neonsurge

We had a certain current world champion and his minder turn up and ride at a Wednesday night easy trial last year. With a sidecar outfit. They quit after a couple of sections

It's unfair to the Impreza to compare it to a GTR. The GTR's main rival is the 911 Turbo (check the recent unoffical 'ring test times). Plus, the GTR is probably the nicest looking performance car EVAR (with the possible exception of the 612 Scaglietti but it seems I'm in a minority with that opinion )

Hi Nick, hope to see you up at the camp sometime.

"Site by G2F Media" ... Hmmm, I'm starting to see the connections here... Just kidding

Not to mention the fact that he drops all the "advertised elsewhere", "reserve the right to end the auction early" rubbish which is now against eBay's terms of service (finally!). So in summary it's a horrendously overpriced piece of junk with an extremely misleading description that violates the site's acceptable use policy. I wish barryboys.co.uk had a bikes section 'cos that's a shed of the week contender for sure!

The SDMC Cliff Collinson Trial to be held on the 13th January 2008 is now a national event. The format will be a single lap of 30-40 sections (exact number to be confirmed) taking in Low North Park and the surrounding area including sections that may (or may not!) be familiar to those who've ridden the East Yorkshire 2-Day and some beautiful North Yorkshire moor crossings. The marking will be TSR22A and no public roads will be used in the event. For more information, see the SDMC web site, download the regs here, and an entry form here.

davec has one on his bike. He'll be along shortly I guess or PM him.

If you're confident that you've repaired the leak properly then the oil going immediately milky after starting the bike is nothing to worry about. If you're at all worried, drain the oil with the engine stone cold - if it's normal then everything's fine. Seriously, every one of my Rev3s has been the same - oil looks fine with the engine cold, start it up and it goes white in about a millisecond. Sorry to hear you're not happy with the service from JLI. In my experience they're incredibly helpful (and patient!). In fact I can't honestly say I've got any complaints about ANY of the trials importers - guess when you're in such a small market it pays to keep the customer happy!

You reckon? Have you seen some of the 4RTs out there? The 4RT is the Vauxhall Nova of the trials world

1. Michael Brown (2) 2. Graham Jarvis (3) 3. Dan Thorpe (14) Full results here.

I just luuurve Husabergs. Dunno why, they've just always looked like a "proper" dirt bike to me. That all-yellow 380 in TBM last month was gorgeous and this new one it almost as good.

While I've got my bike in a million bits, I thought it might be a good time to tidy up the wiring. A couple of questions (both of which have been touched upon before but not in this context): 1. How do I remove all the superfluous lighting wiring? Can I just disconnect it all behind the headstock and remove or does anything else need to be done. 2. When connecting a Yam-style 2-button kill switch, I know that I need to connect the black to the black coming from the coil but where's the best place to connect the earth?

Thanks for all the advice! Now, there's good news and bad news (for me): The good news is that I've fixed the no spark problem (it was the stator). The bad news is that while wriggling the radiator out of the way I managed to crack the weld on the lower right mounting bracket and now it's leaking coolant. I swear I'm cursed on this one, what looked like a simple job has now taken 4 hours and the bike's still a long way from rideable. Anyway, what's the best way to plug this hole in the rad? Does it need to be rewelded or will some of that putty-type stuff from Hellfrauds do the job?

My recently-acquired project bike. CRM250R Mk.3 with all sorts of Mugen bits and pieces attached. Thought I might do a few enduros if I ever get around to sorting it out (it's been stood unused for 5+ years).

OK, after bloody work getting in the way for a week I'm now armed with a new stator and CDI (brilliant service from JLI as always). One teensy questions: How the bloody hell do I get access to the CDI and wiring (I want to check everything) without removing the radiator and engine??? I have a nasty feeling I've already damaged at least one wire while trying to fish it all out with a screwdriver! I'm now contemplating a new approach involving a delicate blend of mechanical sympathy and extreme mindless violence, delivered using every item in the Yorkshireman's toolbox (ie, end cutters and big fuggin' hammer). Please, give your advice generously and save a Beta from death at the hands of an inept numpty.

My '06 Rev3 250 just died. No warning, the fire just went out and it refused to restart, initiating an extremely sweaty and sweary 45-minute push back to the car. Got back, pulled the plug and there's no spark. Fiddled with the wiring (bypassed the kill switch etc.) and changed the plug but still nothing. I'm assuming at this point that after owning 4 Betas in succession with no major mechanical issues at all, the curse of the dodgy stator has finally been visited upon me. But I thought all that silliness had been resolved from 06 onwards? Anyone else had stator issues with an 06 bike? Anyway, I guess I'll be on the dog to JLI on Monday but apart from the stator, is it worth asking them to send a CDI as well? Anything else I should be looking at? Many thanks for all advice!

Got my first "in the metal" impressions of the 08 Beta while observing at at the East Yorks 2-Day today. Unfortunately, it was watching it ping off the top of a biggish step and land on its side with one of those expensive-sounding metal-on-rock crunches (complete with sparks and everything). Less than a week old I believe Seemed to be OK though, so they're obviously built well enough. Still don't like the white rear mudguard.

List of awards now available here (via SDMC). Full results to follow.

I wonder if the obvious weight penalty of hydraulic 2-wheel drive (like the Yamaha WR 2-Trac) would be offset by the advantages of such a system on a trials bike?

Very poor analogy. F1 has speed, excitement (well, compared to trials and again, from a purely casual observer's perspective) and it's easy to provide TV coverage due to the short lap, easy access and on-site facilities. People can relate to F1 because, well, they're just cars right? And that means heavy involvement and investment from major manufacturers which means $$$$. Trials has none of those attributes, all of which are essential for a sport to become commercially successful. F1 would continue to exist if there were just 10 cars on the grid, I've absolutely no doubt of that. In fact, it would probably just add to the mystique due to the perceived exclusivity.

Look at it this way: If the WTC in its current form did collapse, would it really matter? OK, a few jobs would be lost which is never a good thing but the effect on national level trials and below would be precisely zero. Club trials would continue as they always have, the top guys would continue to be amateurs (in the literal sense - most of them are now anyway) and trialcentral.com would still exist and continue to grow. From a purely pragmatic perspective, the WTC is irrelevant. An anachronism. TV coverage? Don't make me laugh. Put yourself in Joe Public's shoes - trials is BORING. Once the initial "wow" factor has gone, there's little to hold the casual observer's attention unless they invest the time to get into it. And considering that in order to do that it'd have to be possible to follow all of the top riders through every section there's no way any TV company would be willing to gamble the huge amount of money required to provide that level of coverage. In Yorkshire. In January. In wind and sleet :-)

lastplacebard... the Richard Hammond of trials.

I can't think of another sport where the top echelon is so far removed from the grass roots. In virtually any other sport you care to name it's theoretically possible for an enthusiastic amateur to compete with the world champion: I could go and play a round of gold with Tiger Woods. Your local Sunday league football team could play against Chelsea at Wembley. A weekend sports bike warrior could line up on a MotoGP grid. In all cases an absolute massacre is guaranteed but that doesn't change the fact that it's perfectly possible for Joe Average to at least make an attempt at competing at the highest level. You can't do that in trials. Death is certain I know a lot of people (myself included) don't regard the WTC (and especially the indoor championship) as the same sport as what goes on at at club level. It's another world and I think that it's this very distinct "reality gap" that contributes to the current dichotomy of the club scene flourishing (in the UK at least) and the world championship floundering. Make the Scott a WTC round. Make the SSDT a WTC round (again). Don't change either event in any way. I think that would have a more beneficial long-term effect than simply throwing hypothetical $millions at the WTC in its current incarnation.

Thanks for all of the comments and advice in this thread - much appreciated! I rode a local charity trial last week - with a friend on the easiest course and had a blast. So much so that we also went out for a play yesterday and I spent the afternoon just chucking myself at the scenery, crashing my brains out and for the first time in ages, just enjoying riding the bike. So I think my problem was taking it all too seriously and getting cross with myself for being so crap

I've been watching this discussion with great interest - I've nothing useful to add apart from to say that I totally understand how you feel Glyph. I'm in the middle of a similar process with a Honda CRM250 enduro bike and for me, it's not the end result that matters, it's the experience and knowledge gained during the process and from looking at your web site, I bet you've learned a helluva lot! A complete rebuild? Wow dude, there's not many people who would attempt such major surgery with (I think it's fair to say?) pretty limited previous mechanical experience. I know I wouldn't - the engine from my old '03 Rev3 got boxed up and sent off to a specialist when it required a rebuild and new main bearings. TOTAL respect due and I look forward to seeing the riding pics once your bike is fully functional again!