The best thing about this game is the great realistic physics it can give you. Trials only fronts you with minimal controls (lean back/front, brake, accelerate), but doing the right actions at the right time can allow you to maneuver that bike through tough spots in a track. I've rounded up some tips on how to ride some of the tricky ramps and such in trials, based on my experiences and discoveries (as you would see, i've played a lot already). I'm trying to add some advanced moves that the Training track doesn't offer. I'll add on more as they come along. If you have a tip, feel free to share.

Before anything else, I'll be describing the ride guides through screenshots and text descriptions only, since that's the only way i can explain it. If i can show some animated samples, it would be great. But for now, I'll do my best to describe everything in detail, just so as you can relate and understand. If you know of a free program that can record a video of the game, probably just a video of what's going on on the desktop, that would probably work.

**UPDATE**
Ok, I now have something that would allow me to record a video. I've named it Jump Demo #1. I would obviously be coming up with more, since the video isn't that big, so I would still do at least one more before my webspace fills up. You need DivX though. Enjoy.

Tip #1 - The log of death.

This is a part of a track from Trials PRO. This is the last jump on the first stage, second track. Or should i say, the Snowman mountain. If you can see, that log is very steep. Eventhough it's not that high, but as i said, it is VERY STEEP. I guarantee you won't jump this from within your first 5 tries. Think you're a god in the basic Trials game? Here's a wall of log for you. Ok, why show this as the first tip? who do you think i am, a PRO rider you ask? I've set Tip #1 as a challenge for you, some sort of a goal. In the basic trackset, you don't see such steep jumps. if you do, it's not really a part of the track. just a pit. But in this case, you HAVE to jump this. You can't run the previous jump and go over it. No way. Impossible as it may seem, I've jumped this three times now (as of a few minutes ago). The first one was just lucky. The second one, lucky, but I kinda got an idea on how to do it. Third one, a lucky try using the idea i got from the second one. So it's probably around 3 out of 100 tries. I really don't know why they put this jump early in the game.

Tip #2 - Moving horizontally while jumping vertically

WTH did i just say? Yes, moving horizontally while jumping vertically. In Trials PRO, a lot of jumps are steep so going over them is quite hard (since you're moving straight up? get it?). In the basic trackset, you don't really need this skill. But if you play PRO, you'll know. Anyway, I just learned about this skill in PRO. I've been doing it with my custom tracks without me noticing it. When you're jumping a ramp that leaves you jumping vertically, I'm sure you're in the most leaned forward position. Once your two wheels leave the ramp, lean back about a quarter way, close to the middle stand position. This slight leaning back action pushes your front wheel forward, which in turn also causes the whole bike to move to the right. You can keep holding the lean forward key but that will only make you start flipping forward while still maintaining that steep projectile motion so it doesn't help. In the screenshot, you need to go over that steep ramp. So as you leave the ramp, lean back (as much as how my rider looks like) and hold that position, or any position not going past the middle standing position. Any further back and you start pulling your bike back and you flip backwards.

Tip #3 - The Tiring Twosome

This is a familiar jump isn't it? It doesn't look that hard. But when you get into the position as my rider is now, it's kinda hard to get out. Try accellerating and you won't go anywhere. The trick here is to go back on top of the lower tire and do the jump again. If you keep accellerating, you'll notice that it kinda tracks on the higher tire but not enough to push you up. So keep accellerating until you go bouncing up and down. Then start leaning forward until your rear wheel goes up as high up on the lower tire. Be careful, if you do this too much, you'll end up flipping forward and you hit your face on the higher tire. So if you get the rear wheel to reach a high point in the lower tire, and your bike starts to go horizontal, start leaning back to make your front wheel touch the lower tire. Now press brake and lean back to run in reverse. Since the lower tire isn't steep enough, you can back up as far as back the ramp.

Tip #4 - The Jump Program

This is one of the jumps in PRO that I know you would find interesting. A down ramp, a pit, and an upramp. Naturally, you will run forward in the direction of the downramp, which is down. You can't jump through these ramps either since the previous ramp only fires you up enough to barely reach the upramp. In other words, you will go straight into the pit. So land on the downramp and brake, and try to hold a firm position. Depending on the bike you use, you can only stay on there for a few seconds so you need to jump it before you fall. To start, lean forward. In a quick succession, lean back then accelerate after a fraction of a second. The quick leaning back and the sudden accelleration will lift you and push you forward. When you're about halfway the distance between the two ramps, start leaning forward again to keep you from flipping back and to push your bike forward, turning your bike in an angle similar to the upramp. You want to have both wheels touch the ramp at the same time, but if you can't, make sure you touch your rear wheel first so you can accelerate and push yourself to the right.

Fun stuff #1 - The "Quarter Pipe" flip ramp

If you got bored of trying to get a low score, or better yet a 0, you can probably play with your rider on some parts of the track just like this particular ramp. This is one of my favorite stunt ramps. What you can do here is to jump it and then do a back flip and try to land on the ramp again, as if you're riding a half pipe. Try to do the most flips you can without crashing. I think i did 4 at most. You can also to front flips but you end up (or down) the floor. Landing while flipping forward at a great speed is harder since your bike's fork suspension tends to break easily. Another thing to try, jump that ramp, try to fall down the floor but do the most back flips as you can while in the air. Eventually, your rider will fall off the bike. It's kinda funny seeing him flip off the bike and shoot down somwhere hard. BUMP! "that hurts..." Like duh Mr. announcer! The announcer sounds like Milton don't you think?

Tip #5 - Geronimo-ing the track

This is one of the reasons why i loved the green bike in Trials Basic. Since the green bike is the most powerful bike before PRO came out, you can basically go through tracks without even running the ramps. In this case, just start on that log ramp on a nice full forward lean. Let yourself slide down a bit but start accelerating to keep you from falling. Once you're settled, just hit the accelerate button and let yourself fly. No need to lean back and forth to control the bike. You will stay at that angle up until you reach the ground. Don't worry about that piece of wood sticking up. You will just barely slip past it. Now if you really accelerated well, you will fly up and over that length of track and land perfectly past the finish line, low enough to pass through that invisible flying wall. Invisible flying wall? You know when you try to reach the finish line but you're too high that you crash out of the screen and you get 1 point? Invisible flying wall.

Tip #6 - The Raised Woody

Is that a bike between your legs, or you're just happy to see me? To some or most of you who are just starting out playing Trials, and running the basic trackset, this part here is one of the most frustrating ramps there is. It's not that steep, not that high of a little obstruction, but it really bumps you back, making your bike vertical and harder to go past the logs. Plus, that slit between the two logs stops you from getting a good start. You can move yourself past that slit and try starting from there, but you would just end up jumping up, not going anywhere, maybe until you hit that right angle that you somehow jumped your bike far enough to run yourself out of that part. The most probably way (for me anyway) of going past that place is to start at that first log ramp, where my rider is now. Just like in Geronimo-ing the track, place yourself in a leaned forward position and then hit it. Your horizontal momentum will push you forward, over that small log. Now since you're leaned forward, your front wheel's suspension won't push you up enough for you to flip back. Just don't keep leaning forward that you push yourself down and make your rear wheels lift and lose traction.

Tip #7 - Ice Climber

Ah snowman mountain. Looks like fun. Well, not until you reach this part of the climb. The fourth bump, or the bump before that burnt marshmallow looking bump, is the hardest part of the climb. If your style in climbing the first three bumps is starting off with your bike vertical and leaning on the snow, then accelerating up, then the fourth bump won't be that easy. The base of that bump isn't as smooth as the base of the first three. So starting off with your bike up leaned against the snow then accelerating will cause your rear wheel to bump hard on the edge, making you fly backwards, if not lift you up vertically and wiggle your front wheel around. You will naturally try to lean forward to keep yourself from flipping back, but then that will just move your rear wheel back off the ledge. It's frustrating to be up there trying to move up further only to fall back down the floor. What you need to do is to keep your bike at an angle between 45 and 80 degrees (90 being completely vertical). That way, you have both wheels near the snow, or better yet, your front wheel has enough room to keep you from flipping back while the rear wheel pushes you forward. So basically, you're gonna climb this snow mountain on a wheelie. Yes, a wheelie. I don't know, but that's how i do it. If your front wheel goes down, it will push you back and you fall off the ledge. If this happens, keep accelerating so you won't fall. If you're accelerating and you're not going anywhere, this is where a little front wheel lifting will help. While accelerating, lean forward then back a bit to pull your front wheel up. Not too much, but just enough for you to be pushed foward and you kick the rear wheel towards the snow to get traction. Leaning forward too much will cause your rear wheel to lift again and you'll fall back. Once you're on that burnt marshmallow, you're fine. Just go ahead and go past that snowman with the silly smile so you'll respawn on it when you crash.

Fun stuff #2 - It's stupid, but it's funny

Ok now this is a result of a hard landing while leaning forward. Your bike stopped so much that it forced the rider to keep going forward, that it snapped off the normal position. In this case, I was high enough not to hit the stone and cause a crash. If you lean back, you'll move down and hit the ground. I tried to run the rest of this track but I hit my crotch on the rock. It was funny since my rider fell down the floor on a fetal position.

Here's another funny situation. This was after doing a flip and breaking my forks. I can actually run around like this since the wheels kept the rider from hitting the ground. I just crashed when I tried a jump.

Jump Demo #1

Here's a little demo of doing a little quick jump. This is about similar to the jump in Tip #4, but this is a farther jump. Click on the picture to see the video :)

Here's a sample 0-score run from BalefireX (click me!). Pretty impresive. (sorry, link is dead).

That's all for now. I'll add as I go along. If you have a tip, or a different approach to the samples I've shown, feel free to send them to me and I will post them.

J K's log of death jump (click me!). He makes it looks so easy. Here's his tip for it:

"The way I do it is to first get my front wheel on the log and lean forward all the way, then give a bit of gas so that my rear wheel is just touching the log as well. Once both wheels are touching perfectly, give gas while leaning forward just the right amount so that the rear wheel doesn't come off the log. I have found that you can even go slow for the first bit before you really give it. With this techinique I have even had so much power going over the log that I have cleared the next obstacle."

I have a different method but it requires precise timing on the leaning motion. It's effective but it's hard to master. I guess starting on the logs are much easier.