I’m going through a bad spell as a trials rider at the moment – each trial that I attend gets cancelled It’s happened twice in the past two weeks, my own Lancs County Club had to cancel two weeks ago due to an overnight rain storm that changed dry gullies and shallow becks into raging torrents, forcing us to pull the plug (joke) at 9.45am, then two weeks later I turned up at the Bradford Club’s Yorkshire Centre Team Trial in torrential rain expecting to learn that it was cancelled. But not a bit of it, the trial went ahead as scheduled until we had all ridden six sections, only for the organisers to say it was too wet to continue.
Err,excuse me, but it was too wet to start two hours earlier. Oh well, just had to return via my mate’s home and have cup of tea. I trust that the next few events will go ahead as scheduled.
As I recall, we never used to cancel trials when I was a kid; I can remember riding in conditions of deep snow and torrential rain and there was never any question of the trial not going ahead. I suppose the difference back then was two- fold. There was no 'elf and safety considerations in those days, and down south which is where I am making reference to, trials sections were less likely to be weather affected, i.e. we were not riding streams and gullies.
I see that the regulations and entry forms for next year’s Scottish are now available, and as the SSDT in 2011 is the 100th edition, there is absolutely no doubt that the entry will be massively oversubscribed, as will the Pre 65 trial two days earlier. I’ve ridden the Pre 65 trial a good number of times and thoroughly enjoy it for what it is, a sensible ride round the hills of Kinlochleven on a oldish bike. As classic trials go, it is undoubtedly one of the best, but I can’t understand quite why there is so much hysteria attached to it. Sure, it’s a good trial, and perhaps because of that it seems to attract a significant number of riders who – dare I say it – are simply not good enough riders to be tackling it. Look at the results of recent Pre 65 Scottish trials and you will see a large number of retirements, certainly more than there should be as the trial sections are not that difficult – but what is difficult is the going in between and I believe that there is a significant percentage of the entry not good enough to make a decent fist of it.
I see from this year’s regulations that the organisers now require two pictures of the bike one intends to ride in the trial. All the usual Scottish requirements remain in place regarding eligibility, many of which are peculiar to the trial itself. I simply can’t get my head around the insistence that you must ride with inner tubes in the tyres. What is the point of insisting that should you be unfortunate enough to get a flat, then you have to go through the paraphanalia of taking out the wheel and flashing a bladder, instead of fixing it with a couple of dog turds, yet the fitting into the bike of much more modern improvements like electronic ignition, modern fork internals and Yamaha (say) engine parts to an old style engine design are acceptable.
And what about the bloke who is planning to build a new bike for the trial. Does he send a picture of a pair of tank stickers hanging up in his garage on fishing line, with the comments that this is as far as it has progressed
My belief, and I have said this before, is that the organisers should be going for quality riders on machines that are built in a manner that honours the Pre 65 ideal, rather than concentrating too much on the machines by accepting honourable entries from riders who have no hope of getting round.
Spectators tell me that they would far rather see 180 well known riders on “modern” Pre 65 bikes, than a load of less competitive machines ridden by guys who have no previous SSDT history.
I suppose this article has now ensured I don’t get a Pre 65 ride However, I shall enter and live in hope, just as hundreds of would-be riders will do as they wait to hear if they have been successful in gaining a place in either of next year’s two great events.