baldilocks

I'm quietly confident dadof is not young...

Lonsdale cup last weekend run by the Westmorland club with roadwork ..90 entries. The infuriating thing about trials riders is that they moan about roadwork, moan about single route or hard trials , moan about travelling , moan about long laps etc etc. Yet the most popular events include at least some if not all of the above. The Internet, it's full of crap

I'm not disagreeing with you that making the sections out of the same materials is dull. However the Spanish indoor trials do exactly the same thing with cylinders, some steel dairy lee cheese style boxes and the steel freixenet boxes. Sheffield has been using the same stuff for years. We could do with some new ideas really

Spoke to the man himself today. The changes to the kickstart mechanism are just to make it easier to start the bigger cc bikes.

Does it matter if you call them hard course or expert riders in this context ? The problem appears to be that the hard course can only be ridden by two riders, so better riders drop down to the lower course and then want that to be harder ? Well ease off the hard course a little don't do away with it. The original question wasn't about the lack of experts it was about the lack of entries in general. it goes back to last august where a number of events had 20 - 30 riders.

Might just be the throttle cable needs lubricating, I've had that on lots of bikes.

I love this. Someone has ability, puts the 10,000 hours in and gets to expert level. As a sport do we congratulate them ? No we demonise them, it's all their fault isn't it. If only they would learn to enjoy losing 2 marks on an easy course everything would be just fabulous! 4 courses and a club can't accommodate an expert ? What sort of incentive is that ? I'm not saying sections have to be dangerous but if becoming an expert is a dead end why would a young rider start ? With up to 4 courses it should be possible to accommodate everyone. If only 1 or 2 can ride the expert route then I agree its too hard but that needs adjusting not doing away with. Any trial has to cater for the people who are going to ride it.

Does a diaphragm clutch have springs on a sherco?

Can I ask how they pressurise a new shock without an external valve if you have to have one to rebuild it ?

I usually fit the half link by pushing the pin out of one side of the chain but not the other, so the pin is flush with the internal face of the chain outer plate. Take the link out , slide in the half link and then push the pin back through. I just use a chain cutter with a long pin. Using this method you only need one spit link.

You could use countersunk bolts on the inside of the mudguard stay but that's as good as you can get. Or make a different mudguard stay that fits on the outside of the lug on the fork leg ? Wider yokes is the best solution but will they hit the fuel tank?

In 2015 only the best 16 out of 18 rounds counted in Trial 2. So although Iwan may have done better in Japan had he gone than his worst ride elsewhere he didn't actually lose a potential scoring day by not going. Trials is a confidence game so being able to tackle bigger grippier sections on a regular basis must help I would think. Spain had it's own indoor series, it probably still does, which provides another opportunity to practice and progress which the British don't have apart from Sheffield. I'm not that convinced going up a class earlier helps. It could just destroy confidence. Eddie Karlsson did this but it hasn't worked for him ? Spain I think has all the ingredients but most of all up and coming riders can practice with the top factory guys, who could be better to learn from ?

2016 trial2 winner Jack Price In 4th place was Farre , according to the FIM. So Farre moved up to the top class in 2017, the same year as Jack Price ?

Was there a junior championship when Bou was starting out ?

Well when the 242 came out my dad didn't sell Fantic. We did take 240 Fantics in part ex against new 242s. The montesa was thought to grip better. Personally I thought the Fantic forks, gearbox and clutch were better but as an all round package the mont certainly held its own.

Yes also called triple clamps. I think there is something about flex /leverage / deflection which isn't helped by a narrow triple clamp. Nobody copied it , let's put it that way

Only problem handling wise with the 200 was the narrow yokes montesa experimented with as far as I can remember. These were also fitted to the white 349. Later models of the 349 reverted to wider yokes. Not a bad bike at all and comparable to the 156 Fantic. @nigel dabster the 242 yokes were different again and I think the 242 was a much better all round bike. Similar power to 240 Fantic but it didn't stall as easy.

It does work with that tank you just need a very long pipe to go from the breather on your rear tank to the auxiliary tank. Lots of people used them at the SSDT. You'll need to remove the one way breather from under the mudguard.

It's not the spelling @perce it's trying to choose ! For atmosphere Lagnaha Monday and Ben Nevis on Saturday. For the actual riding I used to like Coire Dubh and Meal Nam Each but in recent years Meal Nam Each got beyond me. Rhubarb, forest gate, witches , Meal Chore Glais and whatever the first group was called after crossing Rannoch Moor, off the side of the track on the way to Glen Lyon. All great to ride although I cleaned most of them only once, polite folk wouldn't refer to it as a fluke!

Actually I think there's something in this although some of it is in the riders head. I went from a 250 to a 300 gas gas years ago and I couldn't chuck the 300 around like the 250. Some of it I think is just timing as the 300 was much quicker, some of it is confidence / nerves as if you are trying not to open the throttle too far then you end up trying to move the bike more physically. Can't argue that the actual weight will be almost exactly the same.

Anyone who thinks his clutch lever is on the right but finished the SSDT deserves respect ?. Probably very wise not to say he'd broke the brake lever then get filmed on the road. I think they tried to overplay the chances of being excluded in the last episode but probably just trying to make it a bit more dramatic for tv. Overall it was very good for Joe public. My colleagues at work now know what I was doing the first week of may a few years back.

@nigel dabster yes on std gearing you can use 4th on a TRS on a muddy climb, not sure it's the same as gas gas but lower than sherco

5 speed is just more of a comprise than 6. My 07 sherco at the ssdt was fast enough on the road but on the moors 5th was too high and 4th was too low. 4th couldn't be used in mud sections as it was too high. Gas gas / beta six speed box is better for long distance trials. However I never used 1st on my Beta so it's almost a five speed with a weight penalty but 5th 6th spacing was good. I've currently got a TRS with a 5 speed box. 4th and 5th are lower than the sherco. So I've got a usable 4th for sections and it will pull 5th on the moors. But guess what, it's a bit slower on the road.... Number of gears shouldn't determine the choice of bike in my view unless you do lots of long distance trials with muddy climbs needing 4th!

We all need something to aim for even in the modern pc world. Sport is about endeavour, challenge, achievement, friendship through adversity. Obviously given the range of ability even at centre level not everyone can get these things from a single event. So to answer the original question if the event doesn't provide what enough people want you get a poor entry. There's a multitude of other possible factors but it's a limited market from which to attract entries and it's in decline. After a summer of poor entries in the north east recent trials have got 100+ entries. Not easy trials and certainly challengeing terrain. Maybe some people protest about hard / long events but do them anyway.

@breagh Reeth 3 day, Scott trial, lakes two day, alwinton 2 day, Manx 2 day, loch lomond 2 day. All have around 200 entries. Whats wrong with entries at these events? Nothing. Local 4 lap 10 section trials are crap in comparison. Nothing to aim for nothing to train for no atmosphere no sense of achievement.