Eventpost 20 - BMCA Winter Charity Trial Mucklestone

Today was the Winter charity trial at Frank Bourne's farm. As you can imagine the going was pretty slick after the recent rain but the sections were quite good and gave opportunity to put some open sections on that gave opportunity to have a blast.

I dont feel that I had that bad a ride and after the second lap I had dropped only 4 marks which was in the running however I had a small problem when I caught my right footrest on a root and ripped the footrest out of it's mounting.

At first it was still rideable as it was hanging downwards at 45 degrees but then on the last lap it dropped off completely and although I was able to ride a few sections one footed I did lose two 3's where there was little option but to paddle along. In the end I rode my Dad's Fantic for the last 2 sections once he had finished the trial so I guess officially my result doesn't stand.

Still it was fun and after the last trial I was pleased that be finding some grip and at least being competitive.

Bill Bourne was the outright winner on 2. Not unexpected as he was riding his own land and is a bloody good rider but the rest of the results were pretty close and I ended up 5th overall and 2nd in my class so all in all not too disappointed, though some welding work for Dad this week!!

Pictures are from sections 3 and 4 today.

Results

2 Stroke

1. Nathan Jones 17

2. Dave Dawson 19

3, Steve Neale 53

Unit 4 Stroke

1. Jim Pickering 10

2. Alan Borton 18

3. Brian Dale 25

4. Gary Hawkins 26

Pre Unit 4 Stroke

1. Bill Bourne 2

2. Pete Reed 32

3. Bob Greenhough 33

Eventpost 19 - Heightington BMCA

A very strange trial on Sunday indeed. After all the recent rain the stream at Heightington was almost unuseable so the event was largely held on the surrounding banks. The venue is pretty slippery at the best of times but this weekend it was as greasy as it gets.

As this is normally my favourite going, I was looking forward to the trial. As this was the first time that I had ridden the Sprite in really muddy going I was looking forward to seing how it performed.

Unfortunately I struggled more than I ever have getting any grip and duly had my worst ever result in a trial since I began riding I think!!!!

I am not really sure what the problem was, it could have been me being heavy handed on the throttle, the gearing may be too low, the trials 2nd gear was useful but I could have made better use of a 3rd gear had we taken the decision to put one in, we have recently removed some flywheel weight and put a quick action throttle on the improve the bottom end pick up.

Indeed it could have been any one of these things or a mixture of all of them but the upshot was that I rode crap and couldn't have found grip if there was a million pounds on it.

The end result was 117 marks lost against a winning score in the 60's from Dave Wood and a finish right down the order in the Expert class.

I wont do anything hasty and plan to leave it as it is for the nest trial just incase it was just rider and conditions not getting on well together.

Still, I actually enjoyed the trial and had great fun even though most of the day was spent either with my feet down or on my ear and thats what we do it for at the end of the day isn't it??

Spritepost 30

As I had the bike out today to check that all was in order for tomorrows trial I thought that i would do a few pics of it in it's completed state, if there is such a thing as a finished bike?

Fanticpost 6

The tank has arrived from Chris Stevens at Classic Trial and the new 300 seat has also arrived so it's now looking the part.

We now need to make a new bracket for the seat to attach to as the 300 seat is much shorter than the original 240 seat.

Also the colour match on the tank and side panels is a little off, so we may have to re-think this, either by spraying the side panels in the same colour or even doing something a little different on the sides.

I think we are looking at another couple of weeks for the rear wheel to be built, having had to order a new rear rim but it's looking like it will be ready to ride in a trial over the Christmas period.

I will keep the BLOG updated as we go.

Fanticpost 5

The Fantic is now making some progress at last following some extreme delays in the postage system.

I have the wheels away being reuilt with Terry Millichap who is lacing my newly powder coated white hubs into black anodised rims

The side panels have been received from the twinshockshop and any day now should see my tank from Chris Stevens at Classic Trial and a new Fantic 300 seat to finish the job off.

I am hoping that I can give myself the finished bike for Christmas the way things are moving.

I will add some more photos as soon as I have some