trapezeartist

I'm not suggesting an ambulance, and as has already been said there has never been a case of a successful prosecution or claim against a first-aider who was trying to help a casualty. I don't believe my suggestions would push up entry fees, though personally I wouldn't mind a small increase to cover the sort of things I was suggesting. In the last three weeks I've attended to two people with suspected heart attacks (who I just happened to come across in the course of normal life). In the last six months I've attended to two injuries at trials. This may or may not be typical, but it happened. I would love to see a defibrillator available at every event but they are expensive and require frequent maintenance if they are not a semi-fixed installation. If a club chooses to invest in one, that's great but I wouldn't suggest it should be mandatory. On the other hand a bag-valve-mask, a tourniquet and a few sterile dressings cost very little and can be administered by anyone with a standard first-aid-at-work qualification. It would be nice to add in oral and nasal airways but that may be a little dangerous as their use falls a little bit further up the scale. Most people have a first aid qualification because they want to help people. All I'm proposing is that trial organisers could readily help first-aiders to help anyone at a trial who needs attention, regardless of whether that's a cardiac arrest or just a nasty cut.

It's gratifying to know that our chosen sport is just about the safest motorsport there is. But nothing is totally safe, and medical events can happen anywhere (especially as many of us are no longer in the first flush of youth). I do think organising clubs could do a little more on this front. I know Golden Valley have a defibrillator that is placed at Section 1, but I only know that from the time I observed Section 1 for them. It has never been mentioned at signing-on or rider's briefing. At signing-on with another club, I saw what looked like an old tupperware box marked First Aid. So here are my suggestions for consideration: Each club should have a decent first-aid kit. They're not expensive. A defib would be nice, but they are expensive. Riders and observers who are qualified first-aiders or above should be invited to sign-on as such. To be called on if the need arises. Signed-on first-aiders to wear a coloured sash so they can be easily identified. Riders briefing to include a reminder about first-aiders and the location of first-aid equipment.

A Methodist lady from the Yorkshire Dales went to the stone mason's to have made a head-stone for her recently-departed husband's grave. After choosing the stone, size, style and name/date details she asked the mason to include the inscription, "He was Thine". They agreed a price, which was considerable because of the quality and size, and the inscribing work. Some weeks later the mason telephoned her to say the headstone had been completed and erected over her husband's grave as instructed. The next day she visited the grave, taking a bunch of her late-husband's favourite Spring flowers, daffodils, to place on the new grave. The headstone looked magnificent; tall, robust, highly-polished and beautifully inscribed with his name, dates of birth and passing and at the bottom the inscription she asked for. "He was Thin". She was horrified and so disappointed. She went straight to the mason's to complain. "You must put it right immediately and not charge me for it. You missed off the e." A week later, on being informed by the mason that he had re-inscribed the stone she visited once again, there to read the correction:- "Eee, He was Thin."

Just to prove they've made more than one. I love the look and the engineering detail on the Jotagas, and nearly bought one last year. In the end I was put off by stories of the strange attitude of the company. It's a pity, and now even if they sort themselves out they've got an uphill struggle to convince people they have. I wish them well.

Greeves deserved more success with that, after finally ditching Villiers and the RSJ.

Punter to Glasgow prostitute---"What protection do we use?" Prostitute------"The bus shelter."

A 65 year old woman had a heart attack and was taken to the hospital. While on the operating table she had a near death experience.. Seeing God, she asked "Is my time up?" God said, "No, you have another 33 years, 2 months and 8 days to live." Upon recovery, the woman decided to stay in the hospital and have a face-lift, liposuction, breast implants and a tummy tuck. She even had someone come in and change her hair color and brighten her teeth! Since she had so much more time to live, she figured she might as well make the most of it. After her last operation, she was released from the hospital. While crossing the street on her way home, she was killed by an ambulance. Arriving in front of God, she demanded, "I thought you said I had another 33 years? Why didn't you pull me from out of the path of the ambulance?" God replied : "I didn't recognize you!"

Without wishing to psss on your parade, do check the manufacturers recommended trailer nose load. You're going to be hanging bike+rack on there. Probably 100kg, maybe a touch more with fuel and mud. Although many people use DC racks, I suspect most of them are a little bit over the vehicle manufacturers approved weight, unless they drive a Land Rover.

Nice curtains you have in your garage!

The Nigerian World Cup squad were so disappointed with their performance in Russia they have promised to personally refund all the fans who travelled to support them. All the fans need to do is send their bank sort code, account number and PINs, and they will transfer the money directly.

A man went to a private doctor on account of his rather diminutive 'old chap'. The good doctor agreed to an enlargement operation, but had these words of caution... "We can help you sir. We charge £1000 per inch, but don't go crazy. Some women don't appreciate the overly well-endowed man, it can get a little painful." "If I were you, sir," he said, "I would have a discussion with your wife about it, and come back next week" At the appointment next week the doctor asked the man, "So, sir, did you discuss things with your wife?" "Yes I did, and we have come to a decision" "We're getting granite worktops".

I asked my girlfriend to get me a newspaper. "Don't be silly," she replied, "you can use my iPad." That fly never knew what hit it..!

Cold stick is a pain, but not the end of the world. If rocking it in gear with the engine off doesn't clear it, put the front wheel against a wall. Run the engine, clutch in, knock it into second gear. It will probably just clear on it's own, but on my 4T it would just start turning the back wheel so I had to give it a sniff of throttle and bump my weight down on the bike. Done once, it was slightly draggy until the engine warmed up, then OK until it had stood for a few hours again.

Cold stick of the clutch is pretty normal on many trials bikes. As long as it clears quickly, it's not the biggest deal in the world. Try to free it off by putting it into gear and rocking to and fro before starting. If that doesn't work, put the front wheel against something when you first knock it into gear. Read the "clutch mod" thread in the Beta sub-forum.

Here's one. https://bvm-moto.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=193&search=amal 8 I think most trials specialists could supply the same item.

I nearly gave a similar answer. Actually I'd forgotten Ossa (hasn't everyone?) and decided not to throw a barb at Jotagas in deference to the new importers. They may just be able to sort things out. On a more positive note, I think all other manufacturers have pretty good spares availability.

With my very short time back in the sport I'm not really qualified to say, but I'll stick my neck out and say you are wrong. For me, "benefit of the doubt" is something to be applied when the observer has a genuine doubt. (Did he dab, or just wave his leg in the air? Did he stop or just about keep rolling?) Being lenient implies that you are not following the marking system laid down by the ACU. If they wanted to, the ACU could define a fail as stopping for 1 second or more, but they don't. No doubt my scores would become even more stratospheric than they already are, but at least you would know what to expect in every section.

My own personal opinion is that a momentary stop where it's hard to discern whether it really was stop or not, is perfectly acceptable. For instance for the time the back wheel is off the ground during a rear wheel hop, provided the bike start moving again immediately after landing the back wheel. Whatever, I think it would help if all observers at an event were briefed on what is expected of them, and all competitors should be told what that expectation is.

I understand where you're coming from, Intotrials. With the top 3 or 4 riders scoring 0-2 most days, who wants to be the person to give one of them a 5? Your one split-second decision is going to have a massive impact on the result. Whereas, when one of the guys who's getting a cricket score every day comes along, who's going to notice? I have no personal knowledge of how the SSDT is organised, but one would hope that with an event of this stature observers would be given very clear guidance on how to mark marginal situations. It shouldn't be beyond the organisers to provide every observer with one A4 sheet of guidance: it's something to read while waiting for the first bikes to arrive.

That could be my old bike which I rode in about 1970. Well, probably not as the aluminium side panels were removed on mine. Between trials I used it for getting to school and going down to WH Smiths on a Thursday for MCN.

I'm trying to decide if you're very cynical or very perceptive. Probably both. Unfortunately Jotagas seem to have painted themselves into a corner. Their strange commercial ways of the past few years are not easily forgotten, either by end-users or potential dealers/importers.

Well, if so they wouldn't be the first company to take some old stock lying around and turn it into the latest model with some cosmetic tweaks.

Yes. But seriously, I don't think 04.30 until 13.00 is "quick and efficient", but that's really down to the bomberos and the situation, and not to GasGas.