atomant

On the ACU's accounts logged on 21/05/05 Cash balances rose from

nothing at all

John , feel free to let me know what the ACU's youth development policy has been for the last 5 years and what the ACU plans to do for next 5 years please, so I may be in a position to give a more balanced objective view to my statement.Thanks

Ok so a bad day in the office and I went off on one. I still feel passionate about not enough is being done and its not. I accept I could have researched it better and presentented it better.

Why is the licence fee for trials so cheap? I, like a few others are seriously demoralised by the lack of vision the ACU has in developing youth trials and I for one are sick at seeing lots of home grown talent going nowhere because there isn’t any funding available. The decision to not increase the licence fee is ridiculous. Where is the vision and leadership from the ACU to do something about this situation? By not increasing it they have effectively 'DE-CREASED' the money available due to inflationary effects so there will be less in the pot next year than there was this year. I ride for fun but for some of the best youth riders in the country, it could be their livelihood in the future! In my opinion, the whole thing stinks and needs sorting. So I say to the ACU, get it sorted and put up the cost then do something good with the money!

Yes and so would I

Thanks I will doing some pretty cool stuff next year with it all being well. So keep an eye on it

Well, I have finished it at last,(well nearly) and its open so go take a look. http://www.rossdanby.net Hope you like it. The gallery has some good stuff in it.

The 2004 photos are on our sister site. http://www.trialsphotos.com Not sure about the 2005 ones - I'll check!

Anodising is a surface treatment. True definition is an electro-chemical process which physically alters the surface of the metal to produce a tough oxide layer on the surface. Wire wool it or scotchbrite it off and its gone ! Voila!

I wonder whether it was Gas Gas or Raga that stipulated the one year only contract!

Good point ScorpaF. That 3 second thing is a reasonable compromise. I like it!

I ride in my centre and the mid Wales centre and don’t go outside of that. I agree it may be difficult for others who travel about but what percentage of riders actually do that? With reference to sticking to the rules, we are debating the pros and cons of this and that when I have yet to attend an event either as a spectator or a rider where the rules are correctly applied to the letter. It doesn’t happen and never will IMHO. For someone to stand there in the freezing cold and wet and observe a section is a sacrifice im extremely thankful for. So, whether they observe to the rules or not at my level I am not particularly bothered about to be honest. Good debate this one :santa1:

But this doesnt happen very often and that means everyone else is penalised because of it. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You obviously weren't riding in the early 90's then because it did happen a lot just like Woody & AS IOW have said. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Maybe I should rephrase that, It doesnt happen a lot at the events I ride at. Maybe its different where you guys are. I am only giving an opinion on what I see. Im not providing the answers but at least im getting invloved in the debate. Too many people moan and groan but dont come up with anything to offer

But this doesnt happen very often and that means everyone else is penalised because of it.

If the peeps in your example are just doing it for showboating then the time limit penalty would take effect surely and to be honest, I dont see this in the trials I go to.One of the reasons I say that non-stop shouldnt be brought back, is its too hard for the observers to decide whether they have stopped or not,(same as stopping with your feet up) and then you get the rider remonstrating with the observer over did I , didnt I with the effect of the observer saying" Look I do this for fun, I dont need this crap!" to dissapear never to be seen again! On another point, we have a large youth section in our club. They see the likes of Raga/Dougie etc and want to emulate them. Some of them may even get good enough to compete at the world level sometime. They learn and practice their skills by riding the easy route, through the clubman route and on upwards inters & expert. What your saying is that we should stop them being able to stop and balance by this non stop ruling. Which is not what they will face when they get to the higher levels. I dont mind the rules as they are with the exception of the 1 point for stopping with your feet up (which we dont use anyway). It works for the kids trying to learn to balance and stuff and it works for the average club rider like me. As Ishy says, "Turn up, get your number and ride it "

I agree 2T though I fell off mine loads of times and only ever bent the bars. Sturdy workhorse :santa1:

I must admit, I do love a hill climb People watch them though because they like to see the riders fall off. The routes take care of capabilities dont they?, We mark out a clubman route at our club and no hopping is necessary.The 1 point penalty for stopping with your feet up is never used at our club to my knowledge, so it might as well not be there. As for the rest of the rules, I think you should be able to do anything inside the gates as long as you got your feet up and not getting assistance from something. forwards/backwards/sideways/anything!

Here we go - in at the Deep end I will attempt to make a case why no stop should NEVER come back into the sport. [1] The Youth A lot of new riders coming into the sport are from a generation where trials cycles are commonplace and balancing/hopping/endo's etc are all skills that they learn. Yes it may be possible to adapt to doing these skills on the move but then it becomes difficult to see if they have stopped or not. These kids worship the skills of Raga and Dougie and the like. - If they looked at Sammy Miller with all due respect, they wouldn’t think it was anything special. Sad but true [2]Technology Everyone knows bikes today are way easier to ride than anything 20 years ago. They give the rider the option to express his/her skills in a way not possible before. Keeping a bike moving through a section as the main criteria limits the possibility to do this. [3]Terrain Some of us simply don’t have the right type of terrain to allow non-stop. For expert sections in particular, we purposely put in tighter turns to ensure they have to hop in to position to add to the difficulty. Making it a no stop in some venues would make it very hard to make something that was testing enough. My general view on most things is not to look back and keep looking forward. I have ridden some of the easier sections at a trial that Ross Danby rides and cleaned them, but when he does it its elegant and stylish and a pleasure to watch! Nothing like what mine is and for me I like to watch that! So I say design the rules around these skills, not what it was like 30 year ago!!

I would suggest you have a go on the new one before you judge it. It is a much improved bike even over the 2005 model.I reckon it will get quite a few sales this year and beyond. :santa1:

Its Done, Im just making the video clips and putting all the pictures & info on it. Will be open on Sunday! btw, I noticed you have used a picture of Ross on your site .. good choice