neils on wheels

Melba is right, what you need is a 250 to start with, not a 125.

No, he just got beaten; no drama, he's human.

It's a fact of life that very few people can make a living from trials. Shaun was a good rider, his eye injury in the workshop was very unfortunate, but he did not HAVE to do this, he CHOSE to.

Those that will have suffered most are the exploited sweat shop labour making these counterfeit goods in horrific conditions. Do you remember the Rana Plaza factory collapse last year? Over1,000 workers lost their lives.

And anybody can ride a motorcycle between some flags. The similarity that you are missing is that few people could ride a mountain bike down a World Cup course, fewer still at the speed required to be competitive. This is the similarity with trials, lots of us can ride, very few of us could even get through a WTC section. The difference is that the watching public &'sponsors can understand downhill mountain biking. Fastest rider wins & the results are instantly available and updated as each rider crosses the line every minute or so. Trials requires an appreciation of subjective rules and the results emerge after several hours of riding and then some arithmetic. It's been noted here before. Far larger crowds attend the MTB downhill World Cup in Fort William compared to the WTC. More crowds, more sponsors, more customers, more funding, more competitors. It's a virtuous circle that trials has failed and probably always will fail to replicate.

Torque from an electric motor is calculated by Power/RPM. Thus, the lower the revs, the higher the torque an electric motor produces, hence the feeling of instantaneous power & why the motor will pull without being revved.

It has been suggested on this forum that Honda have a new bike ready to release. If this is really true why are they only offering a sticker upgrade for 2015?

I can understand Michael Brown's disillusionment. He probably earns next to nothing, it may even cost him, to compete in the WTC. He probably fives 2/3 of the sections in every round & finishes in the bottom few. Why would you? I suspect he & others may conclude they are better off being employed, or at least part funded, by an importer to ride national trials & a national championship.

A few questions from a potential subscriber: What is your target price? How many pages of editorial per issue? How frequently will you publish? What differentiates your publication from others? Why should I subscribe to this rather than existing publications?

Please don't rely on getting a mobile phone signal anywhere too remote. http://www.mountain.rescue.org.uk/mountain-advice/mobile-phones

Indeed I am Perce; that's my very point, the financial & commercial scale of something like TdF will attract significant investment and with that, matters like road closures can easily get accomplished. Whether there is a payback for the region is debatable but it certainly gave me & my wife all the excuse we needed for a week in Brompton-on-Swale and the atmosphere around the Dales was great. I like you, have not shed a tear for the financial difficulties of the South East. They even have to auction tennis games these days, times are so tough! http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-28443588

I feel its mostly down to economics. The Tour de France can pretty much close Yorkshire for two days and charge nothing to spectators due to massive TV rights & outside sponsorship. If the WTC had the financial support to choose any location in Yorkshire then many of our issues regarding venue & accessibility would be answered. But this is not the reality of world trials.

We have lots of topics on here about how we're riding under the wrong rules and about the adequacies or inadequacies of volunteer observers. One subject we should discuss is the section designs at WTC level. In the run up to Penrith, I read Fuji describe the venue as almost like an indoor trial, outdoors! Since the rules changed to no-stop (like it or not, they did, so let's not start that moan again today) I've not seen much change in the layout of the WTC sections. There is thus very little in the section layout or terrain to encourage the riders to keep moving. Consequently they sail as close to the edge of stopping as they feel they will get away with. I looked at the Saturday results from Britain & the results from Belgium. 71% (Britain) and 73% (Belgium) of all WTC section attempts resulted in either a clean or a five. This is not very selective and leads to an almost binary scoring system. The Clerk of Course and FIM Representative (Jordi Pasquet) should surely be striving for something more selective. What do you think could be done to improve matters? Or are you happy with 'clean or five'?

Don't worry Eddie, perhaps you can come & observe next time I'm riding!

I had not heard this before. Where was this published?

There is an interesting implied assumption in this question, being that Montesa's 2015 development will be new coloured plastics. I'd like to broaden the topic. Having signed Toni Bou for four years to 2018, do you anticipate a significantly new Montesa at any point in this time? The production 4RT was sold for nine years from 2005 to 2013 with the most minimal of updates. 2014 saw a little more development, but nothing too significant compared to their competitors over the same time period. Honda finance the most expensive team in the WTC, they also have far lower unit sales than Beta, Gas Gas or Sherco. It is hard to imagine that 4RT sales come anywhere close to funding the trials team. So why then do Montesa Honda participate? Is it for the halo effect of relatively easily won world championships? (The trials team must cost a fraction of the MX or Moto GP teams) Is it to develop technology that can be applied elsewhere in the Honda range? (Battery less fuel injection for example)

Hello Mags, A couple of hours on a pushbike a couple of times a week will do wonders for your aerobic fitness. If you can ride a mountain bike off road as opposed to a road bike this will give your upper body and core more of a work out too. To ride at club level I'd not say you need that much strength and to avoid injury, particularly with an old back injury, you'll be better off exercising for flexibility than strength. Yoga or any similar exercise such as Pilates will do you the world of good. I'd also recommend core exercises for balance and again injury prevention.

What happened at mile five?

What a sad & sorry farce. At a time when the WTC is struggling this does not help at all. Oh well, only another 49 weeks to the Scottish.

There are a 179 more sections in this trial. Most of them not on video for us all to pore over. All this does is point out the difficult yet brilliant job the observers do. Let's get to Saturday afternoon, ask who hasn't throughout the week been lucky or received the benefit of the doubt on some occasion and consider the result in this context. Will the rider on least marks deserve to be the winner? Almost certainly. Will all of the observers & other officials deserve a huge thank you for their voluntary efforts? Most definitely.

Will someone please provide the evidence that the rules were changed just for Honda, or give up with the idle speculation.

That's a fair question Dabster. I'd also ask what the factories are doing about that? OK, a rider needs a trusted relationship with a minder but surely there would have been a spare man in the Gas Gas and particularly the Montesa/Honda entourage to support these guys.

Maybe so! Doug's original press release to announce his involvement in the Vertigo development made reference to the fact that he was free to ride whatever he wished until the Vertigo was available. It's interesting that he appears to have chosen a bike from his most recent employer, rather than one his cousin imports.

The press release on the front page says they "will be using the Montesa Cota 4RT"....so that's clear then isn't it?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/TRIUMPH-TIGER-CUB-PRE65-TRIALS-BUILT-BY-SAMMY-MILLER-/111315200639?pt=UK_Motorcycles&hash=item19eae72a7f Here's one that Sam built!