alan bechard

Ooops, hey, er, Sherco Dude, if you sent me an e-mail, I believe I deleted it and cannot get it back, did the title line say "hello"? If it did I thought it was a virus because I did not recognize the sender. Please resend with a title line like "trials Comp" or such if you would. trialsalan At wmconnect.com Thanks, sorry for the confusion.

www.rypusa.com Look at the Sherco Manuals That information is under the setup and lubrication manual. Easy to read with plenty of good photo's as well.

Oh, just e-mail me your address and I will send you one.

We have 3 stadium type ( I prefer now to call them Damn Circus Tricks) sections situated right on the edges of the parking areas. Was thinking of getting Hooters girls out to check them???? Not sure that it would be appropriate or not. Not sure if I will open them up for Practice on Saturday, then mark them for Sunday, I had some folks with Concerns, because they felt it gave the riders that rode them on Saturday (unmarked) an unfair advantage, but there will definetely be at least one, maybe two circus trick sections available for practice, directly adjacent to the parking areas for practice Sunday. I cannot really do a figure 8 in our land, it kind of ends up being a exaggerated kidney shape because of the lay of our land with the creek running through it. It is very spectator accessible though.

I am sure you could subscribe to Trials Comp direct if you would like. www.trialscomp.com

I do not mean to be silly, but that is one I have never seen done. Do you mark like best expert score is a 3? Or do you put everybodys name on there and mark their scores as they come through??? Not sure if I can pull that one off???? But it sure sounds interesting. I am guessing this is done on a white board of some type? We are blessed with a trials location exactly one mile from the interstate located directly on one of the major roads into town. And we put out large signs. I am reworking the loop Saturday morning. Maybe I will rethink the spectator loop, I could cut through the middle of some places to make it shorter. I need to find the little feet arrows.

The first loop is always the longest loop for everyone, barring mechanical problems, changes in weather etc. That was why I had the extra observers out for the first loop looking for bottlenecks (Dwight, and I thought yourself) Higher classes take longer than lower classes to ride almost without exception. The exception there would be if you had a "novice" riding an extremely long challenging loop. Later in the day when the novices are not at their freshest, and the Champs are hauling the mail to get in on time, you can see it get upside down. A large contributing factor to the time frames is also that as a general statement, the higher class riders will have more obstacles to overcome per section, they will generally also take more set up time than a lower rider, and truly serious riders will usually dismount for a quick look prior to riding. Dean and I are on the extremely fast end of things, which is why I tend to call it NASCAR trials. We tend not to look and we make pretty fair time down the trails. But we are an anomaly. Jordan and yourself are on the other side of that spectrum when it comes to times. The middle though, between us, is where most riders are at. As to who finishes first, it depends on starting positions on the loop, this is often determined by easy access to the "middle" sections, and personally, I believe fully in what Glen McNeal said about starting people on an "easy" section for their line, gives a nice way to start the day and get things going on a positive note. Anyway, I would like this topic to head back more towards the original question, I have a handle on how I will start the different classes. What can I do to achieve a more professional appearing event?

I do not have a shred of doubt in my mind who finishes quicker, or slower. I will not spend the few resources I have to track it. How do you want too "stage the start better"?

What I was replying too was that you said it seemed it was done randomly. It was not done randomly, it was done with a fair amount of Forethought. An attempt (successful I may say) was made to get the riders through one particular section in as timely a manner as possible. Therefore, we started the slowest riders there, and worked backwards from that point. We will probably reverse the order this time.

Generally, the higher the class, the slower they start out, we started basicly in Reverse last year because of the pictures, we started the champs where the photographer was (section 8) That way, the pictures got done "early" as possible.

Hi Milt, Will use both sets of classes, some will be merged, IE Nov A from TI and NOV from STRA, some will be stand alone, Womens in STRA. To recieve points for your club, say TI, you would be required to ride a class that your club has, ie, you could not ride "Womens" and recieve TI points. Yes, I am speaking of the May first and Second joint TI / STRA event. Tent, banners etc, are to give it a more "professional" (for lack of a better descriptiion) apperance for a couple of things, somewhat to other riders, but also hopefully to some interested public. There will probably be 4 or 5 "starting" sections is the way that I normally run that. I believe in at least 2 observers per section with some floats to eliminate, or at least minimize bottlenecks. It is a 40 acre site, that will be crisscrossed with the trails, there is not room for seperate spectator loops, but they are provided a map and it is an easy area to navigate around. Did you come ride it last year?

I will be putting on a large (our standards) regional event next year, I would like to include as many components of a "professional" event as I can. By professional, I mean, large, well run, established, impressive. It is just the best word I could think of. In your opinion, what gives an event that "look" or maybe "feel" I am thinking the large fireworks tent, banners of bike manufacturers and vendors, flagging and marking?????? Thoughts, comments or ideas?

Man, bad deal, sorry to hear about your loss. Hopefully it will turn up, they are unusual enough to be spotted at least.

Oh, Ringo, Bagger left that part out! Bag, Eric and myself met last night at a real nice restaraunt here and talked for quite a while. He should have been home by midnight, unless he got diverted along the way! I was hoping to maybe link up with old fart here as well, Bagster had it all set for a big rendesvous tonight, but my mom (actually probably Fred) came up with Gallagher tickets who is one of my favorite comedians for tonight, so I gotta go! I never realized how geographicly close you guys were to each other. Grand Canyon Tomorrow, not sure what we are doing Sunday, probably going to visit Hard Rock cycles today, while the wife goes shopping with my mom. That can be a bad thing! Will try and find that restaraunt, heading to Thaiphoon or something for lunch, authentic Thai food is not that common in my area! To heck with Atkins this weekend!

Andy what was that piece that you sent me about what motorcycles did to men? Marky! mark my words, I am scheming how to get over there and meet you guys, well, maybe the ladies you hang around with! Between you, Ian and Andy posting these photo's I am dying here! So is she the girlfriend? I do not think I would ever be sober! Always have to go back and Top off the glass so to speak!

Shucks fire man, there are far more aftermarket parts available for that mean machine and it's finally developed engine than any other trials mount out there!

Going to Phoenix AZ this weekend, did not know if someone in that area wanted to get together for supper or the like. Contact me if you would like to.

Sorry, Vicx, did not realize that locations do not show up here. Clarksville, TN. About one hour north of Nashville. I am in the world of "sure" lets drive 8 hours each way for a one day event! Here is a picture of me at the last trials if I can attatch it. OK, so I cannot figure out how to attatch it! Maybe tomorrow! Off to rope off the RC car track so my riders do not get on it and get me thrown off the riding land!

What a problem when you have to limit the number of riders to an event! I would sure like to develop an event over here to that point. Keep us posted. (VicX) I need to get this picture sizing thing down and I will show you some pictures of our girls / Women in the STRA. We are really proud of how well they are doing. I had to let my daughter get a girls kick a@@ sticker for her bike after she did so well.

For those of us on this side of the Pond, Wal-Mart is the way to go. Bring in your digital image and they do it. If you must have a printer, it just boils down to how much $ you want to spend.

I am definetely a neophyte when it comes to these camera's but I believe some problems are just problems, and will be no matter how the picture is taken. The biggest problem we have is when you are shooting in the "woods" with tree cover, and light coming down like "shafts". It also never seems to fail that the first great shot you want in the section is in a bright shaft of light, then the second shot is down in the shadows. I think it is difficult at best for any camera to adjust / adapt to that, add to that factor that the exciting parts usually happen quite fast and it just makes a difficult combination. The absoulute best thing about digital, and why we have a $1000 camera, is the # of shots that you can take for "Free". I belive that one of the biggest reasons that "professional" photographers get so many good shots, is they take so many more than you or I do. With Digital, you can be right there with them. At a local event Hanna will shoot about 500 shots. I could never afford to have that many shots developed, and really, who would want too, but there will be 20 really good shots in there. The light was right, the setting was right, the rider did well and it all happened at exactly the right moment.

Terry, come by the house, we can do that TY exhaust, and let me show you a couple of digital camera's. There is a noticable delay, particularly on the less expensive cameras, between when you push the button and when the picture snaps. If you are taking "still" photo's, no big deal, but when you are trying to shoot Trials, you end up mistiming a bunch and you get a very nice picture of the rock the guy just rode over or his front fender or something. Another consideration is "write time" or how long it takes to put the picture on to the media. again cheaper will usually take longer, ie this may mean that you can only get one shot of the guy in the section instead of several. I am blathering on, but it will be real apparent what we are saying if you come out with us and we will bring out two or three and let you play with them before plunking down the money. It is better, IMO, to spend more money off the bat, than to come up short and be unhappy.

Bead blast then clear is my best bet, different grits for different finishes.

Thanks, that was what I was figuring, but it never hurts to ask. I have a pretty good deal going with a powdercoater just down the road from me (1/4 mile) where I am building him his racks and such that he needs, and he is paying materials, then we will trade out some powdercoating as I need it.

Looking for what folks have done, or seen done, or thought about doing to improve the Youth Trials movement. Here are some random and jumbled thoughts that I have had. Youth Event Thoughts Just wanted to take a moment and write down some of my thoughts and observations about Youth Trials events. Consistency is the biggest thing I can suggest. If people automatically know that there will be a Youth Event at every trials, your