oset's? Initially, it sounded silly. I'd only had a trials bike myself for a few months, and wasn't very good on it either! But tech-wise, it's no different to some of the products we were already selling. I can fix them, I ride off-road, this all seems like it could work!

I spoke to OSET via email. Simon Armstrong then called me, and I explained things to him. I'm very fortunate that he had the time for me, he listened and decided that the company would give us an account. We just had enough money in our own bank for 4 bikes.

They arrived a few days later. Building them with a broken wrist was an absolute nightmare. Caz helped out and by 9pm Friday night, we had them built and a little display made up.

The very next morning a customer called wanting a 20.0 eco! He arrived, paid and took the bike. We couldn't believe it! This is going to be massive! However, the next bike didn't sell for months!

We also got an account with Electric Motion. My idea now was to be able to sell an electric trials bike to all ages.

Sometimes in life, several things all happen to combine and make something brilliant happen. I planned to run the UK's first ever electric only bike day. I emailed Steve Ireland, from WOR Events this huge document about this plan I had. WOR events ran several popular enduro competitions and practice days, mainly around North Wales where they were based. With Steve's experience, we made plans and set a date. I asked OSET to attend, but they were busy in the USA and with other events. However they kindly lent me an easy up, some banners and some other bits. The event run at the famous Nantmawr Quarry. Other businesses were there and it was just fantastic. We took the entire range of OSET bikes, an Electric Motion EM 5.7 Sport and as much bits as we could. This put us on the map with several people, but most importantly with Ian & Louise Smith and the staff at OSET bikes.

We were invited to help out at the Moto GP at Silverstone in 2015. This was especially nice as we attended the year before as I said, and were stood the other side of the fence! We also first met the Smiths for the first time, who thanked us for running the above-mentioned event. Kayleigh, aged 7 was just starting to ride on an OSET 20R. She got to ride in the demo arena and we all got to see the real level of youth trials there. Louise made sure I worked hard at this event! And made sure I did my bit. Over the years, Louise especially is someone I have really looked up to, and who I'd trust 200% with anything she says to us.

I had this ambition of becoming the best OSET dealer in the UK. Deep down, did I really think this was possible? Our base was a mobility shop in Droitwich. I had no intention of getting any finance. We had to build the stock up bit by bit. We didn't earn any profit from the bike sales until 2020. Everything went back in, it had to! Somehow, it worked. I think the way we are used to treating customers on the mobility side, with sensitivity and understanding, just worked with trials customers.

Between the years of 2015 and 2023, we managed to sell almost 600 OSET bikes, both new and used. We became the 2nd best seller in the UK, and never out of the top 5. Sadly the profit only came when covid came in 2020. The supply problems worldwide affected OSET badly. For this reason, all our stock was sold and not replaced.

As time went on, Jack got more into riding the bikes. Jack has owned every OSET from a 12.5 up to 24.0. He raced in a local MX series on an MX-10 and finished 3rd against KTM's. He's rode the British Trials Championships on an OSET 24.0 and come 3rd, too. Jack doesn't love one thing, he loves everything a little bit. Always smiling and always playing. While he loves trials competitions these days, he doesn't have much patience for practice, and is quite happy doing his own thing. Kayleigh, meanwhile managed to win a British Girls Championship round on an OSET 24.0 in 2020. Eventually transferring to petrol, she became British Champion in B class in 2023. Her latest result is 2nd in A Class in 2024. It has been an amazing journey. I ride myself too, at a very average level. The Jetskiis and enduro bikes have gone, and the helmet is open-faced these days!

Louise Smith encouraged us to run OSET cups almost from the first time we met. While I kept looking at the idea, I never got further than thinking about it. I put the idea to a local club, Bewdley Motorcyclce Club (acu) and went to a meeting with them. I did a presentation in a pub to all the members about my idea to run an OSET cup championship. A great bunch of guys, and they were happy to help. Covid then hit, and the whole thing was cancelled. Later that year, I spoken to Leamington Victory Mcc, who said we could use their venue for 3 rounds in 2021. We did just that, and we run a great series solely for youth on electric trials motorcycles. We had 54 rides at round 1! More than a lot of clubs in this area get for club trials. It blew us away, and gave us another thing to work at. North Berks Mcc hosted us for round 4. And for 2022, we started our own club with the AMCA. Initially Droitwich Youth Trials Club, and now Droitwich Trials Club. We have hosted a heap of events already, touring the midlands area. Other than the youth championship, we have run evening trials open to all and an adult series with up to 70 riders attending.

Triumph motorcycles purchased OSET bikes in 2022. This was great news for OSET and secured the future of the company.

One September day, I received a message inviting me and other dealers to Triumph to unveil the new machines. I went along and had a great day. I saw the new OSET bikes and we had a tour of the factory.

It became apparent that things are now to be more formal. The days of one family business dealing with a another had gone. But Triumph inspired me to try and become more professional. I had to apply for a new account, and sadly this is where the story pretty much ends.

Our business premises here has many good things going for it. Motorway? 5 minutes away. Parking? Right at the door. Clean tidy showroom? Yes! Knowledge of the youth side of the sport? Yes! Run events? Yes! Repairs? Yes! Although you would most expect to buy a trials bike from a trials bike specific shop, our setup worked, proven by the sales, the reputation we had gained and the work we put in. What this shop doesn't have is its existence on a high street. Despite my best efforts, customers to the newsagents next door will drop rubbish. It's not 'posh'. What it is, is a working class area. The area this shop is in, is the same areas that the customers have grown up & live in. And despite the bikes not saying Triumph on them, Triumph themselves, after viewing only on google street view, decided our premises wasn't good enough.

This has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to accept. To me, OSET wasn't just selling bikes to people. It had become my reason for coming into work. I wanted to learn everything about them, about the people buying them, the kids using them. I wanted to do competitions for those same people to ride. I wanted to fix things on the spot, almost with my eyes closed. If you have got this far, you will realize that I have always kept myself busy and focused, and OSET was my 'thing'. When I announced this on social media in December 2023, a couple of people called me 'Mr Oset'. I don't think I could have been given a higher compliment for my work. I had over 100 messages from customers and other businesses, and even OSET themselves, which I am eternaly grateful for.

I spent some time wanting to give up from a business point of view. However, I decided to see if we could push on with another brand. TRS motorcycles make a 20" electric bike, and a 16" too. These are some serious bits of kit. Not only that, but they do an 80cc, a 125, 250, 280 and 300's. Could we work with them? The way a lot of kids go through trials is they start on electric, and work their way up to petrol machines. We would be doing the same. It felt like 'growth' again.

Fortunately for us, Steve Saunders the UK importer was very understanding, much like Simon from OSET was all those years ago. I explained to Steve what we are, what we have done and what we want to do, and he welcomed us.

The current setup of the business today is we are TRS motorcycles through and through. We are going through the same phase we went with OSET, starting in 2015, and having to build. We all have TRS motorcycles ourselves. We are learning what we can, and we will rebuild. We also sell Revvi bikes, and we are still the number 1 repair shop for OSET bikes and take on repairs from people all around the UK. We still supply parts, too.

Our Trials Club still remains, without any support of OSET which has been tough. Luckily we have sponsors from Central Scanning, Woodrobes and 'My Local Electrician' which have helped us carry on running events.

From a grandfather who rode bikes, a father who rode off road, a small mobility business, a jetski racer and solider, to MK Off Road. It's amazing how the building blocks of life have built the business.

This is our past. Who knows what the future will hold...