page 16 2013 Tommi Ahvala Feature Interview
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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We know that everyone played these mind games. What would work for our benefit was our language, only 5 million people know it and no one on the trials circuit knew it. So when we were there we could talk about anything we wanted and just mentioned a competitors name like “James” or whoever, just to give them a hint that we were talking about them. We might not have been talking about them at all. It made them really mad and maybe because we were laughing at some part, they didn’t know. It worked pretty good.
Do you like the no stop? No, I prefer to stop, I hate no stop. I know how to do it and I try to do it when I can but as a rule I hate it. You like to be lined up bang on? Yeah, I think also for the commercial and spectator’s side, trials is the only motorcycle sport where the rider is able to stop and go backwards on a motorcycle and also when you make a mistake you put your front wheel in a hole you can take it back and still correct your mistake and keep going. Well if you take this point away now it turns into boring enduro, very slow speed enduro from the spectator point of view. If you’re a trials boy you can see the fitness of no stop but if your someone the most impressive thing is if someone can balance and stay there without putting their foot down and even going backwards on a bike and that’s why I think it would be really nice if we were allowed to go backwards in trials. |
I’ve never seen anything that has created so much excitement as someone going backwards over a little rock and revving the bike up getting ready for the big step. All that is taken away with the no stop. It just gets the crowd going when you see the tension building up and the bike and rider are getting ready to go and the noise of the bike. It’s just an unbelievable feeling that you don’t get nowadays. Luckily there are very few spectators anyway so we don’t have that problem ha ha ha ha.
Tommi standing behind his machine with fellow Aprilia rider Oscar Giro. Oscar is now the boss of the competition department at Honda Montesa
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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Jordi was your main competitor. How did you get on with him?
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM Thank you to phototrial.it
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I think we were from different personalities and countries of course. We were rivals too. We didn’t talk socially at all, it was strict competition. We all just thought about ourselves, it was the nature of the sport.
Which of the riders from the circuit did you make friends with? Diego, of course. I went to the US and got kind of disconnected with the whole trials community and did my own business there and didn’t keep in touch that much with European riders. Diego was the only one that very once in a while we would send an email or call each other. Everybody got along with Diego pretty good. He was a fun loving sort of guy. I think this may have been part of the reason why he didn’t win the Championship. He was too nice of a guy and I guess didn’t take sport as seriously as others. There was just that little piece missing there. I guess it all started when we were younger, when I started and we were team mates and I would visit his place and meet his parents and all that so we had a contact going back a long way. Then again he was my rival as well and I was competitive with him. At the event we would both work as individuals. We worked with each other until 91 or 90 I think. Sometimes teams would try to play tricks in order to give them the advantage. We would always have someone with the bike at the start of the section. I don’t know who did it but I know there was some damage done to other riders bikes before but I don’t know who did it. We have our suspicions but couldn’t prove anything. We never let it happen to our bike. |
I remember when I started at Aprilia and was first settling in there Diego’s bike would always get more work on it from the mechanics. If we were testing things then whatever he liked would go and he had the first say. Luckily Diego didn’t care about his bike too much and he could ride anything. You could give him a wheel chair and he would win the race ha ha ha. I was kind of the same way but a little more precise with my bike. It didn’t matter for Diego if they tested for him ha ha ha but I could actually see the difference and I wanted to develop the bike a little more and it pushed and went in my direction where they perhaps saw a future win. As I got better they listened to me more. We had really good mechanics at the team that they did a lot of work for him and both of us. They could see what the problem was.
Was Aprilia a good company to work for?
I would say so. We were treated really good. All of the support was good and we got everything we needed. The bikes were great and really good quality as well. I felt it was the first professional team in trials. Before the trials might have been the team principal and generic mechanics from the factory and most were old riders. Here since Aprilia was a big enough company we had enduro team, road racing team. They had a guy who was responsible for suspension and another guy who was responsible for the engine so it wasn’t “it’s worked for the past 5 years try that “. If you had a problem like the bike didn’t have enough bottom end we could ask professional guys what do we have to do to get more bottom end. We had the technology and knowledge to actually make the changes rather than guessing and saying I think this has worked before, let’s try that. Over all it just made it more professional.
Was Aprilia a good company to work for?
I would say so. We were treated really good. All of the support was good and we got everything we needed. The bikes were great and really good quality as well. I felt it was the first professional team in trials. Before the trials might have been the team principal and generic mechanics from the factory and most were old riders. Here since Aprilia was a big enough company we had enduro team, road racing team. They had a guy who was responsible for suspension and another guy who was responsible for the engine so it wasn’t “it’s worked for the past 5 years try that “. If you had a problem like the bike didn’t have enough bottom end we could ask professional guys what do we have to do to get more bottom end. We had the technology and knowledge to actually make the changes rather than guessing and saying I think this has worked before, let’s try that. Over all it just made it more professional.
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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Was it quite a monied company?
Yes, they were always looking good like that. They were careful with the money but they would spend huge amounts in the right place. I think my trials team manager was pretty good. He managed to pressure management in the company. Diego and I always had the money and everything we needed and the mechanics. They backed us up as they wanted us to win the Championship. I felt as though it was a really professionally run team and professionally run company. Other teams might have worked good to but they didn’t appear as professional. So at the end of 92 you had won and did you think you could get another win under your belt? Yes, I knew I had won so I knew I could do it again but like I say it kind of put a bad taste in my mouth when I didn’t get the new bike I had a chance to get this better bike. It was there waiting at the factory but they didn’t let me to use it, so it was kind of difficult to get motivated and my motivation went down for the first time. Even with all of the problems like this in 93, I still had a good year in 93 and finished 3rd so my level of riding was still good. |
Remember that Jordi was prepared really good for the 93 season and really motivated with his new team so it would have been really hard to beat him. But we could have got 2nd behind him and this might have been easier if I’d had a different mind-set. At the end of 93 Aprilia announced that they were quitting the trials side of the business as they weren’t selling enough bikes. They still wanted me to continue in 94 on the same bike but then I thought that it was way out of date and there is no future if they are not producing a bike anymore so there is no reason for me to stay there really and I started looking for other possibilities.
But they still had a production bike in 94?
Yes, but it was just a small change to the model and it was towards the end of the company’s involvement in trials.
Did they ever give you any feedback after 92 that you’d had an impact on trials bike sales?
No, never, that I remember.
Do you know any more information about why they pulled out of trials?
But they still had a production bike in 94?
Yes, but it was just a small change to the model and it was towards the end of the company’s involvement in trials.
Did they ever give you any feedback after 92 that you’d had an impact on trials bike sales?
No, never, that I remember.
Do you know any more information about why they pulled out of trials?
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Jourko and Tommi change the clutch - Must be siesta for mechanics
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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Ettore Baldini
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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Nepomuk, Czech Republic
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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Jommi and Ettore Baldini
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
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They needed to sell another 500 bikes. When I got in to the company they were still enthusiasts and motorcycle enthusiast running the company but that was just a transformation to the bean counters. People who don’t care about motorcycle and they were just counting numbers. I think they had to sell 500 more bikes and they thought it would be feasible to continue production but of course they were selling that many. Management say they’re pulling out before they loved trials and were all enthusiasts and it supported the image of the company.
Trials being a small sport. If you take out the enthusiasts I don’t think there would be a single factory today making bikes ha ha ha, so they wanted me to continue in 94 on a half private half factory supported team but at this time I had other offers as well, Fantic approached me.
Trials being a small sport. If you take out the enthusiasts I don’t think there would be a single factory today making bikes ha ha ha, so they wanted me to continue in 94 on a half private half factory supported team but at this time I had other offers as well, Fantic approached me.
A great 1988 poster for Fantic showing exactly how the name came about
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
I thought well it might be right to move on and get greater motivation. It was kind of like Jordi in 92. I wanted to prove the point that I could ride really good with this bike and am motivated by the new team and new bike. It wasn’t the best bike in the world but they made it happen.
Do you remember going to the factory to test the bike or did they come to you? How did this happen?
Do you remember going to the factory to test the bike or did they come to you? How did this happen?
The Fantic Factory - 1982
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM
Actually Diego was still a factory rider back then and we practiced together a lot of the time and he let me practise on the Fantic and I rode his bike in secret a couple of times. I was particularly impressed with the bike but it was one option I thought. Its ride able and I can modify this bike to work well.
Tommi Ahvala's heavily modified 1994 Fantic K-roo 249cc
2013 Tommi Ahvala Interview WWW.RETROTRIALS.COM Thank you to Manolo Torralbo