INTERVIEW
U.S. NATIONAL MOTOTRIALS CHAMPION PAT SMAGE
P60
brother, and Phil has been away
most of the time now that he's
working with the Marvel Universe
Production.
"Riding by myself so much
makes it hard to improve," says
Smage. "But it's during those
hard times that I look to the peo-
ple that have supported me for
so long, and I want to keep giving
them the good results they de-
serve. My family, as well as Brad
[Baumert] and Ryan [Young]
at RYP, have done so much for
me; I can't thank them enough.
So, I will keep pushing until I get
pushed out. I didn't get into tri-
als for the money, so there is no
reason to get bummed out on it.
If you can have success compet-
ing and do a lot of shows, there
is some money to be made riding
trials. It won't last forever, but it's
enough to call it a job for a while,
and that's where I'm at now."
Despite the reality that there's
no money in Trials, Smage has
done okay for himself by doing
freestyle shows, following in the
footsteps of Geoff Aaron, who
has hammered out a decent liv-
ing as one of America's great tri-
als riders. And with this year's na-
tional series ending early, Smage
had plenty of time to book shows.
"I was able to switch gears and
