“The learning curve is insanely steep. For the first six years, I couldn’t do the basic of stunts but then suddenly one day it clicked. It’s only in the last two years that I’ve been able to do anything interesting.”
“What’s the hardest thing to learn about it?”
“It took me ages to understand that the centre of gravity is way back here, not centered above, where you would think it would be.”


It was a gloriously sunny day and I didn’t have to walk far to encounter my subject today.

Matt was performing various stunts outside the main library, and when I approached he was being told off by someone about blocking the disabled access route. In fairness, he wasn’t blocking the route or creating any form of barrier, and kept an eye out for passing public so I think he was being slightly mistreated. Anyway, I didn’t join in the debate as I asked him for a picture and requested he carry on doing what he was doing :)

I took various shots of him, jumping across from one side to the other, but I’m not much of a sports photographer and most came out of focus, but I liked this one of him, preparing himself, almost like riding a unicycle.

I asked Matt about how long he had been doing trial biking, and why I saw so little of it now (I used to see people doing it all the time a while back). He suggested the sport had a big surge in people taking it up when it was popular but had declined into only those who were very keen on it. Plus the steep learning curve meant that people with little patience wouldn’t take it further. The bikes themselves seemed a barrier also, with a less than modest starting price of around 1k. Matt made the point:

“Convincing your parents to buy you a bike without a seat, no back brakes and a hefty price tag is not an easy sell!”

He pointed me towards a site he uses for competitions and events, but I came across this video which shows the world champion doing some amazing things so I’ll leave you with that.


Humans of Leeds