old trials fanatic

and he hasnt changed. Well he has changed the T shirt not sure about the shorts

In principle a great idea. Wonder why it never caught on? Then again thinking about it you wont get much repeat business would you? I mean how many of us spend a small fortune each year keeping lever manufacturers in business?

They were all like that back then. Sections were different and what you needed for long slots, long rocky climbs etc, which is what we rode, was stability. You can always easily mod it for todays turn up your own ar5e sections. Then again if you rode one in competition nowadays it will probably be at a Classic Club so not that much of a problem. No worse than a Bultaco and if my old grey cells remember correctly a shorter wheelbase than the old Bulto as well so it all balances out. Let us know how you get on.

well put Here's another thought for you I constantly hear riders whinging on and on about how their bikes are worth nowt after two years and how depreciation is killing them and how money is tight blah blah blah. Well get used to it cos have you seen the price of fishing poles, golf clubs, proper mountain bikes, ski equipment etc ? Now the possible return to no stop rules might just have an unexpected flip side. Under No stop it's not so important, unless you need to convince yourself that a new bike will make up for your lack of ability err which it wont, to have the very latest machinery. In fact it's no dissadvantage to have a 5 or 6 year old well amintained bike so the knock on effect is that the resale values of bikes will be higher due to people not feeling the need to always buy next years model. OK the manufacturers may not have thought of this but if it gets more people into the sport, which i think it eventually will once all the whingers have either put up or shut up, that has to be a good thing for EVERYBODY dont cha think?

Muddy, Mud mud mud mud and more damn mud. I hate mud Bah humbug

I wish people who come on here just to have a rant instead did something about it! Like bombard the CoC with complaints about how they spent their Friday and Saturday in the rain laying out a course with no help from the people who just want to turn up on a Sunday and ride. They will appreciate that NOT. In fact they will probably say sod it organise your own trial next time and throw the towel in. If this change in the rules makes you want to give up the sport why dont you do something possative about it and start your own club and run trials to the rules you want??? Dont say all that crap about i'm busy, got work commitments, got kids, got a mortguage. Dont you think that club organisers all around the country have too !! i know i bloody well have and i also know i will have to make time to lay out our trial this Saturday probably on my own in the wet with no prospect of any thanks for it either. Just like all the other CoC's all over the country this weekend. When you do it month in month out then you will have earned yourself the right to slag everybody off. How many trials did you lay out this year? How many trials do any of the "Top Lads" for that matter? I rode in another clubs trial yesterday. I would have laid it out differently considering the conditions because it was obvious from section 1 that the scores were going to be horrendous BUT i am so grateful that somebody spent their time to ensure that i could have a days sport and i am sure they will learn from the day and make sure the next trial is laid out taking the weather more into consideration. I will bear their trial in mind when i lay out this Saturday so it's all a learning curve.

forks should be REH same make as the hubs. Sorry if i appeared to be having a go just wondered why the bikes were described as goldfingers when it's doubtful that they are. Now i know. Didnt mean to infer anything. It irks me when people seem to think a TY250 twinshock is a majesty which most never will be. good luck with the restoration. The std sprite is still a good bike for it's day that got a lot of people into trials and it's great to see at least two surviving examples still running.

Seen loads on evil bay.

can i just ask why both of you think your bikes are Goldfingers not just std 125 sachs engined Sprites because they just look like the std ones to me? goldfingers had the gold metalflake firreglass tanks gold painted frames and gold conical hubs err and yours dont. Nice bikes all the same and great to see them again i just wish i saw more being ridden in anger but why do you think they are Glodfingers?

Too confusing for the observers and what about the Intermediate or 50/50 route ?

Both i and another local lad Pete Carson ran Sprite Goldfingers. Petes had the Sachs big fin alloy engine and mine had the Zundap engine. They were available with bothe engines but i dont think they were available with the iron barrel Sachs. The tanks were all metalflake gold in the resin coat not painted. Good luck with it i always wondered what happened to all the 125 sprites that used to be around there were loads but you never see them now.

Wot he said

All good points well made.

All run no stop, no hop, no bop and no reversing. Proper trial. Great thanks for posting.

As far as i know the club has not had a membership for years. I have been riding their trials for just over 4 years and have been running the club for just over a year. I was told it went back a few years, before i started riding with them, when it was "agreed" amongst a number of local clubs that they all would not charge membership fees so that local riders didnt have to incur all those fees involved in joining loads of local clubs to ride at club trials. I can't verify this as i was not riding then. Looks like all the other clubs then changed their minds and reverted to memberships and associated fees and we did'nt. I know we as a club run all our trials under an open permit so that way we dont have to pay any ACU affiliation fees. Also as an aside and this may be just a "Classic" club thing but all the local Classic Clubs are AMCA, dont know if thats relevant to this discussion but it was part of the reason we are going AMCA next year, and you can ride at all their events as a club member of that club or as a guest. Members save

I know thats why i told them they would have to contact an ACU affiliated club in the area as we wont be affiliated to the ACU in 2012. I was just checking that a rider needed a ref number from an affiliated club to renew online as some had said they had done it at the dirt bike show on the ACU stand and didnt need one plus some guys thought if you did it online they could avoid getting a ref number and having to join a club. Now i know that i was correct in telling them that they would have to contact another club that IS affiliated to the ACU for 2012. Perhaps a club will just give them a number without them having to join seeing as it's christmas ?

Bloody hell!!! i'm glad i was off skiing when all that was introduced. Thanks for clarifying for me

Really showing my ignorance now but did you get a 1 for every time you stopped? Serious question because i dont know. It was applied whilst i was taking a break from trials doing other things. Was there a limit on the number of times you could get a 1 in a section because if you are hopping then it would be easy to score 20 or more. Either way a lot of people seem to remember the 1 for a stop fondly so if no stop doesnt have the desired effect then it might be worth a try again?

dont quite get the 2012 bit as it's only 2011 at the moment. Whatever. It all gets a bit confusing where our "club" is concerned as we dont actually have a club membership never have had. All our trials are run on an open permit so there is really no need for us to have a membership as such. In all the years we as a club have been going this has been the case. Gets even more err shall we say "difficult" because next year, 2012, we are going to be AMCA not ACU so as we wont be an ACU club it's a bit "impossible" to sign their forms and give them an ACU number. Just suggested to the people who asked that they might have to join another ACU club if only to get a number from them and then get their licence. As an aside i know it has been "decided" to issue the numbers to "tie" people to a club but dont quite see why as a lot of riders ride ACU, AMCA and YMSA events locally. OK probably not members of other clubs as possibly just ride "open" status events. BTW not knocking the ACU as i think the online renewal system is a great idea. I was only asking so that i could give a correct response to any more people who might ask. Thanks

"I don't think much anything in trials has been americanized" what i meant was that most of the posts from that side of the pond up to then all seemed to want trials to become flashier, more tricks and stunts, more brash, more in yer face. All things that we over here think of as americanised and i dont get why trials needs all that. It has always been a sport enjoyed by blokes out on their bikes on a Sunday having a laugh and taking the pee out of each other. What's wrong with that? why should it have to become a circus? We had the media circus that was Kickstart and IMHO that was the worst thing to happen to the sport and i'm not the only one over here that now thinks so. Many didnt at the time but the trick cycling nature of the show did have a very big effect on the sport over here. "This ain't Scotland, and we don't have flowing burn sections, point and go lad" In a country the size of america with all that good ole big country? you are joking aint ya. Are you seriously saying you dont have ANYTHING like that over there? You can not be serious man!!! as one of your countrymen once said. "Sometimes I just hesitate after creeping round some full lock turn then looking up at a three foot hill with a two foot log sitting on top! Takes me a moment to suck up the balls! OK, I get a five for the clean ride because I am a dufus!" This senario doesnt happen. I always find most observers are too lenient if anything. A momentary lack of forward motion, as in 1 or 2 seconds, is usually ignored it's only when you start faffing about waving your legs in the air and bouncing up and down that they will give you a 5 and thats as it should be. As i said fair doos everybody is allowed an opionion even about something that will have no effect on them, me included, but lets not get this out of perspective. I repeat it's only 6 trials and will affect only a handfull of riders anyway less than 0.1% of riders in the UK. You guys will do whatever you want over there anyway and thats fine. From my experience most americans are not even sure where the UK is and think we are all English too. If the dead duck that is the BTC falls flat on it's no stop backside then i am sure all the zebadee's will say i told you so which is also fine but at least the ACU tried to raise the BTC from the dead. They get enough flack for what some people percieve as doing nothing so lets at least give it a go and see how it pans out. Here's hoping that i have now explained my reference to "americanised" although obviously things get lost in translation sometimes and some, please note i said some, over there do seem to get more than a bit touchy about any reference to their country which they feel is not 110% deferential which for a lot of Europeans does seem a bit weird. No offence meant but i bet somebody will see some

thanks Nigel i thought that was the case but when i told riders last Sunday i couldnt sign their forms for next year the majourity said oh i'll just go online and do it. I thought they would need a club number but didnt see the point in saying anything.

Thanks it's possably more relevant to us as a lot of "local" riders just want an ACU licence so they can ride the Pre65 Scottish, Alvie and the occaisional local "Classic" trial containing road work. Will have to wait and see what happens. Thanks again for the reply.

I am sure there are. If i offended i appologise it's just from this side of the pond it can sometimes appear that it's always got to be bigger, flashier, more razzamataz, more more more. One of the beauties about Trials is it doesnt have to be that way. Introducing all those factors is what has led us to the fiasco that is the WTC. It used to be relevant to the manufacturers and riders right down to club level. It no longer is. People have lost interest and view it as irrelevant which it is to 99.9% of riders who compete week in week out over here. What you guys decide to do at your trials in america is down to what you want from the sport but as has been said before the Scottish Six Days is still regarded by most as the most important event in the calander and that event is now run no stop and is massively oversubscribed. So cant be that far off the mark can it? So many sports have been americanised, i hope you understand what i mean by that as i dont mean to offend, not always for the better. The sport of trials has tried no stop in fact that was the way it was for over 70 years. Subsequently it has also tried stop and variations of markings of what is a stop and what penalty that should incur. Now one event held over 6 rounds and only here in the UK is going to revert to the tried and tested no stop rule and so far that is all and what an uproar it has caused. Only a handful of people were riding it as it was anyway so what is there to loose? I can assure you the vast majourity of UK riders dont give a monkeys if there is a British contender at WTC and i know of nobody who could name all the competitors probably only knowing of Bou. This is sad really as go back 30 years and most knew the names of the top guys in the world and followed the results even if unable to attend. Will the BTC changing to no stop change this? i doubt it but it may just get more than a handfull of entrants having a go. Got to be worth a try cos it's not worth the effort of putting the events on as it is. As i said what you guys do over there is up to you and good luck to you i just feel it's time to reappraise what has happened to our sport, which is what one of the governing bodies here in the UK has decided to do, and perhaps get back to what made us take it up in the first place and along the way get even more people to have a go. Bounceing, hopping and pogoing up boulders the size of a house hasnt proven to be achieveing that has it? Neither has the need to have minders which are only "necessary" due to the ridiculous nature of the sections that the current rules have created. If you view it from afar it's a farce. Nice to hear a voice of reason from over there. Too often our, european, perception of americans is formed from the vocal minority and as in every culture that is not therefore always correct.

Just a question. If you apply online do you still need to supply a number from an ACU Club ? just asking because some of the riders at a recent trial of ours said they had renewed direct and didnt need to supply a dedicated number from an ACU club.