neonsurge

But if world-level trials was allowed to evolve naturally, would we eventually have a sport where almost all the sections are potentially life-threatening if a rider makes a mistake? If so, would that make it more attractive to the general public? Because like it or not, evolution has not yet managed to remove the primeval part of the human brain that wants to see carnage and blood. I don't think so because seeing a rider slowly topple off the edge of a 30 foot step is still not as "exciting" as seeing a superbike hitting a tree at 200mph during the TT and exploding in a storm of white-hot shrapnel. I'm being slightly facetious but just because death and serious injury are part and parcel of other motorsports doesn't mean that it should also be an element of trials: As has already been pointed out, trials is very different in both philosophy and tradition. For example, give a mediocre road racer a bike with twice as much horsepower and better handling than their rivals and they'll stand a better-than-usual chance of winning the race. Give a mediocre trials rider Raga's or Dougie's bike and they'd still come dead last against more experienced and talented opposition on standard machinery. Trials is the eccentric, slightly scary uncle-that-you-don't-see-very-often member of the motorcycle sport family and if the hypothesised world of "ultra extreme" world trials becomes a reality it will represent a significant "dumbing down" of the sport as a whole. How much real skill is involved in launching up a series of massive steps compared with riding non-stop around a section of slippery rocks and off-camber roots? You could argue that there's more bravery involved with the "rev, splat" style, but bravery doesn't necessarily come from skill and experience and it's the skill element that trials should emphasise moving forwards. All in my perpetually uninformed and inexperienced opinion of course. I'm well prepared for a slap-down following recent forum exploits...

<mention of this company is not permitted on Trials Central> are importing a lot of Mitani goodies - mostly the 4RT stuff but I know they've had some of the Beta bits too - might be worth a call. Paging Mr Ferretflasher!

Dunno if it's any help but there's an article in this month's TBM magazine about the history of the Beta trials bikes. I don't have my copy to hand but I'm sure it talks about the first small-capcity bikes that arrived in the UK in the 70s. Might be some useful information/contacts in there!

If the existing world trials format is left to evolve naturally, the riders will get better, bike technology will progess and the sections will get bigger and scarier until someone gets seriously hurt (or even killed) at which point there'll be a period of confusion and seemingly endless debate until a new world trials format emerges from the depths of the FIM. In reality, I'm sure that rule changes would be introduced to prevent such a nightmare scenario (a return to non-stop or bike capacity limits maybe) but I think there's a far simpler solution. The Kickstart format worked and was popular with the general public. Why not take that as a starting point and update it? Shorter laps, 10 second penalty per dab, fastest man wins and a mix of natural and indoor sections. Break the lap up with a few "special tests" where the clock stops and the rider has to tackle a more technical/bigger section, similar to those in the current world championship (still incurring time penalties per dab and with a maximum time limit for the section). So there'd be a mix of the old and the new, it'd be more TV-friendly (and therefore more attractive to "outside" sponsors). Best of both worlds? Problem is, this would never work at club level but I'm not sure it needs to. World trials is already significantly different to club trials anyway and there's not (usually) the danger problem so there's no reason why "traditional" trials can't continue as they do now. Just idle daydreaming really but if the sport is to grow in terms of public perception and commercial opportunities I think something like this needs to happen. I guess the next question is, does the trials world want change on this scale? Should trials remain the eccentric, slightly scary cousin of the rest of the motorcycle sport world?

I bought one of the "heavy duty" flaps as discussed at the beginning of this thread and I've almost worn a hole in it after 3 rides (which is a lot better than the stock one which I managed to hole after one hour!) I'm pretty sure it's to do with the chain cam adjusters - the closer the wheel is to the flap, the more likely it is to make contact. I'm kinda hoping my chain stretches a bit and I can adjust the problem away!

I recently had the engine in my '03 Rev3 rebuilt including main bearings, crank seals, usual top-end stuff (didn't need a new piston or replate) and various other bits and pieces. The total cost including parts and labour was

There's a simple test that I usually apply in such situations: If the cost of sorting out a botched job is equal to or greater than the cost of getting someone who knows what they're doing to do it in the first place, whip the engine out and take it 'round to your friendly local engine builder! Geek version: public void ShouldITryThis(object theJob) { if (theJob.CostOfRepairingABotch >= theJob.CostOfGettingItDoneProperly) { GetItDoneProperly(theJob); } else { GoodLuckWith(theJob); } }

Might be

The rose joint isn't actually that expensive - I just replaced it on the '03 that I'm in the process of rebuilding (just waiting for a new fuel tap now!) and I think it was about

Just a thought..... y'all seem to be having carb problems doon south but round here where the Beta is by far the most popular bike, I've yet to hear a single person complaining of problems with their '06 (apart from the old "don't park it facing downhill without first turning the fuel off and revving it a few times" issue which was the same on my '02, '03 and '04 bikes)... Wonder if it's isolated to a couple of dealers in the south of the UK who received a batch of friday afternoon bikes?

Hmmmm. I have 2 air filters that clean and alternate between rides. That way there's always a reasonably clean, newly oiled filter in there. I take the carb off and clean it after every ride and remove the flywheel cover after washing and leave it off for at least 24 hours to allow any moisture to escape as well as checking all of the bolts, bearings, pads and the chain. Maybe excessive but at least it's fewer things to worry about and really only takes 20 minutes or so after washing!

I would (and do). And only partly because I want to help the club. See my previous reply in this discussion. I still believe that observing can be a very good learning experience for a rider!

You sure about that? I only live 40-odd miles from Silsden and I sometimes have trouble understanding what those buggers are on about! BTW, I did a training day with James Lampkin last year and if you're expecting to be taught how to hop around and fly up 6' steps you're going to be disappointed. Fundamentals, fundamentals, fundamentals.... which is how it shoud and needs to be of course. James' assistant for the day was cousin Ben Hemingway - another fantastic teacher!

The Scarborough boys'll see you right Andy

Says it so much better than English I think!

IE 7.0 Beta 3 is available for download now. It's pretty fast, has vastly improved security features and browser tabs (finally!) but Firefox still has the edge due to its support for 3rd party plug-ins IMHO.

Firefox works just fine with multiple concurrent user sessions. The problem with IE is that if one of the logged on user browser sessions expires, it doesn't flush its cache to disk until the next time that session becomes active or (and this is the crucial part), another user attempts to start IE in a different session. Because IE is quite tightly integrated with the host OS (Windows), it uses several "shared" components (DLLs) and it's possible that some of these are still in use in the other user's protected memory resulting in an access violation in the new session when IE attempts to access data in the "wrong" context. IE 7.0 is much better than previous versions but Firefox is the way to go.

Yes, the '06 is definitely "poppier" than previous models - very significantly so compared to my '03 (which should be running pretty clean following it's rebuild and a thorough exhaust de-gunking). The jets in the '06 carb are identical to previous years (150 main/30 pilot).

I think you'll also find that there's a (perhaps) surprsingly large number of English, Scots, Welsh and whatever other nationality you care to mention who simply don't give a toss.

I had a 200 for a while and it was more than capable of dragging my lardy a*** over just about anything I had to gonads to try (not much admittedly but still...) And they're soooooo smooooooth!

I've been following this thread with interest since this is the first time I've heard of a Beta carb problem that hasn't been solved by applying all of the usual mods. My own '06 has carburated flawlessly right from day 1 and apart from having to unblock the pilot jet after every ride (although that may well be a consequence of the uncharacteristically hot and dusty weather at the moment), I've not experienced any of the classic Beta carb problems - no dribbling fuel, no "fluffiness" off the bottom - nothing. This combined with the fact that as r2w mentioned, all of the factory boys use the Mukuni carb (albeit with the floatbowl extension) suggests to my mechanically inexperienced brain that maybe the problem isn't carb-related. Ignition maybe? Timing/CDI? I dunno.... after all the hassle you've had, I'd be tempted to drag it along to Lampkin's and get them to take a look.

Can't offer any solutions to the problem of getting observers at events but what I will say is that as a (bad) rider, I've found observing to be an excellent way of learning what works in certain types of sections and weather conditions and what doesn't, getting to know other riders in your club (and from further afield) and I honestly believe that it's helping me to become a better rider myself. If you know the area where the trial is taking pace and you've observed there before, try to get a section that has a different type of section to the one you last observed to see different techniques in action. The benefits are obviously cumulative and wouldn't disagree that there's no substitute for real bike time but I've found that a cycle of ride one, observe one has worked for me. I'm still not troubling the top 10 in my class by any stretch of the imagination but I think I might one day get there. I've never really had problems with agumentative riders while observing (might have something to do with the "front" value of being a 6'2" fat git) but in the rare occasions when it has happened I simply call the next rider into the section and ignore the ranting idiot stood behind me. They soon get bored and move on and interestingly, it never seems to be any of the "top lads". Get out and observe!

Nice one. Ordered

If you look at the '06 Rev3 manual it doesn't mention anything about setting the preload on the rear shock but goes into some detail about both preload and damping on the forks. It mentions setting the rear damping screw for "fast" or "slow and controlled" shock action but nothing else. Weird. I've followed the instructions and set the front precomp and damping and rear damping as recommended for my weight and riding style (useless fat git) and it seems to work fine. I've yet to bottom either end although I don't do many 6' drop-offs! When I've finished rebuilding my old '03 and got it on eBin I might go through the "proper" setup procedure as detailed on GasGas USA's web site (the information is bike-agnostic) but until then I ain't gonna worry too much about it.

Where did you get it from?