the artist formerly known as ish

We where riding slippery streams, banks, and rock sections all about the level I would ride in club competition, I did ride the bike like it was my own and wasn't nervous about scratching it or falling over. Thanks to Dennis Sweeten, pictured below, owner of Apex sports, for letting me come along and give the bike more than a parking lot test ride, I didn't even have a bike to wash when I got home

Well I got to try the new Montesa today, seen all sorts of posts about the bike on here from people who had seen it, or so and so had told them about it, not very many from people who own one and there must be a few about now, in fact I wondered why more new owners hadn't posted about the bike, could there be something wrong ?? Firstly I am a Sherco dealer and have a new sherco 4rt on order when they become available, so my test ride was for nothing more than to see what the new generation of fourstroke trials bikes are going to be like, it would be easy to try and pick faults and say well it's ok but I think I'll wait for the Sherco's to come out, truth is I couldn't pick faults I really felt comfortable on the bike and it did everything I asked of it without fuss or struggle. 11am this morning Dennis Sweeten of Apex sports in Oregon called me and said the bikes where ready to go we are riding at my house come down and give it a test, no need to ask me twice I was there in no time at all. When I got there they were already dirty so I had no need to be careful I just got on one and rode the first section without walking it, drop down into a rooted hole with a tight right and up a loose rocky stream, on turning the corner I thought I was going to stall so slipped the clutch and dabbed, then climbing up the rest of the section clutching and getting myself off line, got to the top and thought you made a real pigs ear of that ish, now try it without messing about with the clutch and ride the bloody thing. So I did and it was easy!! so I tried it again and again it was easy, moved on to another section and same again if you leave the clutch alone and ride the section using smooth throttle control to replace clutch control it rides like a dream. Five of us were on four bikes, and I noticed the same for all the riders, stand on it and just trust the bike and they made the sections look easy. All four bikes ran spot on and felt light small and comfortable from first getting on them, we did think the noise was a bit loud so put the tailpipe restrictor on, couldn't tell any change in performance but it did make the bikes quieter, I think it will be a small problem that will be solved with a factory mod very easily. I don't know how the perform up 10 foot steps or silly bloody leaps the world champs do, but I only watch that stuff, the type of riding I do the bike has more than I would ever need. I have waited a long time to ride one and don't take what I say as fact, the only way is ride the bike and let it speak for itself. only tip is once you can leave the clutch alone and just stand on it and ride, it keeps impressing you more and more. The bike was spot on, shame I couldn't say the same for the bugger taking the photo's, out of 13 pictures these where the best two.

Mr. Doyle, before Avondale took the financial risk and put in all the hard work there wasn't a British indoor world round. If I remember correctly! last year the event went on very late, I would think the organizers were trying to plan the overall running time to get done before midnight to help the spectators get home, also all that equipment has to be out of there by Sunday morning. The event has been a sellout since year one, they must be doing something right . I also think they will of taken note of what the spectators thought of this years event and will change accordingly, unless you try new ideas how will you know? On the Montesa, it's the first world indoor for the machine and same again until they try it in those conditions how will they know what to work on both in technique and machine performance, remember the bike was built has a trials bike, only a few people in the world will ever ride them in these conditions, No way!! would Saturdays indoor results have any bearing on if I would buy one to ride in club trials, I would go test ride the bike and see how it feels for what I would be doing on it.

Looks like Andy got a pic of the section

Stuff em up your ars..e

Like to bet Kinell " hey love have you seen that cell phone I left on my seat while I went for a slash"

It was the best coverage of all indoors last year, hope Kinell doesn't loose Heath's phone number

Didn't mean for this to turn into a what if topic, fact is any bike submerged in muddy water will be knacked, yes you can drain them and carry on, this only adds to the damage, but in events like the ssdt you pays your money and keep going as long as you can, the lads bike was submerged long enough for the water to fill the exaust full, were the valves open ? he also says his barrel was full of muddy water, Mont, Sherco, BSA, doesn't matter without a rebuild it's toast. Try putting some wet sand in an old wheel bearing and giving it a spin it John, many fourstrokes have competed and done well in the SSDT, in fact I would say it's less likely to get water into the engine than a two stroke, but when it does get drowned like the one in the topic, turning it upside down and pumping it out won't get the dirt that does the real damge out.

Happy young lady now owns that little baby

I was reading the Machanical forums on todo-trial, and see some poor lad submerged his new 4rt, barrel, exhaust, head, filter box, all full of muddy water. Should make this a poll, what would you do ? Kick the dog and Rinse it out and sell it, low hours, wife forces sale Go the whole hog and total rebuild replacing all bearings. Insure it and report it stolen

Wallace, Penny Lane? missing words *been up penny lane* kid is late for school when asked by the teacher why he is late, he replies "* *" another kid comes in ten minutes later, same answer "* * miss" another kid comes in ten minutes later, teacher says suppose you have * *too, "no miss I am * *.

Able to ride them all at home on my own sections, gives a great insight in to how the bikes have progressed, ride a section on the 200 and forget about the clutch just stand on it and let the motor and flywheel do the rest, turns well, but poor riding position, they did get the riding position wrong back then imo, the traction with a modern tyre/tire is amazing, also the amount of power they got from a 157 cc motor. Next step up for me in technology is the pentax, better braking and suspension but you find yourself doing more work with the clutch, gets over bigger stuff easier but that you would expect from ten years of developement very stable and goes where you point it, stacks of power when you wind it on and pulls anything in the first three gears. Then get on the 05 Sherco and it levels the section hops over the logs light and easy to ride, only thing the 200 can compare on is traction, it's fun riding the older bikes but nothing compares with the latest models and I think one old bike is enough for me to do the odd event if I can ride with my mates on similar machinery. Another chapter is opening with the fourstrokes and I'm looking forward to it, nice looking old bikes are just that, I do see the attraction for riders who compete on them, but I think also a big factor is the eased sections to accomodate the bikes, nice to have one in the shed, but they started ganging up on me. If I had to make one choice of any bike I have owned to ride, it would be an 05.

Must agree with you there BS, he is getting a bit soft isn't he

No reference to the Beave, so I don't think it's Ringo. First thought it was Boof, but Billy also had a go at WB on the spack. Leaning towards Billy due to his digs at Fraceman. PS, Martin have you shipped them bloody bikes yet and are you going to be at COTA's first event of the year to introduce the machine to the public in the USA, could get me more entries if people knew the new Mont would be at the event for test rides.

Ash, I saw this on the Ebor clubs results, at the bottom it had some for sale and a phone number. clicky http://www.trialscentral.com/cms/files/Wat...y%20results.pdf

I havn't ridden any events on it TS, but rode it up the road and I can tell you! it's the fastest bloody trials bike I have ever sat on. This one does have a bit of a pop at the lower end, it had a silly spark arrestor welded on, did the best I could to make the HRC rear silencer look stock after cutting the sparky off.

The Sherco 3.2 4T is scheduled to start production on end of January and should be released to the Sherco Dealer network by February 20th. [What a twerp I am, forgot to post it ] The mailnews from Sherco received today, I think adding another month to that date "shipping, customs, and re shipping across the US" we should be seeing some over this part of the world by the end of March. Once everyone gets over picking faults with the bikes, (all mainly earsay) and more people start riding them in competition the dust will settle and it will be good for both brands having new fourstrokes competeting. All the bull going about is just that! and until they get a few months behind them people naturally want to get there digs in if they ride something else, there is only one way to shut em up, let the bike do the talking. We all take it personally when we see digs at particular brands, myself included, some do have merit, but most are tripe!! those who have been about long enough know what the score is, if the bikes are good then they will prove it.

No classes in AHRMA or AMA for the eighties twin shockers, so put on the odd event for the bikes, the lads on the west side of Canada are putting on a few classic trials also, so it is starting to grow. Clubs in our area get their own insurance through a broker, this allows clubs in the northwest to pretty much run any type of event they like under whatever rules they like, riders turn up, pay the entry fee, sign the waver, and ride. no license or bs necessary. If we wanted to use the US national series as a platform, all it would take is a number of lads to agree to ride the same class on twinshock bikes and have their own trophy and champion at the end of it.

Big John keeps them for the strange sexual pleasure he gets when looking over his fold, me!! if I'm not riding it then it's taking up too much space, I don't get too attached to metal, and plastic.

Brad, the chap who owned the bike prior to me worked for Honda in road racing developement, he restored the bike but polished the welds of the swingarm, it looked good but he had taken all the strength out of it, I had two good beeds of weld put back were they had been ground off, it needs them buffing up now to look original. I don't think it was Billy's bike.

Go with both, then you can look a real ***ck riding the Scottish In fact if you got a number close to Kinell, people would be saying "how do you loose a ***ck that size"

Have you tried lewisport USA ? 209-754-4437

I should have picked up on the spack dig at wibble boy

Too many of the buggers, only need a good twin shocker and a good modern bike. Sold the 89RTL and the Seeley, now if I just shift one of the Fantics and the Pentax I'll have less buggers to wash and more time to ride

more power, but numb to ride