woody

TY175/250 use the same yokes, the 250 are just bored bigger to take the bigger diameter forks. The stem is the same as well as they both use the same bearings. Some Godden frames used taper rollers, like yours. It's a long time since I had one of those so can't remember if the taper bearings are a different size from the cup and ball type of the original TY. I imagine that the ID of the bearings is the same as the TY frame and it is only the OD that would be different to fit a different sized headstock. I can't imagine they altered the steering stem on those Majesties with taper rollers to take different bearings, so I would think you could swap them without problem. It's easy enough to check if you have the 250 yokes already, just remove the 175 yokes and compare them.

I've tried one on a Majesty a couple of times (same back wheel as 175) and it won't stay fully seated on the rim. It will seat when first inflated and blown out but when the pressure was let down about an 8" long section on one side dropped off the rim. This was at about 8psi, I hadn't even got down to normal running pressure. This happened regularly, I'd reinflate it and seat it back on the rim but as soon as the pressure dropped to about 8psi one section dropped back off the rim. I've had the same happen on a KT rear wheel, there is something about the tubed Yam/KT rims that won't allow the tubeless tyre to seat properly. I've used them on an Ossa and Bultaco without problem but not the Yam or KT. If you already have the tyre you may as well try it but if you are going to buy one for that bike there is the risk it will not fully seat on the rim at lower presuures.

That sounds a lot better than I was expecting - so the crossing was about 20 hours both ways which is a lot quicker than I've seen on various websites, I could just about cope with that. Was that normal ferry or something faster? Just had a look at Brittany's website and the latest sailing that week is on Tuesday 19th from either Portsmouth or Plymouth which is way too soon - bugger. I'll phone them and check.

That's the one

Cheeky bugger but maybe I should take three, just in case...

C'mon Malc - what's going on, Gavin hasn't thrown the towel in already has he... will it be in Devon for Miller round number 1..??

Excellent, just what I needed thanks John Looking forward to my next discussion about it now. In fact, I think I'll have banners made with the TSR wording and hang them at the start of every section

See the ones you mean but it's the reds / blues etc we're after.

Yep, they're the ones Perce - our local AMCA use them but can't remember where they got them from as it was years ago. We use flags at the moment but the yellow and green disappear into the background in a lot of places. They perish quickly too when the cows get at them...

I've got mixed up then, thought Rathmell was at Suzuki before Birks but obviously the other way around as the works RL325 was from about '76 I think. So 1978 is late enough for the first 325 Beamish which explains the article you're referring to with Rathmell riding one. Thinking about it I seem to remember him in yellow riding gear too which would suggest Beamish as the works bikes were red/orange and silver. Just assumed he would have been on a full works bike rather than a Beamish as he was highest paid factory rider at the time if I remember correctly. Didn't realise there was another works RL still around though - sitting in a barn is a shame, be nice to see it used. Birks uses his with a Beamish frame due to the fragility of the original. Engine sounds absolutely superb with a lot of go.

Thanks for the link, still not quite what we're after but some other useful stuff on there as well, so a good site to know.

I didn't think that Rathmell rode a Beamish, thought he had the factory 325 which was then campaigned by Nigel Birkett after Rathmell went back to Montesa. Birks still has the bike now. There was an ex-Reynolds bike on the Beamish stand at Telford.

Tried them but they only have flags, not the white cards with arrows

Yes Pete, your diagram is the perfect illustration of what I am talking about. Blatant cheating - much has been made of Alderson's bike swap in the SSDT but this is just as much of a cheat as that was. A trial can be won or lost by someone taking this cheat line and getting a clean when others have attempted it properly and lost marks. Can't understand why some observers allow it. SDC - are you saying that you would have allowed it if the rider had done it but not gone against the direction of the section?

I'd love to find some of these too but also drawn a blank. Only one I know to is a video of the 82 or 83 British world round from Pateley Bridge (maybe both years, can't remember) I did have a copy of this years ago but someone borrowed it or it got taped over or something. I can remember a brilliant clean by Schrieber on the Jumbo up a rocky gully or suchlike. Don't remember anyone else getting near it. There must be footage around that companies could put on DVD as there is coverage of the Scott that has been posted on Youtube. At the begining of the 6 from the Scottish there is footage from the 73/4/5? event including Rathmell on a Homerlite tank Bultaco in a snow shower at Edramucky (spelling??) So coverage of that exists and it would be nice to see more of that event. There are a couple of foreign videos that have made it onto Youtube covering a couple of world rounds from mid and late 70's plus one from early 80s but that's about it as far as I know. Outside of the people who enjoy riding them, there seems little interest in anything twinshock in the media, which is a pity.

Pretty certain they only do Amal, but happy to be corrected... You got yourself an Ariel then Bostit...??

Thank you for the offer to help. If I am able to come I will be travelling with friends also, so won't be on my own and we may have 4 bikes to bring with us (I'm definitely taking 2 as I'm not going all that way to retire if one breaks - two breaking would be very unlucky, but not impossible....) It is difficult to arrange transport of bikes with anyone else as it depends on work situation whether I can come or not, so I can't make definite plans yet. If I am able to come then friends will come with me so we will be ok for transport. I just have to decide which ferry to use, but thank you for your offer to help. If it is possible, I will be there this year, it looks like a superb trial.

Thanks all for the replies - the more I think about the Ferry crossing to Spain, the more the travel time makes me wince... Paul - which company did you travel with from Plymouth and can you remember the cost roughly, type/size of van, number of occupants? The sailing times of the two companies I've checked so far aren't suitable.

I've recently heard, from two seperate sources, that the definition of a section boundary is no longer what it was. For ease of example I'll take a single route section, marked with blue on the left, red on the right markers. In the good old days, the blue designated the left hand boundary of the section and the red the right hand boundary. By definition, this meant that the boundary was the invisible straight line between each blue marker on the left, and each red marker on the right. Or in other words, they were the pavement on either side of the road, you ride up the road, you don't go on the pavement. If you went out of the section on the left between two blue markers it was a 5. If you went out between two red markers on the right it was a 5. Aceppted, riders have always pinched an inch or two but blantanly going outside for say a foot or more was a failure to stay within the section - a 5 It seems this is no longer the case. I don't know whether this is an ACU directive or not, JC may know, but we have now been told that a rider can go out of the section between 2 markers, as far as they like and then come back in again. It's even been suggested that this is how it has always been. We're told that if you want to keep a rider within the markers they must be taped. Like that can happen when you run 3 routes - it would be like a bloody spider's web with tape criss-crossing all over the place. And how much tape would be used marking out a single event... I like using tape on parts of some sections as they look more 'professional' but there are limits... This is ridiculous if it's correct. Example. You have a nice rocky stream that will present quite a challenge to ride feet up. Blue markers are up the left hand bank, red up the right. A rider enters the stream and turns left out between two blues and onto the bank. Turns a big circle back towards the stream, crosses the stream without touching a rock and goes out of the red markers on the opposite bank and performs the same maneouvre. Repeat this crossing of the stream all the way up and a clean is achieved without touching a single rock. Joke. But by the above definition it's acceptable. Another example. Section starts and goes up a bank turning right on a camber and further up the bank. The objective is have riders turn right up a slippery muddy camber. Rider enters section and just before the turning, turns left out of a blue marker and rides down onto the flat field, turns around and has a 50 feet run up back into the section and straight up the bank, completely cutting out the corner. Again, this is acceptable by the above definition. So has anyone else come across this 'new ruling'? If this is the case, then for our next club trial I'm going to put a start gate at one end of the ground, an ends gate at the other and say to riders -go through the start gate, ride where you like then come out of the ends gate, come back and tell me your scores. No need to bother with section marker flags inbetween, you can all have cleans and be joint winners. I always thought the enjoyment of trials riding was to ride the sections that had been laid out, as the plotters intended, not to ride all around them!!! Then again, the 'new way' makes section marking easier I guess... And no need for standardisation of coloured markers as none will be needed. OK, rant over, but riding out and back into sections like this is just another form of cheating that really winds me up.

Does anyone know where section marker cards can be purchased from I've seen them on ebay before now but nothing at the moment and a quick search of google threw nothing up. I'm thinking of the white cards, about 6" square (thereabouts) with the coloured arrows. Any suggestions anyone?

Personally, I don't have any problem with what is happening at the moment. I get up and down the country a fair bit following events and the use of different colours by different centres has never caused me a problem, so it wouldn't bother me if things stay the way they are. The way some are marked out has, but that's another issue. What could be an issue is if a club, or centre, has just recently invested in a nice new stock of laminated (or whatever) section markers in the colours that they have used for years. If colours are standardised and they aren't the colours used by those clubs/centre, I'd guess that they wouldn't be too willing to junk most of them in order to comply with standardisation and spend further money buying more. I think it is more important that the markers used are big and clear, no matter what their colour, in order that the routes are marked as clearly as possible. Nothing worse than a green or a yellow marker which is a painted stick the size of a witch's tit hiding in yellow/green foilage or undergrowth. Ultimately, it's the riders responsibility to sort out their route at the start and to look at the section properly before riding it, but many still choose to stand at the begins cards and ask anyone who is listening where it goes. I'd put money on the fact that even if sections had a painted line in the colour of each route from the start to the ends cards, you would still get that most irritating of questions to an observer - 'where's it go mate?'...

Make a note of which way around the clutch push rod is fitted when it comes apart. It is shaped differently at either end and the manual doesn't state which end goes which side. I've no idea what happens if it is fitted the wrong way around (if anything) but something to watch out for. I guess it's fair to assume that if your clutch has been working ok, the way it is fitted now is correct.

Giving serious thought to doing this event this year, work permitting, now that Scotland is out of the picture. Has anyone from the UK who has ridden this trial travelled by van using the ferry from Portsmouth to Bilbao? Does it really take 36 hours which is what the P&O website suggests (although it seems to be 24 hours coming back...?? must be a hell of a wind/current...) I'm not sure I can cope with that long stuck on a boat - boredom threshold may be seriously tested. Isle of Man crossing tests it enough... The ferry cost is the wrong side of

The Kato bike is a very nicely made copy, built by Craig Mawlam who does the Majesty stuff, using a frame built by Mick Whitlock

Yes, you're probably right, I had a feeling I'd got that wrong, I can never remember those models properly - don't like them much which is probably why - ugly things.