cleanorbust

Get hold of some medical syringes, will do the job nicely for engine/fork oil and mixing fuel. The tip will fit in the narrowest of filler holes and you can measure precisely how much oil you're putting in (gauge on side of syringe and no residue left after you've finished).

Good decision. The B route is only too easy if you clean it! If you're riding through the sections without any bother then just think of it as an exercise in concentration, which will be a very useful part of your skillset in future trials. Good luck, why not post back on here next week to let us all know how it went.

Could be that the extensor muscle of the finger (the one that straightens it) is going into spasm. Rotating the lever clamp on the bars so that the lever is further down from the horizontal position may help a bit.

I believe back in the day Peter Gaunt and the supported riders on Gaunt Suzukis used motors bored out from 118cc to 128cc, using a piston from a Suzuki Super Six (250 twin). This involved a change of bore from 52mm to 54mm, therefore if you can find whether your dad's bike has the 54mm bore then that would tend to show it is the genuine article. Also if it's road registered from 1967/68 then it would probably be one of the originals rather than a later copy. Any chance of putting up a photo?

Could be worthwhile doing a bit of fishing around on www.trialonline.org, which gives individual riders' results going back to the European championships of the 60s.

If the general public are ignorant of trials, then it may be no bad thing. A proportion of the population can be relied upon to view as all as bunch of irresponsible hooligans who are destroying the environment and polluting "their" countryside just because we ride off road on motorcycles. If they realise we're doing so in the woods down the road from their home they would do their best to stop us; the fact that we do so perfectly legally and without offending others would be an irrelevance to some.

Glad to hear you're OK! I agree people bump their heads all the time doing work, DIY etc and usually are able to ignore the results until they wear off. Occasionally though the consequences can be serious. Could be that a more cushioned liner would be worth looking out for when buying a new helmet, and of course it's helpful to be able to try on before buying but as there are relatively few stockists of trials helmets across the country this can be difficult.

Some observations which may be of interest: Any blow to the head which remains painful a day or two later is worth having checked out by a medical practitioner I remember the boss of a well known helmet company saying that what causes serious injury in bike accidents is not so much a hard object hitting your head, it's the brain hitting the inside of the skull when your head comes to a sudden halt (as in the incident described here). A helmet's ability to absorb shock as it should after an accident or the passage of time cannot be determined by a visual inspection. For the cost involved, might as well replace it. The automatic wearing of helmets in trials is (relatively) recent. The major driving force initially harks back to the days when most trials involved road work and helmets became compulsory for road riding in the 1970s. Prior to that almost nobody wore a helmet, a woolly hat or flat 'at was the most anyone bothered with. It may seen strange, but I can't recall a single case of any kind of serious head injury in trials in those days.

betaboy - good idea to take some basic tools with you: allen keys, spanners (for example I like to know I can adjust the chain tension part way through a trial if necessary), spark plug spanner, screwdriver, low pressure tyre gauge and pump, some tie wraps, adhesive tape, spare fuel, and a rag for general wiping up before/after any work you find yourself needing to do on the day. Parts such as handlebars/levers/gear lever if you have them (in case of needing to replace them after an unplanned get-off) can be useful. No-one seems to carry any tools with them while riding these days, whereas when I started many years ago it was pretty much compulsory, and admittedly never seem to have mechanical problems either, but I like to know I have the means to carry out minor repairs with say a tie wrap or tape at least until I can get back to the car.

So rob if it's not too personal a question, how old are you? I don't believe age to be a barrier at all, lots of people who I looked up to as a youngster (I'm 56 now) are still riding well.

Well done on balancing in a relaxed fashion on both left and right lock, I'm definitely better on left than right. If your bike has bolts for steering stops you could perhaps screw in longer ones to restrict the side to side movement, so forcing you to balance with the front wheel in more of a straight ahead position - definitely harder but worth persisting with. Remember about trying it with tyres pumped up hard as well. A few hours of this sort of thing will have you saving marks in the sections in months to come!

Good stuff indeed, until he get-off. Hope the recovery has worked out OK. I recall a Bob Akrigg riding trials in West Yorkshire in the 60s/70s, involved with the Huddersfield Falcons I think - Chris's dad perhaps?

For a quick and regular 20/30 minute exercise in the comfort of your garage, with radio or cd if you wish to relieve the boredom : just try balancing stationary on right lock then left. Most people have a "favourite" side, keep practicing the opposite one to improve. Try to build up the duration of each successful attempt. As a development of this, try balancing off full lock, ie with steering nearer the middle point (more difficult). Also have a go with a wooden block under the front or rear wheel to alter the weight rearwards or frontwards, to simulate the kind of position you might be in a real section. If all this gets too easy, pump up your tyres to a higher pressure, this really demands finer control.

I recall that when I started (early 1970s) the ACU handbook defined trials as a "competiton in which competitors endeavour to fulfil prescribed conditions". I guess that really clarified it for anyone who needed to know.

I have the car version (ie with windows in back). One bike fits diagnonally with rear seat folded up, or two go in with rear seat removed (I have modified it to make it qd). Excellent car, 55mpg regularly (1.9 diesel) and very comfortable/relaxed drive.

Any views out there on the Wulfsport Airflo or Torx Doug? Both are budget options with some degree of venting. I currently use an Xpeed in which I get drenched with sweat (and doesn't have a removable lining) but probably optimistic to think that any helmet would make all that much difference?

When he jumps on the bike at the start of the scene and stamps it into gear looks like it has a right side gear change. Was this the case with early Cotas?

The plastic tubes were an innovation on a production bike when the 348 appeared. They formed a neat set-up which acted as tensioner as well as protection for (and from) the chain and worked pretty well although the popular mod was to cut the bottom tube ahead of the rear sprocket to avoid fouling. The bushes between the tube brackets and the alloy holder at the rear wheel could wear so the whole set-up became a bit sloppy. Also the tubes make chain replacement a more fiddly job, threading the chain through each one. I used to tie a piece of string to the end of the chain before removing it so it could be pulled back through the tube fairly easily. I know the tubes are still available from In-Motion but not sure about brackets or bushes. A conventional tensioner is an option some have used but you'd need to weld a mounting bracket on the swinging arm and preferably rig up a chain guard on the top run if you're doing away with the tubes altogether.The majority of 348s I have seen which are still running seem to have had the tubes ditched but no tensioner fitted, which obviously leads to a rather snatchy power delivery and more stress on the chain.

Yes, 4 (rear) and 6 (front) psi is a good starting point but in my (long) experience you can probably surprise yourself with how much lower you can get away with in the back without problems if you need more grip, and rider weight doen't seem to make much odds to this within reasonable limits. Well worth investing in a dial type low pressure guage if you're at all serious about getting the best results.

I'm sure the Ossa wpould be a great bike for you but, as a former Edinburgh resident, I was wondering where you might be able to ride it legally in local single track/forested areas? I'm still in touch with the Scottish trials scene and my impression is that there's virtually nowhere to ride with appropriate permission except in trials events themselves.

I'm not at all sure that cheaper new bikes would make much diffrence. People who have difficulty in meeting the price of a new bike now have quite a choice of decent competitive 3/4 year old bikes on the secondhand market which cost less than any new bike would, but there's not much evidence of them going down that route. Perhaps it's time to accept that as part of the evolution of the sport participation is down in some areas, for all sorts of reasons, not just the price of bikes.

I now realise what I need to improve my riding... a 19 year old bike.

I think Birkett did a number of mods for the SY which altered the performance towards what you are wanting. Could be worth a phone call.

Thanks everyone for the replies. I fitted a tubeless IRC to my SWM (Akront rims) with tube inside and ran it at 4 psi through the Highland Classic trial last weekend without any problems.

Not sure what you mean by a fairing on the bike. Time limits could be tight at the Scottish but it would be going some to have a fairing fitted.