What next for Michael Brown?
By John Dickinson on 6th Jul 16
BRITISH trials champion as recently as 2013, Gas Gas UK rider Michael Brown is currently at something of a crossroads in his two-wheeled career.
Having recently called time on his Trial World Championship ambitions, the legacy of his crash in the 2015 Japanese TrialGP, Michael finds himself staring into a hypothetical crystal ball.
That crash in Japan saw Scarborough born and bred Browny suffer a badly smashed kneecap which effectively kept him off a bike for the rest of the year.
After being brought back to England the knee was operated on and the leg was kept absolutely immobile for six weeks, after which began a slow, painful and laborious recovery period.
It was a very dispiriting experience for the slightly-built, easy-going lad, variously nicknamed Mighty Atom or Pune (if you are his more sturdily-built pal and Minder, Shaughan Galway!) and the comeback hasn't exactly gone to plan.
In a nut shell, the knee does not give Michael full movement and he admits that maybe it never will again.
He says it doesn't trouble or pain him but that he has lost all confidence in it when it comes to the big, big, World Championship type sections.
Michael knew this after the opening 2016 TWC round in Spain but was already committed to the second round, back at Motegi in Japan – where the injury had been incurred. All credit to Michael for travelling to face his demon but there was no fairytale in the land of the Rising Sun and a pair of poor results, that in no way reflect his skill, simply confirmed to Michael that the World Championships were over for him.
So what is the future for Michael Brown?
He is still only 28 years old. On the trials front he has won virtually every Championship and major event in Great Britain.
As a Youth, despite that slight build, he worked his way through all the titles, D, C, B and A and then followed a long period of jousting with his biggest rival and pal James Dabill.
Dibs usually just had the edge as they battled toe-to-toe and dab-for-dab but Michael finally bagged his full British Championship title in 2013, having won the Scott the previous year.
Michael approached the Scottish Six Days in May this year after having announced his retirement from the World scene and was already pondering his future.
But sponsor and pal John Shirt Jr told him to just forget about that for the week, treat it as a holiday and go out and enjoy riding his bike.
And that is what he did, spending the week riding round with Jr and fellow GGUK team member Alexz Wigg, the trio having a great time. The result was a fine second place overall for Michael behind a fully-charged Dougie Lampkin.
It was certainly a good result for both Gas Gas and Michael but didn't really do much towards resolving his long-term plans.
The problem is, Michael isn't big on the ‘Clubman' National scene, many of the events not really being his cup of tea. He said: "I haven't ridden too many Nationals really, not like say Dan Thorpe, they are good trials in their own way but not really for me.
"I suppose the trials I like best are SuperTrials like the North Berks Bonanza and the recent Scarborough event at Low North Park.
"I like the bigger sections which is why I liked World Championships and the Indoors. I enjoyed my years doing the Indoor rounds even though they can be brutal.”
One idea that he has been thinking about is a switch to enduros. As we talked, during a visit to John Shirt's Gas Gas UK HQ in Buxton, John Jr, took up the story.
"I know what Michael is thinking, but I've been there and done that. He isn't big enough or strong enough to challenge for the Hard Enduros and he isn't fast enough for standard time card enduros as they are all about the motocross special test.
"Where Michael could do really well is in hare and hounds type events where you just have to keep going for two, three or four hours.
"If you can win the Scott Trial, which Michael has, you can do hare and hounds. I think he could maybe mix British trials and hare and hound events. We'll have to see what happens.”
Junior sportingly lent Michael a brand new 2017 model Gas Gas EC machine for a fun ride hare and hounds event at his local Low North Park venue recently.
First time out he finished fifth in the Experts which is pretty good isn't it? But when you learn that the riders in front of him included Graham Jarvis and Johnny Walker, the two top Hard Enduro riders in the world, it suddenly doesn't look too shabby at all!
Most recently he had only his second run out on the EC300 in the WOR Events brand new Tough 100, staged near Wrexham, and he finished a promising ninth overall, another good result given his total lack of experiemce.
But as this piece was written Browny was back on his GG trials bike getting ready for the West of England club's British Championship Trial in deepest Devon.
Michael has been – and still is – one of Britain's top trials riders but having had a taste of what it could be like, maybe it is time to follow the likes of Graham Jarvis, Johnny Walker and co on the other side of the off-road fence...
