scorpa3

The Evesham trial at Saintbury starts at 10.30, we will be there until around 1.30 and you are more than welcome to have a ride around at the end on my 250. For the best information on local events look at the regs available page in Trials & Moto Cross News T&MX. The chances are that you will find an event within sensible travelling distance almost every weekend. Trials isn't like road racing where you have to drive hundreds of miles to compete (unless you want to that is!) plus the entry fees are only around

Hi Gordon, where are you based these days? Almost any of the modern trials bikes will suit you as a begginer, the 250's have more than enough poke. Most people use either Michelin or IRC but remember you will only need a couple or rears a year! It's not like racing where you get through a front and two rears on every bike each time you ride it! You are more than welcome to come down my way for a practice and try out my Scorpa. We will be riding in the Evesham club trial in Saintbury Quarry near Broadway this Sunday signposted from the A44 if you fancy a look. Pete Barnett

well said Woody! I was observing at the Manx Two Day a few years back and a certain rider argued that he'd had a clean in my section. I felt under some pressure to give the clean as he got rather vocal with me. In the end I decided to be brave leave it as a one and he stormed off. A bit later I was still wondering if I'd done the right thing.... you start to doubt your own eyes/memory, when a spectator came up to me and quietly said "watch this" he held out a small video camera and sure enough he'd captured the dab on film. He said " I didn't want to show you that before because I didn't want to get any stick from the WORLD CHAMPION and his mates! But you were right!" I have to say I had almost changed it to a clean and the episode spoilt the day for me. That mark cost the rider the win... I can see why he argued, if I'd changed the score he'd have gained a lot. Observe at a World round???? Hats of to those who do.

I can ride non stop, I enjoy non stop and prefer to ride under non stop rules. However I wouldn't enjoy riding without a clutch one little bit.

Or even better for clarity... the FIM adopts non stop and so does everyone else.

Here's the 2008 colour scheme on a youtube video. Very Nice! Click here.

His 'about-me' page says he buys and sells all things rubbery! Must be a tyre dealer then... handy guy to know

No need to appologise John, I think that it just goes to show- the rules are confusing, a mess and need simplifying. If we as enthusiasts get muddled up, how can we ever expect the average member of the public (that's to say, new rider, observer or spectator) to have a clue what's going on.

Michelin do a trials tyre which looks the same as an X11 and is used on the Beta Alp but I believe they only do this in tubed and it is a harder compound than the X11. I've used one on my DRZ Suzuki and they certainly last longer than a normal trials tyre.

TSR22A No-stop (Hang on a minute, sorry but isn't TSR22A actually - Stop permitted in the hand book?)

I had a Gas Gas a few years back and needed a 16mm spanner. Not used it on anything else since.

My DRZ enduro had just a km milometer, I bought a speedo from Leisure trail (KTM) for the MOT.

I'm sure a proper tyre beader is the best thing to use, I was just thinking that you can get a push bike inner tube from Halfords late on a Saturday afternoon or on a Sunday morning if you needed to get out tomorrow.

I always use a push bike inner tube (Steve Saunders tip) it was well worth the

Yes, that's fine for the fun riders but anyone serious about winning the championship still needs to do all or most of the rounds so that they can drop their worst scores. The more rounds from a series that you can drop, the more complicated the final totals will be to work out until the end. Dropping four from 14 ruins the series as a championship, you might as well have two different championships with seven rounds and make one for the North and one for the South so that people don't have to travel so far.

I think so too.

As a Trail bike Championship organiser, we thought the idea of a number of dual route sections just for the championship riders made good sense. (The event was cancelled inthe end due to F&M, so we didn't actually get chance to try it) Those in the championshp rode the hard route (on the designated sections) and everyone else there just for fun rode the non championship easy route. The remainder of the sections were just one route and so retained their 'normal' severity, thus appealing to everyone. We did also decide to give an award to the best trail bike on the easy route, but basically speaking it is the A route that earns the awards and the championship status. I think this is a good idea for a lot of single route trials. It gives the championship riders a few sections where they can pull away from the rest and also helps the organisers by making the rest of the trial appeal to the 'fun' riders and so get a decent entry.

Couldn't agree more..... if there were some youths! For years we ran four youth championships with trophies to the Top three in each class. Year by year the youth riders got older or stopped riding, in the final year that we did the youth championships, no youth A or B did more than one trial! This year we just ran one trial specifically for the centre youths and only eight turned up and none on the A route. Everyone who rode commented how good the trial was but there just doesn't seem to be any youngsters in our catchment area.

Would you say for example...

Back to the stall on a rock scenario. Surely it's a five? Any part of the rider or machine onther than the tyres touches the ground then it count's as a dab. If a machine stalls you can restart unless you have a dab whilst doing so, then it's a five. No wonder people don't want to observe!

What sort of money does the winner get? Does it attract a big entry do you know?

I was just wondering if any clubs/championships ever offer prize money? Does the British championship give out cash? If I was to offer a sum to the winner of an event, how much would it need to attract a top entry, or is it a waste of money?

In ACU events we would have used the most cleans tie break, which would have given a different result.