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
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