totalshell

At Yorkshire Classic we've had many similar discussions and the sucess of note in recent years has been the introduction of the all inclusive 'clubmans' class where you can ride any bike on the easier route. Week in week out it is the largest class and has a great mix of old riders opting for a ride, goood older riders for whom the 'championship ' route is a little tough, younger and new riders dipping thier toes as well as the unfit and those who cant ride for toffee (myself i fall into the last two catagories easily) the bikes are of all shapes and sizes and of massively differing levels of preperation/ development with original rigid ariels still in thier original paint up to quite trick cubs ( as in my case but still getting beat easily each week) giving the riders what they wanted , easier route rideable on any bike, has and continues to pay dividends Series like the Miller and PJ1 should grasp this. there are a lot of us who'd ride in a trial where we thought that we'd drop less than 30 but if we go thinking we might drop 130 then there will be less takers. go to Yorkshire classic website see how many the 'clubmen in class K are dropping and its about 30 and they all drop roughly the same no stars just avarage guys enjoying riding thier bikes.

i think you guys need to get down to a pre 65 trial, if you had a pound for every standard bike i dont think you'd have enough for an ice cream. The root causes of falling entries are harder sections and the time, effort and cost of keeping even a standard bike 'alive' never mind competetive. the number of riders leaving though old age etc. is no where near been matched by the number of younger riders, and who can blame them when for less start up money ( what do you get for 1500 quid a 3year old Beta that will run and ride all day or a cub that you will have to spend another grand on to get it half way there) and with hours /days / weeks less time in the garage/ shed you can have an instantly competeive bike just like everybody elses should it need repairs evrythings available next day from Lampkins try doing that for even a cub never mind anything something exotic like a velocette or Matchless

i'd agree with your 1st three steps, but the vehicle inspection ialthough reccomended is not essential Dvla at leeds for example always insist on it but at Manchester they've never asked for one! nip down your local office with your dating letter insurance (on the frame no.) mot and money for the tax disc and see what happens ps take a newspaper at least its a long queue....

why bother with the battery .. all you need is essentially a big capacitor that will provide enough of a spark to start the bike and it'll run fine I used one on my bullet got it from some one like bradford ignitions in TMX it was about the size of a fag packet and did the job brilliantly Where as your batterys going to need charging all the time and you never know when it will run out

hitchcocks the royal enfield guys it will be in the post the next day all jetted for your bike ready to go great service

Watched Neil Gaunt on sunday in a pre 65 club trial and the suspension on that Ariel is a supple as any modern bike, and i have seen him do at least one endo on it in a section and as long as the front wheel keeps rolling its perfectly okay both in the rules and by me. with a shortage of observers at the venue due to it been a wet windy day high on the pennines and riders having to observe each other on a couple of sections it was good to be reminded that whilst trials might have it's 'superstars' they all 'muck in' with Peter Gaunt getting off his bike to observe a couple of dozen riders through a section he had just ridden. both Father and Son although they clearly spend a lot of time on thier bikes and clearly have a wealth of experience and expertise to call on just simply like to ride trials. Neil has even shown he's not entirely perfect by once asking me which was the best route in a section .... he watched me take it then chose the alternative and cleaned it easily, me I fived big time..

dont go smaller than the 20t engine sproket a.. anything less and its so low it spins up very easily b.. getting the primary chain right is a real pain new chains are too tight and the advice would be to use a 'worn' chain but then they wear very quickly so stay with the 20t sproket on the 32a i had the 13/62 combination metioned earlier with regard to head/barrel the alloy stuff certainly are the 'fashionable' of the alternatives yet the iron 32a was populer in its day and has a firm following and is making something of a comeback, mk1 concentric is carb of choice the only thing s i remember from off the top of my head are use the modern plastic float, and the needle lenght was critical 47.5mm been a good starting point i used the modern 'greeves ignition and the bike was faultless the only down side was the flywheel was modified and needed a puller to whip it off unlike the std arrangement that comes off in your hand

spacer would be last thing you put in tube then screw in top nut

use the smoothrite but thin it right down and wack on loads of thin coats

dont fix it if it aint broke dont change more than one thing at a time no bike is ever 95% complete buy stuff as complete as finished as possible never buy bits a piece at a time to build something it costs a fortune and rarely gets finished diesel is a wonderful cleaner, so is the soap powder your granny washes her knickers in..

having had one of each over the years a ty has to be best bet bikes are cheap reliable spares every where everybodys had one and knows how to sort them

Yorkshire classic pre65 a tenner less if your an oap..

said it before and i'll say it again TESCO VALUE OIL 93P A LITRE change it every month job done for nowt.. ouch checked today and price has gone up now

check out the headstock on the frame the frame no should be stamped there, the first or last two numbers are the year e.g. 59

is your brake hose routed through one of those do nuts on your number board that ought to keep it away from the yoke..

Arrived at the start at 7.30 ish the sheep were still asleep and hares were frollicking in the floodlit carpark ( really i wouldnt make it up) as dawn broke the mist occasionally broke into light rain and dark clouds to the north and west looked very menacing the start filed was relatively dry with stiky mud underr the surface and as little or no rain fell during the day if you ever wanted to ride for a finish today must have been the perfect opportunity taking Perce' s advice from an earlier thread i took in underbacks and used the large carpark ( and it needed to be as thier were easily 150 cars in it when i came back) the sectin is an old green lane in a wooded gully with good spectator banking on either side so everyone can get a view of the 50 yard section, with the use of some stone a straight forward section up 5 steps about 5 metres apart with the first and smallest about 2 foot hagh and ending with a 4 foot double step. most took a dab as the stiky mud was dragged onto the steps but about 50 probably cleaned most stylish been Danny Gamble playing to the crowd and grabbing air on the last step I watched almost everyone through up till doug who just rode it like it wasnt there also very smooth Graham Tales nothing fancy but plenty of energy saving and letting the bike do the work, youngsters who think thier going to set fastest time and never do, let alone ever finish, might wish to seek out Talesys results.. Took the CB road up to the petrol before surrender to watch the stragglers through then crossed the road to where the petrol was laid out for the bikes after the grouse moors before they had a go at Bypass not quite as much water as last year and the sections were moved slightly Grimbo and Doug arrived about half a minute apart and welll ahead of the programmes guide time, clearly the dry conditions would mean lots of finishers but time was criyical because these two were flying Jarvis was second up after Dan clark and took to the banking after the large boulder then doug arrives and shouts ''any one any advice'' and proceeds to ride up like Tarmac had been laid John Sunter flatted his rear tyre and returned to the road to beg /borrow a ty wrap to hold the rear tyre on. 45 minutes by the beck then back in the motor and off to Goats splash way above Marske on very narrow tarmac roads which get used so little grass grows down the middle, even though this is a reccomended spectator point in the programme anly about half a dozen cars and a similar number of bikes made the effort the first in the beck is really black water and about two foot deep with a n exit that you,d probably want to look at before you rode the section but been the Scott the lads threw their bikes at the foot wide gap at the side of the double rock step and got out without much ado jarvis arrived first and then nearly five minutes later doug turned up easily 10 mins clear of the next in fact only 15 riders came in the first 45 min. most cleaned or dropped one the final section here (no 70) is a snotty climb over loose green rockery with a three foot step at the very end young lads spent the hour before the first riders arrivel riding the section and dragged a ton of sticky mud up the section, losing whatever advantage the earlier runners may have gained from a virgin section. Jarvis took a steading dab as he crested the final step whilst doug sailed up. jarvis looked like he was riding fast and getting faster whilst doug was getting huge cheers just for arriving at the sections and the pair of them were riding well beyond the capabilities of any other rider a perfect day for an exiled yorkshire man the sun shone on God's own country ( through the rain clouds) and a Yorkshireman ( real one , not some comer in) probably won the best trial in the world

replacement much the preferred option and the only long term thing to do but if your skint or lack the time at the moment, whip the lever off and take a needle file to the gooves of the shaft to make them deeper or even recreate them then take the bolt out of the lever and file about a mm larger gap between the ' jaws' so that the lever nips up tighter bolt it all back togehter with a new bolt on the lever ( for new read straight and with its thread in good nick) should last until you buy new,,,,,, mines done 18 months so far..

for an avaerage joe and i'm over stretching if i pretend to be as good as average ( win the 'clubman class on a very good day normally place 5th is can go down to 15th then the 250 is still abit much tried the 200 and it was probably more to my skill level much better to ride somat thats as good as you or you'll always be stretched to hang on control the thing small is the new big..

Take them with you.. two daughters 3 and 1 oldest at her first autojumble alone with dad aged 6 days! 1st trial Ilkley grand national aged 2 months observed for the first time at two and saw her first scott trial. has a friends birthday party this saturday but refuses to go because she wants to watch the motorbikes with her dad. youngest daughter not allowed by mother to watch trails but dab hand at laughing with mother and big sister at dads results........

''NONE OF THE ABOVE EXCLUSIONS SHALL APPLY TO ANY COMPONENT WHICH IS OR PROVEN PRE 65 ORIGINAL FACTORY FITMENT TO THAT MACHINE'' Looks cut and dried then what do you think your start no. will be...

why dont we step back and look at this from another angle.. we must all enjoy pre 65 trials or the debate wouldn't exist, none of us seem to be any one aiming to knock messers Andrews and Gaunt from thier deserved top of podium spots ( i couldnt with a 50 point start and using my new beta) but we must all enjoy riding and then 'fettling' our bikes and spend what we can or feel necessary on them . the rukes for the 'scottish' really are fairly loose, enforcement seems non to strict so what can be wrong with that. if the real gripe is I didnt get an entry keep applying or observe or take one of the hundreds of bits of advice that are freely offered by people who know what ever you choose to do I'll be there for my holiday in the 'highlands' sans wife and kids and I hope it rains..

can't be a bad idea, if it looks right it is right my father says and the chinese engine looks the part in the Yam frame, anyone any contact details for mr. bliss..

excellent resume of who does what and why, thank you for taking the time trials just for over 40's excelllent idea, could we also exclude any one whos any good or got a new bike that would improve my chances marginally come sunday

for information for prospective entrants all these bikes passed scrutineering last year and not all were 'names'.. pre 1965 cnc machining.. pre 1965 frame, including one from even earlier from before paint was invented..

there could not possibly be a more looser set of rules for machine eligibility if you tried, as usual almost anything goes except for jap carbs ( except on jap bikes)