02-apr

Surely some of the "many many" shops also sell off road gear?

As far as I can recall the rules only require that the helmet must be approved for road use, regardless of whether roadwork is involved or not, which effectively rules out some of what I see people wearing (eg skatepark helmets etc and indeed some so-called trials helmets I have looked at). No great problem until the inevitable run in with the insurance people should an injury be sustained.

Hawick and Border have effectively been in hibernation as far as trials is concerned for a number of years but if you live in the Borders then there may be a chance of a revival, particularly given your machinery, as some of the members are about to return to trials. PM me and I will try and sort something out. Other than that LMCC do a trial at Gala in May and of course the NE Centre is very active though distant in some cases.

I use a hypodermic syringe (50ml) to measure, it's the most accurate way and you get all the oil out of it unlike a jug where some always sticks. Don't rely on the measurements on the bottle. I checked the quantity using an Ipone bottle (the one where you squeeze some up in to a small chamber)and it was 10ml out which is quite a lot if you are only putting 70ml in to 5l of petrol. Larger syringes can be found - try a vet?

Putting the choke on can sometimes work.

Worth just stripping and cleaning the clutch then see how it goes. However an ex-sidecar bike will have had a hard life (though it seems good appearance wise) so it might be worth a good look inside.

Only watched a wee bit. Couldn't be done on a modern bike though, such is "progress". I wonder if anyone got round to bending the nose of that guy who insisted on shouting through a megaphone in to the ear of the guys who fell off.

As far as I am aware there are no unsold new Scorpa trials bikes of any sort in Britain so I don't follow your logic. I do know people who are very keen to get a new 175 four stroke one though so a market seems to exist.

Shouldn't be too difficult to get a strap cover knocked up from some old fabric and velcro.

No but I have known people be injured in a road incident during such an event and the wearing of an unapproved helmet can have all sorts of implications for various parties. I wouldn't be surprised to see an insurance company wriggle out of indemnity by saying that the wearer should not have been on the road.

Thanks - I'll get myself along to Douglas then.

I have looked on the web but can't see any info for this as regards locations. I will be on the Island for the GP and would like to find out where the sections are on Sunday the 29th. As I shall be bicycle mounted I want to plot movements early to minimise toing and froing. Grateful for any info.

I'm pleased to be corrected - I felt that I knew the bottom end from somewhere.

Looks (very) vaguely like an early version of the Russian bikes sold in Britain about the same time - the RTX. I think I only ever saw three but the power band was not ideal for a trials bike as far as I could tell from the sound. I would guess that spares would be about as hard to get as titanium gearbox internals for a Hiro engined Armstrong. But there is something KTM-ish about the motor.

Funnily enough I was just wondering the other day if RUTS was still on the go as I haven't heard of it for at least twenty years - are the same folk still involved? I sympathise with your problems but have to say it was a risky strategy to bulk buy an unknown brand with no track record.

No denying that - unfortunately it has to go through the motor first.

He's obviously trying to recover the cost of those two new mudguards!

Strictly speaking of course the tyre has to be on the ACU approved list for trials - is it there? If it's a dual sport then it may not be.

Alas Channel 4's version of i-player does not seem to stretch to that early hour of day.

Get two jam jars (empty). Put known neat petrol in one, your stuff in the other; colour difference will show if it has oil in it or not though not what ratio. I don't get smoke out a four stroke lawnmower when running it on modern day 2 stroke oil ratios. There was a lot of scare over how easily a cat would be ruined when they were first introduced but this does not seem to have been realised. Even so I don't think I would take the risk in my vehicle. I usually put larger amounts of old or "unknown" two stroke in the road bike - every trials rider should have one.

Who knows - the quality assurance dept might be given some teeth now that Beta, and not Joe Punter, have been very publicly hard hit by electrical failure.

Could this inadvertently have included blocking the vent in some way?

Of course there is no obligation to keep the same gearing all week. It won't take that long to revert to standard if experience shows it to be necessary.

It doesn't seem unreasonable that an "International" rider should have to have an International licence for an International event does it? I just don't understand someone lucky enough to get an entry farting about with the essentials at this late stage.

SACU - Scottish Auto Cycle Union -