Eventpost 44 - BMCA Champs Round 1 - Marshbrook

Today was the 1st round of the BMCA championship and with a different format this year (7 rounds with all 7 to count) I decided to ride even though I was still suffering pretty badly with the chest infection. I figured that a few points would be better than no points!

As it turned out, the entry was very good with more Experts entering than are normally seen at BMCA events. The trial was held in a wood which was on the whole very dry so the banks, although quite steep, were quite grippy and easy to ride so the organisers had to tighten the sections and make the normal tight nadgery sections that were not too testing but could easily take marks - which they did!

Although suffering with a tight chest which made breathing difficult and a general feeling of weakness, I was actually riding quite steadily with just two single dabs on lap 1. Lap 2 was similar with 4 marks lost due to a bit of a mistake at the top of section 8 which needed 2 dabs to get back on line.

After a reasonable start that I was quite happy with I dropped into section 1 on the 3rd lap which was a tricky entry down a steep bank followed by a step then a blast across a muddy bog which had got badly rutted. I had been using a line which skirted the bog then required a hop over the rut to get back onto line, however when I tried it I lost the front wheel on landing and ended on my ear for a soft 5 marks. That was instantly followed by another 5 when I stalled the bike on section 2. The rest of the lap went for 2 marks but those 10 marks were just too many for todays trial as it wasn't difficult enough to claw them back. I did the last lap for 1 mark but the damage was already done and a total loss of 19 marks was the result.

The bike went well today and as it got hot in the wood, the carburation was much better, however I did notice that as it got hot on the 3rd and 4th laps the clutch stated to go off again.

I just had the results through and it seems that others had similar inconsistent rides to myself as I finished 4th in my class with some good riders behind me - I am now glad that I ventured out as I am pleased with the final result, though without the two fives a score of 9 or 10 marks would have been much more pleasing!!!!

Results

Experts - Up to 350cc

1. Alan Nicklin 4

2. Nathan Jones 11

3. Mick Parkes 11

4. Dave Dawson 19

5. Gary Hawkins 20

6. Nick Wooley 23

7. Dave Wood 24

8. Adrian Kent 24

9.Keith Gardiner 27

10. Brian Dale 28

Experts - Over 350cc

1. Jim Pickering 12

2. Pete Reed 28

3. Arthur Browning 29

Beezerpost 16

Got the bike back (again) at the weekend and all is back to normal.... Clutch fixed and timing sorted so it feels just like it did before we went swimming! Thanks Pete..

I now really must do something about carburation to try and remove the slight cough when I snap the throttle open. I know 4 strokes generally do this but I am sure that it can be eliminated with a really good set up. I have been advised so many conflicting ideas on this relating to less cut away on the slide to richen it, more cut away to weaken it, more space between the carb and the engine - I guess everyone is an expert in their own right and are basing their thought on what has worked for them - I will need to try them all and wee which one might work for me.

I remember on the Cub we couldn't get it how I wanted it until we opted for a DelOrto carb then all was OK (perhaps that's the answer)..

Anyway, I didn't ride last weekend, instead I opted to observe at Bromsgrove to help my dad out and also get over the chest infection that has been thoroughly pissing me off.....Sleeping on the sofa because my coughing is keeping the house awake is just not fun and as i write this on thursday morning it still isn't getting any better (10 days now so I hope I get some improvement soon!).

I am planning to ride the 1st round of the BMCA championship whis Sunday at Church Stretton so health permitting I will report on how things went on Sunday night.

Old Pictures (BMX Racing from the 80's)

I managed to upload some old BMXphotos from the early 80's - please take a look here

Old Pictures

I was having a look through some stuff and found these old pictures of me in the 90's on modern bikes and my 360 Bultaco scrambler at Hawkstone Park.

Eventpost 43 - BMCA Trial, Ullenhall

Following my recent dip in the water, after the Nostalgia Trial my bike went back to Pete Kirby for the engine to be stripped, examined and rebuilt - mainly for my own piece of mind to make sure that I didn't cause any damage to it.

Pete bought the bike back to Ullenhall on Sunday so it was a bit of a testing day to make sure that it was all running well and get the settings back to where they were before it went away.

Well, all didn't actually go to plan to be honest. The engine was running fine but I had some problems with ignition and clutch.

Firstly the clutch started playing up as soon as it got hot, not engaging and dis-engaging as it normally does - I checked with Pete and we believed that it was down to the oil that had been used as I normally run AFT in the primary case. Not a major problem as the trial was fairly easy and I thought it would be a good idea to ride off the clutch and see how I got on. Bit of a culture shock to be honest as I never ride without full use of the clutch!

I then felt that the bike had lost it's punch at mid throttle and felt quite flat so I went back to the car, dropped the oil from the primary case and avanced it up a bit.

This seemed to improve things but unfortunatly the clutch had now stopped working completely.

I continued to finish the trial but I was losing marks for fun! A coupls of 5's were taken where I stalled the bike, needing a bit of clutch at the bottom of a steep bank and another couple due to over running tight turns and missing the line because I was ahead of where I wanted to be.

The problem was that I generally set quite a lot of tickover to ensure that I dont stall then ride on the clutch and this clearly was not going to work in this trial because there was no clutch and the tickover was jus too quick for the tight sections.

Anyway, as the trial went on, the bike again became flat. It was like the timing was inconsistent or we have come across a self reterding ignition system!

Needless to say, Pete has taken it back to check these bits and bobs out and I should get it back next weekend at Bromsgrove.

The result was as expected, pretty poor considering it should have been a single mark trial, however it was good to identify these issues sooner rather then later at an event that mattered.

Pics are from this trial - I decided to wear my mountain bike helmet because it was so hot! You will see that on neither of these pics do I have a finger on the clutch (pretty unusual for me!)

Results as follows;

Experts (Up to 350cc)

1. Nathan Jones 7

2. Dave Jones 14

3. Laurance Alden 22

4. Dave Dawson 34

5. Ray Barrett 39

Experts (Over 350cc)

1. Pete Peed 18

2. Jim Pickering 20

Intermediates

1. Steve Neale 5

2. Pete Kirby 29

3. Ian Bullock 32