mich lin

Someday I'll pull out some of my old Bults and show them to ya. Up and running is my 325cc powered 158 model, which is the bike designed for the Spanish Champion in 1975. This bike really rocks! Right now I'm rebuilding my 1975 world round bike which uses the same layout as the works Honda. The 158 model, the works Honda and my personal bike used similar frame layouts at that time. The production version of the Sherpa during that time frame was the 159, which is my least favorite Bultaco. In my shed is two 199A models to be rebuilt someday. One stock except for the braced frame, a common mod for SoCal Experts at that time and then my radical 199b with alloy swingarm, airbox and long travel suspension front and back. Bob Miller and myself built and sold several replicas of this Section One trials products 199b sherpa. Every once and a while some of these bikes or parts show up and are considered very collectable. The Vesty bike is very interesting! But that exsast is sure ugly and poorly built by todays standards!

Your right about all top sports riders needing the same winning mindset. One of the guys I work with is a mechanic for Team Suzuki and does a lot of training with their off-road team. He even just did a session with Knight even though he is on KTM. Hearing the intensity of their training brought back a lot of memories of my national and world championship days. Being US naitonal champion but not world champion creates a lot of problems. First off you have nobody better than you to train with unless your off to Europe, which I did a lot of. Then you face the homesick problem, the fact that the Euros really don't want you there and a host of other issues. I took the scientific approach to training, so much so that I wrote a book on technique and training for trials. Did a bunch of schools and week long training camps and generally tried my very best as national champion to bring up the US riding levels to international standards. The program was a great success, so much so that one year at the US world round 6 of the top ten riders at the US world championship round were from the USA. My book also revealed the foundation of championship riding for the very first time for the normal rider to understand in plain wording and concepts. Raising the standard of clubmen riders worldwide which I'm very proud of. Today in the USA we have nobody working to raise the bar for American riders on any level.

GASGAS, excellent insights! Also it's a great point to ride with riders better than you when you can, sadly living in the USA a strong young rider quickly outpaces everyone around him. There simply is not very many good riders in the USA anymore. I've deturmined over the years of study of the sport that there are several areas that someone can improve- One, Riding ability, two, machine preperation and design, three, mental conditioning and attitude and lastly physical conditioning. Each of these can be broken down even further sub catigories but those are the main bullit points. The next important insight is peaking at the right time! Which simply means being at your best game when there is an important event. Overall this requires a very sceintific approach to the sport and some very good oversight and accountability to your training. This is something I lacked in my personal training in the day, both Bernie and Marland had steady hands behind and with him to help bring these four factors together at the proper moment in time. Overall even without good oversight I really can't complain to much with the excellent results I attained, even without a mentor. I will say I did have some excellent mechanical mentors in my day, which went a long way to making my bike always the very best in the trial. I often wonder if there had been someone in the USA to help me in the mental and timing part of my training, just how far I could have gone?

Is this the US indoor national championship? If not, why not?

Well Wayne, everyone has differnt needs! To say that one training program is best for every athlete is a stretch. If your a sportsmen, learning to ride is paramount but when you reach that stage where you are looking for every edge to beat Raga or Geoff a very scientific approach is needed.

10 hours a bit far????????????? That's a local drive here!

I've got an almost perfect 125cc 05 Sherco for sale that has been on the market for over a month without a single call of interest. 125cc bikes are everywhere, call me if your looking for some, there are several for sale here.

The putting of US youngsters on full size bikes early is very well planned out by the US organizing body. They realize that if they force our best and brightest youngsters on these full size bikes at a very young age, the US will never have another world round contender. I was told face to face, point blank by the founder and head of the US trials organizing body "the NATC" that they do not want any Americans ever to be world round contenders again. They felt that really top level riders are bad sports and ruin the fun for the rest of the sportsmen riders who enjoy the US national age group championships. Which includes 17 differnt age groups and champions in the field of about 100 riders. We attempted this past year to conform with international standards and include a 125cc class at the US championship. Which would have prepared our youngsters for future world rounds. Sadly this proposal was not approved! It was substituted with a new class for grade school younsters on any displacement machines. It is not uncommon to see 10 and 11 year old riders on full size machines in the USA. Now some people in the USA would like to see some Americans do well at world rounds again. But few seem to realize that riders like Smage getting used to full size bikes and then having to return to a 125 would be a disadvantage. I've tried to point this out but nobody here seems to understand or care. They are the experts, I'm simply an old guy who makes them uncomfortable.

Florida is a great vacation, we did it last year! Disney World and the Orlando scene. Fantastic! If you go, make sure you check out Lights, motors and action stunt show at Disney studios. They are using GAS GAS motorcycles and some trials bikes.

You might be right on course difficulty Nigel, it makes for more effort on the part of the organizers. Consider that it would make the ladies world championship more interesting with them having to compete with the best male youngsters like Wigg and Smage. I'm not sure who is better, Wigg or Sanz, of course Wigg will win in the end but now it would be a good contest. Add some flavor to the ladies world championship, plus give youth riders from around the world an excuse to get together. That's what Mario did with his ladies international trial, it was so good that it became an offical world championship. Maybe adding young riders into the mix would cause the same thing to happen. A youth world championship?

If I proof read them I'd not have time to post! I've put a 3 minute rule on myself per post! I like your take, the best is the best at their time! Your must realize that Marland and Bernie were paid to ride trials even while they where in High School and were true professionals. I bet todays riders make more than yesterdays men but that's another reason they can put more into the sport. Todays Americans are better riders than they think they are! They simply lack confidence and the willingness to step up to the plate with a desire to get into the game and work their way up. That's the main differnce between then and now! There seems solid shift going on with the USA younsters! They seem to have more faith in their future results than the current top US men. Riders like Smage simply need exposure to top level trials as much as possible.

Great ride by Martin that was his year I believe. Also Marland was on the 4-stroke and placed 2nd at his first world round, he really should have been world champion and was a better rider than Bernie in my opinion. By the way, is Bernie also a bum with Lampkin, Whaley and other past riders, easily beaten by todays national riders? Just a thought, he was maybe only a couple months younger than Marland! Interesting topic, who's greater, the 70s stars or todays? In boxing one maybe able to compare but it's always apples to oranges viewing whos better, past champions, present or the future stars. Even in boxing, social and economic situations change, in trials, rule changes, bike design and tire compounds to name a few variables must be considered. Always, remember the best is the best at any one moment and nobody but nobody can beat them anywhere. To add anytime to the equation is simply, fun bench racing but has nothing to do with realaity. Are todays stars greater? Who's to say that Gorden Jackson's one point Scottish Six Days is not the greatest ride of all time? We must realize that the best in the world, is always the best in the world at that moment. That's the individual who sets the standard EVERYONE must look up too and compete with under the same conditions. Are todays MX stars better than Decoster? Remember that Decoster and Lampkin mentored todays MX and Trials stars. Helping then up the ladder quicker and giving them the wisdom to miss some of the pitfalls they personally faced. If you asked Decoster or Lampkin if todays stars are better than the past, of course they would modestly say yes. Todays riders stand there better only because they stand on the shoulders of the greats of the past. Simply they would not be there if those who went before had not broken the ground for them. Put todays stars, on MX and trials machines of the past, on the same course and the same rules and they would not fair much better than the riders back then. Even with exposure to the techniques developed afterwards because the stars of back then would simply pick them up and really quickly. Also remember, sports is like investing, Timing is everything! If you bought real estate a few years ago or gold at $275 an ounce your looking good right now. The same is true with sports, your only young once, go for it while it's your time. You have many years that you cannot compete at a top world and national level and very few that you can. You can go to college at any age, you can start a successful career easily in your early 30s or late 20's, I did! You can be national or world champion for only a very, very short time, go for it while you can. The bottom line here is this, American riders WORKED really hard to catch up with and surpass the Europeans in MX, Trials, roadracing and other motorsports. It was only the US trials riders who failed to keep pace and stay up with the world standards. We can stand toe to toe with anyone in the world in just about any motorcycle discipline, except trials. While at one time we could! There is not one single solitary reason why Americans cannot be back in the top ten again. At least at the US round. Anybody who thinks we can't is a sissy and slacker.

12 and 13, I'd say that's a good lead! Looking foreward to lap two! By the way, where was Bernie?

Go have a look at Hoover Dam while your in town! They also have loads of rocks there but nobody has ever ridden on them. They are too busy in town! One great adventure if you have time is the Freddie Spencer's motorcycle roadracing school, it's right next to the airbase, wink, wink, nod, nod!

Why there guys are better is because most of their trials run the classic rules, while we run stop and hop. There lads learn the basics before moving onto stop and hop!

Why not a youth World Championhship? Run the event on a similar foremat to the ladies world championship, perhaps even at the same time and on the same course.

Must say, this looks fantastic! Add some glitz, glitter and umbrella girls and you have an international event worth inviting other nations to. What about a Youth world Indoor Championship out of this event? We will send Smage to see how he stacks up agaisnt your lads! I've got 5 quid on our lad Smage as youth indoor world champion! You Brits up for the challenge?

Hey, did you notice that this tipic has been hi-jacked over on general trials talk?

Has anyone come up with a press bib for Ringo yet?

Ishy and Jay, I'd forgotton about that whole episode until you dreged it up. That's why I asked you which world round that was Ishy, I had a mental block on it. That's an example of one of the pit-falls a rider must overcome and a good mentor/minder/coach and team manager needs to keep an eye out for. Girls are a big distraction for athletes, I know I've made some mistakes in that area.What I lacked was a good mentor/trainer at that time to set my priorities strait and keep an eye on me but didn't have one. That was before minders! What I should have been doing is training up in Washington a week or so before the event to get used to the terrain. Instead I was in San Francisco until late the night before, which left me tired and gave me no time to prepare for the trial. Looking back, that was the start of the downturn of my whole career! Being beaten so badly shook my confidence and built the confidence of my competitors. Maybe I never recovered! That's also the job of a good mentor, rebuilding a riders confidence after a disaster! That's why team Lampkin is so strong, they have a strong family tradition of competition and a lot of experence to draw from. Dougie would not have had near the success he has enjoyed if his dad had not been around to help steer him. You couldn't ask for a better mentor than Martin Lampkin, he has seen it all, the best and the worst. So Martin Lampkin is well equipted to keep his son on the right track.

Believe me, where everyone misses the mark with these bikes is thinking this formula is not a serious competition machine. I'd like to see a smooth transition for the seat and tank like on a TY-350 Yamaha only with a little more sway back to the design, perhaps halfway between exsisting bikes and the TY-350/ Most of the fuel needs to be under the seat not up near the steering head. Next there needs to be a cold air intake up nearer the steering head with a greater volume airbox. Another nice touch would be a hidden petrol cap like on the works HRC Honda/Montesa machines. The idea of a hidden gas cap is so you do not snag your riding gear on the gas cap, which that silly Scorpa seat is bound to do! Lastly someday I'd like to see a hinging rear fender, where the rear tip moved up and down with the rear tire.

Hey, and I won some bucks on Bubba!

Funny, I had girlfriend trouble that weekend also! It was her Senior Prom the night before the trial and she insisted that I take her. So I attended the prom in SFO and afterwards rushed to the airport to fly to Washington the night before the world championship.I competed the next day tired and distracted! It's a sad day when the US champion can only pull 9th place at the US world round. Your right Jay, mentorship is a big deal and very, very important. What they can do for you is keep you on track when you lose focus or are facing some trouble. They can also build your confidence, keep you in the bubble and deflect any attacks to take you out of your zone. In general they keep you honest!

I agree with bikespace this is a real stopgap rig! The gas tank still carries a lot of fuel up near the triple clamp and the seat has a horrible hump on the front. I'd like to see if the airbox inlet is higher and colder and give the bike a ride before making any real decision on if Scorpa has missed the mark. Losing all the lightweight parts is also not in the best interest of any competition machine. In realaity, the FIM would have to mandate this formula, nobody would have the nerve to build a proper bike of this kind unless everyone followed along together.

This is very out of the box thinking! It reflects what a lot of the rank and file feel about how trials has been allowed to drift from it's roots. We have allowed rule change after rule change which has made the sport unrecognizable to those returning from raising a family and establishing a career. Then when an average rider does happen to see a trials demo at a motorcycle show or race they cannot imagine themselves ever riding like that. Much less owning one of these machines with no seat and a pint of gasoline on board. Adopting the classic Scottish Six Days trials rules. Then requiring a minimun tank and seat size for outdoor trials of all levels. Including the world championship would indeed be the wisest route for increasing universal acceptence for trials. I agree that indoor events or extreme outdoor trick trials make for a good circus act. But has this new style of riding, rules and machine made the sport more user friendly? I'm not opposed to stopping and hopping, jumping gaps, splattering and bikes with smaller and smaller tanks and no seat which become harder and harder to ride for the average person. But really we have created two seperate sports here, one the classic event like the Scottish Six Days, the other trick riding that only a few can relate to. What do we do?