martin belair

Jordi, please examine your statement, you say "I have tried to understand OpenFree" and then you say "I make the decision not to participate" when you had the opportunity. This sounds like a contradiction. Try it first and you will see that you may like it. Something has to be done to make World Championship possible for more riders. I give the Spanish credit for at least giving it a try.

Greeves, I am aware of Mr. Estripeau and his large contribution to our sport.. Yes, he has played an important part in spreading the idea of Gate/Open Free trials in Europe. I do not wish to direspect his contribution, but the idea originated here in the USA around 1995 ....ask Tommi Ahvala. We have been using it for a long time in club trials. Nigel, perhaps "embraced" was not the best choice of words. Perhaps "tested" is better. Jordi, have you seen it? Have you participated in a test? If so, please give us details of your experience. There are many positives to this system and keeping an open mind and testing it are important.

There are 2 things going on here, Racing and Commercial. Clearly the Racing side of things works to perfection, but the commercial side needs re-working. There needs to be new people put in charge of Brand Management. The people in charge are clearly failing at their job. As everyone knows I am a die hard Montesa man, I hate to see the way things are being run on the Commercial side of things and I hope that they get it sorted out.

It apperas that Spain is on the verge of using Gate Trials for their National Championship according to SoloMoto Off Road and Todo Trial? confirmation by the RFME is the final step. Gate Trials was invented by American ( several NY WR & TdN) organizer Carl Peters back in the mid 90's. It has been used by clubs all over America for over a decade. The French and Spanish have now embraced/copied/invented it and added a complex scoring system and now the Spanish are about to be the first to use it in a National Championship. I hope that credit goes where it is due.

Toni Bou, Takahisa Fujinami and Laia Sanz of the Montesa Team are set to continue with Montesa for 2010. HRC, Repsol and all other sponsors are on board for 2010. The team has just purchased a new transporter. President of Honda Montesa Sr Eduardo Bigas has confirmed that production of the Cota 4RT will continue at the Honda Montesa facility in Spain, presumably when the overstock of 2009 models are sold. Protests at the Honda Montesa factory centered on the fact that the production of Honda road bikes at the Honda Montesa Factory in Spain had been moved to the Honda Factory in Italy and that 180 Spanish workers were laid off (made redundant) in Spain. The Spanish wanted the reverse to happen.

Woody, there is a stop for the outer housing between the tabs of the bottom motor mount. You'll see it.

Let me tell you a story about Sandifords, which I hope reflects the type of company they are and the type of family they are. Back in the Seventies, when Caroline and Martin were just babies, I was fortunate enough to live my dream and live and ride in Europe, thanks to Montesa. After a long winter in Barcelona, the Factory asked Jim Sandiford if he could give me a summer job so that I could get some experience at the Importer level. I am certain that Sandifords did not need my help, yet they gave me a job and a pay packet each week. I lived above the White Lion pub in Bury. I worked under the tutelage master mechanic Bill Brandwood, father of Geoff. Bill made sure I rarely spent time alone. He took me to the Rose and Crown, taught me to throw darts and drink Stella. Jim Sandiford took me to many trials and regardless that I was in my riding prime and he was past his I only managed to beat the old man once. Jim and Alwyn treated me like family having me over for dinner and including me always, the memories have lasted me a lifetime. Fast forward to 2002. My rider Ryon Bell of Canada wanted to ride the SSDT and get some experience in the UK. Caroline, without hesitation made it all possible. How many families have served the trials community as long and as well as the Sandifords? How many countless riders and events have been supported, first class service to the sport for over 4 decades. I for one am very grateful to the Sandifords.

Adrien, check your email. I sent you an outline for a West Coast Regional Series. I need some input. Martin

Time for a West Coast Championship

Great video from 1975 with Vesty, Manuel Soler, Rastus, Mart, Ulf, even Benny Sellman and more. Check it out Thanks for sharing

Beautiful bike Jive. Congrats

Sorry, these 2 lines are not in the press release.

se habla espanol... Reorganization -as a result of the global economic crisis and decline in sales -Honda will reorganize their motorcycle production in Europe -motorcycle production will be concentrated in Italy -Montesa Honda factory will continue with plastic production and paint operations -Montesa Honda will continue with its activities in Trial and the Montesa brand. -this reorganization will cause a reduction down to 180 employees of the current 340, mainly in production but also in administration and commercial departments Honda has also closed its European Design Studios in Germany

Montesa-da 2009 photos

Try fresh gas.

Wow, the "B" team got the job done. Too bad Caroli and Paulin crashed out of the final moto or it would have been much more dramatic. Great ride by Dungey. MXdN Report I got up at 3am so I could watch the Podcast live on the net thanks to FOX gear. It was worth it.

Fantastic! Geoff has been working hard and deserved this. Congrats to Geoff and family.

Not true.

Anything can happen Tim. Bottom line is that it is still a great bike and if were not for the economic climate it would still be selling well. Honda like any motorcycle or car company today has bigger problems than the trials market. That avatar was along time ago.

Individual scores do not reflect a riders contribution to the team. They don't tell the whole story. Since only the best 3 out 4 scores count, team strategy may require a rider to sacrifice his score for the benefit of the team. There are many was that can happen. A rider may be asked to try a different line or gear in a section and then inform his teammates as to its value. His score for that section may read 5 points but his mates may have all registered cleans thanks to his sacrifice. Or a mechanical situation may require some sort of sacrifice. Or the final lap may see a team under time pressure so after three riders have ridden clean the 4th ride is not needed so he will take a 5 to keep the team moving fast.

Tim, you're right the times they are a changing. Bike sales in all sectors and among all brands are down. I heard a statistic recently, from a credible source, that trials bike sales (all brands combined) were 15,000 units worldwide 10 years ago, then down to 10,000 units in 2008 and now down to 5000 in 2009. That is a slide that few industries can survive unscathed. There have been ERE ( workforce reduction) throught the industry but only Montesa gets talked about. The Montesa situation seems to draw the most attention. It draws lots of speculation and opinions. There is sooo much bad info about Montesa that I though I would try and add my thoughts to help clear up some mis-conceptions. Believe me I know very little, only what I can observe from a distance. I have no idea what will happen next. Perhaps nothing. Montesa/Honda is not immune to world economic factors. Read this Press Release It is hard to tell what will happen. We see many factors at work. We see a world class team the likes of which the sport has never seen just finish another great season, buy a new team truck and renew all its sponsorship contracts for another season. World Champs, Men and Women and Manufacturers World Champions. All good signs. On the other hand we see a 4Rt that has seen only minor updates since its' intro in 2005. Product manager is just not doing his job. There are very good trials people at Montesa/Honda but there are also some corporate drones that should not be allowed to lay hands on Montesa. They just don't know what they are doing. It's not a Japanese/Spanish thing either. We also see a Euro that grows stronger everyday and that drives the price of the bike higher for those outside of Europe. We see Montesa/Honda replace Sandifords its longest serving importer with Honda UK. Hard for me to accept. Here in the US the weak Dollar killed it for me. Montesa/Honda (Factory and Importers) have always operated on small profit margin. Ironic, most expensive bike and the least profitable one. That leaves little wiggle room. So when factors put pressure on the market, they are the first to feel the pain. So what do they do now? They have an overstock of 2009's. It may be that there is no 2010 model as they try and reduce inventory. I believe that if the 2009 was a 280 or even 300cc with PTB-EFI they would have sold many more, but changes cost money and raise the price of the bike. Changes to the motor require new homologation and larger cc would increase price due to the new EU Carbon Tax. It needs to cost less, but how? It has too much quality and technology ... compounded by the Euro. There are solutions, but decisions need to be made. Time will tell. One thing I believe is that Montesa will not disappear. Montesa has proven to be a survivor. Martin

Support of TdN Teams varies with each nation. Some teams are fully supported while others get partial support. You would have ask each country what they get. Ask Kip how he does it. Better yet volunteer to help with the fund raising and your questions will be answered. Who knows, your kid may be on the team someday when he gets oldar. As for your other questions see the NATC website or ask your NATC rep.

The check is in the mail Clive. Go Team USA!

Thanks for all you do for our TdN Team. It is appreciated. You are right that this is our strongest team ever and I too am looking forward to the results. Got any XXL left over? Martin

If you think about it, in certain respects, a typical WC section it is a gate section already, just without the score.. Take a young WC rider's attempt on a section. He can get through the first tough bit and maybe the second tougher bit but he gets stopped at the final toughest bit. His score does not reflect his performance for most of the section. Sadly, he gets the same score as someone that crashes just after the start gate. Right now we have 2 types of Gate trial. The US system of clean or nothing and the French system of Open Free Rules that count gates and dabs. Both systems have their positives, but Gate system is Do or Die and Open Free scoring system is too complex, too many points.. One idea is a simple 1-2-3 scoring. Most points wins. For example: Dabs and gates are counted. Gate is a + score and dab is a - score Each section has 3 gates only, with values of 1, 2, 3 so max gate score +6. Dabs are counted to -3. More than 3 dabs is a failure. Max -3.