neonsurge

OK, my last word on the subject (speaking as an ex-trail and enduro rider): Whatever legislation is passed will make not a jot of difference. In fact, it'll make things worse. If the country's network of green lanes is effectively closed down (or, as seems to be the intention, drastically reduced), people will simply ride wherever they want. And they won't be on taxed, insured and MOT'd bikes, they'll be on full-bore MX-ers, racing quads and unregistered trials bikes. And why not? Any country-wide ROW closure will be utterly unenforceable. No license plates so no point of reference for the ramblers to report to the police. At least now there's some semblance of self-regulation through organisations such as the TRF (misguided and toothless as they are). In the future... nothing. It'll be a free for all. And then what? A ban on the sale of off-road vehicles? Given the lunacy of this current crap from DEFRA, it might not be so far fetched. Bleugh.

Well as far as land usage is concerned it's not really a problem. It's out in the sticks and the only vehicular access to the site is via an extremely substantial heavy metal gate that's secured with an industrial size padlock. Members pay an additonal fee per year to obtain a key and the lock is changed annually. On one side is fenced farmland, on the other side is a very steep hill covered with dense forest (with a river running along the bottom edge). The only conceivable method of access apart from the main gate is the far end which opens onto moorland, but this requires the traversal of some of the deepest bogs in Yorkshire and the crossing of a river. So access can be pretty easily controlled. There are proper toilets, administration facilities and a catering hut, all of which are (obviously) manned during events but not the rest of the time. What purpose would having club officials/employees present on site at all times serve? It's a relatively large area (I'd guess 8-odd square miles) and comprised of steep hills, rock-filled gulleys and thick woodland so "supervision" would be totally impractical. Remember, it's used almost exclusively for trials practise so injuries are pretty rare but there is a concrete road running the length of the park (it's ex-MOD land) so land ambulance access is possible. This thread has made me more aware of the problems facing riders in other parts of the country. I've lived (and ridden) in this area all my life and I guess I just take the park for granted. I realise that my recent mini-rants re. illegal riding (while justified in context) may look like small potatoes to some people. My apologies. I'll shut up and go away now.

Vicx, was that you riding a Fantic at Low North on Sunday? If I'd realised I'd have said hello... What's the story with the tasty looking bike?

I was at a local centre trial this afternoon with my old man and there were a couple of old-timers riding Tiger Cubs (remember them? I do, just!! Fantasic noise!) and 3 or 4 of the new 4-stroke Scorpas. Afterwards, we were talking about this and me fatha came up with an obvious point, one that I'd never really considered until now: A 4-stroke is firing half as often as a 2-stroke, so how is it possible to get the same amount of instant "snap" out of a 4-stroke engine? I've been riding 4-stroke enduro bikes for years and never had a problem when whacking the throttle open to clear a log or something, but I guess that's slightly different: The engine's already turning quite a lot of revs, so the "lag" when opening the throttle is going to be measured in ten-thousandths of a second and practically imperceptible. That's not the case on a trials bike where the engine might be just ticking over when you snap the throttle open - in this case, the lag might more of a problem! Can any mechanically-knowlegeable person explain how this problem might be overcome? I can't see a way around it.

Have you looked on GasGas USA's site? They have complete wiring diagrams for most years/models (saved me hours of grief when I rewired my 270TXT). Try this: http://www.gasgas.com/Pages/Technical/Elec...-2000-tx50.html

God help me.

That's a work of grammatical genius! There's not many people with the guts to attempt a fundamental tense shift in the middle of a sentence! I salute you...

Errrmm... why?

Y'know, I've never really thought about it from that point of view. First of all, the land is wholly owned by the club: Lock, stock, the lot as they say, so there's no rental/lease issues to worry about. In fact, the club makes quite a bit of extra cash by hiring the land to the army a couple of weeks a year for exercises and quad training (which is kind of ironic since it was purchased from the MOD back in the sixties). I guess it's all about respect. The land is quite a way out in the sticks and not many members of the general populace know that it's there and although the club has quite a large membership (around 600 I believe) with club trials reguarly attracting 80-odd riders (and more) I've never, ever seen anything that could be even vaguely described as offensive or anti-social behaviour. I guess everyone realises what a unique facility it is and to put their membership in jepoardy just isn't worth it. As for insurance etc., I honestly don't know. What I do know is that it's been run like this for at least 30 years (believe it or not, it's the club's centenary this year) and I consider myself lucky to be involved.

There's nothing to it, really. Pop the bike up on a stand so that both wheels are off the floor and rotate each in turn tapping each spoke gently with a screwdriver. Properly tightened spokes will go "ding", loose spokes will go "thwack". If you find a loose one, use a spoke spanner (or open-ended spanner of the correct size) to *gently* tighten the spoke until it's a "dinger". DON'T over-tighten any spoke since this will likely cause the rim to warp and if you come across any spoke that won't tighten, investigate the cause! Unless you have the equipment necessary to do a "proper" job, this should be more than sufficient. Always worked for me, anyway.

I'll tell you what would do wonders in terms of public perception and recognition: Get Dougie to perform a quick demonstration live in the studio! Something relatively easy (for him!) but visually impressive. If shown first hand what trials is all about, people will remember it...

What's the useful life expectancy of premix if stored in a properly sealed metal container (jerrycan for instance)? I have 8 litres of premix sat in my garage and considering I only use around 2-3 litres each time I ride, it expect that it'll be sat there for at least a couple of weeks. Will it still be OK to put in my bike?

rabie: Well, I understand what you're saying and I suppose that the situation might be different in different parts of the country. In this part of the world (at the intersection of the NY Moors national park and 4 very large areas of forestry) it's mainly recreational trailriders who simply don't know any better that are the real problem. The other groups of riders that I've met in the past few years have invariably all been riding late-model pukka enduro bikes and have all of the expensive kit - certainly not pikies. They've jumped straight off an R1 onto a WR450 and headed into the closest area of unpopulated land. And since so many enduro events take place in the area (YEC's Yorkshire Enduro and Ryedale Rally, NEEC's Langdale Enduro and many smaller events), it's these that feel the backlash first and hardest. My local club is fortunate enough to own its own land - a huge area of woodland that I've seen described elsewhere as "trials heaven" (and it is). There's also a motocross track that hosts regular meetings, mainly during the summer months but I think that it's fair to say that trials is the club's primary focus. The park is open to members for practise every day of the year when there's no event on but trail, enduro and MX bikes are explicitly banned. And as a "born again" trials rider, I'm totally in favour of that rule because my pleasant Sunday afternoon "pootling about and falling off into the river" sessions aren't disturbed by hoards of big-bore thumpers and shrieking 'strokers screaming around the place - apart from anything else it'd only be a matter of time before someone got seriously hurt as a result of a high-speed collision. No, I and just about everyone else I've spoken to like things just as they are, thank you very much. But is this a case of bare-faced hypocrisy? We all accept that we need to educate people to ride responsibly (which is really what it all comes down to), but here we are with all this land in the middle of what must be one of the most "abused" areas in the UK in terms of illegal riding yet we don't (and won't, hopefully) give these people somewhere legitimate to enjoy their chosen hobby. The club has no obligation to anyone other than their members and since it's a trials club that wholly owns the land upon which they allow free practise and hold all of their events, it's entirely their perogative to deny access to the type of riding that's likely to damage the sections far more quickly than a thousand trials bikes would ever do and probably result in a comparatively high accident rate. From this perspective, the "trials bikes only" policy is completely understandable and wholly sensible. I honestly can't see a resolution to this dichotomy that'd be acceptable and mutually beneficial to all interested parties. Which is why I still believe that commercially operated "trail parks", similar to those operated in many parts of Japan is where our sports/pastimes are headed. I accept that this may be a unique "localised" perspective and I'd enjoy reading what the situation's like in terms of legal practise areas elsewhere.

http://www.dougielampkin.co.uk

As I mentioned recently when a similar discussion came up over on TA, I've recently come back to trials after spending the past 10 or so years trailriding and competing in enduros and believe me, this is an issue that's worrying people from all diciplines of off-road motorcycle sport. The sport that's possibly most threatened by illegal riding is enduro. The reasons for this are simple: Generally speaking, motocross takes place on privately owned, properly operated and licensed tracks. Most of these tracks also hold regular practise days meaning that the responsible motocross enthusiast should, leaving distance complications aside never feel the need to go tear-arsing around the local woods, frightening small animals and children and generally giving us all a bad name. Trials is similar in many respects (although there are probably fewer "official" trials practise areas around), but trials bikes have the distinct advantage of being both quieter, slower and much less "visible" than a modern big-bore thumper. Now consider trailriding and enduro. If you're an enduro enthusiast, where do you practise? The UK does (for now) have an extensive network of legal rights of way, but these are still considered to be public highways and it's simply not safe to rip along a green lane since there's a good chance you'll encounter a Land Rover or worse, a group of crumbly ramblers coming in the opposite direction around the next blind bend. The only answer is to find a friendly local landowner, but these are becoming more and more difficult to find for many reasons, not least of which is the desire to avoid the legal complications caused by complaints of noise and/or injury to riders. Which brings us to these "born again" trailriders. These people have no idea about green lanes, have never heard of the TRF and encouraged by irresponsible and frankly clueless publications such as MCN, seem to think that the countryside is one enormous trail park. Most of them head for the nearest area of forestry and it's here that the real damage is done: 'Round here at least, most enduros take place on forestry commission land and the illegal riding is doing a pretty effective job of removing access to this land by organised clubs permanently. We might think that trials is suffering badly, but it's nothing compared to the damage that's being done to the sport of enduro. This is one of the main reasons that I quit the whole enduro scene - it just wasn't worth the hassle any more. I realise that I've made some generalisations and glossed over a number of important issues, but the bottom line is that I don't believe that this is a battle that "we" can ever win and we'd all better get used to the idea that the only places we'll be riding in the future are privately owned and operated and potentially "artificial" venues; and paying a premium for the privilege of doing so. It'll take a sea-change in both property law and the attitude of certain so-called "insider" publications to avoid this and I honestly can't see it happening. Sad but true.

I've also mailed the Beeb with the suggestion that they at least show a clip of Dougie in action and mention his amazing achievements over the past few years. Seven world titles and an MBE and hardly anyone outside the motorcycling world has heard of him. Add to this the fact that we've also got Jarvis, Colley and others in the top echelons of the sport AND team GB's win at this years Des Nations, (not forgetting the British ladies' achievement) and the BBC is guilty of the very definition of a travesty. I know I'm not saying anything that I suspect everyone else on this board is also thinking, but this seems like a good opportunity to vent a little spleen. Maybe if more people said to Aunty B "I know Wilkinson's going to win but..."?

Done. Won't make any difference though: Wilkinson will walk it.

Betcha thought you'd got rid of me, eh? No such luck, this grumpy old git is here to stay.