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Doh - that's my bit. Been marking out all day today - got the rider list off the secretary though and hope to get it typed up tomorrow. The list on the web will be provisional because if we get any late entries, we'll slip them in at the front right up to the point where I get the programs printed (probably Thursday or Friday night). 8 hours walking through streams today, some good stuff generally same as last year with the odd tweak, and obviously the water flow throughout the year always changes things anyway. Fair bit of easing off some of the sections today. Generally when we mark out, the natural tendancy is to mark out a section that gives an average expert a fair test. When you go round them checking them in quick succession, you start to realise, oh that's a tough one, oh so is that, errr and that one, oops that one too, so normally we will ease the odd few off again, so the lower half of the entry aren't killed off. I've ridden most of them, in fact I think all of them except the big waterfall, which I didn't fancy on Elwyns bike as it's a bit slippy. Built a dam to change the waterflow to scrub it off a bit, and I'll give it a scrubbing on Thursday. All set to go - still looking for observers if anyone out there fancies one, or even two if you want an early and late one. At least with under 60 entries, you shouldn't have to be there much over 2 hours. Anybody riding, remember that our time is always very ridable, but you can't take your time. Time's the same as the last few years and the course is the same. Need to keep the pressure on a bit at the start. Riders who aren't used to Novogar pace (quick look then ride) usually panic a bit towards the middle. The last 10 sections being in one long stream sort of helps usually, as they go by quite quickly, but keep an eye on the clock.

If anybody fancies a ride out on Sunday, we've got the usually quality stream sections up there in the hills. Contact Jean or Elwyn Williams on 01691 828330 before Wednesday when I do the program. A little bit disappointed at the entry, just under 60 I think, but it probably adds to the weight of the argument to add a second route to the Novogar for next year. Although I was never totally in agreement, I think it may push us that way. It's a shame to do all the work for a small entry. I reckon it must be up in the order of 20-25 man days to clear out and mark out, not to mention the admin side of things. For those that have ridden it, I think most would say it's worth a go. Lastly, if we have any observers out there that fancy a ride out on Sunday, please get in touch, same number above - bring your bike, you're welcome to play around the section before and after the riders - they'll be glad of you scrubbing off the rocks :-) Most sections are reachable via car, or we could even get you transported from the start at the Cann Office pub if you like That's observers only I have to add, we can't afford to have non-officials riding around the course.

Just to bring in a more optimistic note - we've got more land than you can shake a sh|tty stick at, and if I fancy a practice, I have at least 4 or 5 areas that I could go to fairly locally. One small problem we have is that if we start wandering off in to the hills, we're getting a little too far from home for the city slickers, and the numbers go right down. Seemed different when I was younger, but I think maybe it's still the same in other parts of Britain. I would imagine that the more rural locations like Holgate (think my memory serves me right) are still popular. We've not used a couple of bits of land this year, just because there hasn't been a right time for it. I suppose with a couple of days marking out and a day clearing up, the fuel costs are making a difference. Would be a shame to lose land just because we get out of the habit of using it. I remember every farmer used to have a TY175 that would come out at a weekend. Most riders seem to work in the city/towns down here. In summary - the land is where the riders aren't. One day we may have the biggest entries because people will have to travel - if they can afford the diesel/hydrogen.

I know I've mentioned it before, but I have good reason to, so I'll do it again. I first bought Trialcast pegs in the very early days, I think when they were almost prototype. I reckon I'm about as heavy duty as a bike is likely to suffer - yep I've seen bigger blokes (though not many) but not trying to slog their way round expert routes and the drops it can involve. Even being in the over 18 stone club, it's taken me a while to kill my suspension, but I've managed it, took me a while to snap the subframe, but managed that too from a drop off where my butt came down on the mudguard, bent the frame, bent the silencer. The bike's slid down rock faces, bounced off rock outcrops. But....the footpegs remain sturdy and I can't rate them highly enough. I'm not linked in any way to Trialcast - I have met the bloke (at Hawkstone) and that only added to my support for them - a great bloke who runs a small foundry (well it might not be that small actually - not sure) but has an interest in trials and decided he could do things better, and intends at some point to actually make a small profit out of the trials side of things, rather than supporting it with his real work Also a TrialsCentral supporter, so if you're going to get some new ones, have a look at the Trialcast ones at least. Trialcast HERE P.S. Anybody want to buy a Sherco 290 - One careful owner

I love this line: "Since I have been unsuccessful to locate any of my late client's relatives for over three (2) years now" Dunno why, just tickled me Not too sure is he

Is it always grabbing, or just when it's cold?

I don't remember a dry trial. I think we had one in May, although that could have been a new set of waterproofs which just gave me the impression of a dry trial

BVM can't be too far away from you? (Stroud) Have you tried them for your oils?

Regs are available for the Mid Wales Novogar round on 21st September. Using the same ground as our Forest Trophy Trial, plus some of the streams we can't use normally. I know I may be biassed, but it's great trials country. Novogar series aimed at any Centre experts, most Inters, and even some of the sturdier Novices have a go at ours. Don't get me wrong, it will be hard going for those Inter, and below but ask those that have ridden it - it's a sensible ride. There are some great sections in there, very little of the daunting stuff that can creep in to Novogar on the odd occasion. Make a trip over and enjoy a decent ride out. Drop any questions on here and I'll try to get them answered. novogar_21_sept_2008.pdf

Good stuff - try to keep it on the back wheel as much as possible then eh!

Clutch thing is fairly common, and i think sometimes you either get one that always clears or one that doesn't. My 290 I can guarantee is always clear, but my lads 80 I always have to jump on and run it with the brakes on until it free's. They've been treated exactly the same and with the same oil etc. Does get better when used more though. Has it been sat around a fair bit? I'll leave the guru's to help you out with the warm starting problem, but the standard things for me which may help you out if you don't do them already: I whip the carb off every week, becomes a 10-15 minute job. Drop the float bowl off and blow it out - the 14mil spanner you use to get the main jet off balances nicely across the float guides, stops the floats flying off while you give it a blast with compressor - amazing how far you can get them to fly otherwise Blow out all the jets Once every 2 or 3 times, I take off the inlet 'banjo connector' and clean the filter out. My lad strips the bikes off on a Monday after they've been washed, at some point during the week I wash out the airbox, and slip the filters in with a white wash , then it's just 15 minutes to shove them back together once it's all dried naturally. Change plug every couple of months, at a couple of quid it's not even worth cleaning them. Does it run nice and crisp for the rest of the time?

That's a damned good point. You see many old timers around who've never been above half throttle, then spend all week pottering round the garage, blinging it up for next week. I dunno who put this link in but it's obviously got nothing to do with this thread

yeah - good point. For the sake of 60 quid I might give it a go though. Thanks for the offer by the way Dabster, you're too generous by half - I may well come back to you if I come unstuck

How broken is it? Obviously the cleanest method will be if you can get hold of a second hand one from someone, but you could look at getting it welded if it's a possibility.Post a picture of the break maybe? Dunno what area you're in so don't know if we could suggest someone to look at it.

If you're just replacing it because it's unreliable, it may be worth looking at those reasons more extensively (if you haven't already). I have an 04 290 and an 05 80 and couldn't really imagine more reliable machines. Obviously there are problems from time to time, but generally from physical bashing than any failure on Sherco's part. I've got no particular illigence to Sherco, I'm fairly open minded, not in to bashing a bike just because I own a different one. I used to have gripes with GasGas but it was long ago and I know they sorted the problems I had. I do feel that the Sherco motor, and especially gearbox is slightly more sturdy that the Gasser. Let us know what your existing problems are anyway.

Looks like real tie downs might not be long enough to go all the way round the underneath of the pickup truck like these ropes do

Thanks Cope, it does ring a bell now. I've been away in Scotland all weekend so not had chance to do anything yet. Unfortunately, on my return I opened the garage to find that scumbag thieves had not bothered to steal my Sherco, so I'll have to sort something this week I'll give Ian at Trickbits a ring and see what he can do. Cheers

I'm sure scrubbing the section would probably be the official answer, but I still think changing the score of rider B to zero (the more likely score) would have exactly the same effect on the top two riders as scrubbing the section, but without affecting the whole of the rest of the field. The scrubbing the section method seems to be cracking a walnut with a sledgehammer. Exactly the same result, plus upheaval of the whole of the rest of the entry, so the question is "Why would you?" What I want to know is: Was my method against the rules? I've checked through them and I can't even decide myself, although I'd be happy to stand up and fight the battle I'm pretty certain I wouldn't have scrapped the section, although I'm probably taking in to account that I would probably not come up against an observer as awkward as your hypothetical one, and would expect to be able to negotiate around it.

Two ****ing days to come up with that. You can go back to work now

Well I'll be saying you should have listened to me yesterday, and adjusted his marks But....at this point you have

I wouldn't say he's tampering with scores, he's just refused to score a rider. If he'd given the rider two 5's (or any mark other than two 0's) then I agree with your decision. The fact that scrubbing the section has the same effect on these two riders as altering rider B's score to the highly likely two 0's made me alter his marks rather than scrubbing the section. With 97% of riders cleaning the section, and the observer admitting wrong scoring, and the top rider claiming two cleans, I'll go for "Beyond reasonable doubt" and change the score to two cleans. Just to complicate things, we'll probably get to the point that we decide that the Clerk of Course can't alter the scores, he can only get the observer to alter the scores if a mistake was made. I'm still going with the common sense approach, my assistant (the observer) has let me down. I'm correcting the scores and not looking too carefully at whether I'm really allowed to do it or not However, I don't believe I've got an observer who dislikes me enough to put me in this awkward position. I would be pointing out what an awkward position it puts me in, and asking if he would possibly consider correcting the score on this occasion. I'm trying to think of someone pissy enough to leave me in the sh|t like that, but can't at the moment.

I've thought long and hard about it, and my decision would be based on these facts: 1. The observer has admitted that a mistake was made with the scores. Mistake may not seem the right wording, but the correct score was not marked, whatever the reason. 2. The rider has already stated that he had 2 cleans, which at this point is more accurate than what the observer originally reported. 3. If the section is scrubbed, the result at the top is the same as if rider B is given 2 cleans, so rider B is going to take the win either way. Decision: Rider B score corrected to 2 cleans as observer has admitted wrong scoring. I'd be happy to stand up to that decision, although I'm sure you could justify scrubbing the section if you wished. I see no reason to disrupt other riders scores though if there is no indication that theirs would be wrong.

Dabster - as always, very generous. PM me if you're thinking of selling it. Just let me know the price. I really have no idea what these reiger's are worth, but I know damn well I can trust you. Is there a spring on it? Was it fitted to a Sherco already? I have to admit I don't want to over spend on the bike, not because I want to skimp on it particularly, but my 04 I would say is worth about a grand these days. I'd probably be fairly dumb to spend half of that again on new suspension, but I'll have to decide that yet. I actually stripped it off last night - where the powder coating on the spring had got damaged, the water had got in there and the spring was really rusted up, even though it looked pretty good from the outside. Well it looked like it was hanging on by a thread somehow, and when I took the spring off it just fell in two, so I was lucky I had any suspension left at all towards the end of the trial. What I could do with now is some knowledge of the damper itself. What should I expect to see/feel with the damper. If I compress the damper, it feels fairly smooth, and there is definitely a fair bit of resistance. I didn't expect it to push back out on it's own - i.e. there is some pressure forcing the damper to extend (although still damped). How do I tell if the damper is duff while off the bike? Sorry - I have no experience with monoshock dampers at all, so don't be afraid to teach me to suck eggs, you won't be. What I'm thinking at the moment, is that if I get one of these uprated springs I can maybe re-use the old damper, but even if I can't the uprated spring will be used anyway on a new damper.

My strange sense of humo(u)r which I think was lost in translation

John Collins is on the case. Will come back to us as soon as poss. i did say it wasn't too urgent, as we've not known for years