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That's good Showed my wife.............and gave her a sneering look

After riding my KTM 640 around the Novogar route last week with bald road tyres on, I reckon it's on. The grass was dodgy, but mud surprisingly good. Lower gearing needed as the single cylinder thud thud thud didn't help me setting off. Now to find some enduro wheels for it. Just out of interest, does anybody get away with using something like a Dunlop Mutant or am I p%ssing in the wind, nobblies only?

I rang Rathmell, but he said they only do blue bikes new. He'did say he had a load of red second hand trade-ins I might be able to make a runner out of

You're not North Korean are you? You wouldn't need the long range ones if you moved in eh? No, I'm in Lancashire U.K. but my neighbours are a mad scientist (no really he is, he's a physicist and he's genuinly bonkers) and his bargain basement russian wife. You get what you pay for, she is 60, very fat, like 30 stone, very ugly, cant cook, can't speak much english and physically pushes him around, she even knocked him to the floor once when he didnt agree with her. Dont get me started. I paid nothing for mine There's a joke there somewhere I think this is probably one for the anything goes section - admin's do your stuff

You're not North Korean are you? You wouldn't need the long range ones if you moved in eh?

Yeah like 4th's an option, what you running 5 teeth on the front or 84 on the back?

I would liken it to Skoda Nowadays I think they're pretty much the same as all the rest of the manufacturers. They had a bad patch a few years ago - 2002 in particular and they're just getting over that. you're going to get a bad one every now and then, same as most manufacturers, but generally no problems.

I think the first thing is not to think of it so much as hopping the back end as getting it to stand on the front end for a sec while you move the back end around Sounds a bit strange but you don't have to put too much effort in to the back end just concentrate on your weight going forward to the bars just after you've compressed the rear end. If you practice your endo's you can concentrate on the twist afterwards. Little bit of pressure (a jump) on the back end, then as it comes back up, front brake on and weight pushing on the bars.

Who the hell buys your old bikes K? Or do you convert them back to standard? Library photo below:

Got any piccies?

Results for todays Novogar - was a bit slippy in places, looking like the water was going to be a problem at one point but it held off for us. Eased a few of the sections off this morning, and I think some of the entry were glad of it. I thought the winner would be on about 10-15. I was pretty amazed that Ross managed to go round on 2 marks. That was a special ride. I don't think the trial is any easier since the likes of Tom Sagar were winning it on around 12-15 marks. Time was quite tight, but the first half of the trial was running pretty slowly for some reason this year. Only a few people penalised on time, so I reckon the time limit is likely to stay the same for next year (if we get one), but we'll look at it and we're open to comments. How did it go for you? Too hard, too easy. If you're going to tell us too hard or too easy give us an idea what position you were in so we get a feel for it. No names needed, just general area. Results in brief format: Sept_Novogar_results_macro.pdf Results section by section Sept_Novogar_results_macro_sections.pdf

I've had the unfortunate affliction of continuing to grow throughout the whole of my first 40 years. Many's the time I've cried myself to sleep at night wishing that like you I'd stopped growing aged 10 In my dreams I just see trials bikes and Peter Pan, and the mudguards aren't scraping the wheels.

Latest update - After consultation with the land owners and farmers (one of whom is a vet) the unanimous decision is to go ahead with the trial. Spraying will be in place. Dirty bikes will be put back on the trailer at the Pub (start area). Probably an unusual venue where most of the land is forestry. You get just as close to the farm land when you drive up the A458. Great consideration given to this and if any of the land owners had any concerns it would be a different story.

Still on unless something big happens between now and then. And yep, we will call everyone who's put a number on their entry forms as well as notify people on Trials Central if there is any change in situation. Just finishing making the programs tonight, full day finishing off up the mountain tomorrow and we're ready to go.

Have a trip over to our Novogar on Sunday. bring yer bike if you fancy observing. You can have a potter round the sections before the riders turn up. I can map you out an all off road route with some brilliant scenery Guilt trip bit: I do sympathise with you, I know how much it takes to set up, we've been dreading any F&M news as I don't think ours would be re-run if cancelled, we'd just have to cry as we went round picking the flags up. Good that it's not a real case of F&M anyway.

Just buy the land, get 2 sheep and if anyone asks your using the trials bike to round them up Oh come on - get real, who's gonna milk them for the rest of the week? You've just not thought this out. Yep - sorry, Strongbow again. I'll get me coat.

Too late to make a difference??? Quote Reuters: LONDON (Reuters) - Tests for a suspected case of foot and mouth disease at a farm in central England have proved negative and controls on animal movements in the area have been lifted, the government said on Thursday. A "temporary control zone" was set up around a farm at Solihull, near Birmingham, on Wednesday after animals displayed possible symptoms of foot and mouth. But a spokeswoman for the agriculture ministry said the tests were negative and the restrictions on animal movements had now been lifted.

You aren't talking about this fella are yer? **** me that photo has had some use. If I could remember who snapped that I'd break his index finger That of course was before I became beautiful (and put on even more weight). I thought he was talking about me for a while too. I've not dropped to novice route yet though, but it does seem to be coming up to meet me. The over 40's are calling It definitely can help Spud as long as your arms and lungs are capable of keeping the weight in the right area. You'll notice that in the photo above my arms and lungs have managed to concentrate the weight in the area above my belt, and some around the jowels. I remember one Novogar trial (I think maybe the Victory) where all of our riders had failed a muddy bank (last section in a sticky wood that you go over a foot bridge as you go in, if anyone remembers it). Nobody could get any grip at the bottom of the bank. I was fancying 3rd gear, but all our lads were coaxing me to rev its nuts off in 4th and let the clutch out. I hate wringing it's neck, but as a special request I thought what the hell and gave it a go, full throttle, fed the clutch out, the bike gripped like a JCB and ground to a halt. 19 stone holds it down On the plus side the tyre I took off just before the Manx had a dog turd in it that I put in last year on the Manx. If it don't spin it don't wear out On the negative side I'll probably die before the skinny bloke despite having enjoyed getting there . Unless that skinny bloke was the one that took the photo above

Still on at the moment. If there's any change, I'll get it on here as soon as I know, and I'm sure we'll be splitting the entry forms up and ringing around if that point comes. If it still goes ahead make sure the bikes are spotless.

Here you go, found it - i think courtesy of the R2W crew: Clicky Here Number 11. Bit big, but worth looking at.

Have you seen the GasGas videos? Have a search around. There's a group of videos showing full strip down and reassembly. Someone will pipe up with the link I should think.

what a load of boll0cks Another well formulated answer straight from the blarney stone. What's your reason for disregarding someone elses view so strongly, he even says "I think....", Beta owner perhaps? Oh yeah. He's even owned both of them, have you had either of the recent 125's? As his views seem to be specific to the 125 rather than the bikes in general. Most people don't mind a bit of a Mickey take, but you've not got the wit to do it, so you resort to this crud. To my memory you've been one of the biggest %&^$ers on here and you've proved it again. Get a few more views mate and give them both a try. I've got Sherco, I've had great service from it, I'm bound to be slightly biassed, although all my comments were genuine. Beta is a cracking bike too. I find the Beta heavier on the arms than the Sherco. You've always got the chance of a bike that plays you up, but with both you have a good chance of lovin' em.

Not too sure what you've heard about unreliability. I can honestly say my Sherco is THE most reliable bike I've ever had, just because I've had it 4 years and nothing has gone wrong with it. I've never done that with any other bike, even thinking back to TY80's in the 70's. Probably a close call with the TY80 but ya know what I mean. If you want to power wash your bike down and dump it in the garage then the Sherco may not be for you. You only need to spend 15 or 20 minutes taking the airbox off and cleaning the carb (just drop the float bowl), but I would do it every week to play safe. Other than that I can think of nothing. Having said that the Beta is pretty sturdy too apart from the odd problem with the electrics with more than a few of them. I do think the Sherco is the better bike, but I may be biassed, although I spent a Loooooong time choosing between Beta and Sherco when I bought mine.

What can be said when something like this happens...Tears in my eyes reading the tributes and imagining what it feels like for something like this to happen. I can come to terms with adult deaths, as bad as it is, but the kids just breaks me up. I wish the families all the strength in the world as they come to terms with the devastating news.

This note will be in the riders list going out early this week, but please note that all bikes must be CLEAN before the start of the trial. Any dirty bikes will face the possibility of not being allowed to start. Spraying will also be carried out at the start of the trial to minimise any potential risks. I'm sure riders will understand that this isn't over reacting, it's just taking sensible and reasonable precautions to protect our landowners. Cheers, Gaz