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Almost worth becoming a TC Supporter

What are the travel details then Andy? When does the Tiger Moth land?

I think we are all hoping he will take the hint and **** off <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I sort of regretted mouthing off, but it would be a bit shallow for me to apologise when I so clearly stated what I was mouthing off about. I can't really blame alcohol because all that did was induce me to say what I was thinking, where normally I would probably keep it to myself. I would definitely not like to see Lane go, and I will keep my attacks to playful banter in future as I always try to do. I think my rantings would be water off a ducks back to Lane to be honest. I'm just some small time Pommy. Normal service will be restored for me. Back to banter, not bull****

I made one. Looked really good, light as a feather, really smooth, but kept falling to bits.

Really unusual, unless there's some muck in between tyre and rim. Anything on the rim? Any marks, dints? I would try some wet and dry on the inside of the rim before you do anything more drastic.

In more ways than one <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Jake is going to be sooooo jealous

We can offer a few heavy weights. I know a bloke at 19 stone riding the expert route, and Dai Bedford superstar drinker extraordinaire I reckon is about 21 stone Enjoy yourself anyway

Pump it up, get it in the bath, then mark the rim where the air is escaping. Get the tyre off and have a good look at the rim. You sure it's not through the spokes, that's the most common problem. If it does turn out to be that have a search, there have been plenty of discussions on that.

Don't do it people - I'm getting abusive emails already

Sorry, do I get **** stirrer of the week award. Just joking folks, couldn't resist

Thanks Andy - Got mine today

Hmmm...Dunno. It's a double overhead cam 16 valve job. To save you downloading it if you've already got it, it says "Do you want to install Deutz Engine?" when you run it. R2W is just grabbing it off my ftp server at the moment, so I would think it wil be up somewhere soon

I've got an excellent car engine screensaver - (Yeah Sounds good Gaz) No, really it is. Builds it up gradually, 3D, then shows it running. Better than I've made it sound anyway. Trouble is it's about 45Mb. If somebody has got somewhere to put it, I can make it available. I can't manage that sort of bandwidth with TC's popularity these days

Psychological analysis - You blame everyone but yourself Lane, because in your own mind you are Wonderful. How the hell does anyone put up with you? How could anyone possibly give you any advice - you know it all. Obviously it was someone elses fault for not helping you though. Homesick you big tart, was this the man that talked about fighting spirit and a hard man killer attitude a few months ago - homesick. The Euros don't want you there? Come off it! Funny that the Americans don't want you there now? You've got a bloody chip on your shoulder. Maybe you should stop gobbing off and try to get on with someone? Yep - US Trials is in **** state because they didn't ask you what to do. You just can't stop blaming other people. If your students hadn't become World Champion, it would have been because they hadn't listened to you enough, or didn't have the natural ability, or your killer instinct. I'm not surprised the NATC want to keep you away from them. I've no doubt you were a great rider in your day, but you don't seem to be too positive these days. Is it everybody else's fault? How about looking at your personality, and seeing if there is something that you could change so that people didn't automatically want to cut their own ears off rather than listen to you. Maybe then you could actually get involved, as on a physical ability, riding ability, knowledge front you seem to have something to give. Maybe you just need a personality that has something to give. Well maybe I'll end up banned for having a pop at you, but after a few beers your constant negativity and self praise gets right on my man boobs. I would think it's water off a ducks back anyway, you never seem to listen. How about trying for just a few months some modesty, and maybe even some positivity?

There's certain things I'll have a go at, and certain things I'll just chuck it in the dealers. From what I've seen of recognised dealers though, there is absolutely no training from the importer/factory whatsoever, or if there is it must be poor, so why is a dealer any better than your man in the street if he's just learning on the job anyway. You could argue that the jobs warrantied if it goes tits up. You could counter-argue that it could very well go tits up a few weeks later and the dealer blame something else anyway. My field of work for instance, Cisco is the manufacturer, we equate to a dealer. Nobody wants me on site unless I've been trained by Cisco certified training courses and hold the qualifications to match. Mind you, that's half the reason that Cisco is so expensive I suppose. Businesses can save a fortune by having their own bloke with a bit of savvy get to know their own kit and save using us all the time. ....On the other hand, they can sometimes make a right ar5e of it and then spend a fortune letting us sort it out, so maybe that fortifies your argument. Know your limits I think the moral of the story is.

And, at a push, a portaloo that isn't flowing over by the Saturday afternoon OK, I've taken it too far, just a dream

Don't be getting all romantic with me I don't go for older men

Hmmmm...I need to shop around next time - Mine is about

I tell you what, there's more mileage in that Go-kart style transponder thing of yours I reckon. The system would be able to recognise who the rider is, and be able to display his name on an LED panel for instance. If there is an option for pressing a button to register his score, similar to the handheld device above, it could even communicate with the Paddock, and the scores be collated and displayed on screens at the finish area. How about Plasma screens as the riders come through detailing what they've lost on every other section. Event previews running on the plasmas while we're waiting for the riders to come round. Advertising running on them to help pay for it OK - maybe forget the plasmas until they come down in price a bit - also a problem maybe to get mains power, but in ten years time all this and more will be here (if we're still here)

Now there's an answer! My argument is just that the automatic buzzer may not be the answer, and in some situations may make things worse. I think this transponder thing is something worth looking in to. You need a backup still, just in case the technology goes tits up, or more likely our old observer, Harold Arbuckle who isn't too savvy with electricity yet, never mind technology buggers it up , but sounds like something worth working on to me.

As far as the insults went, I just thought You silly little boy. Water off a ducks back - he knew he deserved the 5. (although I've got to admit I did think about getting him by the scruff of the neck and pinning him to a tree as it was personal I'd say about 30% of them had trouble with time. You almost had to ride the section on fast-forward. No it wouldn't make any difference to me next time. I'd be quite happy to blow the whistle at 15 feet for Taddy. If he had another go, then he'd almost definitely be up that tree With regards to the human problem. That's where I think the problem would come by having a beeper. Probably didn't get my point over. Imagine the situation where the beeper goes off as the rider is flashing past the ends cards (or 3 or 6 feet before it, doing 20mph). The rider will obviously think he's out, and as the observer I would tend to think "You just can't 5 a bloke for a photo finish. That's not the idea of the timed sections in outdoor" However, for the other 15 riders who are watching, and would love him to have a 5, then obviously he was a few feet inside the section, and they'll be having a right go. ESPECIALLY if the whistle IS blown for them when they are 10 or 15 feet away from the ends cards. There is no defence against that: You let him off, why not me????? Well he was so close to the ends flags...... How close do you have to be? Well you were a good 15 feet away! So 6 or 10 feet will be OK, but 15 feet is just a bit too much for you English Pig Dog If you make it more automated I think you have to make it totally decisive, like maybe a broken beam at the ends cards, and the device says "Out of time" or displays the time. This will open up a whole new can of worms though I think. Minders/mechanics just slipping past the ends cards to stop the clock a bit early maybe? Or some partizan spectator falling through the beam to make it invalid. Loads of options I suppose. What I'm saying is, giving the riders and spectators too much information, gives them the rope to hang the observer with. My intention is still to make the right decision, not to be able to cheat in any way, but hopefully you know what I mean (even if you don't agree )

Doh - don't worry about it - 1 day listing. I didn't notice. It's already doubled in price up to

What d'ya reckon to this? Dodgy? Ebay Nikon D50

The toughest thing about the time is giving someone a 5 for being maybe 3 feet from the ends cards. I had a similar situation at Hawkestone which I've mentioned before. As the bloke was a complete tit about it I don't mind mentioning his name. It was Taddy (Tadieuz Blazeuziak - probably way off the spelling but not to worry). I blew the whistle and he quickly revved the bike and tried to shoot across the last 20 feet of section. To him it didn't seem a long time. To the other riders, and to me, it's a 5, and it was a few seconds. I'd already told him 10 seconds, but maybe the language barrier got in the way. It didn't stop him telling me he hoped that my family died a horrible death. Maybe he was short of english expletives Whateffor! The tougher call is when the rider is within a few yards of the flag, and rightly or wrongly, if it's gonna be a blink of the eye job, the whistle gives you the option of taking the doubt away from the other riders minds by waiting a split second to blow it. OUCH - I'm probably going to get some **** for this , but no matter who the rider was, if they were that close to the flag that it was going to be that hard to judge it, I let them through. AND I defend that judgement. They've made a valid effort at getting to the end of a very long section within the time. It's just not trials to hammer them with a five over a quick judgement decision. So...my two comments 1. Leave the timing to the observer with the whistle. 2. Make the sections more "do-able" within the time limit. (ours was very tight no matter who you are - leave that for the indoors) Thoughts anyone?

The problem is nobody really knows what the answer is. You can't expect someone (even the governing body) to make a decision like that when the trials community is so divided. I can't really say any more, because John Collins seems to have said it all in his post. It's everything I was thinking without being able to put it in to words (Honest ) I think our best course at the moment is to let the clubs choose the rules (strictly between TSR22A and TSR22B - we don't need any more rules) (obviously with the riders opinions taken in to account) and try to point the observers in the direction of actually marking pretty damned close to the rules. You've got to let observers have their own opinions, but would start to make things better I think if we all actually get a dab for stopping (a definite stop, not a tweak of the break, or compression of the forks). Whatever way it turns out every club has a responsibility to make sure ******** riders keep their traps shut if an observer doesn't mark things their way. I'll be giving it a big mention before our next trial for sure.