bikespace

Yep - forgot all about this thread. I uploaded them to the Trial Reviews section last night, while I was still in the Cann Office. I did try to upload to the results section of Trials Central but it's been so long I don't have my log in details, I need to sort my act out. Results in this thread: Trials Reviews Thread

Forgot to mention, the TV crews were there today, their aim to get 12 minutes of footage for a clip in their popular Ralio show. I know there were at least 3 crews climbing all sorts of weird and wonderful places to get the shots. Watch out for it a week on Thursday on S4C Ralio (Foreigners will have to search for S4C on sky :-) )

Need a different weekend, clashed with our Novogar. I'm dying to get up to that neck of the woods again some time. I'll manage to get my fat butt up there some time

I know it sounds daft, but are you using high octane unleaded (like vmax). Makes hell of a difference from regular unleaded. Just a thought. I thought mine was on the way out, when I had a can full of it.

Thanks very much for everyone that helped out today, it really was a great effort all round, not just within the centre (although we had people from every club in the centre helping out today) but from elsewhere offering to observe. It's great once all the effort has gone in to marking out not to have to scrimp around too much for observers. Nice number of riders to be able to manage moving observers over from one side to the other. Big thank you to everyone involved, it makes it worthwhile! P.S. If you passed Pez's van down that single track path, it's still there except now its up to its axles and tipping slightly towards the 200ft drop. A job for tomorrow and a big John Deere Oooops!

Yeah it's pretty slippy up front, I've given myself a complex trying to scrub the sections off over the past few weeks, ending up on me a*** all the time

Sorry James, I was busy yesterday, but presume you got sorted

Provisional results, not added the Novogar eligibility yet, so doesn't reflect points. I'll update that bit as soon as I get confirmation. Powys_Trophy_Trial_2010sorted.pdf

Provisional entry list for Sept 5th. Please let me know on here if you see any problems, so that we can sort them out with the secretary before the programs are made up. Cheers, Gaz

Comb your hair boys, we've just heard the S4C TV crew are turning up on Sunday to film some of the Novogar. Howard Davies who rides along with his lad at many local trials is bringing them along. Some of you will have seen his previous coverage of a local Welsh trial. So for those of you who don't get S4C locally, get S4C found on those Sky boxes! I'll try to find out when it's going to be on.

Replaced the regs with new ones. Forms updated too, obviously those sent in already will be fine. I'll make sure people are made very aware on the day it's non stop

Doh - you spotted one of my mistakes. Yep - it's TSR 22B non stop. I'm not taking the entries, but it's always first in last away. I'll upload new regs now.

I think you've probably gauged it spot on. \i know within the call ccenters the message really is to help the customer, think of yourself as the customer etc etc. There's no underhand work going on in ours (as far as I know). The idea is a happy customer will come back. Not the banks words, but mine - You can shear a sheep many times, but you'll only skin it once. The trouble is, and you're right again, if some poorly paid bloke or lass is given a bonus for selling payment insurtance, he's going to try to slot it in there. He wants to feed his family. What's the alternative? Higher paid customer service staff. The first time something like the credit crunch comes along, some bright spark spots a massive potential saving - outsource these jobs to India (South America is next, India is becoming expensive and eventually the people that make the decisions are realising the poor level of service loses customers). Vote with your feet, complain about poor service, but try to pass on thanks for good service (although it should be expected). It's the way the blind bosses get to see who is really making a difference. By the way, this is not too close to me, I just fix networks and see these poor feckers day in day out. Although I've just been outsourced too, and our new company has big plans for what is no longer called "Off-shoring", it is now called "Best-Shoring" - hmmm best for who?

The banks are an easy target for people who've read a few tabloids. The people at the top who caused (or failed to spot and stop) the crash are in a lot of cases long gone. They bought millions of pounds/dollars of shares at rock bottom and are now lying on a caribbean beach somewhere sipping their cocktails. The 4500 people in a chicken coup (If you're lucky in the UK) that answer your calls and deal with your accounts for just above minimum wage aren't exactly raking it in. They've been hit as hard as most (except the ones that have lost their jobs). Streamlining, pay cuts, outsourcing to India/Mexico/Costa Rica or just plain simple redundancy has hit hard too and many have seen their jobs exported because of the toffs that killed it. The banks weren't just handed money, the government bought stock in most of them at rock bottom share prices, and will continue to reep the benefits as they sell off those shares as the banks come out of the slump. RBS - One of the governments bigger bail outs - January 09 share price

Mid Wales Novogar coming up = 5th September Usual location, great bit of land. Same piece of land that's used for the popular Forest Trophy Trial, with some extra bits that we can't use for the Forest Trophy as we have to get the Sportsman route round it. Regs and Entry below. I'll put some more details on www.trialspace.co.uk nearer the time, but if you've got any questions give me a shout. As always, observers always very welcome on bikes or not. Most sections within a hundred yards or so of your cars. Some (fairly minor) road work involved, so under 17 year olds please don't apply - as always you're very welcome to bring your bike, observe a section for us, then fill yer boots on the sections once the entry has come round. Extra 30 minutes this year as it's been a little tight on occasions, but please remember, the Novogar is a little quicker pace than a normal club trial, so keep with it. 40 sections spread over about 24 miles. A great ride out, and with some prize money this year. See regs for details. Someone just pointed out that the 125 class is not just for under 21's this year, although the note is still on the regs at the moment. I'll change it as soon as I get chance. (Cheers Billy). Any other adjustments to the regs will be updated on here and on our website, so please keep your eyes peeled. Novogar_Regs_and_Entry_2010b.pdf

God help us? Sounds great, where do I sign?

I was interested to see what my 13 year old lad said without prompting him. First things he said were: "What is it, an old Sherco?", "Is it new? it looks old fashioned", "Hmmm...not sure, it looks a bit strange to me" Harsh words from the novice eye, but if a bike's to take off it's got to look the part.

It's a regular question, and generally everybody sings the praises of their own machines. Nobody has done it so far, but anybody that says any one of them is rubbish is generally talking rubbish. I think he's really got to try to get a ride of them all and see which he prefers. He's going to find a big difference in power from the 280, a lot more clutch and revs needed. Different riding style really. If you get a good one, none of them will be disappointing.

Just uploaded a batch of photos to our website (well Flickr but linked from our website). Jack Parker didn't turn up this year. I suspect he's not too well. Thanks to Mike Spence for these photos anyway.

Bit late getting them on here so apologies. I took on the entries this year, and sorting the results out, and with the fun trial on the Monday too, I was under pressure a bit. Well, Sagar did me over this year and managed to clean the whole damned thing, although he nearly had a dab on my section, one of the easiest of the trial, while he was showboating Well done to him. I've been looking at the results generally, and maybe with the weather being so good it turned out slightly easier than usual for some classes. Notably the over 40's are right up there on the yellow route. Maybe we need yet another class - Over 40 Inters :-) Well probably not, we've already got 15 classes so we can only go so far. Gwynedd Jones pulled out a corking ride this year on the expert route, where did he come from? Crept up while everybody was napping, well done mate. Darren Williams in third seems determined to win it, but the Expert trophy has eluded him so far. Bradley Cox takes Youth Expert, really tight with Iwan Roberts, who kept giving the single dabs away on the last card. Carl Baker just pipped the Inter route, and with it took the trophy for best ride on the Green route. Jack Savage will be gutted, winning up to the last section, then got it wrong and had a 5, throwing it away, and lucky to take 2nd on most cleans. Brad Bullock looking good on the Youth A's to take the win, and just missing out on that Green route trophy on most cleans. Adult clubman is where it seemed a little on the easy side (yellow route), and we ended up with four riders on 11 marks but it will stay the same for them, we'll try to coax some riders on to the Inter route :-) Over 40's again on the yellow route had some low marks, but there's some tidy ex experts in there so it's to be expected. Mike Leddy just losing one mark all day there on one of my favourite sections, the last in the second group, real natural stream section which changes every time the water pressure gets up. I was a little worried when I saw the Triumph twin and Ariel 350 on the yellow route, but it looks like I underestimated the riders, Rob Bowyer and Chris Gascoigne mixing it with the top over 40's and Clubman riders on their modern bikes, and beating the lighter pre-65 machines. The Twinshock Yellow class is a good old fight too with some decent ex experts, Phil Houghton and Steve Martin heading it up, but 5 riders in close contention. Maybe a twinshock Inter route would be good here. Once you've had a 5 it's hard to claw it back on the yellow route, but wet weather like we had on the Saturday marking out would change things totally. Well we couldn't have had better weather for it, and it stayed around for the time and observation trial on the Monday, then even better it absolutely chucked it down on Tuesday as I went back to work. Now that's quality! :-) Forest Trophy Results 2010

I certainly wouldn't use more than 75:1 in a modern Sherco. Use a decent oil like Comp 2 plus and 80:1 is spot on. I would run at 100:1 without worrying too much either. Do more harm than good running too much oil, runs hotter, clogs your silencer up with goo. I've still got my 04 Sherco 290 and 05 Sherco 80, no new rings, never been cracked open, had a damned good hammering, and never missed a beat. Mine's one of the most reliable I've seen - if you forget about the time I left half my carb at home on the bench :-)

Well after all the techy talk I feel a bit insignificant asking about fuel, but are you using high octane stuff or just standard unleaded? I was surprised how much of a difference it made to mine. Really does pink sometimes on regular unleaded. Just a thought.

Doh - Guilt trip. Our web site had a major problem towards the end of last year. I actually lost the domain trialspace.co.uk because of a hopeless hosting company who disappeared off the face of the earth. I had to jump through all sorts of hoops with Nominet to get the domain back and I've moved now to one of the biggest hosting providers to avoid it in the future. Buy cheap - pay twice! I PROMISE I'll get it updated as soon as I can, mad busy with work at the moment. Yes, as far as I know the Forest Trophy will be on around the end of May bank holiday weekend. We're trying to get a meeting together after our club trial on 21st March and I'll get the regs sorted out from there, likely to be available end of March/early April. Cheers, Gaz

Not sure if you're getting it mixed up with the Forest Trophy trial at the end of May. The Forest Trophy is ours and usually has the Monday fun trial, and in previous years a Saturday Trial nearby. I think the Welsh Trophy trial is a one day job, which included sidecars in previous years? Not sure who's running it, I'll try to find out.

There wasn't a Pro in 2001, they came out in 2002. So either it's at least a 2002 or its just the previous model (which although less high tech, were I think more sturdy. I'll leave someone else to tell you what it's going to cost you to sort, I really don't know. If it was more money I'd say don't bother at all. If it's the 2002 pro, in my view the bike was a dog, changed drastically the following year to make it fit for purpose. Edit: I suppose there was a Pro model in 2001, it was the 2002 model which came out at the end of 2001. Same applies above.