fordson major

At Hawkstone you have both disciplines with Trials & MX and theres plenty of people with vested interests in those 2 sports to put up a fight however it needs our governing body to get a grip with these issues and deal with them like I said. If we need to get involved via petitions or whatever then tell us what we have to do which will have the greatest effect and we will do it. I think there's plenty of people willing toput a lot of hard work in to help the sport but we don't know exactly what we should be doing

Good idea How to get the message to people is tough though, a programme soley about trials will never get onto the main TV channels.Maybee if it was a feature on another programme? Countryfile was covering the Yorkshire Dales last week

Yes you are right, they will do something to try and stop our sport and what do we do about it? Accept it! Its taken only a handful of complaints from local residents to cause problems at Hawkstone. Please tell me if the ACU ever get invloved in representing clubs in cases like these? if not then why not. They govern our sport so I believe they have a duty of care to its members to address these issues. Our problem as a sport is that we are too small in number so it'd be hard to make our voices heard I'd happily volunteer and put hard work into any (good)idea that'd help our sport. One solution could be to promote our sport as mentioned in the 'Where does trials go in the future' topic but my fear is that it'd bring idiots into the sport or the sport might become more 'urban' which in my opinion would be a complete disaster as that defeats the point of us trying to keep our land.

Following from what BS said we should try not to give the idiots/conservationists/ramblers an excuse to complain about our sport, but whatever we do they'll try to find something that they can use to stop our sport

No I think it reads 'OLDFART' , never knew Beta had done you a personalised bike neon

You've hit the nail on the head, we all get tarred with the same brush as the genuine hooligans Trials is quiet and most of the time takes part on set-aside farm land so it's no-one elses place to complain about. I think those complaining are as much to blame as much as the trouble-makers because they are so ignorant of our sport and generally anything to do with the countryside. Our country-side is run by city-based idiots who haven't the first clue about how the countryside should be run (i.e DEFRA)

Must say I agree with Heath's opinions the most so far except for the idea of a one weekend world championship (doesn't reward consistency) and the last comment about going to a city to watch an urban trial when it rains rather than a moorland trial (maybee has something to do with him being a Southerner ) I think the bad weather and battling against the elements is part of what makes the sport such a good test of determination and strength and a big part of the sport for me.

wonder why all the 07 bikes seen so far have fatbars Any advantage to them over fatbars?

Couldn't afford it if I wanted it maybee 2008

endo'ing the back wheel and flick turns are so much easier to learn but being able to pogo the bike on it's back wheel looks better

My Opinions Like:- The new top yoke The new silencer guard(looks less brittle) Don't like:- The red plastics (prefered the 06 black) Doesn't appear to be any frame decals like 06 and the swingarm ones aren't up to much) Any thoughts anyone...?

I've only just learnt how to hop a bit on hills but to be able to do them on flat ground is amazing as you have to use the back brake as well. It's one of those things that you can be told how to do time and time again but actually putting it into practice Probably one of the most frustrating skills to learn

I'm 16 and observe if I can't ride and am always willing to help my local club if they need it as do many other youths in our club. I think there is no question that todays youths will be involoved in running clubs in 20 years time. As for whether we will have a sport in 20 years time dependes on the Government and organizations such as the Rambler's Association. As said many times in the DEFRA froum we need to keep very alert with current DEFRA laws e.t.c if we are to keep our sport, we may have to make the protection of our land a priority for the future of trials and not just bury our heads in the sand and hope it'll pass over. What we should actually do, I don't know, hopefully someone else has the answers to that

(Right I'll try not to offend anyone this time ) Why does trials need to be cool or attract new people ?? Will it make the sport any more enjoyable for me or you? Definentley not for me ! I'd probably enjoy it less as I'm not a fashion-following type(as people who know me will probably vouch for). I sort of understand the need to get money into the sport to help bring on the crop of talented youngsters but it doesn't need a make-over?! ( so much for trials being a man's sport ) In my opinion (I probably have too many for my own good) Trials on the whole is in a good state at the minute except for the entry in the WTC and the battle with DEFRA and shouldn't be modernised or try to become 'cool' or 'fashionable'.. If it aint broke........don't fix it!!

Talon sprockets are very high quality

I can see your point but I think the achievement of winning 7 WTC's is more important to Doug than recieving credit . I think if you were to ask any aspiring trials rider what their aims are number one is to achieve the best possible results at the highest level, I don't think any that are too bothered about fame cos they're all down to earth lads(and lasses). I know the amount of credit Lampkin recieves is definently unfair, no arguement against that (especially when you look at how cr@p this country is at every other sport, in particular those pansy footballers ). I think a benefit of trials being so un-recognised though is that those involved in the sport are 100% commited and down to earth and don't get side-tracked by media attention e.t.c.

As I said earlier though, why do we need to get more people into the sport?

Wild Idea - There probably is a market for it as well and I could see it working but it would add another discipline and not be a replacement for outdoors. Outdoor / Indoor / Extreme I can't see it happening and I don't see the point. Trials should be a struggle against the elements and a test of strength,endurance and concentration. The idea of 'urban' or 'extreme' trials strikes me as being two yobos racing over cars to get to the front of the McDonalds take-away queue

I really do hope you are kidding there I think if anything trials needs to go more rural . 'goaties, piercings,grunge' the point of this topic is how to help the sport, not ruin it Just a thought... there seems to be a lot of talk regarding getting more TV time but I don't think it actually helps the sport that much. If a channel-flicker were to stumble upon a Eurosport trial and start watching they'd either be totally confused or watch the programme, think 'how do they do that , amazing' then forget about it and swich over to Eastbenders (or whatever it's called). Probably wandered a bit off track here but my point is that the Trials coverage on telly doesn't do much, if owt for our sport. Maybee the odd one or two viewers will take up the sport but that doesn't really make it worthwhile. Most people I know get into the sport through parents ride trials, friends, other family members e.t.c I think it's quite a specialist and small sport in both the numbers of people that take part and watch and actually we need to ask does the sport need to advance and be brought into the public eye. Personally I don't think it does as people who ride trials are decent people (mostly ) and I don't think it's worth wasting time trying to attract idiots to the sport.

I agree with most of the points there except 1) Just a personal thing, I prefer the current FIM rules There's some good ideas there, especially the idea of the international class. I think if the world championship class were to be made easier we would end up with a situation like the 2005 Japan round where the top 6/7 riders were seperated by about 2 marks. The world championship course needs to be hard so that the elite riders are finnishing on about 40/50 marks . Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the European championship have an international class? As for section difficulty (sorry to repeat myself) but I think the answer is to move off the dry,grippy massive steps and put in more traditional sections where you realy have to battle for grip. I think this'd also solve the rule situation as stopping would put you at a disadvantage anyway so this'd discourage stopping/balancing. Just my opinion...

Pins at the bottom or you'll get no fuel into the carb. can't damage owt though because all that's happening is that the float jet won't let fuel into the carb

The apico fork leg protectors protect the stanchions and axles and they're cheaper than the carbon fibre ones but they're a bit brittle. Maybee better to get some carbon fibre ones and some neoprene fork gaiters (might be a bit pricey though)

I don't know which year they changed it but one of the things they changed was that the locating peg on the swingarm used to be screwed on but is now welded on so the newer brackets are machined out to sit over the weld. Another change may be because the 05-onwards Beta's have a Grimeca rear caliper instead of the old AJP ones. I may be wrong but the 01,02,03 Betas may have the same bracket so I would've thought they'd be quite a readily available part. Who did you order off because if you're in the UK I would've thought Beta UK will still have them in stock.

4) Minature steam engines