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