bikespace

Just as a small update - We have around 45 entries so far with about 4 weeks left before entries close. Clubmen - please don't be put off by the severity of the recent Inter Centre Team Trial. This was organised by a totally different set of people. The Clerk of the Course for the Novogar round has asked that I inform people not to expect anything like that. I'm also marking out and I just won't be involved if it goes anywhere near that level - believe me - it won't. Most of the team marking out the Novogar have ridden most of the Novogar rounds for the past two years. Our aim is to make it somewhere around Lomax level, so it's rideable for most Expert/Inter riders (even the aging lardies like myself). Superstars will still lose marks, but don't expect the British Championships. Come on - have a go - there is some brilliant land in there.

You're not real, surely

These adjusters must be for people with small hands. I've got great big shovels - Is there an adjuster that takes the lever further from the bar? I'd prefer it if these were amazing ones too. Also, does any particular colour provide better adjustment, or is it just cosmetic? One last thing, can you buy ones that still make your brake light work? That would be great.

Found the shortcut - you 'aving a laugh??? They went up that first boulder and didn't need to???? I thought maybe they were on different routes or something. Surely they did the decent thing and shot themselves when they saw Bruce do it the "easier" way?

I should be your height at my weight but even at 6ft 2 I've grown through my hair so maybe a good thing. Reckon these pegs are getting a fair test here. I was forced (yes forced Gasserboy!!!) in to a motorcycle display team at the weekend (sort of Mr Blobby special appearance). Doing some big 8ft drop offs, jumps etc and they've held well. I'm finished testing them I think. We had a bit of a muddy trial at the weekend and after someone asking last week, I made a note of the mud in them. They do get mud in them, but it flicks out so much easier than with my older pegs, I think because of the shape of the holes (same width all the way down).

Still not quite sure what you mean, although I think we've got crossed wires. I can see that bending the tab as shown will make the fuel flow slower, because when the floats drop, the tang will be stopped at a higher level. I don't really see it's an accurate way of stopping the flooding entirely, and I could see it starving the fuel at high revs. Not sure what you mean about when the floats are on their way up - bending it like that would be for when the floats are dropping, to stop the fast fuel flow (wouldn't it?). As an aside, are your floats floating??? I'll butt out when it comes to setting float heights, my clumsy hands only hold hammers. Hopefully someone who knows what they're on about will come in and take over soon Mark

Tough trial? Thought I'd gone to the wrong ****in' venue. I am definitely too old and chubby to compete any more. I could have died several times yesterday if I'd tried. I knew I had to settle for about twelve 5's and just work at the other 8 sections and see what happened. I won't be there next year - my time is up - bit demoralised yesterday. One of the few sections on the bottom that I thought I could get through, little jump across the stream, tight turn back in to stream and bit of a waterfall - thought I'd had a 1, but got done for stopping twice - 3 - gave up hope around then Well done South East Team anyway

Looks right to me mate, what I see is basically straighten the 90 deg bend in the tang out a bit rather than bending it more. As the floats drop, the tang can only go so far down and allows less fuel to flow. Where's yours leaking from now if you've got the breathers connected together?

The answer is - Not sure I'm sure if you email Steve though he'd let you send 'em back if they don't fit.

I've just emailed him to find out.

They're not really sharp, but I don't seem to have had any problems with slipping off them, and they don't seem to rip the soles of my boots up like the originals did. I've not had Hebo's so not sure how they compare. They certainly don't gather mud, as there isn't anywhere for it to gather - it falls straight through. I know with the original Sherco pegs I was forever kicking the mud out of them. I'll drop Steve an email and ask him about Scorpa.

I'm from up North, wife's from Scotland, so I reckon we'd survive. Kids were born down South (Salisbury), they'd perish

Yeah - camping would be interesting at -3 degrees. Good trial, shame about the overnight fatalities

A few people have mailed me asking about the pegs I bought on ebay a while ago, from a bloke called Steve Butler (can't remember exactly where from - I know Yorkshire somewhere). Anyway, he called me the other day asking for a link off our site, for a little website he has up and running now Trialcast Here for anyone that is interested. I'm pretty damned happy with my pegs so far. My weight has been battering them for a few months now with no ill effects, and they got a right good bashing on Sunday, which actually made me think of this (shut it Webmonkey - my fuel was off OK ) For those that know me, you'll know they've had a pretty good test I like to give praise where it's due, and the bloke seems to be doing it right. I know a fair amount of these have sold, they're out there now, so how are people finding them? Mine were the original colour, and are looking good still.

Craggy was wandering round Hawkstone. Nigel Mack not seen him for over 20 yrs, top drinker and "swordsman". I saw Nigel Mackenzie in his shop about 3 (maybe 4) years ago. The bas***d looked just how I remember him 20 years ago, although I think the Ducks a*se haircut had been traded in for a new one I seem to remember the shop had gone last time I passed there, but I may be imagining that - been a while.

Looking forward to it now. Between you and the Breidden Hills web site you're helping me drum up energy to get to the gym at night. (With these blatantly doctored fattening photo's ) Funny how those photo's always look just a tad worse than when you walk past the mirror in the morning holding your breath 3 weeks and counting.

I remember being a wee bit jealous when Elite went to Kickstart. He used to live in the next street to me. My old man's idea of International travel was anything over 50 miles It could so easily have been my nuts on that girder Can't remember who that was for the life of me. I remember nearly crying laughing at the St Johns blokes rolling round trying to get to him.

The Honda's seemed to do very well when they needed to be opened right up. 4th gear (I think) on section 7 and flat out and they went up like a big crosser. Sounded so powerful at high revs. They seemed to be slightly less able on the practice sections on Saturday where they had to sort of hop, hop, hop, up the steep slope. Low end pick up didn't sound as convincing as the 2 strokes. Raga was flying up the last practice section, but maybe technique had something to do with it. Freixa stalled his on our section, just seemed to splutter. He brilliantly managed to balance for about 5 seconds on the slope, got his kickstart out and got it going.

I do know what you mean about the observing to a certain extent. Some observers turned up at the briefing and didn't know that the riders were allowed to stop. The CD's were out there somewhere, maybe in some cases new and unopened. At points the observers question answer session reminded me of a certain scene from Monty Python. I know I'm no expert, but it amused me FATHER: Guards! Make sure the Prince doesn't leave this room until I come and get 'im. GUARD #1: Not to leave the room even if you come and get him. GUARD #2: Hic! FATHER: No, no. Until I come and get 'im. GUARD #1: Until you come and get him, we're not to enter the room. FATHER: No, no, no. You stay in the room and make sure 'e doesn't leave. GUARD #1: And you'll come and get him. GUARD #2: Hic! FATHER: Right. GUARD #1: We don't need to do anything, apart from just stop him entering the room. FATHER: No, no. Leaving the room. GUARD #1: Leaving the room, yes. FATHER: All right? GUARD #1: Right. Oh, if-if-if, uh, if-if-if, uh, if-if-if we... FATHER: Yes, what is it? GUARD #1: Oh, if-if, oh-- FATHER: Look, it's quite simple. GUARD #1: Uh... FATHER: You just stay here, and make sure 'e doesn't leave the room. All right? GUARD #2: Hic! FATHER: Right. GUARD #1: Oh, I remember. Uh, can he leave the room with us? FATHER: N- No no no. You just keep him in here, and make sure-- GUARD #1: Oh, yes, we'll keep him in here, obviously. But if he had to leave and we were-- FATHER: No, no, just keep him in here-- GUARD #1: Until you, or anyone else,-- FATHER: No, not anyone else, just me-- GUARD #1: Just you. GUARD #2: Hic! FATHER: Get back. GUARD #1: Get back. FATHER: Right? GUARD #1: Right, we'll stay here until you get back. FATHER: And, uh, make sure he doesn't leave. GUARD #1: What? FATHER: Make sure 'e doesn't leave. GUARD #1: The Prince? FATHER: Yes, make sure 'e doesn't leave. GUARD #1: Oh, yes, of course. I thought you meant him. Y'know, it seemed a bit daft, me havin' to guard him when he's a guard. FATHER: Is that clear? GUARD #2: Hic! GUARD #1: Oh, quite clear, no problems. FATHER: Right. [starts to leave] Where are you going? GUARD #1: We're coming with you. FATHER: No no, I want you to stay 'ere and make sure 'e doesn't leave. GUARD #1: Oh, I see. Right.

On a different subject - the time was very tight on some of the sections. Made my job as timekeeper a bit of a bugger. It's not nice when someone gets close to the end of the section without wasting too much time, to have to blow the whistle before they get out. Tadeusz Blazusiak came running back down the section when he got given a 5 (instead of a 3) for running out of time. The whistle blew when he still had to go up the last step, over the last load of rocks and out (probably about 20 feet), but he revved it out to the end quickly and claimed the 3 - saying it was just a second or two, and how could we be that accurate. Shortly after that he said he hoped I would become very ill soon and had a right tantrum, at which point I lost any sympathy and started smiling at him. His minder obviously felt bad about it - he just apologised, probably feeling a little guilty as he hadn't shouted anything to Tady as his time ran out, and I don't think Tady understood me as I said ten seconds. Tadeusz Blazusiak is off my xmas card list anyway whinging toerag. The sections need to be marked out so that it's not a race against time. Nobody had more than about 8 seconds left when they got out of the section, and most were right on the time, being shouted out by the minders. There's no way you can give any lea-way, when your stopwatch has an alarm going off after 1 minute 30, and everyone's looking over your shoulder. Don't want to be too much of a jobsworth, but you've got to blow the whistle when the timer hits zero.

Yes, I too noticed some errors. One of the Sections I was at saw repeated missed dabs. The observers received a CD showing the rules before the event. There was also a fairly lengthy briefing on Saturday at 1430 for observers/timekeepers/punchers/marker-uppers/everybody. All manner of questions were asked/answered. It wasn't cut short. Then the observers met at 0830 on Sunday and were able to ask questions. If there are still problems, then it's down to human error or bad eyesight. One (or three in some cases) observer will never spot everything that a crowd of 1000 will spot. I was timekeeping on our section. I spotted a few missed dabs, but it's not fair for me to pint them out - there were three observers and it's the same for everyone. For those that remember section 8 - Graham Jarvis received a roar from the crowd when he got the first clean of the day (soon to be duplicated by Dougie, and were the only two cleans of the day). Well for those that were close by, they might have noticed that Graham leaned on the tree a few yards before leaving the section, and he definitely got benefit from it. Why is it that most of the observers seem to be over 60? Because no other bugger volunteers. Sometimes people have got to put something back in to trials rather than expecting a free ride. If you weren't helping out (and every club in Britain was asked) then you'll have to put up with the observers errors that may creep in. Edit: That sounds like a dig at the people above - It's definitely not - I'm not placed to criticise what anybody does - but I think you know what I mean - everybody makes the odd mistake, and there's always some a*** in the crowd ready to criticise.

NO - definitely not you rotten sod - look at the number of chins on that. No wonder I struggled for fitness. Unfortunately - yes - looking very tired - remember that greasy quarry - we got there first - nasty.

2 routes - National and Clubman - the sidecar course/trial is completely separate.

If you'd have swapped GasGas and Sherco I would have agreed, but there is no way in the world that you could put GasGas on top of the current Sherco surely? Was that a troll? GasGas performance I reckon is second to none, but they're made to be stripped down every 24 minutes (approx). What makes you put GasGas on top of Sherco?

Yep - carpet glue - I only used it for the first time a few weeks ago, but works well. As a kid, we always used to use hairspray, but it can give up when wet. Of course you could pay