aj201280 Posted November 29, 2006 Report Share Posted November 29, 2006 When i was 6 years old my parents moved to fort william so every year i was one of the crowd at witches and trotters burn and i remember one year at witches burn dont know who it was or what machine they were on but he came round the corner looked at the step said F$%K THIS ANYONE GOT A BEER. so someone threw him one and he proceded to drink before heading off. Would have been about 1987 ish Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizza5 Posted December 1, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 1, 2006 Don't want to steal Big John's thunder on him riding the wettest SSDT ....................but? As the for Yorkshiremen said in the Monty Python sketch...''You were Lucky'' Just a couple of stories from years gone by, can't even remember the years but I do remember how wet they were. One year the river crossing to the sections at Callart was that high that the officials set us off in Park Ferme, only to hand our card to another official to put us straight on Delay, ''Result on delay before even riding a section '', they had to re-route us up to Kinlochleven. Possibly the same Year we got to a river crossing and there were 3 bikes upside down on the opposite bank full of water, having navigated North and South to find a safer crossing we decided that infact the flagged route was the shallow option??? Rob Crawford thought he could jump the bugger as there was a small island in the middle that would act as a bit of a kicker for the second part of the river, he turned round headed back up the track for a full bore assault ''this is going to be entertaining''!! Well he reached the island and skimmed across the water like Moses for the second part of the river and hit the bank at the other side in a heap, but made it, dusted himself down and dissapeared into the distance. Well I looked at my brother and he looked at me and almost in harmony said ''F**k That'' So our plan was to carry our bikes over one at a time almost above our heads, everything was going good until we got above our waists, I had a set of those Fantic waterproof overtrousers that started filling up from the top that when it started gettting a bit scary, but we did get both bikes across eventually, and not full of water Now that was wet............................ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slapshot 3 Posted December 1, 2006 Report Share Posted December 1, 2006 (edited) Would one of them be 86 then boys......same year as Chernobyl??? remember that year vividly...Went to Chairlift nice gentle burn section couple of inches of water flowing when I got there, when I left the water was at barrel height, horrendous amount of rain that year, wettest I ever remember. When I got back to the office 4 inches of lovely radioactive rain had fallen on the Northwest of Scotland on the one day, think it was the Tuesday but maybe wrong. Worst of it was it just kept raining that week, lovely Scottish rain Edited December 1, 2006 by Slapshot 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldilocks Posted December 2, 2006 Report Share Posted December 2, 2006 The year they had to re route from the parc ferme was 1986, my first year, I still dont know yet why I went back again. That was on the Saturday but the worst day was wednesday. I set off to Achallader Farm ( we went round Kinlochleven first) in my JPX riding gear (similar to Ellgren), I was wet through by the time I engaged top gear !! Nowadays we have goretex and its still freezing It was somthing like 25 miles on the road. A lad called Roger Clark pulled into the NE Centre fuel check, when he stopped he was apparently so cold he couldnt move his legs so promptly fell over still sitting on the bike The sections were just unreal you could hear the rocks rolling beneath the water and picking a line was impossible. The year Rob Crawford jumped the river must of been 92 which was also very wet, I think he first rode in 89 so he couldnt of been there in 86. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slapshot 3 Posted December 2, 2006 Report Share Posted December 2, 2006 (edited) Just had a drag through some old weather charts and stats about '86.....saddo yes, bored Saturday in work, again YES!!! On the Monday fronts moved East to west (unusual direction in the UK, depression in the far south of Englandshire) wet and radioactive on the Monday into Tuesday. Fronts pushed into atlantic to be met by another set of active fronts heading in the normal way so it hunbg about and came back, (remember a superb satellite pic at the time), heavy rain practically all day on the Wednesday. Some of the rainfall totals were rediculous that day, our main three stations in the west coast at the time were Prestwick Airport, Glasgow Airport and Benbecula and they all recorded over 70mm rain on the Wednesday 7th May 1986 however three smaller reporting stations seem a bit more representative, at least it was relativley mild...about ten degrees Sloy (on Loch Lomondside) 133mm over 5 inches of rain Fersit (Yes that Fersit, rain gauge in the Hamlet) 110mm over 4 inches Fort William (reporting station at the Aluminium) works 109mm 4 inches The local topography accounts for the differences, that and the conveyor belt dynamics of frontal physics Smart A$$ It was wet, three days of stonking heavy showers added to it, not nice and all that lovely Russian fallout to go with it they wonder why we're all mad ТОБАГИЦ.. Edited December 2, 2006 by Slapshot 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gizza5 Posted December 2, 2006 Author Report Share Posted December 2, 2006 Just had a drag through some old weather charts and stats about '86.....saddo yes, bored Saturday in work, again YES!!!On the Monday fronts moved East to west (unusual direction in the UK, depression in the far south of Englandshire) wet and radioactive on the Monday into Tuesday. Fronts pushed into atlantic to be met by another set of active fronts heading in the normal way so it hunbg about and came back, (remember a superb satellite pic at the time), heavy rain practically all day on the Wednesday. Some of the rainfall totals were rediculous that day, our main three stations in the west coast at the time were Prestwick Airport, Glasgow Airport and Benbecula and they all recorded over 70mm rain on the Wednesday 7th May 1986 however three smaller reporting stations seem a bit more representative, at least it was relativley mild...about ten degrees Sloy (on Loch Lomondside) 133mm over 5 inches of rain Fersit (Yes that Fersit, rain gauge in the Hamlet) 110mm over 4 inches Fort William (reporting station at the Aluminium) works 109mm 4 inches The local topography accounts for the differences, that and the conveyor belt dynamics of frontal physics Smart A$$ It was wet, three days of stonking heavy showers added to it, not nice and all that lovely Russian fallout to go with it they wonder why we're all mad ТОБАГИЦ.. Yes, but we were that hot from the Radio Active Fall Out.........we rode round in T shirts all week Big John sorry your 1977 wasn't as wet as 1986, but any SSDT before the late 90's was a challenge, it is still a challenge now but you have only got to look at the scores of the winners in those years, by hell it were tough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2fargone Posted December 2, 2006 Report Share Posted December 2, 2006 (edited) The year they had to re route from the parc ferme was 1986, my first year, I still dont know yet why I went back again. That was on the Saturday but the worst day was wednesday. I set off to Achallader Farm ( we went round Kinlochleven first) in my JPX riding gear (similar to Ellgren), I was wet through by the time I engaged top gear !! Nowadays we have goretex and its still freezing It was somthing like 25 miles on the road. A lad called Roger Clark pulled into the NE Centre fuel check, when he stopped he was apparently so cold he couldnt move his legs so promptly fell over still sitting on the bike The sections were just unreal you could hear the rocks rolling beneath the water and picking a line was impossible. The year Rob Crawford jumped the river must of been 92 which was also very wet, I think he first rode in 89 so he couldnt of been there in 86. Baldilocks, were you on a JCM in 86 ? And yes it was bloody wet in 92' especially in the 'Alex' if I remember right! Edited December 2, 2006 by 2fargone Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baldilocks Posted December 2, 2006 Report Share Posted December 2, 2006 Yes, My dad was importing them at the time so it wasnt an option really. the airfilter intake was by the coil under the tank so you had to be up to the filler cap to drown one. really handy feature that year !!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
schweizmeister Posted December 24, 2006 Report Share Posted December 24, 2006 Enough of all these wet weather stories! I rode in 1996 and only got rained on one afternoon! That was on a 300 Fantic - I think there were only four twinshocks entered that year. Respect to Michaud, Lejeune etc who made it look easy on twinshocks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steve fracy Posted December 27, 2006 Report Share Posted December 27, 2006 I will add my name to the list of people who rode in 92 then.My first and only year. If I remember correctly, according to the rules half the enty should have been excluded on the first day due to time violations. A "special" allowance was made to ensure this didn't happen. I think Robert Crawford was among those who would have been DNFed the first day. I was told it was an unusually wet year!!!!!!!!!!!!! cheers, Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nigelland Posted December 20, 2012 Report Share Posted December 20, 2012 Hi Just doing a bit of research into the 1983 SSDT in which Honda were awarded Best Performance for the TLR200. I am trying to find out who were the riders that year on the TLR. If you still have the program could you enlighten me, please? Happy Christmas Nigel Land Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
b40rt Posted December 20, 2012 Report Share Posted December 20, 2012 Good read, never seen this before. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2stroke4stroke Posted December 21, 2012 Report Share Posted December 21, 2012 Yes, I'd missed a lot of this too but the prize for wettest year probably goes to one, I think in the late sixties, where riders got stuck on Rannoch Moor overnight. I recall the reports (them was the days when both weeklies gave reasonable coverage to the event with reporters actually up there for the week) saying that a swollen river blocked progress but Sammy Miller took a long run up and jumped the torrent. Some riders spent the night in a bothy on the moors allegedly burning their socks to get some heat. Others rode along the railway line in the dark to get back to civilisation. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
axulsuv Posted December 22, 2012 Report Share Posted December 22, 2012 Wish I'd been there .... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
slapshot 3 Posted January 16, 2013 Report Share Posted January 16, 2013 HEHE this made some fun reading again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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