collyolly

Hi TTSpud I am getting bored now but what trials had entries of 450 ? I wish you would stop throwing around questionable facts without backing them up, you admit to not being a competitor, not riding on the road, yet you still keep banging on about fairness in competition when you have an unfair advantage over other new riders to your class ( original ) when you have the use of an ex works bike ( ie modified over the standard otherwise it's not ex works is it ? ) that you have not had to pay for ! I wish I had your advantages.

Hello TTSpud Have you been to watch a S.M. trial ? I have ridden the Talmag for the last few years and I can assure you the sections are not a lot different, any difference is down to the sandy ground, the sections are not any easier or longer. (Easy and hard route) I ride a modified big pre unit on the harder route at S.M. trials and as my previous post I feel some of the sections are now getting a bit too much for me which is why I have proposed the third 50/50 style route. I rode the Talmag a couple of years ago when it rained all day, that was a hard day out ! So bear in mind whatever the organisers lay out for us Mother Nature will still get involved.

The earlier question by Petorius is probably spot on, the road aspect is certainly a major factor which is why I imagine a way forward would be to include some off road only trials in the series, it would certainly highlight the problem if those trials got larger entries. Down here in the South east there are no road trials at all, so if you want to have a go at the S.M. or Scottish you have to go out and get road legal otherwise you could just continue to ride most weekends off road only. The younger competitor down here (and that means probably anyone under 40 ) does not I imagine have a road licence as the process was tightened up and if you do not ride a bike to work you would certainly not need one for trials. Up north the situation may be different, perhaps they ride road trials as a norm but not down here

My previous post with regard to help sort out the 'originals' fair competition situation ( which only TTSpud appears to believe exists ) was really aimed at giving him the opportunity to jump in and give something to the sport and be recognised for it. Instead of taking the initiative and putting himself forward he appears to have twisted my suggestion round and still puts the work onto the trials organisers on the day, this will never happen, in fact if that was the situation suggested by the ACU for the S.M. series I imagine organisers would rather not get involved. Now in today's post it transpires that he does not even ride in the S.M. series so why is he involving himself in the potential changes, I have ridden my pre-unit in the series on the hard route and must say that the events I have competed in have been superb. Now to the really weird bit, in the last post a clip of 1950's trials can be viewed, very interesting but totally irrelevant to the discussion, the whole passage about huge trials entries (450, really ? when and where was that and would you want to sit in that queue ? ) huge sections , going down the road to find another gate with another load of huge sections, what is being discussed here is certainly not the trials I want to get involved in or have ever heard about and I have been actively riding for 40 years. I hope the S.M. series continues, with a few simple tweeks I think it will and I look forward to riding it not talking about it !

I believe I have the answer to the 'Original and unmodified' bikes competing on a level playing field in a national championship such as the Sammy Miller series. All it needs is an enthusiastic co-ordinator who is prepared to set up the process and run it. The system would run as follows 1/. Advertise a new series for original bikes to be run alongside the existing competition 2/. Any competitor wishing to compete in this series forwards their details to the co-ordinator using a standard application form as per pre 65 Scottish, this will cover all necessary aspects of the machine including a documenting set of photos 3/ A list of registered riders and machines would be circulated to all interested parties ( little chance of fiddle bikes being used if there is a group of interested competitors involved in the monitoring ) 4/ After each event the results will be forwarded to the Originals Co-ordinator who will then pick out the registered riders and prepare their results sheet and keep the championship table up-dated The above gives no extra work to the trials organisers, no scrutinering is required as it is done in advance and if modifications are seen and reported the rider can be removed from the series. Obviously this is a simplification of the necessary work involved but it does I believe solve all of this groups problems, just got to get it started !

I do not think there is a problem with twin shocks in the S.M. series, as has been said many times above a lightly modified pre 65 ( yes you read correct, modified, after all it's only a frame and forks with an engine, the rest is basically cosmetic ) has no disadvantage and often is better. Even the class system does not need major changes, I believe just a simple correction of the section allocation to give a larger spread of difficulty to match the riders ability and bike. (Effectively 3 routes rather than the current 2 as per last weekends SWCTA ) It's all down to the 'Clerk of course' , make it too hard and the big bikes suffer make it too easy and why travel for 5 hours for a wobble round.

In my opinion the whole original bike argument is totally flawed, just riding in the current era means we all use soft 'sticky' tires, the grip levels compared to the 1960's means sections can and are plotted on a totally different level. As soon as you start saying that modern shocks, tires, handlebars, levers, twist grips, rubbers, let's face it the list is endless, you will not have an original bike. All clubs face the dilemma on the day of finding enough help to man the sections, sign on the riders and ensure the event is safe without the ridiculous task of checking machine eligibility and then to possibly have the task of advising Mr Trials competitor who has driven for 4 or 5 hours to participate that even though he/she has ridden in that class all season you have decided that the thingy on his whatsit is the wrong side of 1965 I have ridden the Talmag the last few years and one of their stipulations is no electronic ignition, that's one trial a year that mentions it, never heard of anyone being turned away but have seen plenty of new style BTH mags there ! We all know the situation with regard to modifications has gone too far so let's all ride as 'specials' and leave the original enthusiasts to count rivets.

Hi all, just got back from the S.W.C.T.A. 2 day in the West Country , what a fantastic couple of days sport, not even spoiled by the torrential rain on the first day (observers may not agree !) For the first time we had 3 routes to give us a choice of severity, 2 complete routes then a third made up of a 50/50 mix of the two. This means a limited amount of additional work for the organisers but gave me, a rider of a pre unit the chance to ride some harder sections together with the usual tricky runs through the streams. From this my suggestion would be a simple one to keep the interest going - 1/ Gentle men's route for the main pre 65 class and the less experianced twin shock rider 2/ Star route for the expert pre 65 rider and expert twin shock 3/ 50 / 50 route for the pre 65 and twin shock rider wanting a challenge but not a broken bike ! ( although I must say the whole hard route looked very sensible this weekend but you never know how these are going to ride and it's a long way to travel for a struggle round if the trial is pitched specifically to take marks off the expert twin shocks as I feel the Sammy series has become ) We have been operating the multi route system in the south east centre for many years at group trial level and it is very successful The problem with breaking down the classes into capacities is that you will turn up an event and find you are the only rider in the class ! A few years ago we had to bundle all of the pre 65 classes ( there were - pre unit, unit, 2 stroke and rigid ) with the twin shocks just to get a compeditive group in our area so let's not go down the route of multi class, just get the severity of the sections right and I will ride my pre unit against any other old bike.

I would have thought that this forum would have been a good place to get opinions and experience relating to the S.M. series but to suggest that this is all sorted out and a sensible report prepared by Monday ( no date, so one assumes from the way the offer reads its next Monday i.e. 5th Sept ) I am afraid appears a bit of a non starter. I and 115 other classic enthusiasts are away this weekend at the S.W.C.T.A. Dartmoor 2 day trial ( I believe an A.C.U. event ! ) I did get the survey e-mailed to me and I did post a reply.

When did riders start using the clutch all the time, look at period photos of Rathmel ,Lampkin, Birkett and all the other aces and it was all about throttle control not ultra tight turns. As has been said above trials has changed and the requirements of the engines also, now more important to get a light clutch, or stronger fingers !

Great to see someone young 'doing something practical' rather that playing on a xxxxxxx X Box ! Keep it up

I seem to remember that Mick Grant modified a cub to use the gearbox as the engine oil supply, so change it regularly and I am sure your Miller tank will be fine. How much oil does a modern Honda 4RT have ?

Could you not take a smidge off the sides of the shock with an angle grinder ? Give us a photo of the shock, once modified and mounted you will never think about it again !

Think back to the early ty250 monos, they went virtually unchanged for about 5 years and Yamaha sold loads of them. They were the clubmans favourite, were never campaigned at world level but must have changed the sport more than any other bike.

Look at the condition of the slide, there is a small peg on the side that wears and can cause a jam. Old bike ,old carb they don't last long anyway !

Pipe to the reservoir is not a pressure line, all it does is keep the master cylinder topped up as the pads wear and the Pistons move forward. A leak from this line will not give you a problem with brake performance.

You don't feel any play in the swing arm ? So if you lift the rear of the bike up the swing arm does not drop at all ? Mine is a 2014 with recent replacement bearings and the arm still drops by at least a couple of mm so I think your very lucky, I am sure most are not that good from new.

Not if you are a youngster limited to 125cc ! In the U.K. the Beta may well be a good bike but a school person will not be able to ride it in proper trials.

Try 'Modern Screws' in Bexley for your North Kent fasteners

Did Raga really five section 6 twice when the rest of the top 7 got all cleans ? Surely something is not right here, he cannot have mis read the section at his level, I thought it was only me that missed gates !

If it cannot pull the higher gears there is no point changing it for faster roadwork, suggest you get a bigger bike or one more suitable for your needs. Don't kill a classic, it was not designed for the road.

Congrats to the organisers of the Cotswolds cups trial, what a fantastic days sport, superb sections a great ride round and fantastic weather, if all the Miller rounds are as good as this then I would do more. I rode the hard route and it was not dangerous or scary just spot on with a couple of harder ones to sort the results, brilliant.

I am in the south east of England (although I can't see what my location has to do with someone else's comment on a subject ) I obviously cannot drive this site very well as I cannot find any referance to location perhaps you could enlighten me and probably others as well. Kind regards

Where is over here ? If there are none how does your dealer have an opinion ?

This has got to be the best wind up by 'dadof' so far, if he has to ask why we can't have 7 Euro trials in the U.K. he has absolutely no idea how the running of our sport works. Start by doing an A.C.U. trials return and you will soon see where a large proportion of the money goes, then go and find out how much it's going to cost to rent the venue and you have your answer. As I said in a previous post the entry fees are cheap and it's about time we all got real, these costs even apply to practice days unless of course you have your own venue and don't want any form of insurance and then of course you are not riding 'Trials' you are just riding around.