ridenm

Anybody know what size chain the bike takes? 415? 420? The existing one just says "Regina" on it. I checked the Regina website but of course they don't include the Boy in their list of motorcycles.

Awesome write-up, BR. I second the suggestion of pictures. I plan on upgrading Katy's old bike as soon as we have the resources. Kace's will be good on the stock batteries for a while yet.

Good topic, Thanks to TY175 for alerting me. Here's a couple of observations after almost a year as president of our state club. Hard copy newsletters do matter. While the young guys might be online enough to catch the buzz about trials, the old guys who are the backbone of the club still appreciate having bathroom reading material. Skill level classes matter. We have been trying to balance having enough classes to keep people interested and safe with having few enough classes that they're not a burden to trialsmasters, our standings secretaries, and our trophy budget. We added a Senior Expert class this year for guys concerned about the danger level of Expert or recovering from injuries. It's been a qualified success. We may try to add a Senior Amateur class to give our older lower class riders somewhere other than Amateur to hang out and let the kids get a few more trinkets as they advance from Beg or Nov. OSETs matter. TXT50s matter. Beta Juniors matter. TY80s matter. You want family-friendly fun? Gotta have bikes the kids can ride as they grow. Our importers and distributors don't always have the parts and tech info to keep these bikes running. Anything they and the clubs can do to support kids' bikes will have an impact. Land access issues matter. Here in NM, we depend on public land for most of our events. We have ever-increasing obstacles to negotiate to placate land managers from BLM and Forest Service. Trials riders have not been easy to organize to participate in the politics of public land access. I wish I could mobilize half the number that show up for an event to also show up for a public meeting to protect our access. Or even to write letters or send e-mails or make phone calls. We've been doing OK but only because a core group of us has pushed the rest pretty hard to be aware of political matters. We're working on getting some private land. I worry that once we do we will give up on the public land entirely. It's understandable; who wants to hassle with special use permits when you've got your own place to go? But once we slack off, those public areas will disappear. Service to the club matters. It's hard to find folks willing to give their time. When club members bitch about rules like enforcing spark arrestors, the volunteers on the receiving end say, "I don't need this crap." Having a service ethic is rare - there are not enough givers and too many takers. Our club has struggled to come up with trialsmasters, board members, even with observers. Your carrot has to be sweet and your stick has to be big and obvious. Everybody wants the club to host a National but finding the 90 or so FTEs (people to fill the various jobs needed to run a National) is tough. We are blessed with a strong national team but not everyone is gonna get to ride both days of a home event. Our club membership is essentially flat right now. We'll see what happens with membership renewals after the new year. We've been doing some new things such as a Facebook page, but we really need to promote our events more widely. Trials is the cheapest of all the motorsports except for radio control racing, and there is a whole generation enthralled by extreme sports. Yet we can't get into X Games? We aren't widely known among young folks? Why is that? Because we, the old fogies of the sport, aren't finding ways to reach the X'ers. Speed TV has these street stuntas and FMXers - they should be ripe for learning about trials. Whatever the barriers, we need to find a way to break them down. It's just too cool of a sport to see it die from lack of exposure.

Thanks! That's the kind of feedback that tells me I might not be able to bear wearing one. The old 'third eye' tightness problem, you know. Chris

I try to support my dealer but I'm not gonna make them order in something until I have some clue that the item will fit. That's the value of message boards like this. Your mileage may vary (or your kilometrage?), and the message board just gives you a head start.

I just got a Shiro helmet and the ventilation system really works. It is the coolest helmet I have worn. The lining also has a cool wicking feeling. The fit is similar to a Bieffe but I needed one size larger. It is a nice helmet but.........look what it says on the box. So how would you characterize the fit? Let me explain: I cannot wear a Shoei helmet because of the 'round' shell shape they use. The helmets that fit me best are the Arai 'long oval' shell shape. I have a Bieffe trials helmet that fits OK, but it just barely fits without causing pain. If the Shiro leans toward the Arai fit, I'd go there because they would be a lot less expensive than an Arai.

Thanks for the reply. I learned about a company called A123 (http://www.a123systems.com/#/home/hev) that is supposedly working on safer Li-Ion batteries but I understand they are really expensive, and I didn't get a response from the company because I was an end consumer, not a wholesale customer.

So did you ever follow up on this? My eight-year-old daughter won the state Junior championship on her 16.0 for '07. Now she's moving up to Beginner class on a Sherco 0.5. The OSET just didn't have the battery capacity to handle the regular loop around the sections. I'm looking to upgrade to Li-Ion batteries and your post is the first I've stumbled on. While the point is now moot for my 8 yr old, she's got 4 yr old twin brother and sister behind her. The boy feels it start to tip over and starts to cry. Que macho! He'll be on training wheels for a long time, I'm afraid. The 4yo girl is riding a 12.0 without training wheels and doing quite well. She'll be ready for the 16.0 in a year or so. She wants to go ArenaCross racing because she likes to go fast...