alan bechard

Craig, you been reading that "how to win friends and Influence enemies" book again?

Just some other thoughts, It could have come down right to the wire with a bunch of places being decided by the last event as well. Then everyone in a close race would want to be there. As a promoter you pays your money and roll the dice. You stack things as much in your favor as you can, but at the end of the day, sometimes the breaks do not come your way. I too would suggest a direct and positive appeal to the riders that you are concerned about not making it. If money is not an issue from your end, offer to cover or at least offset their expenses. Use the fact that you will be providing massive media coverage for the event. Have a live feed into Trials Central. See if you can convince someone that the others want to see to come as well. Tie your event to something else that could swing them over the top, maybe something that the missus could do while the event is going on. There are tons of things that are possible, it is up to you which you decide to put into play. I will say though, that saying negative things about the riders who do not come, I would seriously doubt makes any of them change thier minds.

LMFAO That was classic,

But Mark, what difference would that make for you? You were just waiting for that weren't you

Nahhh, it is easy for a man of my size, plenty of ballast!!!! It is scary as crap though first time your visor hits the front tire I know you guys measure weight in stones, but heck, I am from TN, we use boulders around here. Just ask Andy

Wheelies, bunnyhop people, make a game out of it where you get some crowd involvement, DO NOT BRING SOMEONE OUT of the crowd that you are not POSITIVE about, put a ringer in the crowd. Slow race the street bike guys is always fun, set up a lane that you can do a nose wheelie pivot turn in and go back and forth while the street bike tries to go slow. Ride backwards Do a vertical wheelie and bend forward and kiss the front fender. Stand on the seat and wheelie. Run side by side wheelies if you are doing it with a friend. Nose wheelie Nack Nacks Doug does the headstand with the bike balanced, but if you have not done that yet, do not bother. Failed tricks look worse than no trick at all. DO NOT, DO NOT ! let someone out of the crowd ride your bike. Yes I did, no it was not pretty, nothing like your riderless bike going down a path towards the group of extremely seriously and terminally ill children in wheelchairs and walkers with no rider on board to make you sick to your stomach. If you can make a game of it, involve the audience, get them cheering you on and stay a level or two below your skills, you will have a good demo. What make's a trials rider go ohhhh and ahhhhh is not what makes a non-rider impressed.

Again, trying to be reasonably serious here. I would strongly advise against doing anything that you are just learning in a demo. You want to concentrate on things that you do consistently well. A demo of you crashing, pelting the spectators with rocks, or your bike launching into the crowd of onlookers just tends not to have the desired effects. Cars are always good for Demo's, people can relate to the size of cars. I did one Demo at a bike shop opening where they did a lot of sportbike stuff, I went up and challenged everyone to a burnout contest, my bike against theirs, only stipulation was that they had to do the burnout in the same place as I did, just to make it fair. They were lined up to take my bet, everyone certain that they could do far better burnouts than that silly little trials bike, So I started my show doing a burnout on the roof of the car we had for a demo...... It went over great! And a lot of the guys in the bet looked like this

OK, I will make a stab at a serious answer for a second. 3rd or 4th Gear, depending on how bold you are,,,, lean forward, all weight on front wheel,,,,, Hold front brake, drop clutch at high revs to get rear wheel spinning, Slowly release front brake, maintaining drag to controll speed to achieve desired amount of forward motion..... If you want to go counter clockwise, turn front wheel to the right slightly, while leaning slightly to your left,,,, Be aware that as you roll off throttle, or engage clutch, without fully disengaging it, that as the rear wheel slows, but is still driven, it will likely hook up and find traction, sending you rapidly in whatever direction you are pointed at the moment, As Lew said, snow or wet grass, or at least grass will soften the blow as you fall............................

Cmon man, little round tool with 4 studs sticking out?

Andy, when you come over for the world rounds or so, and we are away from the kids, I will make sure you get a taste of real shine and there will be no confusion about how smooth my Apfelkorn is ... Kinnell did not seem to mind it too much.. Thanks for the comments Bruce, it was a pleasure meeting you guys as well. Maybe as the year progresses we will see you out at some of the events? Hanna, Christina and I will be back at TTC this weekend if you wanted to play at some easy going riding. Dean will be down playing Golf in Orlando...... Man, I hope the kids know how good they have it

The Beta 80's at the Youth Nationals had the full size wheels and tires. I thought in speaking with Ron Commo the Beta importer that they were available both ways from him and you could also pick up the other set of wheels rather inexpensively. Not sure if this is a US only thing or not. But I am sure that Ron would work with you to get it done. Maybe they were not tubeless, but I thought they were????

Thanks Phil.

I guess I am not following. I believe that Lane's team did come in first in the Gate trials though but it was a bit unfair as they were the only team with two current competing "Pro" riders.

Some bike thoughts, Bar position should be set to your child, sometimes that means rolling them back from what an adult would use. At the same time, do not roll the bars so far back that your childs wrists are bent up trying to hold on. They should be holding the bars, in a comfortable position with their wrists basicly straight. If you have a very small child, consider cutting the bars so that their arms are not spread out wide. If you go to do a pushup, try spreading your arms out past shoulder width sometime and you will see how difficult it becomes. At the same time, as you cut them down shorter and shorter the child is loosing leverage. Cut in small increments and stop as soon as things are practical. the bent out portion of the number plate goes on the top so as not to pinch the cables, particularly the throttle cable. A white tube on the throttle is a fast or quick acting throttle and a black is a slow acting throttle. Many kids do better with a slow throttle. (Aluminum is even faster) slightly larger rear sprockets slow a bike down, which often gives an extra second for the child to react in. Small kids seldom need top end speed as much as they need low end grunt. The flap under the rear fender of a GG80 becomes a scoop instead of a protector to funnel dirt into the airbox if it is not clipped into it's slot on the rear fender. Teach your children to check their bike out after each crash, check that the throttle works and that the control levers are all back to the proper position. Take a disc of some form and show your children how a disc turns when leaned to the side and rolled. Maybe just roll a quarter on the floor or a frisbee and show how as it goes slower, and leans more, it turns tighter. Man is it nice to fill Sherco gas tanks and see how much fuel I have. (I know, blatent Sherco plug, but it is true) After seeing me overfill some other bikes and run gas all over the place, you would know why I say that.

Thanks John, it was great to meet you and your family as well. And on with the story, we should really steal a little bit from Honda, "you meet the nicest people at a Trials" The event itself was excellent, and you could see the Charlie Roberts influence there. Tight, technical, and very much concentrating on turns and cambers especially in the lower lines. It was amazing to me as I looked at the deceptively simple lines, and realized how much thought had went into making them straight forward, yet challenging, and especially safe so that they catered to a wide range of riders. Bagger and I got hooked up Sunday evening and had a good time. He kept seeming to think that I was cooking lunch, but it is clear from anyone that was around that I am the breakfast kind of guy. I must bow down though to Baggers meatballs and spaghetti sauce, ohhhhh Mannnn, you want to talk about good, they were exceptional, he would put most Italian restaraunts out of business in these parts! Some thoughts that really struck me along the way, Everyone really pulls together to make sure that as good a time as possible is had by all. I saw all brands of bikes in all the different pits, the key part was keeping everyone together and running. I was really impressed at one point when I looked up, my daughter (Sherco rider) was on a log and too her right was Louise F helping her with encouragement, to her left was Ron Commo the Beta importer helping, and at the bottom was Dale Malasek the GG importer helping to show her where too go. I thought about how rare a sight it was when you have several different teams all working together for the common good of one rider. Made me feel good to be a part of it.

I will probably do this in a couple of installments as things come to me. Yes, I should really sit down and write a nice neat article, but that is not how my life is working at the moment so I will just try and get the scattered bits and pieces down on electrons so that hopefully some will pass on too the correct folks. The first thing I must say is a huge thanks to Team Sherco USA and RYP, and especially Ryan and Brad. Right there with those guys of course is the entire TTC crew, especially Catherine, Charlie and Dan. There are tons more folks to mention both on the teams and especially from the STRA membership that spent their holiday weekend standing in the woods so our kids could compete at a premier level event. PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, if I do not include your name here, do not feel unappreciated, because you are appreciated greatly. For me, the Youth Nationals represents a thousand great little memories and one or two that have already gone by the wayside, so lets get on to some of the highlights. Probably the biggest one for me and I know for Dean was that Friday night the wife heard that Ryan may not be commited to mind for anyone. Saturday morning I had Dean go ask him if he would consider minding for him some..... I cannot describe the look on my son's face when Ryan said he would. Christmas morning, a kid on a make a wish trip, I don't know, but I do not believe I have ever seen my son as happy as when he came back and said that Ryan would mind for him. He was just absolutely glowing. I was fortunate enough to be able to hang back, and help with the bike and watch and learn as Ryan carefully guided my son through the paces. I am sure some of it was plain hero worship, but it was so great to see them work together through a section, Ryan's patient instructions held Dean's interest in rapt attention in ways that I have never been able to accomplish. So many times when riding with me, Dean will run through a section, scream "I got it" and blaze through without ever taking the time to really analyze what he was getting into. It was more than I could have hoped for....... While it took some time for Dean to adjust riding styles and speeds, and to absorb the lessons that were coming his way, you could just see his attention to detail and his precision increasing each step of the way. I fully expected Ryan to do one loop or maybe two with Dean but he graciously hung in there all three loops on all three days. Words do not describe the incredible and special feeling that gave me. A couple of quick highlights and I better go, Some of the comments were great, often heard was "couldnt you find a better minder for your kid?" "Thats cheating" "how'd you do that" and of course I did love, "what is this, the Sherco World Team comes to the Youth Nationals" The one that really hit home for me was on loop 1 of day 3 section 6 which had a really, and I do mean really tricky down hill, off camber with roots and rocks turn back up hill that was simply wicked in it. A little background again, we call my son Slo- mo because of how fast he goes (kind of like calling my great dane Tiny) and Ryan looks at him and say's, Ok Dean this one looks really tricky so we are going to walk it 4 times and watch 3 riders go through before we ride it, Dean just looked up at him and said OK and then did it. I hope that attitude can stick. More to come, just have to go for now.

Whats a Rizla paper?

Thats it. Some people use cellophane like off a cigarette box. Here is a link to some of the boxes. http://www.avweb.com/news/maint/184370-1.html I think my dad made the ones that we had because I seem to remember them being pretty rough.

A test light or a buzzer box. They used to be real common, but not hard to make. I am not sure if they are still available at the bike shops through Motion Pro or someone or not. Ask around to a shop that does older bikes and they should have one.

LMFAO Must have been the ApfelKorn.......

Start at basics, Clean gas, proper oil ratio, clean air filter, new correct plug etc. etc. Then tune / jet from there. All too often we miss these basic steps and go past what the actual problem is.

FANTASTIC ! Nothing improves abilities better than riding with others of equal or better abilities, and with the size of the US, that is sometimes a difficult thing. Hats off and a "hooohhhaaa" to all the TTC crew and RYP.

I would modify the shock end you have so that you can slide it on and get going upon reciept of the new one. After several versions, and a shock or two launched out of the press, I made up a pretty simple tool with some all thread and nuts and angle iron to compress the spring to let me change the clip position. Not that complicated, but it sure is not pretty when it comes out of your tool unexpectedly. Good luck getting it sorted.

Just for reference, that type bolt is normally referred to as a "stripper" bolt. Sometimes also called socket head shoulder bolts. I would go with the heli-coil, keensert, twinsert, timesert or whatever the local machine / fab shop had handy and get back to 8mm. If it was me, I would buy the kit, but in how many years of riding have you not needed one? A local machine shop or good auto repair shop probably has the kit there handy. A twinsert, Keensert etc. will go into the threads you already have tapped. But in my neck of the woods they are not as common.

All Sportsman ride the same line. (that would also include Women, and plain sportsman class) So Yes.