On Sunday I rode the AJS & Matchless trial at Tardebigge near Bromsgrove, put on by Andy Hunt and Joe Owen.
After a few dry weeks the rain certainly changed the going with pretty non stop wet stuff falling throughout the event and the going became understandably greasy.
Even with the sections eased for the weather it was still quite a tester and I think I learnt more in one day about riding the Ariel than I would have otherwise done all summer. I certainly learned how to put my feet down and gather 5's on the first lap as I simply tried to ride it like a 2 stroke (clutch and revs) and made a great job of going nowhere fast.
Over the next few laps I steadily understood better how to keep off the clutch, use the flywheel weight momentum and really felt by the last lap that I was getting to grips with it. Possibly over a hundered marks too late really but all the same I really enjoyed the trial and started to have some good rides by the end.
I understand that Steve Hay won on his Bantam on about 20 odd marks which was a fantastic ride in the conditions but I have not seen any other results yet so I dont really know what the damage was, about a hundred I guess but stopped counting after the first lap and put it down to a learning experience!
The video clip below was taken on my first lap and as you can see from the end of the section I was trying to drive softly on the mud rather than getting some momentum before the slippy part to enable me to shut off and use the engine over run to take me over it - the result being me looking like a millipede with feet down all over the place. By the last lap I was using a bigger gear, going quicker and getting through it with little bother when it was actually even more slippery. Plus I found that I still had about 12lbs in the rear tyre from the previous week's road trial which obviously didn't help the cause!
Results just received -
Class A
1. Steve Hay 27
2. Alan Taylor 54
3. Nathan Jones 76
Class B
1. Pete Peed 83
Class C
1. Dave Dawson 97
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