We Have Moved!!!

This site is now closed - please go to www.classicrider444.com - all of the information from here has been moved across to the new site and is easier to access - thanks and see you at the new site....Dave

All Change!!

OK - those of you that are regular readers of this BLOG will know that the only thing that remains constant in my association with motorcycles is nothing remains constant - it all about change and new projects, ideas and challenges....

Well, having pretty much taken the BSA about as far as it can go, I want a change of direction and have decided that the constant uncertainty over what is and isn't allowed on pre 65 bikes has just about worn me down.

Having reviewed the trials that I have ridden this year, I find that ONLY the BMCA do not have classes for Twinshock bikes so I think I can live without riding in the invited riders class at those trials and instead build a good twinshock that will cost a fraction of the price and most likely be better and more reliable than the majority of pre 65 bikes, provide more power and be less of an investment to sit in the shed and come out when I fancy a ride..

I have therefore reluctantly decided to sell the BSA.

There is probably not a better documented bike around than this - from the original bike, through the Faber frame and up to its current guise. You will know that it is proven in competition too with some good results this year that are all on this site.

I have spent a fortune on the development of this bike as you will know if you have tried to so a special bike like this and I will never recoup the money spent, however I think a reasonable value on a bike like this is......£6500.00

If you are interested, please call me on 07725 644321 or email me on davedawson444@btinternet.com

Growing Up

Sorry for regular readers that I haven't done updates for a few weeks but we are currently working on growing up and moving to a proper website from the BLOG that's been running for a few years.

We will be at www.classicrider444.com and although things wont change too much, I am hoping to have separate sections on bike builds, events, picture galleries and places to advertise items for sale etc - basically the same but a little more organised. If you make or sell products and want to use my site to advertise, please let me know, I'm sure we can do something to help...

If you go to that address now you will see that it merely contains the stuff from the BLOG that we have moved across but over the coming weeks that will develop and when we're ready then this site will close down and you will be routed to the new site.

I hope you like the new logo too!! Stickers are available so if you want one just drop me an email and i will send you one!

Dave

Eventpost 66 - Wye Valley MCC, Trevor Hunt Trophy Trial

On Sunday the 19th Sept I went to the National Trevor Hunt Trophy Trial, run by the Wye Valley MCC.

The trial was run on the old ground used in the Wye valley Traders national back in the 70s/80s and I had been advised before hand that it was a really good trial.

I spent some time practising the day before the trial with my Brother in Law (see the Yamahaposts) and the bike was not running too well, having problems revving out cleanly. I put this down to some dirt in the jets of the DelOrto carb but as I had the Amal with me ready for some testing I dropped that on the bike to make sure that it was nothing more sinister than the carb and to my astonishment, it ran really well for the rest of the practice session.

I therefore decided to leave it on for the trial (and didn't take the DelOrto with me so no chance of a last minute switch like last time!)

Anyway, I got to the first section and with an early number I was one of the first to attempt a reasonably simple rocky gully followed by a bank up to a turn round the back of a tree and along a camber over some roots. As I turned onto the camber and shut off the all so regular feeling of the cough/stop/stall happened and a great start of fiving the first section of the day set me off in a great mood!

Still throwing my teddy out of the pram like a spoilt child I rushed off to the next section, a slippery rocky stream and took a half hearted look at the section before rushing in without any composure. I cleaned the section and stopped to realise that it was actually a double sub and before I knew it there was another 5 on the card!

I tried to get a rhythm going and it started to improve with a run of half decent rides, however at around 1/3 distance I came to a section that went up and across a waterfall in a piece of open water and having spent some time studying a tricky line across the top of the water I rode the section quite well but as I lined up for a cambered exit to the section I lost the bike in a hole that I hadn't seen under the water and the bars snatched out of my hands leaving me on my backside with a sore wrist.

I rode on for the next 6 sections paddling like a millipede and even asking for 5's where steep drops were involved in the hope that I would shake it off but as the sections seemed to be getting harder and I was both riding like a complete novice and not enjoying it one bit, I'm afraid to say that I returned and went home for an early bath!

I must say that it was one of the harder trials that I have ridden in some years but it would have been nice to at least finish, however not to be on this occasion!!

What I did notice though, was that the BSA was a little down on power for the big stuff on these harder trials - not an issue for the classic trials that I ride week in and week out, but these hard nationals with big climbs and steps I think more power is required unless I am going to drop a couple of stone! I rode round with Kev Nolan for the early part of the trial on his SWM Jumbo and was astonished at just how much the power made a difference on this type of going..... perhaps we need to do another twinshock project! What do you think Dad???

Photos were taken at the event (obviously early on before I headed for the early shower)

Yamahapost 6 - Build Finished!

The build is now complete and I think it looks quite tidy!

We took it out for a bit of a run at Shatterford last week and it runs as sweet as a nut too.

Thanks to Dad and everyone involved Ian is now the proud owner of the bike and he's learning fast!!

Yamahapost 5 - The rebuild begins

All the bits in place the rebuild can now begin...

Yamahapost 4 - ready to start rebuild

With the frame back from the coaters the rebuild could start.

The fork legs were stripped of the original blue paint and polished, the stickers put on the tank, seat and mudguard and the build completed...

Yamahapost 3 - new bits and bobs required

Once apart there were a few bits and bobs that were required but generally it was in a really good condition.

The main things that were needed were as follows;
Air filter
Fork seals
Rear Wheel bearings
Footrests and footrest hangers
Chainguard
Side stand
Tyres
....and some new decals to finish the job

The rest of the makeover was really just painting and polishing in order to restore it to its former glory;

Yamahapost 2 - the work starts

First things first, and the bike was stripped for a bit of work on the frame.

The Yamaha Mono always had the footrests too high in my opinion so additional webbing was welded below the original footrest mounts to lower the pegs by about an inch and pull them back about 1/2 inch.

The frame was then whipped off to the powder coaters whist the other work was started.

Yamahapost 1 - New project

A little while ago by Brother in Law said that he's like to have a go at trials and started to look at budget bikes to get him going.

I put the feelers out and thankfully Ian Baker contacted me to say that he had a Yamaha Pinky with a good engine that needed a bit of a tidy up.

Perfect project bike I thought and cosmetic makeovers are just the thing that my Dad likes to do. So the deal was done and the bike came home....

Eventpost 65 - Bewdley MCC Group Trial, Coney Green

On 12th Sep I decided to take a break from the local classic trials scene and ride a modern trial at Coney Green, a few miles from home.

As I have not really ridden modern trials locally for some time I knew that this group trial would be a little harder than we are used to and the hard route would certainly be out of the question so I opted for the easier route.

Coney Green is located near to Stourport on Severn and is a wooded hillside with quite sandy soil. Although the majority of the sections were pretty straightforward, the drops and climbs were set for the modern bikes and I didn't ride them particularly well to be honest.

I lost a couple of loose marks on the first lap, mainly due to my own confidence on the steep banks and not really expecting the BSA to get up the steps, however as the trial went on the confidence increased and I lost fewer marks.

With the exception of 2 sections, a tricky loose turn on a steep bank and a long steep climb over roots which I either lost 3 or 5 each lap, I managed to clean each of the remaining sections, however I did loose too many marks and finished well down the results.

Alan Nicklin proved that it wasn't too hard for classic bikes as he won the trial on the easy route on only 5 marks and of the other classic bikes, Steve Thompson turned the tables on me from the week before, losing 29 marks to my 36.

Pictures are of the 3 of us on classic bikes at the trial..

More from Stroud

I couldn't resist uploading this clip from today. Steve will tell you that he needs new tyres or the ground clearance on the Ariel is too low, or the main jet that he was experimenting with made the power too soft...... but we both know the truth.....he cocked this one up badly and here's the evidence!!! Enjoy!

Eventpost 64 - Stroud Valley MC Minchinhampton Cup Trial

Today there was little on for classic bikes so we decided to take a trip down to Stroud to the SVMC Trial at Eastcombe.

The trial was mainly for modern bikes but there was a pretty good contingent of pre65 and twinshock bikes in there too.

Not knowing what to expect, we entered on the A route even though the majority of pre65 bikes seemed to be riding the B route, however I think it was about right as the sections were challenging but not too difficult.

The sections were all within a wooded hillside with a mix of loose rocks, exposed roots and a few rocky gullies thrown in.

As the weather was forecast to change to rain we decided to get a move on and rode round at the front of the field (nothing new there for me anyway) which made the first lap challenging but in fact some of the roots became quire slippery and the sections got harder so it may have actually paid off for a change.

I rode the first lap for clean followed by 6 on the second lap which included a soft 2 on a slippery camber and a much needed 3 on the exit of a section at the top of a rocky gully where a left turn up a slippery root followed by a cambered turn caught me out. The 3rd lap was a little better for 4 or 5 marks (depending on the leniency of the observer).

I am pretty happy with how I rode today as I saw plenty of young riders on modern machinery losing marks where I was clean and the bike again went like a dream.

Steve Thompson was at the trial deciding which bike to take to the Isle of Man next weekend so he rode half of the trial on his Ariel and the other half on the BSA, however I don't think he's any closer to a decision yet but I would expect the Ariel to be in the van next week as he was still having carburation issues with the BSA today.

I will post results when I get them but the photos today are courtesy of Heath Brindley (check out his website - http://www.r2wtrials.co.uk/), there are a couple of Steve Thompson on his Ariel, some of me and one of Martyn Wilmore on his Yamaha.

Results just posted on the SVMC website - very efficient indeed (as was the running of the event)and of course I am very pleased with the result! The results were listed in finishing order rather than by specific class so I have listed the same way;

Results - Standard route

1. Tim Wheeler (250 Scorpa) 5
2. Dave Dawson (250 BSA) 11
3. Nathan Pekala (250 Beta) 11
4. Adrian Steele (300 Gas Gas) 13
5. Martyn Wilmore (250 Yamaha T/S) 19
6. Andy Ridley (300 gas gas) 20
7. Rob Faulkner (175 Yamaha T/S) 20
8. Paul Heron (300 Beta) 22
9. Dai Clothier (300 Beta) 27
10. Andy Perry (250 Beta) 28

32. Steve Thompson (Ariel/BSA) 65

A Family Affair

Colin Bullock sent us this photo of me and Dad sitting in the back of the new van at Stoneleigh - quite worrying that we are starting to look like each other but the old man is looking well considering he's 70 at Christmas!!

More from Stoneleigh

As mentioned in my event report, I had a bit of a problem on section 3 on my 3rd lap which left me on my arse in a muddy ditch. Well, thanks to Al Ussher here's proof of the event ...... Thanks Al, I hope I managed to cheer a few people in the crowd up!!!

Eventpost 63 - Classic Trials Show Stoneleigh

Yesterday I went along to the Classic Trials Show at Stoneleigh on an invite from Charlie Prescott who was involved in putting the event on. The sections had been marked out by Mick Andrews and Alan Witton and although I was quite sceptical and expected a bit of an arena trial the sections were actually quite good and a 'real' trial was put on!

The format was a new one, certainly for me, with a few changes to what we are used to;

1. 10 sections, 4 laps like normal however following a riders briefing all the riders had to walk the course and look at the sections. Once the walk through was complete you were not allowed to look at the sections again and had to ride them as you found them.

2. Scoring reverted back to the old scoring with 0,1,3,5 being the scores so a 2 would count as 3 marks (like it used to be they tell me!)

3. On 2 sections there was a yellow gate that made the section harder - if you chose to ride the yelow gate and cleaned the section then you would actually score -1. If you dropped marks the score would stand as normal.

4. Riders were set off in intervals to ride alone and a time limit of 1hr 15mins was allowed for all 4 laps.

I think this worked quire well, except the fact that all riders walked the course in the morning and the invited riders event did not start till about 3pm after the morning event and sidecars had run and the rain had come down, so a second course walk was allowed and plenty of waiting around for the event to start (bit like waiting for your race in moto x, which I also hated as I just want to ride the bike!)

Once we got going it was great fun. The sections became quite slippery and 3 or 4 of them were a challenge for even the best riders (except Len Hutty it would appear!).

I got off to a steady start with dabs on each of the 3 opening sections that were the most difficult of the trial, then a couple of slack dabs where I had underestimated how slippery some of the cambered turns were. That was the story for the first 2 laps, at the end of which I think I was on about 9 marks. Then on section 3 on the 3rd lap I messed up a tricky ditch through a muddy slot and landed back in the mud on my back with the bike on top of me for my first 5. The rest of the trial was pretty smooth except section 5, which was a grassy cambered turn that fell foul to a heavy downpour of rain and became like a skating rink - I lost a further 6 marks here and ended up on 23 marks for the day. Not too bad but certainly not in the hunt for the £500 first place money...

I heard the provisional results this evening suggesting that Len Hutty won on -2 marks which was amazing!!! he was followed by Rob Bowyer, Dave Wood, Neil Gaunt, someone from north of the border and then me in 6th place. I am pretty happy with that result considering the class of the field.

I will post the final results when I get them. The pics are from the event.

Just got the results after a week!

1. Len Hutty -2
2. Rob Bowyer 2
3. Dave Wood 5
4. Neil Gaunt 6
5. Alastair Stewart 18
6. Dave Dawson 23
7. Chris Haigh 24
8. Norman Shepherd 33
9. Andy Bamford 34
10. Alan Wright 36
11. Jim Pickering 44
12. Chris Gascoigne 48
13. Mark Parry Norton 54
14. Tony Sullivan 63
15. Steve Ransom 73

Eventpost 62 - Builth Wells

Yesterday I took my new VW Caddy and had a short trip across to Builth Wells for the latest round of the Sammy Miller Series.

Although I was riding No 46 I think that there was some tactical hanging back going on because after I had ridden the 1st couple of sections I found myself out on the road at the front of the field with Steve Thompson and following the Wiffen family round the trial, pretty much scrubbing the sections in for the rest of the field.

The trial was set out on the easy side and I am sure that there would have been plenty of finishers on clean or very low single figures to say the least.

That said, I had a really enjoyable ride round with some great countryside, good green lanes and plenty of off road sections between the sections and decent weather which made for an enjoyable ride round, however with the land available I think the trial could have been more challenging to separate the scores a little.

I actually lost 8 marks which was simply not good enough I'm afraid and the loss of two 3's due to making a hash of 2 sections on slippery rocks in the streams would have put me out of the running for a good final result, especially as both of the sections would have become pretty easy once a few bikes had gone through.

Still, I guess it is my own fault but I just don't like hanging around (think I get that from my Dad because as a kid I remember him always riding round at the front of the field!!)

Anyway, I can report that the van worked great and the bike fitted inside it perfectly (see photo) and I managed to get a few video clips on my phone on the way round. Attached are clips of Phil Wiffen and myself on a rocky stream (this was a double sub and you will see that just as my clip ends I cock it up and start footing!) the one of Steve Thompson on his Triumph Twin on a section in a small woodland area towards the end of the trial.

I will post results when I get them...

Results Just in....and as expected not really good enough - note to self - stop rushing round and ride at the back of the pack at these type of events!!!

Experts - 2 Stroke
1. Peter Gaunt 2
2. Glynn Moses 3
3. Russell Jones 4
4. Alan Wright 9

Experts - Unit Construction
1. Jon Souch 6
2. William Myers 8
3. Barry Stephens 8
4. Gerry Minshall 20
5. Steve Thompson 27

Experts - Brit Replicas/Pre Unit Construction
1. Martyn Wilmore 0
2. Duncan McDonald 1
3. Mick Grant 1
4. Anthony Macklen 5
5. Dave Dawson 8

Change of Vehicles

A little time ago I posted a couple of pics of a Volvo XC60 that I was about to buy, however not being great at waiting, the 7 weeks came and went and finally I had a call from the dealer to let me know that the Volvo had a manufacturing delay and I would have to wait another 4 weeks!!

Whilst I was waiting I decided that I didn't need it so I am afraid I told them where they could stick their 4 week delay and on the spur of the moment I decided that a road bike was in order so I popped down the local Yamaha dealer and acquired a nice new 600 Diversion. I now use it for the 50 mile (each way) commute to work which is fun and also saves on the parking fees at the office!

A few other things have also changed at the Dawson house.... The wife's Mini was just coming up to 3 years old and was ready for changing so we decided to change up to a spanking new Cooper S with her own spec which we can use as our 'going out' car and that finally opened up an opportunity to get the van that I have been trying to get her to agree to for a couple of years.

I looked at a number of options and decided that the ideal vehicle was something between a VW Caddy that drives like a car and a Mercedes Vito or VW Transporter with a second row of seats that would be a bit more practical..

I looked around and decided that an ideal solution would be a VW Caddy Maxi with the 140 bhp engine. The one that I have got is the maxi Life with dark windows. I can remove the 3rd row of seats and fold up the front row to leave a van that will take 2 bikes easily and yet still be a usable every day vehicle that is as comfortable as a car to drive.

Pics are of my new vehicles. The Caddy comes tomorrow and will get its first trip to a trial with bikes inside on Sunday when we go to Builth Wells for the next Sammy Miller round..

Eventpost 61 - LLangollen MCC, Trevor

Yesterday I rode in the PJ1 Northern British Bike Championship round at Trevor near Llangollen.

During the week leading up to the event I had been setting up the bike to run on an Amal carb and even though it was far from running as consistently and cleanly as it does on the DelOrto carb I thought I would give it a go at this trial. That was fine until right up to the start when I took a look round the car park and saw that just about every Triumph cub was fitted with a DelOrto and clearly there was no real application of any rules relating to the bike requiring a British original carb so in the interests of having a good trouble free ride I promptly switched back from the Amal.

The trial was held in a beautiful area with fantastic scenery and great trials ground that mixed just about every type of going that you are likely to come across, Mud, streams, slippery rocks, slates and woodland.

The sections had been marked out on the easy side, however with the various types of terrain and differing conditions it was very easy to lose marks and I saw some of the recognised top riders losing marks and the odd 5's on the loose banks in the woods and the slippery rocks in the streams.

I had a very steady ride for 4 single dabs, 2 of them early on where I made mistakes on slick cambered turns in the woods and another 2 after the lunch stop when we were the first to ride through some rocky streams and I lost the front wheel on the slippery turns.

I have not seen any results yet but I am hopeful that I will have produced a decent result. I would expect some of the aces like Carl Batty to have been on clean but after that it's anyone's guess at the results.

I will update with results as soon as I hear something. The picture is of the start whilst we were waiting for the off - Steve Thompson is holding my bike to the left of the shot.

Results just received from Brad Jones

Results:

2 Stroke Hard route
1. Carl Batty 0
2. Peter Gaunt 5
3. Jim Pickering 7
4. Darren Cooper 8
5. Russell Jones 12

Unit Construction Hard Route
1. Dave Dawson 4
2. Dave Wood 7
3. Mark Quinn 9
4. Malcolm Cocking 11
5. Chris Denney 14

Pre Unit Construction Hard Route
1. Roly Jones 8
2. Mick Grant 10
3. Duncan McDonald 15
4. Dave Emmott 23
5. Mick Clarke 28

Eventpost 60 - Hawkstone Park

Yesterday I went to the famous motocross and trials venue of Hawkstone Park for the Classic trial that was held as a part of the Classic weekend with the scramble to follow today.

The venue has been used for motocross through the years and GP's have been held there for as long as I can remember with the big hill and the sandy course being a challenge that every racer wants to ride at some point in their career. I managed to get my chance at motocross in about 1999 as part of the same weekend when I rode my 360 Bultaco at the event but had never ridden a trial there before, only visited as a spectator for the British round of the World trials champs.

If you have never been there before the going is made up of dark sand and sandstone rocks and the hillside is pretty steep and covered in trees so you know that you are going to get steep climbs (and descents). rocks and roots where the sand is dug away from the base of the trees. This weekend was no different, with a little bit of dampness to make the rocks slippery for good measure.

I started well with clean, one, clean on the first 3 sections and was actually first to get up section 2 without footing as it was a very steep loamy climb through the trees and across cambered roots followed by a nice out of control drop back down to the foot of the climb. Unfortunately I stalled at the top and the drop was done even quicker than expected with the clutch in and reliance on the brakes only, I had a single steadying dab but felt good about how I had started.

The rest of the first lap was really a story of how the day was going to go, some really good rides and some very mediocre rides which resulted in odd dabs, 2's and 3's - many of which were not really required.

I felt pretty tired to be honest and I think it might have been the fact that I'm on a low carb diet with no training at the moment in a concerted effort to lose some weight. Another couple of weeks and I can get back to the gym and a more balanced diet which should be better.

Anyway, I finished on 30 marks which I felt was OK, but probably about twice as many as I should have lost.

Results are as follows;

Results

Class A (Up to 350cc Experts)
1. Chris Collins 2
2. John Maxfield 12
3. Graham Brown 13
4. Alan Nicklin 15
5. Dave Wood 15
6. James Newstead 19
7. Steve Hay 21
8. Chris Chell 22
9. Alan Wright 30
10. Dave Dawson 30
11. Nathan Jones 30
12. Jim Pickering 32
13. Mick Parkes 42
14. Kevin Taylor 44
15. Chris Denney 45
16. Mick Burton 45
17. Steve Thompson 59

Class B (Over 350cc Experts)
1. Rob Bowyer 17
2. Andy Richardson 20
3. Bill Bourne 37
4. Simon Chell 45
5. Gary Mitchell 73
6. Pete Reed 74

Class C (Intermediates)
1. Andy Pitt 36
2. Dave Jones 38
3. Steve Walker 42
4. Mike Bowers 53
5. Mike Bell 53
6. Andy Hunt 61

Class D (Clubman)
1. Anthony Charles 21
2. Ben Dutton 30
3. Martin Patrick 34
4. Will Tyler 37
5. John Davies 38
6. Graham Lyons 40

Event for your diaries...

Hi guys - Andy Pitt called me the other night to tell me about this event that the Wye Valley Club will be running in 19th Sep 2010.

By all accounts this is a superb event and well worth travelling to if you have nothing else on that weekend - proper traditional sections that cater for classic and twinshock bikes.

Event Details

Regs are now avilible for the Wye Valley Auto Clubs, National Trevor Hunt Trophy Trial, a classic road based trial,which will be run on september 19th 2010.

The event will be open to Pre65s and Twinshock machines only, the trial will be run over a 25 mile loop taking in old wye valley traders groups that were used back in the 60s and 70s and a few new groups the organisers have found to use. 40 traditional trials sections will be on offer covering 15 groups of land, also an extra hour has been put on the time limit after a few comments last year.
The trial will be run under the no stop rule TSR22B

The terrain will be mostly streams and river sections much like the manx classic 2 day

The event will have 2 routes per section, an expert route to cater for abilities of the miller series and classic series, and a clubmans/ gentlemans route to cater for those who just want a good ride out on an old bike

There will be 3 classes on each route.
- Expert. Pre 65unit, Pre unit, Twinshock.
- Clubman Pre 65unit, Pre unit, Twinshock

The trial will once again start and finish at the Crown inn in the village of Longtown in Herefordshire, where BnB is availible on the weekend of the trial 01873 860217

Also RTA insurance will be availible on the day of the event , so if you fancy a cracking days classic sport, dont miss this one its worth the trip!

Regs are now availible on www.acuwesterncenter.org/uk or from entry secretary Dan Sanders, 01981 259890 or 01981 250458 or for more information or if you can help out, call Andy Pitt 07976529955

Eventpost 59 - Sammy Miller Series Round 4 - Cartmel

Yesterday we took a trip up to the Lake District for the Crabtree Cup Trial, which was the 4th round of the Sammy Miller Products Trials series. The event started at Cartmel Racecourse and was run by the Westmoreland MCC.

The route took place over 2 laps of a 25 mile course that started and finished with sections right near the carpark with various sections that took in woodland, rocky outcrops on the side of the fells and some rocky becks.

The sections were laid out really well considering the weather was forecast for rain and the weatherman certainly got it right as the heavens opened shortly after start and the first lap was ridden in a gale which certainly hade the exposed sections challenging (more from the elements than the actual sections!).

The rain did make some of the going a little muddy and the rocks slippery but not enough to trouble the top riders too much.

I had a steady though not impressive ride with a couple of laps of 6 marks for a total of 12. I had some trouble with section 2 which took me for 2 on the first lap and 3 on the second, but other than that the rest of the marks lost were probably unavoidable, especially two single dabs on each lap on the last section of the lap which was actually pretty easy.

In honestly I was just pleased to finish as the first lap was pretty miserable due to the weather, however a change of jacket and fresh gloces for the 2nd lap and the rain easing off meant that the 1st lap was soon forgotten and I ended up really enjoying the last lap.

It was good to see a strong turnout from the Midlands riders at the trial with a good ride from Dave Wood for 3rd in the Unit Class, plus regular riders on strange machinery - Colin Leese and Alan Miles out on 2 strokes after years riding Hondas and Steve Thompson on his Aprilia as the BSA wasn't ready in time.
(There you go Colin - you wanted a mention!!)

No pics this week as Dad decided to stay at home (good decision).

Next round is in Yorkshire on 25th July.

Results
2 Stroke
1. Norman Shepherd 1
2. Russell Jones 9
3. Peter Gaunt 11
4. Brad Jones 18
5. Graham Atkinson 18

Pre Unit
1. Tony Calvert 6
2. Paul Heys 6
3. Dave Wood 7
4. Mark Quinn 13
5. Barry Stephens 28

Brit Replicas and Pre Unit
1. Carl Batty 4
2. Neil Gaunt 6
3. Martin Wilmore 7
4. Dave Dawson 12

Eventpost 58 - Bonanza Trial

Yesterday I rode in the British Bike Bonanza Trial at Horsley near Stroud. The trial was a round of the British Bike Championship which started at the site of the Bonanza Scramble and took in the first 13 sections in the arena then wend out on the road for a further 16 or 17 sections.

The trial was on the easy side and even managed to find some muddy sections which was surprising after the dry spell.

I rode the arena sections for no loss of marks where there was only one or two tricky sections and the rest were pretty straight forwards. then out on the road to 4 separate groups of sections.

I got to the first group and there was quite a queue of riders waiting to go into the section. As I had parked my bike near the start of the section along with Arthur Browning, I followed him when he took his tuen and I think we queue jumped most of the entry as we ended up at the front on the road and rode most of the sections first.

I think the sections would have mostly got easier as we seemed to be scrubbing loose rocks and undergrowth, however I managed to ride the trial for a loss of just 1 mark which I was pretty satisfied with.

The one mark was lost on an off cambered turn over roots which followed a muddy gully and I lost the front wheel a little which resulted in a steadying dab.

I heard that a couple of riders (certainly Chris Collins) had finished on clean, but all in all a great day on the bike and a lovely ride around the Gloucestershire countyside in the sunshine!!


I would also like to say hello to all the riders that introduced themselves to me as regular readers of the BLOG. I am glad you enjoy it and to anyone else, if you see me at a trial please come and say hello...

Just bought the Trials and Motoicross News - nice little picture of me in there this week - Thanks Colin!! Here are the reults;

Pre Unit Pringer
1. Paul Edwards 1
2. Nick Wooley 8
3. Graham Barton 9

Pre 70 2 Stroke
1. Glyn Moses 7
2. Mike McKenzie 7
3. Dave Spurgeon 13

Pre 70 Unit
1. Chris Coillins 0
2. Darren Snell 0
3. Barry Stephens 6
4. Keith Gardner 7

Pre 70 British Specials
1. Dave Dawson 1