Wessex Centre ACU Chattering

The View from Ba-House

Sometimes you don’t mind being proved wrong,so it’s good to see that my opinion, that the A class in Wessex trials was doomed, was way off the mark. No sooner had I written that no-one seemed to want to ride it, than at the next trial all the riders who had left for good returned .Colin Crease escaped over the wire, Andy Noad and Ian Fortune were issued with passes to ride by their leaders, and Jonathon Bees returned after a long absence. So it’s not dead after all and Lee Hassall has got some real competition again.

The situation on the organising side is not so rosy, for in all the trials I’ve visited this year it has been the same old story, not enough observers. Nothing new in that, I suppose, but this year has been particularly bad with as few as three willing observers available at the start of some trials.

So why will nobody observe these days? I think it’s because it ain’t no fun anymore. If you go observing you’ve got to watch at least three different routes, be aware of all the latest rule changes, and be prepared to take a bit of verbal abuse from some of the better riders. If your observing a four-lap trial, with fifty riders, that’s four hundred decisions, which can make your brain hurt. (When I was little you would only have to watch a hundred or so go up a simple hill, and if they stopped they fell over. It was boy’s work in comparison.) So,at the risk of being proved wrong twice in a lifetime ,I don’t think we’re ever going to solve this problem, we’re going to have to live with it.

At the moment we’re making the best of a bad job, by leaving the riders to self-mark the sections that aren’t manned. It’s obviously open to abuse by the cheats amongst the entry, but at least we get a result of sorts to which nobody seems to object. If we continue to use this strategy, which we will until something better comes along, then I’ve got two suggestions that might help make it run smoother.

First of all we could stop the unpleasantness, between observer and rider ,by making it an offence for the rider to try to discuss his mark with the observer. Secondly we could ensure that all the sections marked by the riders are the real easy ones,thereby lowering the effect of their “over- generous” decisions to the result.

When I started riding in trials they were organised as all-day affairs, with single-lap routes of thirty miles and more. Most of the pleasure came from riding the route, going to places you’d never seen before, and the sections were there just to add spice to the day. Modern trials are held in one small area and are over in about two hours. That’s what people want, the motorcycling equivalent of a round of golf, and home before three. So perhaps we should take a cue from our golfing friends and seek to run the majority of our trials like a round of golf. We could take the rider’s money at the start, point him towards the first section and let him get on with it. For the organiser there’d be no observers to find,  no results to post,and it would be a nice little earner for the club or individual.

But we need not abandon competitive trials altogether. We could still organise one once a month during the Winter for those who  want to compete, and we should maybe return once again to the better old ways. We could make them single-route, non-stop and put in as many sections as is possible, but we  need only count those sections that have been observed by an official. Just to make it really fair we ought to stop the riders from walking in the sections,thereby lessening the effects of all that gardening that goes on.

PS. There’s a chance I could be wrong again, I’ve just come back from a closed-to-club trial and they had plenty of observers. Still there you are, being a prophet has always been a bit dodgy.                                   Ba

Summer’s over and soon we’ll be back into the trials season. This year looks likely to be quite a difficult one for all of us with many new uncertainties to manage.  There’s one thing that’s sure though. If we are going to continue to keep our beloved bankers in bonuses then we are all going to become a lot poorer in the short-term. That is bound to have an impact on leisure activities, and we could end up with many fewer trials’ entries.
So how do we proceed ? Well to save a lot of money we could all agree to do what most of us are doing  already, and stop buying any awards. They’ve become a complete waste of time, for no-one appreciates them anymore. These days getting your name in the paper is what matters.
While we’re at it we could make some other changes to help things along. I think we should abandon the, “One rider,one bike”,  rule. That rule is of a different era,when trials were run over huge distances and reliability was being tested. Nowadays events are held in a closed area, and no-one cares about or checks on reliability, so there wouldn’t be a problem if people shared bikes.  We could list them as teams, and post their results seperately from the main ones. Offering this facility may make trials a bit more attractive to the non-serious rider, by cutting his/her costs and could maybe help to introduce this lovely game to a few more outsiders.
Another thing that is surely past it’s sell-by date is the way Youth entries have been restricted by the cylinder-capacity formula. It’s throttled any chance of growth within the sector because of the crippling costs of those smashing little machines. Mind you that rule made sense years ago because back then the bikes were enormous and unwieldy, and the children  were small and frail. (This was before the days of the NHS and McDonalds. )  Now the bikes are light and the kids are giants, perfectly capable of handling anything. Why don’t we allow them to ride round with an adult and let them use a proper bike ?
I suppose another question that needs considering is what we should do about the Centre’s A class. Unfortunately over the last six months the Centre has lost all but one of the riders who used to ride in that class. Their loss is probably permanent so to give Lee Hassall someone to ride against I think we should scrap the A’s altogether and put him in with the AB class. At least then he will be our champion on merit, which is the way he would want to win it, I’m sure.
But most of all in these bad times we should not lose sight of our main duty as organisers, which is to put out courses that entertain most of our riders, and leave them relatively uninjured, so they can go to work in the morning.
Now please go to page 153 in your Hymn-book. We will sing verses one, three and five only. There will be a collection after this Hymn, no washers please.                                        Ba

First the good news. We’ve got another British-Champion in the Centre. So well done to Victoria Payne for winning her class in the Ladies’ series. She has done really well to have overcome the nasty accident to her arm and regain her confidence. I’ve always been impressed with the Team Payne. Recently after they’d gone through my section, all the trees were tidied up and the surface had been dried and tarmaced. That’s good work.

The Scottish 2010 was quite a memorable one, mostly for all the wrong reasons. It has already been given a name by the people around Fort William, “The year of the Italians”. The plague, left by the Italian peg-sellers, had spread like wildfire, infecting most of the area. The trial headquarters was badly hit with many of the organising team becoming very ill indeed. However somehow they did manage to carry on and deliver a wonderful trial for us to enjoy,with only small changes forced on them by the lack of people.

Meanwhile out on the course things were going to pot. At Lagnaha Dougie Lampkin suffered that well-known Beta problem, total ignition failure, and by the time it had been repaired he had incurred so many time penalties that effectively his chances of winning the trial had gone. Later in the week the trial was lost by Michael Brown when his Sherco wouldn’t start either, within the time allowed. Ignition failure again. Then it happened to Herbie Talbot. He had been planning to ride round part of the course,on a special pass, and was looking forward to a nice day out, but his bike absolutely refused to go. It had been alright when he left home.

It would be nice to think that the makers would accept that there is a problem here, but I doubt it. I suppose that so long as we carry on buying replacements, without complaint, then nothing will change. But I know of a bloke  who got fed up owith paying out for new parts and took his bike to an electronics expert, for his assessment of the ignition. That expert was of the view that the system was well designed, but he thought the makers had skimped on the wire gauge of the windings, making them prone to early failure when running at high temperatures. Maybe that’s the answer.

Jerry Cross had another difficult week. He arrived this year as fit as a flea,having trained hard for months, but his Gas Gas wasn’t so well, with the main-bearings making a bad noise just after the start of the trial. He carried on, nursing the bike right up to Friday morning, when he turned back near Pipers’ Burn after it began to drink the gearbox oil. That wasn’t the end because he struggled back to the start, bought some new bearings, fitted them and rode again the next day for no award. Well done him,better luck next year.

But I suppose the bloke I feel most sorry for was caught on camera at Meall-Nam-Each, standing behind Alexz Wigg as he rode the section. He, like Alexz,has always considered himself to be a bit of a dandy, so it must have been very galling for him to have been photographed, in bright orange baggy trousers, looking for all the world like one of the lumberjacks in that marvellous Monty-Python sketch. ( ” I wish I was a girlie, just like my dear Mama ” ) I’ve made enquiries and it appears that he was suffering from a bit of nappy rash,caused by the chafing of the standard issue incontinence pants,and so wearing loose clothing was the only way he could get some respite from the soreness. Mind you knowledge of that fact hasn’t stopped some people from taking the Mickey out of him at every opportunity. They can be very cruel.

Mendip Vale’s  Traders Trophy turned out to be a super event, with a nice warm sunny day. I was given a lovely section to observe, a proper straight climb over loose rocks finishing off with a very slippery rooted bank then a flat dry exit, it was just about perfect.

As is usual there were lots of spectators wandering about with nothing to do, but sadly the club still struggled to find enough observers. Later in the day Rob Pike turned up to watch Tom ride my section. He told me that he’d had to give up his ride, because they were so short on observers, and he had just started to tell me about his new road bike when we were interrupted by the arrival of two riders, who wanted a serious word with him. It was Ben Bramwell and his mate and evidently they both had a bit of a cob on for one said to Pikey, “Your observers are rubbish.” I stopped listening at that point,  (I didn’t want to hear again the usual nonsense about being robbed of victory by those vicious and incompetent observers), but it did trigger a memory of a similar situation which took place many years ago.

It was in the Kickham Trial, an old Wessex-Centre National, which started from the Jolly Collier at Camerton. I was helping Dick Green with the sidecars and because of a shortage of observers three of us were conducting them round as a mob. Anyway it rained cats and dogs, which made all the sections just about impossible to ride, so by the time we’d got to Pipehouse the entire entry had become  totally exhausted. They were a pathetic sight, fifty broken men all lying about, half way through the toughest trial for years, and it was looking like they weren’t going to finish in daylight. Well after a bit of a meeting they decided that the only course open to them was to have a word with Dick, to try and persuade him to ease things off. So they appointed a spokesman and off he went to see Mr Green.

I followed on and I heard what was said. Spokesman, “Dick the trial is getting to be near impossible and we’ll never finish in the light at this rate. Could you please consider altering things to make it all a bit easier?” Quite a nice reasonable little speech I thought, if a little risky considering Dicks bad temper. And so it proved for when his answer came back it was quite poetic.”  I Didn’t !!!!!!!!!!!! ask you to come here. So if you don’t like it you can all !!!!!!!!!!!! off now.”

I’m with Mr Green. Too many A class riders these days think they can do as they please. They should stay away if they won’t behave.   Ba

The Wallace was a bit of a let-down this year. Usually it’s so dangerous that you can expect to see lots of crashes from all and sundry, but this time the sections were so easy that they wouldn’t have terrified me if I’d been riding. So what happened, why the boring trial? Well evidently the organisers had a visit from the Berkshire Safety Police just prior to the event and they put the frighteners on. You don’t argue with that lot.
The Colmore was much more like it, all the big hills at Dovedale were in as usual and I had a really entertaining time watching the “two stone riders” flying up into the sky past the ends cards. It was while I was there that I had this strange conversation with a young rider that I’ve never seen before. He had made his attempt on the hill using the technique, as seen in all the best trials DVD’s, of revving the nuts off the engine, in fourth gear with the clutch in, then releasing the clutch and aiming for the top. Unfortunately his brand new engine hadn’t taken too kindly to this treatment and had siezed solid on him. He came back down the hill, came to a stop nearby and then took up the Richard Fogg recovery position.
After a few minutes he collected himself and started to kick the engine over, but it wouldn’t fire and with each kick he was getting more angry. Really,I suppose I should have moved away at this point, but I tried to help him out by suggesting that he might try starting the bike with the choke on. Bingo, it ran but as soon as the choke was off it stopped again. “Why is it doing that?”, he asked. “I don’t know, maybe the carb is empty. Take the carb off and have a look”. “Oh I can’t be bothered with all that stuff”, was his reply and he marched off looking for his dad.
At the time I thought his behaviour to be off the wall, but the more I’ve thought about it the more I’ve come to realise that he wasn’t that unusual in not being in the least bit interested in the mechanics or maintainance of his motorcycle. Most young riders around today are like that. What they are interested in is the look and presentation of their bike and the position of those all important stickers, but nothing else. If it goes wrong that’s dad’s job and he’s to blame if it can’t be fixed. Unfortunately the result of this situation is that it is producing a generation of bike wreckers, with absolutely no concept of mechanical feel or sympathy for their machines.
I suppose that this would be OK if all the bikes were built like brick-privies but modern trials bikes aren’t made like that. They are all built these days to be as light as possible and can be very fragile in the wrong hands. An already dicy situation is likely soon to be made even worse, if the reports of the latest designs due for production are to be believed. It looks like at least two makers are vying with each other to find the most stupid place to put the fuel tank, one choosing inside the back mudguard and the other low down in front of the engine. I dread to think what will happen when Joe Public gets his hands on these. I think to be safe I’ll stand well back behind a tree when they turn up.
Last month we welcomed to her post our new Centre-Secretary, Theresa Talbot, who won the ballot by a landslide. There’s an old saw that says, ” If you want a job done quickly and well then give it to someone who’s already busy”. She keeps quite busy. There’s a house to run, Wilts-Border club to oversee, stewarding and observing, running a four-person trials team, IC Church flowers, Mothers’ Union, Womens’ Institute and President of the Foxham and Kington-Langley Smallholders Association. There’s another old saw that says, “If you’re of a nervous diposition don’t argue with a busy person”.  So trust me if Mrs Talbot says it’s wednesday then it’s wednesday.                                Ba

Well the Centre-Championship is up and running with three rounds having taken place so far. Unfortunately I had to miss the first round,( I was acting as legal adviser for Colin Noad at the Talmag), but I did manage to get to the last two rounds held recently.What a contrast there was between the two. The Wilts-Border round was almost impossibly slippery, with everyone getting a real kicking, while the West-Wilts round was relatively grippy with the scores staying quite low. One club put out 10 single subs, while the other put out 15 subs which included at least 6 as double sub hills. Personally I prefer  the use of double subs. That way the organisers can give everyone a much more enjoyable ride by making the first easy and then hitting them harder in the second. It’s the way we always used to do it when I was little, but it’s now out of fashion with the result that the riders get clobbered all the time, and so they lose heart that much more quickly.
Sadly what both trials shared were disagreements between observers and competitors, involving A class riders. As is usual in both instances, the riders got away with it, the observers being overruled by the organisers. It certainly pays to complain! Perhaps it’s time we recognised the way things are these days and allowed the A riders to do their own marking, then the observers could concentrate on marking the less able riders in the entry. They never give you grief.
I hear that Pat Richardson has finally called it a day as our Centre-Secretary after more than twenty years work. Thanks Pat, you did a great job for us all.Enjoy yourself.
What’s next Sunday ? It’s the Wallace Trial that’s what, surely the most dangerous trial in the World. This year they’ve got a new hazard. I understand that at the last hill riders will be asked to ride the two subs while under fire from the local cadet force. Sounds good doesn’t it ,see you there.                                           Ba

Hello again,Happy-New -Year.Personally I’m not sorry to see the last of 2009 for it was a bad year for trials around here.During that time we lost the last two proper trials courses in the Centre,in the Spring Mendip-Vale were refused permission to use their superb course at Shipham, then in the Autumn Frome  were driven from Asham-Woods.
From what I hear the blame for the loss of all this wonderful ground lies not with the clubs but with others,who gave the powers-that-be their opportunity to close things down.Those “others” are the mountain-bikers,4×4′s drivers and scramblers who have ridden on the land without permission thereby handing to the Ramblers the ammunition they need to get everyone but walkers banned from another bit of the countryside.
And so it goes on,the steady loss of motorcycle access.We are,like the American Indians in the 1870′s,being pushed into smaller and ever more restricted areas until we are judged to be ready for a final ban on our activities,or maybe they’ll just shoot us all and be done with it.
So what’s to be done to halt this decline? Well it’s no good looking to the ACU,or any other of the present motorcycling organisations,for help because when it comes to fighting our corner they are about as much use as a chocolate teapot.All they will do is wring their hands and say nothing can be done. What we need to do is to get organised properly,just as the Ramblers did when they used the weapon of mass trespass to get noticed.I’ve made a start by joining a new pressure-group that is ready to  battle harder for our interests.They have a really radical agenda that,if successful,will give us back all our rights to use the old lanes,and any rough ground we choose, and as a bonus allow the temporary closure of roads to normal traffic,so that proper road-racing  can take place once more.( We’ve got a seven mile course already planned in the Mendip area, which should yield a 100 mph lap ) Sadly though getting members is proving to be a bit slow. At the moment there’s only two of us – & the dog is still thinking about it.                                                                               Ba