hillary

Surely most British Championship sidecar trials are on the road - they always were when I did them, and looking at the current calendar, they are all on the road aren't they?

If you want to know more about the new British Championship Sidecar round in the Lake District, look at the sidecar trials forum and the postings under "Newbie looking for a place to ride"

I have just picked up on this thread and can now break out some good news, confirmed to me only today. The Lakes Motor Trial Association (organisers of the fantastic Lakes Two Day) will be running a British Championship sidecar round on Saturday July 17 2010, starting deep in the heart of the Lake District at Torver which is at the top end of Coniston Water. The trial (on SATURDAY) is being held in conjunction with the Inter Centre Twin-shock Team Trial which will be held on Sunday the 18th of July. Both trials will be run by the same team that organises the Lakes Two Day but the sidecar trial on Saturday will be plotted by former five time national sidecar trial winnner and TC columnist Mike Rapley. So, how did this all come about? You may know that Rappers and passenger Andrew Scott rode the Manx Two Day this year on a sidecar. They thoroughly enjoyed the event but had a succession of bike problems which didn't really allow them to reflect their potential. They were 19th on Saturday but finished 23rd after having to take 25 in fives late on Sunday afternoon. Anyway, Robin Luscombe says to Mike at the prize presentation "how about you organising a sidecar trial in the Lakes" for Robin rode one of his very first sidecar trials in the Lakes back in 1981 when Rappers and the Barrow club included the class in a club trial. Our columnist said nowt, but it set him thinking and following discussions with several Lakes folk at the recent Lakes Two Day, a late application was put in, supported by ACU committee man Tim Fairbrother who agreed to drop one of his rounds, and hey presto, there will be a sidecar round in Cumbria. The trial will be on the road and will use several areas of land, just possibly one lap but more likely two - in fact there's more land available to chairs than you can imagine. There's natural rock streams, rock and mud hillsides, in fact the area has more than you could ever wish for. So, whilst it's very early days, all you sidecar boys had better get planning and keep Saturday July 17 free, for rest assured, it'll be done right!

Dates and clubs are: Feb 7 - Castle Colchester March 7 - Camborne Redruth March 13 - Lancs County March 14 - Bootle April 4 - Northallerton April 11 - Mid Wales Centre June 13 - Mansfield Maun July 11 - Torridge September 12 - Sutton Falcons October 2 - West of England October 3 - Otter Vale October 31 - Hillsborough And if Richmond were to run one it would be good - but they aren't so it doesn't apply!

And Lancs County are again runnning the Angela Redford with even more land - arguably the best trial in the series. SATURDAY, March 13, 2010 is the date to mark in your diaries.

What makes you think you'll get an entry?

Yes, just to confirm why time was scrapped on Saturday. John Harding who always does the time control at this trial was told to go to the same place as he went to last year to operate the time control. However, the route had been changed at the bridge over the River Duddon and instead of going right along the banks of the river, the course went along the left bank. By the time John realised the route had been changed a significant number of riders had finished the trial, and to be fair to all, the time limit was scrapped. Not an ideal situation I agree, and there will always be winners and losers, but it was probably the only glitch in an otherwise superbly run trial. As an aside, it is increasingly difficult to get enough observers on a Saturday (Sunday too) to run a single lap, 40 section trial with 180 riders. Heather Ellwood begs and pleads with folks to help, and the bulk of those that respond are locals. What would help the trial enormously would be an offer by a few of those who attend the trial to support their riders, offered to observe say the first 15 sections. That would take the pressure off the club enormously and those folks could still then see their riders later in the day. Let's be totally honest, what do the trial followers achieve? Supplying food, drink and fuel is hardly essential, especially as there is a formal food and fuel stop at the half way point. As a regular rider at many events, and without naming names, there are many folks (generally parents) who NEVER observe at a big trial. They simply sit in the van at the roadside and wait for their offspring, and sometimes his mates to turn up. Boring or what! Their time would be much better spent observing. And if any rider gets into a problem - puncture, minor breakdown etc, there's always plenty of other riders and folk to help out.

See next Sunday's Centrally Speaking column.

Can't connect to it!

I was going to bring my bike on Friday, shall I bring my canoe instead?

Download a Trials Registration Form from the ACU website (acu.org I think), complete it, get it countersigned by the secretary of the club of which you are a member, pay the

Mark, Best to confirm exactly where you mean. My first thought was that you meant the newish complex on the left of the big wide road leading into the chairlift site, but the picture from photobucket is a different place, and one that I'm not familiar with.

Back in the early days of TMX, we (they) had about a dozen banners put up round the car park in Fort William and by the end of the week there was not one left - all stolen - because that's the correct word, not borrowed, or loaned, but stolen. And it seems to me that is what happened with the banners on Sunday. It's not on, so can I suggest that those who have them post them back to the trial organisers, that's Gary Bingley at Lloyd Motors BMW/Mini, Carlisle, or if they can't afford the postage, take them to the next trial and leave them quietly in a place where the organisers can find them and get them back to Gary one way or another.

Any results from this trial yet please.

As secretary of a trial that offers a late number to an early entry, I frequently get asked why one particular rider always has a late number and why this particular rider seems to have a late number in virtually every trial in which he takes part. I can't speak for other secretaries but as for myself, the reason this rider gets a late number is because his entry arrives first, virtually without fail, therefore I follow my own regs and allocate him a late number. With regard to the Jack Wood, I can't speak for the secretary, but if a organised Team Manager sent me 18 entries in one envelope and that envelope was one of the first to arrive, then I would allocate him late numbers. Simple. If the regs say early entry late number, it doesn't matter whether the envelope contains one entry or 50 entries. Equally, you would be surprised at the number of riders who enter fairly late and still expect a late number!

Just thought I would let all you Traditional trial enthusiasts know that following a few postal cock ups, the final entry total for this Saturday's Normandale sponsored Angela Redford Trial is 161 riders which we think is a fantastic number considering the current financial climate. This well and truly beats last year's total and whilst I can't be sure, must be one of the biggest entries ever for a Traditional series trial. The class of entry is superb with some really good riders taking part, so if you're not riding and fancy watching, then Brookhouse Brickworks which is signed from the Lancaster to Kirkby Lonsdale road at the mini roundabout in Caton is the place to be from 10.30 am on Saturday. It's over two laps of 20 sections, all off road at two adjacent locations with a really good variety of hazards from muddy banks to rocky becks. Nick Shield and Graeme Clapham are behind the section planning and they always do a great job. Parking at the start area can accommodate over 1000 vehicles on good gravel roads as it's a wind farm and there's catering from about 8.30 onwards on SATURDAY morning, March 14. It's the biggest trial held in the North West Centre and Lancs County always do a pretty good job, so have a day out - the views alone over Morecambe Bay are worth it, but wrap up warm as it's a chilly place.

Time to give you guys the other side of the pond some facts. When I took up sidecars in 1979 - some time ago I know, but not that long ago, there were many sidecars in use, probably over 100 crews in the UK. You could even buy a ready to ride, and very competitive sidecars from Sandifords, the Montesa importer; they were 348 Cotas fitted with a Barry Kefford sidecar. Then in the early eighties the Beamish Suzuki was available as a ready to ride sidecar made by Mick Whitlock, the original crafter of the fabulous chromed frames. They were exceedingly competitive and during my five or six years riding all the British Championship rounds on first a Montesa then two Suzukis, a championship round would frequently get 40 entries and the big sidecar trials like the Manx Two Day and the Gerald Simpson Two Day would get over 50, occasionally 60 entries. However, since those days the enthusiasm for sidecars has dropped off a bit, certainly in numbers, but even so, there is still a significant number of crews around. In fact it's probably time I made an announcement. As you may have guessed, Hillary is Mike Rapley of Centrally Speaking and it's my intention to ride this year's Manx Two Day on a sidecar. I have a passenger lined up - not my old sparring partner Mannix Devlin, but Andrew Scott who used to ride with his brother Phil - and they were very good. I'm hoping to borrow a competitive outfit, Robin Luscombe has said he will help, so if he can manage that, then it's a goer. Whilst I still ride regularly as a solo rider, as does Andrew, it's many years since I last rode a sidecar in a trial. It was May 1994 and before that May 1990 and before that 1986, so don't expect miracles. However, I would like to think that we'll get round OK and maybe even have the odd clean or two. But it all depends on being able to borrow a suitably competitive outfit. Surely somebody will help!

I've got a long wheelbase Connect and have had it for six years. You can get two bikes in easily, three at a squeeze and it's brilliant. Can't fault it for ride, comfort and driveability. It's not very rapid, but I've got the lowest powered van and that's plenty quick enough for me. Anyway, what's the difference in arriving three minutes later after 100 miles!

It's great being the Devil that drives one! And of course, whenever anything goes wrong, it's ALWAYS the passenger's fault!

I've got a Scott oiler on my VFR and it works very well, keeps the chain lubricated just enough. I remember Lynklyfe, you put the chain in it then boiled it until it was molten, then pulled the chain out on a bit of wire and hung it over the tin until it dried and went solid on the chain. It was very popular in its day but there isn't a person in the world who used it and didn't spill it at some time or another. Totally impossible to remove. It made you about as popular as a shark in a swimming pool with the ladies of the house!

Yes, I knew Stan Young as well, an all round good guy, sorry to hear of his passing. On a brighter note, if he died whilst biking off-road, that has to be better than slumped in a chair in an old folks home. Hope you don't mind me putting it that way. My dad died at a trial and I've always thought that at least he went whilst he was enjoying himself.

Yeah, a slow tickover will make it considerably more difficult to start. They don't have a reputation for being difficult to start so turn the tick over up and it's likely to cure any problem.

I've ridden four Scotts and four Scottishs. I've finished four Scottishs but retired from four Scotts! It's the ONLY event that has beaten me - and that includes an ISDE and World Championship enduro

I've always believed that the softer the tyre, the less likely it is to puncture. My reasoning is that a tube blown to say ten pounds, whilst it is still encased in a tyre, is thinner than a tube inflated to say three pounds. The analagy I'm working on is that it's easy to puncture an inflated balloon, but more difficult to puncture one with no air in. I know that when I rode enduros for 13 years, and many of those years were prior to riders using mousses, I always rode with tyres far softer than most of my rivals and punctures for me were virtually unknown - but that could have been because I was a) slow, or better at picking my route rather than hitting everything!

The bags that Perce is referring to - the ones in his picture - are made by Daleswear of Ingleton. They make them to order and cost