USA Trials

It is with heavy heart that I report our friend, "Colonel" Mark Hogan has passed away. Plonker's past president will be remembered as a very entertaining, outgoing, inspiring, & fun loving guy who we always looked forward to spending time with both on trials weekends as well as fast bike weekends. Believe it or not, Colonel joined and rode with Team Full Monty on many dual sport rides and he kept right up with "our pack" as we blasted past the rest of the riders both on fire roads as well as single track in places like Kennedy Meadows, Big Bear and the Mojave Desert. Most of you might remember Colonel as the 'exessively large' man riding around the Californi…

Any one go to the exhibit?

Our local state run OHV park has seperate motorcycle and 4wd areas (CA) The park officials and 4wd groups have agreed to allow trials bikes in the 4wd area but do not want the MXers in there. The difficult part is how to designate the area for 4wd and trials only. Enforcement could be a major issue. Does anything like this exist elsewhere? How is it handled? (So far, Trials specific tires seem to be the best choice.)

U.S. National Riders: You still have time to fill out and send back the 2005 Rider poll. 1997 was last time we had a 50% turn out, 2004 we had a poor 35% return. I have received 74 forms returned so far. (about 31%) Even if you rode only a few Nationals your feed back is wanted, take a few minutes and fill it out, and of cource mail it. Comments will be read by the Delegates at the NATC Meeting. Thank You Jim Watson NATC Rider Poll. ps. I want to apoligise to the Canadian riders for not putting the right postage on the S.A.S.E. ( I was at the post office mailing them when I realized it would not work) I will do something different next year.

Reading some of the replies to the US national dates story on the front page. Firstly Craig, just posted next years dates he didn't arrange them, so a topic on this forum would be a better place to voice your opinions. Very few events, mostly east side of the country, no events in school vacation, events held on back to back weekends are some of the comments posted. To be fair to the NATC they can't organize a friendly series if no clubs volunteer to host events, also those that have volunteered like Arizona, can only do events at certain times of the year. I think the questions should be why are clubs no longer wanting to host events, I have done many and to tell th…

In case you havn't seen it the 06 WTC:USGP at the TTC website is up at www.trialsusgp.com. They have some cool stuff along with limited onsite TTC camping reservations and event tickets available online. Also, some pretty cool e-vites to use to spread the word to others about the event by email.

Does anyone know the status of the 2008 Montesa's in the US. When or are the going to be available?

This was brought up at out club meeting last night. The topic was! can/should the club try and purchase some land. One way a club can generate a good income, is host a US national, in the 90's our club did host quite a few nationals and the club bank account did grow, being involved in many of those event's, I stated setting out the trial wasn't the hard part, in fact it was fun, weekend days spent clearing trails and sections with other club members, night round the camp fire with a good supply of food and beer. The big downer always came the weekend of the event, trying to get people to observe or work in some other capacity, some who said they would turn up, but did…

From the front page of NATC site " We lowered the entry fees to $75 for riders, $40 for minders. Late fees are $100 on Friday before weekend events and $150 for day of event for riders. Minder late fees are $50. The refund period is extended to two weeks after the event." Correct me if I'm wrong, if a riders arrives at Omaha Friday the 29th and enters for the events on the 30th and 31st, the entry fee is $100 ?. AND " We adopted a twin shock class that will ride the support line" What are the rules on bike requirments, Age of machine, air cooled, twin shock, drum brake ?.

Hey Cope or any others in the area, I have a very good friend who left CA yesterday to tow a trailer and car out to Florida. I woke up this morning to see his distressed email wherein his truck caught fire about 100 miles east of El Paso. He got the fire out, tried to call AAA but had no Cell service, no one stopped for four hours until another rig pulls up ON FIRE! The owner of the rig lives 30 miles away from there so I'm hoping they got to his place. I'm trying to get in touch with him now. If any of you are in the area or can offer some assistance it would be greatly appreciated. My friend was very down on life before the trip and he's heading out to the east co…

There has been a question if 250cc four strokes should be allowed to compete agaisnt 125cc two strokes in a US 125 Trials Championship? Similar to what we see in American Moto-cross competition where 250cc 4 strokes can compete in the 125 moto cross class! I suppose that the FIM has to be consulted on that question! Can a 250cc four stroke trials bike compete in the 125cc world trials championship? If they can then it only makes sense that in a US 125cc championship that we also allow bigger four strokes in the contest the championship. If it's not allowed by the FIM then we need to follow their lead and conform with international standards.

Craig, hope this renews your faith in the Beave! The arguments against an American 125cc National Championship seems to be two fold and very weak. First that HRC/Montesa does not have a bike, so we can't have an American 125cc Championship without them. Hey, Honda could build a bike faster than anyone if they really wanted too. Then somebody may cheat is the other agument I've read. My reposne would be, do the Europeans cheat in the 125cc class? We have not heard any complaints from the European Championship or 125cc World Championship about building bigger bikes and sneaking them into the 125cc championships. My view is simply, anyone who cheats is only cheating them…

The bikes are tough enough, same running gear and all! They WILL go if you have the guts to pull the trigger! It is still to be seen if the 125 will come up short in some cases, but the pilots are aggressive! (and young)! I happen to agree totally that the 125 is the perfect tool for younger riders, but there are differences in the limited brands available, and the Sherco seems to be the Top of the Lot, power wise and in stock trim! The Gassers will go, but do not seem to have the torque off the bottom, and the Beta's in stock trim work well, but ? For that level of competition may take some mods! Will we see any 4T's in the 125's? In competition? I seen the Italians …

Compare the scores! The US Expert class was soundly beaten by the 125cc world championship riders. I knew it was going to be interesting having our Experts ride against the 125cc World riders and the US Pro class riding against Laia Sanz. It was the first time we could really compare head to head where our US riders stand against the rest of the world. Now we know we have some solid work to do! Where we need to make changes and its the proper time to do it.

For all of you who were afraid to ride today at 128th and Dynamite, you missed a great time. First it rained, and then it snowed. Photo 1 Photo 2

As seen elsewhere on the net. http://www.amadirectlink.com/legisltn/rapidresponse.asp As clipped............................ State Legislation Would Make It Illegal for Anyone under the Age of 14 to Operate an ATV, Dirtbike or Snowmobile Joint Committee on Transportation rewrites restrictive bill -- still bans youth riding Senate bill 2735, which is a rewrite of House bill 3592 by the Joint Committee on Transportation, would make it illegal for anyone under the age of 14 to operate an ATV, off-highway motorcycle or snowmobile. It would also limit operators under the age of 16 to dirtbikes, ATVs and snow machines with 90cc or less of engine dis…

I collected a historic scrapbook (actually it's going into 2 now) for our club (NEOTT) and got old photos, banners, flyers etc from the old members and made copies for the book. I happened to run into this results sheet from the 1974 Oklahoma National and thought some of you "older" Trials riders (like me) might get a kick out of it. It brought back some good memories for me. Jon Crud, the first one was unreadable, I'll re-size it:

Let's see if this post well: It's the roster of the 1975 Oklahoma Turkey Creek National and includes the support class. Jon

http://davestestsandarticles.weebly.com/uploads/4/8/4/5/4845046/dbike_nov76_worldtrial_us_round.pdf

He was doing well up to a couple of years ago riding the Senior Class.....what ever happened to him?