rockaria

No probs dd, say hello if you make it, I'll be on a 330 Mont...

Grange Barn Farm, DE4 4HY. Parking and sections on opposite side of road to farm itself.

Yes, it's the same Bill Cooper Charlie, sadly in very poor health nowadays.

Well spotted OTF, thought you might have picked up on the Cooper reference earlier though! The bike in the pic was the second Bantam frame manufactured by Bill Cooper from Derby but I don't know how many more he built. The original frame was made for John Orme and the second one was for Rob Smith, both Derby based riders. Rob always entered his bike as an 'Orme Bantam' but I believe the rest were referred to as a 'Cooper Bantam'. If you don't get round to doing anything with it Martin, I'm sure either myself, OTF or Darren Cooper (Bill's son) would be happy to take it off your hands to preserve the Derby heritage.

Does it look anything like this?

This is purely a personal point of view OTF (and I know that I've not ridden the last few events) but I think you would get more entries by easing the severity of the sections. On an average year I probably ride in 75% modern trials and 25% classic, usually riding either 50/50 or hard route in modern. Perhaps it's just me, but I would usually expect to have a less demanding day (both mentally and physically) competing in a classic trial as opposed to modern. This has certainly not been the case in some of the last few Peak Classic Trials I've done! And that's riding an ACM so it must be a struggle on some of the older bikes! I suppose this is a pitfall of having dual routes and I think a lot of course plotters fall into this trap - because there is a 'hard route' and an 'easy route' we are usually faced with ten HARD sections with no chance of a 'breather'. Ok, you could argue if that's the case then I should ride the 50/50 route, but my point is that I'm still riding to a reasonable standard (some might disagree) so if it's hard work for me it must be quite daunting further down the field. Please don't think that I'm 'having a go' at you, far from it. I appreciate all you people out there who give their own free time just to set out a trial for me to ride in.

The Diamond pictured here belonged to Mike Carey from Derby and the photograph was taken at the 'Bull-i-th-Thorn' hotel which hosted the start of that years Bemrose. Coincidentally, this bike was alluded to in an earlier post about John Orme (also from Derby). Unfortunately the bike was virtually destroyed whilst being transported to Clifton scrambles course when a following vehicle went for the overtake just as Mike turned right! Bill Cooper (also from Derby) made a small number of frames based on Mikes Diamond but used Bantam engines. John Orme was still riding (and winning) on his version into the early 80's! I believe the mesh screen on the front down tubes was an owner modification, not standard fitment.

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Dave Hodgkinson at Derby 01332 677720

Check out VMX magazine no.31 for article and pics of KT330

If you're going to the start from scratch why not build a Don Smith 330 replica?

It's still in me garage!

I wouldn't bother with one of the Spanish repro ones if I were you. The one I got doesn't screw on properly and also weighs a ton!

Mick Carey at Kniveton, Derbyshire c1974

John Orme at Kniveton, Derbyshire c1974, not on the Bantam on this occasion.