toofasttim

So did Eddy. I remember reading an interview with Bernie where he said that it didn't matter how hard he tried Eddy would always outdo him. He said it was demoralising.

Saigon...[sound of chopping blades]....sh%t...I'm still only in Saigon..

Being an ardent Doors fan is a phase through which every red blooded male must pass. There's something so incredibly sinister about their music.

Speaking of which, the Doobie Bros are dropping in here in March.

I went away and had a thunk about that Mont. I reckon it would need to be a bit longer for stability at speed as well as needing an 8 speed or dual ratio gearbox. Apart from that it's about right. I remember that in the 70's in the NE states of the US the Bulto alpina was the weapon of choice. The guys could choose between the Frontera and the Alpina (if they wanted a Bulto). Reason was that enduros up there at that time were bloody tough.

This one John?

I was hoping you'd find my red herring They look like mx bikes but they are not! The suspension is much more supple, the gearbox is a wide as opposed to close ratio, they have a different rake and trail and the power delivery is very much softer. A couple of years ago I saw a pic of the KTM that Cyril Despres rode at Erzberg and lo'! It was without expansion chamber! Just a bit of straight'ish pipe just like a trials bike. Heaven knows what they had done to the porting. Now Cyril's also a pretty good trials rider (French junior champ I think) so he was probably looking for some trials bike characteristics. There are certainly times when you'd need the pure power of an enduro bike but, in the case of extreme enduros, I think you could sacrifice some of that power for a bit more flexibility. It would be nice if somebody like Paul Bolton (again a bloody good trials rider turned extreme enduro guy) could chip in here. P.S. Juha Salminen was Finnish junior trials champ. Do you see a pattern here?

Copey: Chris Birch, DK, Taddy, Doug, Grimbo etc. I think you'll agree are all pretty accomplished trials guys yet they elect to compete on enduro bikes. Unless there's some conspiratorial agenda I reckon that because they're the best tools for the job. Returning to the original post I noticed that DK was on his 530. I wonder if he wouldn't have been faster on a 300 2T?

Yup. Toyed with Jade Gutzheit for 2 days and disappeared into the distance on the final day.

That site is a bit tricky oh Bald one. Click on a selected vid and wait a while. It eventually starts playing.

In some places a trials bike can be quicker but overall an enduro bike will be quicker. On single track, fire roads a enduro bike is MILES quicker. When the going gets really knarley then a trials bike is quicker but with a good rider on an enduro bike the enduro bike isn't that much slower than the trials bike. The tough one is a short and very technical course. There isn't much road or single track work. Have a look at these:

Atherton admits that Fort Bill is his local so was running at an advantage in that regard.

Interesting:

That's a point. Never thought about it that way.

Reminds me of a (true) story. Club needed new flags. One wag suggests we use empty beer cans with a stake driven through 'em. "Make a nice noise when somebody clips 'em" suggests another (at the time we ran on touch a marker = 5). Motion adopted. Another guy is matey with a bloke that owns a brewery and he got on the blower. Two weeks later the cans turned up, 15 or so "slabs". One problem: they were full of beer......

Sheesh, seems like you own quite a few of them yourself.

What (make of) bike was he riding?

What I mean is he was not a permanent resident. I don't know what visa he used. Probably a sportsmans. I could ask him.

Bruce was only a temporary resident.

Thanks Andy. I does look like it was left over from the "troubles".

Andalucian jnr champ Copey, not Spanish. Andalucia is a region of Spain like Texas is of the US.

What kind of digger is that? Surplus to army requirements?

David Chaves was around before the WTC jr was inaugurated I think. Dabster? The "Dougie" speculation is interesting. Trials and endurocross, two for the price of one maybe?

Hey! I grew up in that neck of the woods! When I was a kid we lived a few miles from what was then the Congo and as it was turning into Zaire. I still remember the refugee Belgiums coming across the border. Little known fact about about the Congo prior to independence: that country had more hospital beds per capita than did Belgium. So much for evil colonialists.