old trials fanatic

Thanks guys just what i wanted

In the process of sorting the Bultaco out and rectifying all the usual B & S (Bodgit and Scarper) "mods" that you find on every second hand bike, well i seem to, The bike runs, in a fashion, but is very very "wooly" and feels either over rich or choked up. Have a spare exhaust in the spare bits box so will be fitting that and as seems the fashion nowadays i have thrown the home made airfilter element, made from the usual 3M scouring pad grrrrrr i HATE it when mongs do that when the proper material is so cheap, away. Striping the carb tomorrow to find out what horrors await and was wondering what the std jet sizes were so at least i had an idea what should be in it and have a baseline to work from as no doubt the B & S mob have been here too. So can anybody help with what jets were fitted to a Model 198/199 250 fitted with an Amal Mk2 ?

Dead right if i buy one more bike thats had an air filter made out of 3M abrasive pads i'll scream. Filter material costs bu66er all probably cheaper than 3M pads and as for radiator hose as an inlet rubber connector grrrrrrrrrrr Sorry just a rant. Agreed whatever you buy the B & S brigade will have been at work

Ossa i love em bulletproof and steve sell at marlimar can provide just about every spare you'll ever need. Dont get too obsessed with colour and paint. Youre going to use it not polish it. Pick the best one in your price bracket mechanically. Paint is cheap engine rebuilds are not. That applies to all makes not just Ossa.

Looks right enough. A lot of work to make it into a trials bike though. Good luck and keep us posted.

I personally agree Woody. I was just thinking about getting max money when i sell it on. I have always found the 250 grips far better but as you say the "market" will pay more for a 350. Thanks all of you for the input. I didnt pay a lot for it so no problem.

If it's twinshocks you are thinking of then Bultaco and Yamaha have probably the best parts availability closely followed by Fantic and Honda. Steer well clear of Suzuki and Montesa as parts can be problematic to say the least. SWM is well catered for but they are not the most beginner friendly bike out there. Good luck with whatever you choose and keep us all posted

Bought a 250 model 198 and was just wondering if i could convert to a 325 or 350 ? Is the crank longer stroke or is it just bore? I know the weight on the end of the crankshaft and the flywheel are different but can you convert or is it more trouble than it's worth?

One thing that i would consider, bike choice is always a personal thing so i will leave that up to you, is what sort of trials you want to ride in. Do you prefer modern trials with big steps and splats, whatever they are?, or would you prefer to ride at Classic clubs who lay out more traditional sections? If you bought a twinshock, forget P65 as for a beginner they are to high maintenance and well outside your price bracket, you can ride it at Classic Club events as well as modern events that have a twinshock class. However if you bought a modern bike, water cooled mono, then you can only ride it at modern events. Only say this because i know of at least two people who went out and bought a modern bike only to find they didnt like riding modern sections and the people at modern trials but found they couldnt ride their modern bike at classic clubs trials which had the sort of sections they wanted to ride and the camraderie they felt missing at the modern events they tried so in the end had to sell their modern bike and buy a twinshock. Just a thought you might dismiss but worth spending a few seconds mulling over.

A sunny spring day and 11 super sections at Bracken Rocks, Holloway near Matlock Derbyshire welcomed the 26 riders who made the pilgrimage to this much loved venue. The sections were in prime condition and soon the riders were stripped down to shirt sleeves and relishing the challenge laid down for them by Clerk of the Course Paul Beswick for this round 2 of the Clubs 2012 /2013 championship sponsored by local spares supplier PB Trialsport. Due to a clash of dates the observer corps who are so essential to the enjoyment of trials was down to just a happy band of one in the shape of George Chinnery who we would like to sincerely thank for making the trip we really do struggle for observers and would so appreciate anybody coming along to be part of the fun we promise a warm welcome to one and all. Back to the competition. Bracken Rocks as its name suggests is all about rocks and the eleven sections wound their way over and around the many rocky outcrops that make this venue legendary. Due to the almost complete absence of observers it was decided to run the trial in two halves with 6 sections ridden 4 times in the morning and the other 5 sections ridden 4 times in the afternoon. Unlucky Simon Bown who is currently leading the East Midlands Centre ACU Classic Championship broke the rear brake pedal on his Bultaco and had to retire but Simons bad luck was our good fortune as he volunteered to observe one of the afternoon sections. So along with a spectator who was cajoled into marking a section 3 of the 5 afternoon tests were manned. Section 8 proved the most challenging which ended with a tricky off camber turn up a steep climb over rocks and tree roots which managed to catch quite a few of the leading lights on the expert course with only Mark Hallows, Majesty and Robert Mycock, Bultaco, staying clean. In fact Mark only had two solitary dabs all day for a superb finish on just two marks. Superb ride but not good enough to beat an on form Robert Carson, Yamaha TY200, who had a single dab on that tricky section 8 which was his only penalty of the day. Robert had a disastrous day at the previous round at Dudwood farm but now his motor has been rebuilt and bored to 200cc he was on fire and meant business. Well ridden Robert. Robert wasn’t the only Carson to have a stunning ride because his father Peter out on his rigid Bantam won the Classic Expert class with a loss of just 2 both single dabs on the mornings sections. A rarely seen but very welcome face at our trials Davy Morewood had a rare but stylish outing on his Ariel winning the Expert British Bike class losing 10 marks which would have been just 5 if not for stalling on section 11 a sinuous path over rocky steps and slabs with some very tight turns thrown in for good measure. Hard work on the big Ariel but Davy ride the big banger so well he makes it seem smaller than it really is. We hope to see you at more of our events this year as we are making a possitive effort to encourage more of the British pre unit bikes back to our events with two awards sponsored by PB Trialsport so if you have one languishing in your shed please bring it along. So the Championship action moves on with a month to go to Round 3 at Stathams Farm, Matlock on April 22nd start 11.00 am. If you would like to observe or know someone who would please bring them along and we will reward them for their efforts. Expert British Bike 1st Davy Morewood Ariel 10 marks Expert Twinshock 1st Robert Carson Yamaha 200 1 mark 2nd Mark Hallows Majesty 2 marks 3rd Simon Critchley Yamaha 6 marks Expert Air Cooled Mono 1st Mark Weston Yamaha 26 marks Classic Expert British Bike 1st Peter Carson Bantam rigid 2 marks 2nd Derek Carson Bantam 6 marks 3rd Brian Dale Bantam 56 marks Classic Expert Twinshock 1st Ashley Hallows Yamaha 4 marks 2nd Tony Sprinks Bultaco 21 marks 3rd Peter Kearsley Honda 69 marks Intermediate British Bike 1st Michael Atmore Trifield 7 marks 2nd Graham Dukes James 39 marks Intermediate Twinshock 1st Mark Kearsley Yamaha 54 marks Intermediate Air cooled Mono 1st Michael Dorricott Honda 10 marks 2nd Gary Martin Yamaha 20 marks 3rd Nick Burton Yamaha 30 marks Classic Intermediate British Bike 1st Paul Beswick James 0 marks Classic Intermediate Twinshock 1st Tony Shaw Bultaco 18 marks 2nd Peter Austin Bultaco 31 marks 3rd Andrew Kearsley SWM 75 marks Clubman British Bike 1st Jim Wickstead BSA B40 36 marks Clubman Twinshock 1st Sean Wickstead Honda 5 marks 2nd Paul Smedley Honda 13 marks 3rd Colin Slater Bultaco 36 marks Clubman Air Cooled Mono 1st Graham Lyons Honda 5 marks

Good job you spelt that correctly.

Agreed which is basically what we did. We actually split the day into riding 6 sections 4 times with just the one section observed then a short break in the sunshine. The afternoon was 5 sections 4 times but by now with a retirement and i managed to cajole a spectator into observing we had 3 observers so just two sections observed by riders. I hope the riders understood as i didnt get any complaints. Just have to pray things improve for the next round

Just a point from my perspective. Re the vat. If you are not vat registered you have to pay the vat when you purchase the goods plus any carriage charges which also have to be anotised into the actual cost price so after applying an on cost margin to achieve a price that you are happy to sell the item at then that is your selling price. To me doesnt matter where in the world you sell it to if you had to give a 20% discount then your margin in some cases has vanished so why sell it other than in the UK. Secondly postage. This is a pet hate of mine. When sellers say postage and PACKING buyers only hear or see postage when they inspect the label on the goods and seem to assume that all packaging is supplied free of charge to sellers by the packaging fairy not that it has a cost. In the same way that going to the post office and wasting an hour of my time while i am not working has a cost too. I bet the buyer expects to get paid £10 + an hour but they never see why the seller should. Finally unless you are putting a LOT of business through a carrier you dont get preferential rates so will NEVER be able to compete with people who do therefore your quoted "postage" costs will be higher. I know this counts for jack 5hit with everybody but it is the facts of trading in this cut throat world. It's a business not a charity. Not having a go at you Keychange just that i keep getting the same gripe about postage when it's actually postage and packing and sometimes i think people dont think it through. At the end of the day if you buy something look at the total package price and decide. For instance if you bought a bike for £1000 but it was in Scotland say and it would cost you £200 to fetch it plus a days wages would you have been better buying a similar bike for £1100 in the next village that cost you £10 to fetch it and no lost wages?

We had round 2 of our 2012 / 2013 season today and we had just 26 riders and 1 yes 1 observer. Now i'm very grateful to the one observer that came but this is a bit depressing and i really dont know what to do. With only 26 riders and land plus insurance etc to pay for we just cant even think of offering £20 per observer.

You could do worse than Sammy Millers as they can help you with all that. Good luck and post some pics

Great pics. Nice to see Werner Eckel out on the old japette. Funny enough talking about him today and how we hadnt seen him for a while. Nice to see hin still riding. great bloke.

Look this is just a suggestion and i know it is, or if you are so inclined could be, fraught with problems but when you play golf you observe yourself and or your fellow player on your score card. What if groups of say 3 or 4 went round together scoring each others cards ? Ok arguement is it's open to cheating but is it anymore open to cheating than a wife / girlfriend / parent etc is observing ? I dont know but perhaps we need to brainstorm this one as it's not getting any easier and i thought it was just our club that was suffering but it seems many more are in the same boat. I think asking riders to pay more in entry fees, some have suggested £25 to £50 is a non starter as most are complaining about the cost of entry fees already. Trials riders are a tight a***d bunch and the fact that a day out competing or watching other sports is well in excess of the pittance we charge to compete in a trial is largely irrelevant because the riders by and large just dont get it. So i think we have to find someway of accepting the fact we are never going to get all sections observed all day by knowledgeable observers and find a way of making the best of the resourse we have got i.e. the riders who are already there. Now getting them to get involved will be a mammouth task of re education but not as gigantic a task as finding enough observers on a regular basis to man all sections you have struggled all the previous day to lay out.

Wow not struck on the tank and hardly scottish legal but when it's finished i bet that makes a tidy bike. Is it yours?

Well been down there today laying out. Just got to go ack and finish off tomorrow. The weather was lovely and sunny and the same has been forcast for the rest of the weekend. The ground is in super condition and 11 sections laid out i just hope and pray we get enough observers turn up and of course a bumper entry of riders after all the hard work that has gone in. All sensible sections laid out with Classic bikes in mind no need for a hinge in the middle or hopping around so come along for a great day out at Bracken Rocks. Remember this year we have a special award donated by PB Trialsport for the best Pre unit over 300cc on the Classic Expert and Classic Intermediate routes so i'm looking forward to seeing a few more big bikes at our events

We only offer £5 at the moment but that is up for review. Mainly it's down to the number of entries you are very lucky at Yorkshire Classic in that you always get a very good entry whereas sometime we have only had 20 riders or less and potentially £200 in observer fees would cripple the club financially. Then again at our last round we did have a much more healthy entry so if this continues and i pray it does we may be able to make it a tenner which much more accurately reflects our appreciation and the observers dedication.

Same here mate. We generally get just two or three. We have tried free entries, boxes of chocolates, wine and even paying them but nothing seems to work. Well not at our events anyway. The days when a rider came with a couple of mates or wives / girlfriends seems to be long gone. If a wife does accompany them they seem reticent on the whole to observe. This may be down to the attitude exhibited by a few which has put them off i dont know but generally very few will take the board up. It really annoys me when you see so many people milling around and riders have to observe each other. I dont have the answer but i am open to any suggestion. it was suggested that riders had to observe at one trial a year but how do you enforce that without alienating people? One local club does get all sections observed, Dales Classic, but they do have a very enthusiastic commitee and membership so perhaps this is the answer? Sadly in the main most riders just want to turn up ride and go home again as soon as possible with little or no involvement leaving that to "someone else to sort out" "Not my problem" seems to be the attitude. I will watch this thread with avid interest.

Excellent

All good advice especially the bit about reporting ALL illegal bike riding as i agree the bikes are probably nicked by the scumbags riding them if not illegal riding is a blight on our sport so NEEDS reporting anyway. I suppose electrifying the door handle wouldnt be acceptable in this criminal friendly society we now live in? Shame nothing happens to the ****bags if the do get caught though. Traping their hands in a slamed door would be a fitting "accident"

Good luck with the wenture. We really do need more places like this all over the country to give people places to go and perhaps stop them ruining the prospects for continued use of actual trials venues by their selfish attitude to "practising". Sounds a great facility and deserves to suceed.

Well time flies and it's round 2 of the Peak Classic Trials Clubs 2012 / 2013 Club Championship in association with PB Trialsport at Bracken Rocks near Holloway, Matlock this Sunday start 11.00 am. Hopeing to have 4 laps of 11 sections with classes for British Bikes, Twinshocks, Pre95 Air Cooled Monos and Trick shocks with Expert, Classic Expert, Intermediate, Classic Intermediate and Clubman routes. See our website www.peakclassic.co.uk for more details. The weather is forcast for cloudy but dry so the sections should be in prime condition. Entries close 15 mins before the start and i've been asked by Donna the secretary that riders who didnt hand in their numbers after the last round please bring them back thanks. So hopefully see you all there for a grand day out in the beautiful Derbyshire Peak District and lets see if we can tempt some of the BIG names in Classic trials who competed last time back again to show us how it should be done