Eventpost 52 - Round 1 Sammy Miller Series - Widdecombe, Devon

Yesterday I went to the 1st round of the Sammy Miller series in Devon, run by the West of England Club.

The event started with a bit of organised chaos with the club deciding that as wet weather was forecast the start times would not apply and riders could just start when they wanted. This sounded like a good idea, however all it really meant was that riders were not riding at the same time as others in the same class on sections that were worsening and those of us that were not aware of what was happening ended up towards the back of the field sitting in queues until things sorted themselves out.

The sections were sensible, if a little on the easy side but rode well and clearly the event would be won on fairly few marks.

Most of the sections were marked in rocky hillsides and a few streams thrown in for good measure and there was not too much roadwork so it was a good day out.

I rode fairly steadily although I lost far too many soft single marks through a lack of concentration. Although most of the sections were cleanable I would have felt a good ride would have resulted in a single figure score, yet my slack marks resulted in a loss of 15 marks...I think!

It was a bit of a wet and uncomfortable ride round though.... I would like to have a story about a difficult section that I looped out on and broke my rear mudguard but nothing so dramatic I'm afraid, instead I parked next to Steve Thompson's bike whilst looking at sections in the 3rd group of the day and when he stood his own bike up it knocked mine over and snapped the rear mudguard off leaving me with a soggy backside for the rest of the day - thanks Steve!

I have just seen the results and will have to drop the organisers an email as there is a bit of an error!

I had entered in the new British Replica class and when I got to sign on I found that I had been placed in the Unit class. I told the organiser that this was not correct and they gave me another number in the Replica's class. The results have been posted on their website today and I have actually been placed in the Twinshock field.

I am making the assumption that this will be adjusted so I have finished 2nd behind Martyn Wilmore in the class and a number of marks have been added that I didn't lose, (certainly a 2 on section 1 and a 2 and 1 on sections 33 and 34 were all actually cleaned) however across the season I am sure that I will lose marks that observers do not see so no need to get too upset!

Results

2 Stroke
1. P Salt 5
2. P Gaunt 6
3. R Jones 13

Unit
1. G Hawkins 16 MC
2. J Souch 16
3. J Ashford 16

Brit Specials
1. M Wilmore 19
2. D Dawson 20
3. M Parry Norton 28

No action pics of the trial this week, but here are a shot of Gary Hawkins (winner of the unit class) and one of the bike when we got home (looking a little sorry for itself!)

Eventpost 51 - BMCA Knighton

Sunday was the last round of the BMCA championship, held at Knighton and put on by John Jackson and Ray Ruscoe from the Acorns Club.

I have ridden at Knighton a few times in the past on both modern and classic bikes and honestly have never really has a good ride. The location is on the site of a motocross track and has varied terrain that includes a small wood with some good rooty banks and rock steps, a rocky stream and some long steep banks so something for everyone and no real advantage to be gained by any particular type of bike.

Well, I am happy to say that I rode quite well and the bike again performed flawlessly. The only problem was that the sections were set out on Saturday in the rain and over night the rain stopped and the wind dried the land so well that the sections were a little too easy for the event, which was reflected in the scores. After all, how many times can you say that you finished on 2 marks yet only finished in 6th place in the event!!

So not much of a test but another good run for the bike and I am getting more comfortable on it each time out.

Next week we travel to Devon for the 1st round of the Sammy Miller series. As I have entered in the British Specials class, I might try the Delorto carb on the bike to see how it performs. Will update the BLOG next week and let you know how it went.

Pictures are from Sunday - As you can see, I have splashed out on some new riding gear to go with the colour scheme on the bike - quite smart even though I say it myself!

Results

Experts (Up to 350cc)
1. Alan Nicklin 0
1= Nathan Jones 0
1= Chris Denny 0
4. Steve Hay 1
5. Gary Hawkins 2
6. Dave Dawson 2
7. Alan Borton 5
8. Dave Jones 7
9. Steve Thompson 10

Experts (Over 350cc)
1. Pete Reed 4
2. Mike Bowers 8
3. Arthur Browning 10
4. Bob Greenhough 32

Eventpost 50 - BMCA Shatterford

Today was the 50th trial I have ridden since starting this BLOG back in Jan 2007 and quite a change of fortune from last week.

I felt last week that he bike was working well but the result was probably a little more down to me being a little ring rusty as I had only ridden twice since November and both occasions on bikes that belonged to other people. I spent an hour yesterday at the farm getting some practice on tight cambered turns to get used to the feel of the bike (not really one for practising but needs must!)

The only real concerns I had with the bike after last week's trial was that the front end felt like it was pushing a little on tight turns. I therefore felt that putting a bit more weight over the front would make it a little more planted. This week I tried dropping the yokes an inch down the forks to see what the difference would be. In order to achieve this I put some spacers under the handlebar clamps to allow the fork legs to come up through the yokes and also to keep the bars high in relation to everything else that had been lowered.

Well, it certainly worked! The trial today was in the woods of Shatterford near kidderminster and consisted of short steep banks, tight turns and cambered, rooty sections.

The going at Shatterford is usually quite slick and muddy however with the lack of rain over the last few weeks it was remarkably dry and grippy today so even though the sections were quite testing, the grip provided a close competition with scores pretty low.

I rode well with only one small mistake on section 8 on the first lap where I dropped too low on a cambered bank and needed a dab to get back on line. The rest of the trial went without any further mistakes and with a similar field to last week I was pleased with my first trial win on the BSA.

Results

Experts
1. Dave Dawson 1
2. Nathan Jones 3
3. Gary Hawkins 5
5. Ben Millichap 6
6. Jim Pickering 8
7. Laurence Alden 11
8. Alan Borton 12
9. Pete Reed 15
10. Arthur Browning 31
10=. Gerry Minshall 31

Eventpost 49 - BMCA Pattingham

The trial today was at Pattingham, near Wolverhampton put on by Pete Reed. The ground was at the site of an old AMCA motocross track and used a sandy wooded hill side as well as a couple of muddy gullies.

The sections remained pretty loose all day and as it was dry they had been marked out very tight with the majority of the sections comprising of tight turns through trees and up banks.

Well, the bike performed brilliantly and hardly missed a beat all day. It feels really planted with the engine sitting a little lower in the frame and further back towards the swinging arm pivot point. I was certainly light to ride and felt quite neutral (not front of rear biased)in the sections.

I got off to a good start with a couple of cleans on the first two sections followed by a soft dab on a muddy turn on section 3. Then in section 4, a muddy gully that was entered with a drop into the slot then a cambered turn around a marker on the opposite bank (see the first picture here). Unfortunately I didn't get high enough on the camber and touched the marker for a 5 (the section was changed for the remaining laps as I am sure the marker was knocked by many of the field).

The rest of the lap was pretty uneventful except a poor 3 marks lost on section 8 (a tight nadgery section in and out of trees)where I almost ran out of the section and needed to foot to pull it back in bounds.

I found that this happened a few times during the trial and only realised towards the end of the trial that this was the first time I had ridden the bike with the 58t rear sprocket after running a 62t previously and I was actually just travelling a bit quicker than I was used to in the sections.

Once I had the measure of what was going on I rode better and on the last lap I did the lap for 4 marks.

I think I lost about 30 marks in the end (including a couple of stalls that were my fault) which I would imagine would leave me well down the results, however it was a great learning day and I am really happy with the bike. I am sure that it will help me deliver some good results when I have spent a bit of time riding it.

Results just in (worse than I thought but actually very promising for a first time out)

Results

1. Nathan Jones 6
2. Ben Millichap 12
3. Gary Hawkins 23
4. Pete Reed 35
5. Laurence Alden 36
6. Dave Dawson 40
7. Dave Jones 41
8. Alan Borton 48
9. Brian Dale 50
10. Gerry Minshull 59
11. Ian Bullock 70
12. Joe Howells 72
13. Alan Halford 72

Beezerpost 34 - Finished???

I took the bike out on Friday for the 1st time to see how it handled and make sure that it was OK for Sunday's trial.

I was running the DelOrto carb on the bike and it felt really good off the bottom in 1st but in 2nd and 3rd it felt like there was a bit of a misfire and it wouldn't pull cleanly from low revs. It probably needs a bit of testing with different jets and cut away's on the slide but as I didn't have much time I plumbed for dropping the Amal back on as I knew that it ran pretty well on that before.

The bike actually ran really well and pulled cleanly (much cleaner than before so that might be down to the longer front pipe). Any way, all looks good for Sunday.

These pics were taken on Saturday afternoon after I had given it a clean and a quick once over ready for the weekend's trial.