totalshell

exactly.. how many of the worlds allegedly best riders have ridden the scott or the ssdt for that matter. its my great hope ( having booked my accomodation this weekend) that messers bou raga et al may grace fort william this may..

first class reply thank you.. i knew the colour was damask red however as i could nt find a ref no. i was snookered thanks to your reply i'll hopefully have the thing done before the weekend..

perhaps its an issue of how hard you use your machine. ferrari' are very nice cars but when cars carrying the name race in grand prix they occasionally fail mechanically as do mercedes as do honda as do ducati as do yamaha as do Beta.. only by pushing machinery to the limit will that limit be found and then developed so that you and I can ride without fault. i'm sure that the bike Doug rides isnt straight from the back of John's emporium but will have had some 'devlopment' as such it may be more competative and equally may be more suseptable to individual component failure.. at the other end and i quite happily state that my Beta runs faultlessly .. it never gets revved never gets worked hard ( as i find that footing it out of sections is much more easier on it than expecting it to ride through them) i also do little tinkering to make it better ( non in fact) but i do remove the side cover after every trial and dont refit it till its about to go in the van for the next one..

building a james replica and just about to pull the dry build apart i have the primers etc but can anyone quote a RAL, BS, NCS or Pantone reference for the red/ maroon? the paint is 3 quid a litre cheaper with the number rather than a sample..

Just back from the Scott. classic weather chillly light winds, damp miserable heavy spitting and mist on the hills. water but not loads in the becks and the ground was damp but not boggy. first stop was the petrol stop at Hurst. saw the first 100 through here fairly smartish and most arrived in numericla order ish the occasional lad with a puncture ( dont carry those one shot air canisters cos when you've used em once thtas it your out.. use a small bike pump 3.50 and your still in the trial.. hard lesson.) pleanty of folk carrying toolboxes and spare wheels inc a ktm with a wheel rack on the back!! but the best thing a rider needs besides his fuel is a dry pair of gloves and something to chew on. next stop Whaw we wathced the top of the second section rider no 72 a young lad first time out came flying through first to be followed 3 mins later by browny and two others that had virtually the same start no as hime.. jarvis and dibs came through 5 mins down ( ish) no lampkin.. james came through late and the rumour was a repeat of the scottish, allegedly stators dont like the high revs of the better riders ( that'll be why mine has never gone!) nice to see the two fantics going strong and still plenty of riders from throughout the field still going well ( saw maybe hgalf a dozen clear the section.. it was far from easy) next up a liesurely ride back to the start field a quick butty use the loo then a mile down the road to clapgate the last section. it was raining but as browny appeared at the bpttom of the hill it stopped 9 minutes till the next rider then dibs came through all calm and collected but 2 minutes down on Brown's time and only 50 yds to go. in the hour after browns arrival we only saw 19 bikes through the section and only 1 of them had a start no. lower the 150! the road to the finish was full of retired buikes making thier way back to the start all bar one under there own steam so i can only suppose that the bikes were better suited to the conditions than the riders.. it was a far from nice day for a ride out never mind 86 mile off road and 70 odd sections enroute.. anyone who can claim to finish is a real trials rider.. they dont call it the toughest trial in the world cos its hard its because its the toughest.. simple. end of.. grand day out... same time next year?

here and now is the perfect opportunity of bolting the stable door before the horse hot foots it. pre 65 bike development has exploded as the baby boomers of the post war years are retiring and spending thier pensions time and aprenticed trained skills developing bikes for 8 hours a day seven days a week with more cash to hand and resouses cnc millimg machines etc etc that the factorys of yeasterday could nt even dream of. so that horse has not only left the stable its orbiting the moon.. the pre 65 scottish regs this year show an insight not seen much elsewhere by stating for the rigid class that frames must be the same as manufactured that brakes must be as fitted that engines must be as fitted fork outers must be as fitted.. thus leaving for some fettling but not to any major extent immediately with one paragraph reducing costs and potentially the number of rigid riders. now the acu / amca could do the same for twin shocks if they wanted and that would be a clear line in the sand.. frames as std, brakes as fitted to that machine, forks as fitted to that machine engines as fitted to that machine.. there end of no if's but's or maybes clear simple rules that anyone can follow the acu is democratic mr wren contributes to these pages it ca be done befors next season if enough people want it to.. how much do you want it is the question?

if you prepare for something to happen it wont.. if you dont it will. worst scenarios are flats so put an extra pound in front and rear and have some dog t**ds and know how to use them ie practice on another bike or old tyre.. been wet or cold so have plenty of spare gloves a pair with you and a pair at each stop..have a towel for hands and face at each stop to and fresh juice/ water plan to finish.. let the time take care of it self.. so ride at a comfortable pace no faster and take your time at the technical stuff. its faster to ride slow and in control than fast and fall.

well its back on sale now.....

the rider who rode wide of the section marker made no remarks gestures etc toward any of the spectators/ officials or other riders. he was not at fault. i 'd agree that it was a tricky section . it was perhaps 18 yards long starting on a downward slope crossing a sodden bit of marsh to get to a narrow stream crossing followed by a shallow bank out. At the point at contention it was approx. 12 feet wide, lines had been attempted across its full width, riders been what they are the took wider and wider lines but all stayed inside the flags as they passed them... bar one. it was cleaned several times and fived just as regularly early on it took the odd dab but as the afternoon passed it became more difficult, having said that one of the last half dozen to attempt the section cleaned it.. Mick you are right and it was reported by several people before i got to the finish.. there was a queue! I beleive using this or any other forum to comment is legitamate on the issue. It was the only time I have seen this behaviour since i watched my firat trial in the black and white days of 1974 and is thus far from common practice and as such warrented comment before it becomes so.

the comments above have been exactly as i would have hoped and expected. Frankly as i returned my observers sheet at the finish of the trial there was a queue reporting the incident. Although I know the riders bike number i do not know his name so it would not be appropriate to 'name' them on this forum

One of my local clubs held thier annual road trial today and I and my five year old daughter observed in the morning and spectated in the afternon. As usual while observing i was firm but fair and everyone smiled expressed thier thanks and rode on, some as usual stopped for a chat or or said hello to me or my daughter. a pleasant way to spend the morning and as the sun was out and the skies blue we spectated at one of the later groups. the section was tricky, get there early and you had an evens chance of a clean the last 25% of the entry had difficulty getting out of the mudhole, some riders literally having a mudbath. Now as is the norm the 'top' riders were riding together and hanging about waiting for a 'new' line to appear or for the section to develop a brief 'sweet spot' during this period a young lad made a more than fair attempt only to come a right cropper and dove deeper into the morass than Jaques Cousteau ever could. his riding companions good naturedly pulled him and his bike out while they waited for a couple of thier friends to attempt the section. The lad to next attemt the section had given it a long hard coat of looking at and came back to check the line before attempting to cross the morass.. he fired his bike at the crossing making it across without a dab.. however the line he chose was 6 -8 inches to the right of the red marker and all the specatators shouted ' five' the lad who had previuosly taken a tumble shouted remarks about keeping quiet and a threw a few F words in. he then strode across the morass and ' persuaded ' the observer ( who was in his seventies) that his mate was clean and waited while the 5 was changed to 0, returning to his bike he harangued the dozen or so spectators with the F word and accusations of bias, argued with a grandmother who was chastising him for use of the f word and used it agian toward her and then took on a member of the organisation team of probably the biggest trial in the calendar, who happened to be riding in the trialand used the F word 3 times toward him! I go to a lot of football matches and swearing is banned now in most grounds and so is abusing officials but it's still often heard and its accepted but not acceptable I work with 7 or 8 other builders and swearing is common there too but i've never heard it or used like it was today toward the spectators ( who were all bar 2 observers from earlier on in the day) but what really disappointed me was the lieing to and 'persuading' the aged observer to change the score. I'm happy to ride against better riders I'm happy to ride against people with better bikes but if winning means so much that lieing to and ' persuading' officials to that degree is acceptable then trials is nt for me..

why spend all that time and money developing a product that will be 40% more expensive than the rest of the market the commitment to this project must be huge in terms of time and money when the returns are so limited.. one of the issues with this project is fashion.. Beta Montesa Sherco Scorpa are all current Ossa will garner a following from those of us riding/aspiring to ride in the seventies.. so aged 35-50 what age group would be attracted by the Greeves? whose hey day was 1955 v-65 and how old would those riders be today and how many riders do you see at club trials who are that age? in hindsight the best proposal for using the Greeves name would have been to manufacture/ retail competative pre 65 equipment ( frames, brakes engine gearbox) for which there is a much bigger market and where price is a secondary consideration. in those immortal words.. 'i'll tell you where I am .. i'm out'

weld a repair and machine back.. they 'll be as good as new.

absolutely NO value in the original footrests other tha originallity. a folding footpeg is safer ie it wont nail you to the ground and the serated edges prevent your boot sliding off and thus maintain control of the bike.

i have a full collection of 60's ssdt programme and motor cycle etc reports of the trials i have a few 1950's but not 57 if you want scott details for the year i have those though..

had my bike down the local peugeot dealer two weeks ago. the bike will fit diagonaly in the partner l1 with the seats up. and straight with the passeneger seat down. however the partner l2 se will take a bike straight with the seats up. ( and thats with three seats in the front) up to 25% discount on 60 plate as well..

get a copy of bernie shriebers 'observed trials' or len leavitt's motorcycle trials they have loads of figure of 8 ideas and will set you on the right course.. set the idle low and smooth and rid ethe bike gently on the throttle.. you should be able to ride most twinshock and pre 65 sections without using the clutch

many drop into the bigger is better theme but i think you'll find the 200 is more than capable especially if your small boned! these guys have helped me with my 240 the stuff they sell fits first time and does what they claim, the mods they reccomend work.. cant be fairer than that.. http://www.classictrial.co.uk/fantic.html its a lesson some others involved in pre65/ twinshocks could learn from as i come in from the shed after 4 hours modifying/ drastically altering something that was ' bolts straight on...'

i know people are painting them silver/ grey as well . the ufo classics are also 100 cm long and are plenty long enough for a pre65 bike

WELL I'D CHECK OUT IF A 2001 IS THE SAME AS A 2004 OR AS DAMN NEAR AS MAKES NO DIFFERENCE TO SART WITH. IF THAT IS A NON RUNNER I'D FIND A DECENT ALLOY WELDER. LOOKING CLOSELY UT LOOKS SIMLY LIKE THE METAL HAS FRACTURES RATHER THAN BEEN SHEARED OR TORN OFF. HAD THE SAME HAPPEN ON A BIKE I'D HAD AS A RESULT OF A WHOOPING GREAT WHACK IT HAD HAD MONTHS EARLIER.

ha you've trumped my cunning plan.. if thier worth a little now ( 50 quid in

the tank i was derusting is now all clean and shiney and sealed ready for the off...ish..(thanks to the TC mafia for getting this far and Wyldes for supplying the necessary goo) the frame i am putting it on has the bulky yamaha fuel tap very close to the cylinder head.. so anybody know the size and / or even the thread of the fitting for the fuel tap so i can try to source an smaller alternative.. or even know of a tap i can use as an alternative?

ah.. due to the diminuative size and weight the best bike would almost certainly be a 200 or a 125 both a mile easier to ride than a 270/280/300. trilas is not about been able to handle power its about been able to find grip and hold the bike upright

put an ad in the free papers too.. trials bike wanted must be cheap...

add up the cost of all the bits add 17.5% vat and see how cheaply you can build a bike for..