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??
2 comments:
Hi Dave,
you were not on your own. It seemed to me that the four strokes lapped up the hill climbs where all the two strokes really fell short of the mark. I too felt as though i needed a third gear but like your self i have the road gears three and four and had no confidence that they would pull me up what really should have been easy hill climbs. When i was watching Andy Hunt just flying up on his C15 it made me feel determined to get my bike in a position where it will tackle all aspects of a trialand that was going to be my aim for this week.
However when i saw the results and Gary Hawkins on a borrowed Saresen was on the pace, he too mentioned that the bike wouldn't pull third as he would of liked but his score was still excellent in the conditions so maybe it is just me and not the bike at all.
Another point though AL Ussher and Bob who won the club men, i have never known them so far apart with there scores, two old boys with hardly anything bettween them under normal conditions but again that four stroke two stroke seems to be a massive decisive factor on a course best suited to ice skates.
I'm still none the wiser.
Bully
You are right mate, but we must remember that some going will suit some bikes better than others and I guess that it was one of those days.
I think it could have been down to gearing to a degree, we dont actually know if Gary's bike was running a road 2nd gear which was more suitable or even if he had trials gears in but diferent gearing at the rear wheel or engine sprocket which gave him a more useable 2nd (almost a 2.5 gear)
The trial a couple of weeks ago in the mud gave us no problems so I dont want to be too hasty. It might be as simple as coming down 2teeth on the rear or merely going for a useable 3rd gear just for those types of conditions.
It's certainly no fun when the sections are so easy but you just cant get the drive (normally where I go best???)
Gary's ride was good and he made the most of the grippy 1st lap where I was just all over the place from section 1.
I would say that ideally we need to go for the useable low 3rd gear as it leaves everything else the same as we are used to now and merely provides another option..
See you in a couple of weeks, I am giving the knee a rest this week as it took a few twists again last week.
Dave
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