Andy

I realised that AFTER I'd typed my rant, but I enjoyed my rant so let it stand

Get real. The Scamerati are everywhere with their vans trying to fork a few more quid out of you and more and more drivers are being banned through totting up because they do the right thing and watch the road ahead, not their precise speed. You'll see your local Scamerati on the A90 positioned not where there is a history of accidents, or outside your daughter's school, but where they can coin the most cash in by catching drivers a few MPH over the limit on perfectly safe roads. Speed does not kill. That is a popular misconception that the British public have bought into due to propaganda. Inappropriate speed for the road conditions is what kills. It is the same all over the country. Look at the M74. One of the quietest motorways in the UK where it is perfectly safe to do 90+, but the vans are out daily catching drivers at 1000 feet plus ranges using detection equipment that has been proven to be defective (The LTi 20:20 "Dodgyscope" is the weapon of choice of UK Police forces despite it being banned in many US States for giving erroneous readings) As much as I hate the French, when they disagree with their Government there is civil disobedience en masse. When we disagree we simply bend over, accept it and ask for another one up the a*** BTW, my licence is clean and has been since the day I got it.

Do NOT get me started on this one. If it weren't for my parents I'd be off out of this godforsaken country. Can't do this, can't do that, this is bad for you, that is bad for you, cameras watching our every move. Orwell was right, he just got the year wrong. I heard it all last weekend though. Despite my protestations that "I don't do portrait photography" I got roped in to take photos of the kids with Santa at the village primary school Christmas Bazaar. Got talking to one of the teachers and found out the best selling thing at any bazaar or fete - home baking - is no longer permitted for "Health & Safety reasons". WTF? I had to tell her to stop talking about it as there were children present and my swearing might not be appreciated if she continued... What the hell has this country come to when home baking is a health and safety risk?

As a further update, aforementioned news source has just advised the FIM information is "Based on rumour. Still no contract signed".

An email from said sources today informed me that negotiations regarding riders were ongoing. No teams were mentioned.

1. She was not voted best Prime minister this century as she was never Prime Minister in this century. 2. Show me the vote that puts her ahead of Churchill as best Prime Minister of the correct century and I'll show you Tory propaganda.

I didn't know you had a border collie BTW, in the words of B3ta - seamless...

Bush has to go - Thank God. US Presidents can only serve two terms.

I did think of mentioning that in the article. The other thought was to Photoshop gay porn onto Shirty's computer monitor and not say anything

You're just upset because you won't be able to put those tacky plastic flags on your motor.

I really don't think anyone from Middlesbrough is in the position to cast aspertions about any other city...

Well Dominic?

From what I've heard and learned from Robbie Head and others who knew Colin closely he was probably the most unpolitically correct guy going and always up for a laugh and joke regardeless of the circumstances. I only met him once, briefly, and I'm sure he was as underwhelmed at meeting me as I was overwhelmed at meeting him, but he was and will always remain a legend.

Colin was a great joker and it's only since his death that I've heard all sorts of stories about the things he got up to from various people involved in the Scottish motorsport scene. It's just a shame it took something so tragic to get folk to show the real side of him, but he was naturally shy outwith his inner circle. I've no objections as long as they don't involve the death of children. I do draw the line somewhere...

It's a joke. Sorry, but this reaction is typical of the PC world we live in nowadays. Heard it before, but still made me smile. Do we avoid anything that might possibly offend anybody anywhere in the world? If so I be as well shut this place and all the other sites I run or look after down as somebody, somewhere will find something offensive. I daresay my Dad's little steam engine restoration website I host will offend the tree-huggers as steam engines pump horrible things into the atmosphere. I might as well also shut down Dunfermline & District's website and Yeadon & Guiseley's as I host both and let's face it, in the eyes of some, Trials riders are motorbike animals tearing round the countryside ripping it to bits. I say bollocks to political correctness.

The Classified Ads system carries the following warning clearly, in red: "FRAUD ALERT: Fraudsters have been known to target this system. Do not enter into any financial transaction unless you are 100% confident of the integrity of the buyer. Trials Central accepts no liability for any loss incurred through failure to carry out due diligence on any potential purchaser. Warning signs are poor English, offering to pay by bankers draft and offering to overpay with the overpaid balance paid by you to a third party such as a fictitional shipping company. If in doubt, walk away." It is a case of seller beware, but please don't start reporting every single instance of this in the Forums. Just ignore them.

There are goldfish out there with longer memory spans than Atomant. He'll have forgotten it was ever mentioned about 3 nanoseconds after he hit "submit"

By DL I assume you mean DOUGIE LAMPKIN

I did! I linked that topic to this topic instead of just deleting it. It's not my fault folk don't read before posting and it does make sense to keep everything in the one place. I visit so many Forums where you get umpteen topics all about the same subject it gets stupid. Whilst I'm posting anyway. I've contacted Jake and for contractual reasons, nothing official can be said at present. I have always tried to take a professional approach and handle things ethically on TC and not gone down the sensationalist journalism route just to gain traffic - like sticking to press embargo dates for bike announcements etc even when I have the info well in advance and other media sources break the embargo. To release info early when an embargo is set would harm the trust and relationships I have built up with the very people I work with in the sport and rely on to provide me with news. I know everybody wants news as soon as possible, but if I break their rules then they're unlikely to provide me with anything more which would only damage the coverage Trials Central offer in the long term and those relationships are way more important to me and to the future of TC than a bit of splash news. This is no different. Trials Central presents facts, not media speculation and it's something I'm quite proud of As and when there is an official announcement then you will read it here first, as usual.

You could have found a much better photo than that! Don't watch it and didn't watch it last year or the year before or ever, but I did see the photos of Myleene Klass in her bikini. Now THAT is well fit. Talented and stunning.

There is already a topic on this here

And the one-piece. Don't forget the one-piece...

I can't believe I'm allowing my bandwidth to be used discussing this tripe!

I'm very much offline at the moment working in Newcastle for the real life job. I will say I'm on Honda's mailing list and have received no press release regarding Dougie. I did speak to Jake Miller of G2F who is Dougie's Manager a couple of weeks ago who told me negotiations were still ongoing and that news, as soon as it was available, would be provided. Trials Central enjoy an excellent relationship with G2F and are privvy to a lot of information that I keep private out of respect, but love Jake or hate him, he is the consumate professional in his business dealings and will rightly treat contract negotiations as confidential until such time as those dealings are closed and agreed. Until G2F release an official statement on behalf of Dougie I am treating everything as purely speculation. I know G2F well enough to say if there was news then there would be a press release by now. When and if news becomes official then we'll be the first to report it - as usual My own view on the rumours? I'd love to see Doug back on a Beta where he found his world fame and think it would shake the World Championship up. With Honda there is always the corporate pressue to perform and they can buy whoever they want. With a small company like Beta there is none of that. The money might be less, but he's made enough of that already (though I'm sure he'd argue that point ) A move to Beta would prove what we all thought all along - he just wants to ride and do the best he possibly can. I believe he could seriously challenge the top boys back on a 2-stroke so even if this rumour is true, it is not the end of the world for Dougie - not by a long shot.

It's not Duke that film it. It is..........yup, you guessed it....... Octagon Esedos! does that explain things beter?