Thankfully the majority of respondents to this original posting are very much in favour of John Shirt's reportings on this website.
If you are an importer of a product, and that product is your lifeblood, then it makes good business sense to promote that product at every available opportunity. So John Shirt sensibly produces a report of events and outlines the results of his riders. If he has good business sense he also supplies regular editorial material, including suitable photographs to every other publication that is likely to use them. Let me say now, that as a long time journalist, the material that was used in the paper was that which was supplied editorial ready, well written, clear and concise with good pictures. In other words, if John Shirt had the good sense to do my job for me, then there was every chance his material would get used.
He's doing that with Trials Central, and like the editorial contributed to every publication it's entirely up to you as the reader to either read it or turn over the page, or in the case of a website, click your mouse to another subject.
Rather than criticise John Shirt for plugging Gas Gas, the criticisms should perhaps be aimed at the traders who DON'T promote their products. In fact, look at my user name, I have the sense (I hope) to make good use of the company with whom I am involved.
As an individual I have had the occasional run in with the Shirts, and whilst I don't intend to go over that subject again, at the time the two Johns were actively protecting their product, and for that alone, they have my admiration. As the years have passed, we have all mellowed and I like to think that the relationship between us is stronger than it ever was. They realise that back in those troubled days I was only doing my job, equally, they were doing their best to protect their business. That we fell out is well known, it's also well known that we are again on good terms.
I've known both Shirts for nearly 30 years. Young Shirty was a little s*** at one time, but he's grown into a superb guy and NEVER fails to be anything other than 100% with me. Equally Senior tells it as it is, and if we have to differ we do, but our interests are mutual, and that's the long term future of trials.
So let me finish by saying that John Shirt should continue to do what he sees fit to promote his product, and so should anybody else. If you don't like it, don't read it, but don't waste time castigating somebody for doing their job properly.
Strange, isn't it, I'm reading my column on TC and it's not been on the site for 24 hours yet and already it has over 850 hits with 16 postings. Already VERY valid points have been made and even now I'm thinking about next week's offering, but more of that on Sunday coming.
Incidentally, and I'll air this here rather than in the column, are there any "top liners" logged on to this website. It frequently seems to me that it's mostly the regular club riders that join in, do the likes of Britain's top ten read and contribute? I would love to know.
I was at the TdN as a reporter/photographer for this website and other magazines and I too was impressed by their ability. Pat Smage is a good rider on a 125 and Chris Florin too, in fact all four did well. Trouble is, they need to ride over here in Europe to progress much further I think. Well done to the lads.
Hillary, better known as Mike Rapley, columnist on Centrally Speaking, will be there for all three events, principally working for YOU HAVE USED WORDS OR A PHRASE WHICH ARE NOT PERMITTED ON THIS WEBSITE. PLEASE DELETE YOUR POST/TOPIC. DO NOT TRY TO CIRCUMVENT THE FILTERS IN PLACE ON THIS WEBSITE and TBM, but if anybody has the technology to get pics from my Nikon onto Trials Central, they are welcome to use the lot. Contact me at the Chesterhouse Hotel or spot me with the Trials Central fleece.
First of all I haven't been dumped on - let that be clear. The club's treasurer/trophy secretary recently moved house and asked if I could handle them whilst the move took place which is what I did. In the future they will be handled in the normal way.
And with regards to the trophy evening, Lancs County had one until recently and we experienced the same problem, get it all organised, try and sell tickets etc, get food organised and still there are dozens of awards left uncollected.
I don't know the answer to awards except to provide usable vouchers for winners, which is what we did most recently. We purchased over
I have the LWB version, almost done 100,000 mile from new and it's a great van. It takes two bikes easily and three with a squeeze and there's always room for kit
I can't believe my column has just started all this nonsense. There is only one rule that matters, Rapley has to have a number between middle and end, and when it comes to queues he's allowed to go to the front. And the first to say he does that anyway gets taken to court!!
In reply to Cubby, I know that the organisers realised they got it a bit wrong - not everywhere, as some sections were really great for a no-stop trial, and I know that Ian Murphy is keen to accept advice. Glad you accepted my words in the way they were intended, so often when I write a column, folks get on their high horses and think I'm having a go at them, but this is never the case. I always say to riders in my own trials, you have to ride what the organisers want to provide and can provide, which is not necessarily what the rider wants to ride. If organisers put out trials exclusively for me, we would all be flying up and down greasy banks, covered in roots without a rock in sight!
In reply to 666wobbler about Lancs County trials this year - at least the Sunday events.
The Good Friday trial could not be held at Brookhouse Brickworks for two reasons: 1, we had just run our national there and 2 the land is no longer available to us after March 31 until late July due to ground nesting birds, and of course that information was not available to us when the dates were applied for last October. However, we did run on Good Friday at Wrayton, making it a Birkett series trial as Wrayton could not hope to host the expected Friday entry of 125+ We hoped that by making it a Birkett round, we would reduce the entry, which in fact is what happened. However, 666wobbler could have ridden if he so wished (perhaps he did!)
Our July 1 Sunday trial could not be held at Barkingate due to a higher land management scheme on the regularly used side of the farm, which MAY lose us this land on a permanent basis, though we as yet do not know. We did request permission from several other landowners to run on that date elsewhere, but we were turned down by all of them, principally because of the wet conditions at that time. However Barkingate which we used for a Wednesday trial on the less used side of the farm is still available to us though hardly suitable for a Sunday trial.
And finally we have decided not to run on September 16 so that the Jim Sandiford Charity Trial gets the best possible entry. We could have run against them, but that would have split the entry, therefore hurting the charity effort. What was the point of that? Jim was a very good person and I personally wish to see his good name benefitted from.
666wobbler needs to know that land in Lancs County's area of the north west is increasingly difficult to obtain. Unless something happens and we get offered new land, Lancs County could well be without suitable land within a very short time. Simple as that.
And how all this connects to Spa? Goodness knows, except that surely an applicant for a WTC round must have the basic problems sorted in advance.
I spoke with John Watterson, the motorsport correspondent for Manx Newspapers; TMX's Manx correspondent and a good friend and he told me this evening that he had heard that the trial was going ahead with some limited restrictions, quite what they were he didn't know.
This is NOT official, and presumably the official news, one way or the other will come from the organisers, but John has a very good reputation on the island and I don't think he would have told me that if there was any doubt.
As far as I am aware there is no real definition of Clubman. There comes a time when an expert deems it prudent to move down a level and I can see that Richard Allen has reached that point.
I guess it started at the Wainwright; Rich is a good guy and has always been a tidy trials rider, but from what I saw, at the Wainwright he was out of his depth in many sections and there comes a point in everyone's life when you have to weigh up the risks against the rewards. Like most of us, he has to work on Monday and the risk on the expert course is now too great when your ability is marginal when compared to the severity of the sections.
That's the reason he moved down (I guess, though we haven't spoken about it) and it's the reason other very good riders choose to ride the Clubman route rather than the expert course. Should we be bothered? No, I don't think so, at the end of the day it's a sport with no reward other than satisfaction. All that happens as riders move down is that those battling for 50th place end up battling for 65th place and those battling for 100th end up hoping to stay out of the bottom ten.
The only concern from those in the 50th to 100th places is that the Clubman course doesn't become too hard to satisfy the struggling experts who have moved down. It's very easy to up the severity just a touch to take marks off the good riders in the clubman class when consideration must be given to those at the bottom level. Remember, when you are a clubman, there is nowhere else to go except lower down the results!
Having ridden this wonderful trial and having taken the trouble to comment upon it in my column, written very late on Sunday night, I rather expected some TC registered members would also take the trouble to make comment to the club about this superb promotion. It's totally beyond my comprehension to understand just how much effort goes into plotting this event and whilst I'm sure that the 200+ riders appreciated this trial, I rather think that the Richmond guys and gals would have liked to read some positive comments about their efforts.
No comment may well be a reflection of everybody's satisfaction, but even so, come on lads, have a view. Say thanks where thanks are due. Ask yourself this one question, would you undertake such a massive promotion? I certainly wouldn't.
This column was written VERY late on Sunday night, I was knackered and now, reading it through on Monday morning not only have I spotted a number of typing/grammatical errors, I also realse I have not mentioned what I intended to say in the first place!
Whilst the Reeth was a real cracker of a trial for me personally and certainly everybody I spoke to, the best part of the weekend was the company we were able to keep. Inevitably, as you ride a major trial such as this, you mix with a large number of other riders and as such are able to enjoy a real social occasion. Fortunately, around my number there were some great guys and to you one and all, thanks for a very enjoyable three days.
Also thanks for assisting me up some horrendous ditches and slots out of deep gullies, for Reeth had some TOUGH between section terrain this year, terrain that was more difficult than in the past. But we did it and here, at my keyboard on Monday morning, all is well, the results look to have found the correct and very well deserved winners and whether you were first or close to the bottom of the list, it matters not one jot, for you were out there doing it. So well done to all concerned and consider this as a supplement to my original words.
Now don't forget (as if you could) Hawkstone is on this weekend. There's only one message to convey.
I had a Sammy Miller hi-boy Bultaco and I have a very good black and white picture of it after I had done it up, about two years from new. Originally it had a nickel plated frame but the picture I have is with a plastic coated frame in black; the tank was painted red and black. If you contact me I will scan the picture and e-mail it to you (don't know how to scan it and post it on here!!)
I had two Beamish Suzuki, 325 sidecar outfits in the early 'eighties, and rode all the British Championship series on them for about five or six years. At the time it was an excellent machine, very reliable and in the hands of John Gaskell was a British Championship winner - the best I did was five national wins and third in the series.
The problem now is that the machines are 20+ years old and spares for Suzukis are not easy to come by. Some bits are plentiful, others don't exist and if you are considering competing on one, remember everybody else is on modern, water-cooled, single shock machines which have progressed massively.
The engines rattled like mad, but being typical Japanese, are pretty bulletproof. Pricing one is a bit difficult, but I wouldn't be inclined to lay out too much for one, simply because the return in usage is fairly low. I don't know for sure how many outfits were built, but probably 50 - 80 seems a likely number, no doubt somebody will know.
Regarding the reply by Hughesy - no you are not the observer I'm referring to, even though you may think that's so, in fact, I wasn't at the top sub of Kilmalieu for long and when there was taking pics, so didn't notice how you were observing. The section I'm referring to was another day and I don't know who the observer was.
Incidentally, why, on a very crowded section does the observer spend all day shouting at the crowd to move back, when he could so easily move himself. Surely it's easy to get yourself moved for better vision rather than trying to move 100 or so people.
Glad this column has created some early reaction, hope some more comes in over the next few days.
Andy, That is a superb article. I did think about writing something similar for my column this week, but ended up writing something far less contentious. I'm glad I chose not to because I simply couldn't beat what you have said.
Just bought a camera exactly for that purpose - and I'm a pro journalist. I went for the Sony DSC T100, which is very thin, has a 3inch screen and no protruding lens. It only has a sport programme but used it on Good Friday and at the Ian Pollock Trial and the pics are pretty good. Shutter delay exists but far better than they used to be. You can live with it - it's certainly faster than my Canon S50. It's 8.1 mega pixels and I'm totally happy with it. I also have a Nikon D 50, a Canon S50, a Nikon FM2, a Nikon F90, two old Pentaxes - any bids?
I've owned three 4RTs now and I don't think they stall any more frequently than a two stroke.
However, there's no doubt you have to learn to ride a four stroke in a different way. First of all, you must make use of the clutch; if you can't use the clutch the 4RT will be away from you and may be more prone to stalling. However, I can't ride any bike without the clutch, so I don't consider this to make 4RTs any different.
Equally, they must run with tickover but perhaps more importantly, always keep a fraction of throttle on at all times. Difficult? Maybe, but learn the technique and you'll eliminate most problems. I always run 10/43, but others stick to standard gearing (10/41) If you can handle it, OK, but I prefer the lower gearing.
I think much of the "probelms" folk think about is all in the mind. Get into four stroke mode and you'll master it, but riding a 4RT which may need a slight change of technique is no different than changing technique as to how you drive a van in a different manner from a car.
Not very well explained but stick with it and you'll surely enjoy the undoubted character that 4RTs have over all other bikes.
Nikon make good cameras, but if you can get one, go for a D50 rather than the D 40. The D 40 is a cheaper version and nowhere near as good - even a s/h D50 or even s/h D70 would be much better. An 18-55 lens is OK for trials, but a 18-70 is better. The 18-70 was standard on a D70
177.JPG.9fd444f099602e00a86c455a24b2e122.JPG)
Gas Gas - Self Promotion Diatribe
in UK Trials Talk
Posted
Thankfully the majority of respondents to this original posting are very much in favour of John Shirt's reportings on this website.
If you are an importer of a product, and that product is your lifeblood, then it makes good business sense to promote that product at every available opportunity. So John Shirt sensibly produces a report of events and outlines the results of his riders. If he has good business sense he also supplies regular editorial material, including suitable photographs to every other publication that is likely to use them. Let me say now, that as a long time journalist, the material that was used in the paper was that which was supplied editorial ready, well written, clear and concise with good pictures. In other words, if John Shirt had the good sense to do my job for me, then there was every chance his material would get used.
He's doing that with Trials Central, and like the editorial contributed to every publication it's entirely up to you as the reader to either read it or turn over the page, or in the case of a website, click your mouse to another subject.
Rather than criticise John Shirt for plugging Gas Gas, the criticisms should perhaps be aimed at the traders who DON'T promote their products. In fact, look at my user name, I have the sense (I hope) to make good use of the company with whom I am involved.
As an individual I have had the occasional run in with the Shirts, and whilst I don't intend to go over that subject again, at the time the two Johns were actively protecting their product, and for that alone, they have my admiration. As the years have passed, we have all mellowed and I like to think that the relationship between us is stronger than it ever was. They realise that back in those troubled days I was only doing my job, equally, they were doing their best to protect their business. That we fell out is well known, it's also well known that we are again on good terms.
I've known both Shirts for nearly 30 years. Young Shirty was a little s*** at one time, but he's grown into a superb guy and NEVER fails to be anything other than 100% with me. Equally Senior tells it as it is, and if we have to differ we do, but our interests are mutual, and that's the long term future of trials.
So let me finish by saying that John Shirt should continue to do what he sees fit to promote his product, and so should anybody else. If you don't like it, don't read it, but don't waste time castigating somebody for doing their job properly.