griffinjay

Glenn, that Ariel belongs to Marty Paulson, Montana. I took the photo at the 2005 AHRMA event here in Minnesota. Original photo is here but do click it to see the full-sized shot of that gorgeous bike. Another photo of Marty that day. He was featured in this Cycle News article.

Thanks, NorthernNorm... we had good traffic for the first show. Show #02 of the podcast is now available at http://www.onthepegs.net/ It includes: * News with OTP managing editor Dan Brown (US Indoor Nationals, AMA Rule Changes, and the US Regional Series * Pro rider interview with Will Ibsen, US Scorpa team * Local club interview with Jim Watson, Trials, Inc.; * Interview with Brad Baumert about land acquisition and Saddleback East.

Yep, we definitely want feedback on the show. And it would be way cool to have audio contributions, too. We're set up to take audio comments if you've got a mic attached to your computer. FYI, each episode will have its own blog entry, posted to the TTC weblog. So you can get directly to the blog post for this first show here.

Here's the info sent out by the Belair family. Photos on the USMTA weblog. "Fred Belair, known as the "Father of El Trial de Espana," passed away in his sleep Monday morning. He was 83 years old. A racer in his early years, Fred became a supporter of Observed Trials back in the 70's and founded El Trial de Espa

A club member just alerted me to this eBay auction of a Cota 25. No idea who's selling it but it looks to be in better shape than mine, so it'll be interesting to see what it sells for.

After I get my Cota 25 running and spiffed up, I'll post a link to a photo. Thanks, all.

Hey, thanks VC, that helps. I don't have the tail lights and mine currently isn't running, though I'm pretty sure with a little concentrated effort, I can get it going again. You said you estimate yours is worth $1,500. Can you say a little more on how you arrived at that figure? That's about twice what I was expecting.

I've got a 1971 Montesa Cota 25 that I'm interested in selling. It's got the metal fenders and the tank is in decent shape. Here's a link to the brochure photo on Southwest Montesa's site: http://www.southwestmontesa.com/gallery/72cota.jpg I can't seem to find any on the internet that have sold recently so I have no idea what it's worth. I do have an interested buyer here in Minnesota. Any suggestions for how to establish its value would be appreciated.

There are 200+ photos of this weekend's AHRMA Vintage Trials Nationl rounds in MN posted: Day 1: http://www.umta.org/gallery/ahrma08202005 Day 2: http://www.umta.org/gallery/ahrma08212005

There was a two-hour observers meeting before the event but I think it's pretty unrealistic to expect that people with little or no trials experience to make tough calls. Some of the teams (like Bentley's and Mike OD's) were made up of experienced trials riders but many weren't, in part because a lot of club members who checked two years ago wanted no part of it again... too hard and you miss too much. It seems like it would help if the FIM put together an observer training video/DVD. The animations at http://www.fim.ch/TRIAL%20CD/VT/grups_zones_an.htm are a start but without a narration, they're not all that helpful for a novice observer. I wasn't an observer but I don't think the discussion here has been too harsh on them. It's part of the fun of any sport that you follow, dissecting all the angles with yer pals after a big event is all over.

I took that photo and Darrell Shannon of Trials Comp took another one at the exact same instant, only from above. Maybe he'll post it here for comparison. See the 900K version of my photo for a more detailed look: http://worldroundusa.com/blogimages/IMG_2070.jpg At the press conference on Sunday after the event, I think it was Lampkin who said something to the effect that the observers were 'generous' in their scoring but that it was consistently so across all the observer groups... that with the muddy conditions, they appreciated the leniency but consistency was the main thing.