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Wonder how many of these posts are regurgitated from previous years??? Sorry chaps but a lot of this comes over as sour grapes every year. Their event their rules, the line from the regs is quoted already so no need to go back over that. I've attended the event from year 1 and the line up in machinery has changed so much. Over the last 5 years observing you notice how more and more the machinery is becoming less and less Pre 65, there are so many bikes and bits of bikes in the trial that couldn't feasibly be pre 65, yet they are there year on year. My view is that it needs to get back to what it was meant to be. These "modern Pre65 bikes" are a bit of a laughing stock really. Cubs with casings redesigned to take Gas Gas clutches and other internals, Forks which are quite blatantly "cut and shut jobs", original sliders welded over modern internals, it is laughable. When you look at how original bikes should look they are so much more pleasing to watch, the most obvious I know are John's Matchless and the Cub that Feet up Dave uses, for me, thats where it should be. Pre65 Ariels look NOTHING like what you see in May and other than the Staniforth family's very original James' the rest are out of place, Cubs, BSA'a where do you want to start. Technology is caught in a time warp because a lot of the technology and engineering expertise you see in May every year just wasn't possible in the early 60s!! However, back to my first comment, the club have the right to run their trial the way they want to and whatever that is I'll continue to support it in any way I can. It is an amazing event, one that as Trials fans we should cherish rather than spend time slagging it off!!

Kids are no excuse mate.... Glad to hear you're well Mark and that the family is also well

+1 We live at the top of the hill between Stonehaven and Banchory, bout 800ft up. We've had two pretty horrendous winters and despite one minor off a couple of Sundays ago that I'd challenge anyone to get out of, I've never had any problems and it does come down to tyres. The difference is massive on winter tyres, when I drove her car the other day it really showed how much difference there was. When we were in Germany we had winter tyres fitted from October to March, they don't clear or grit/salt roads over there and you quickly learn how to drive in poor conditions, maybe our governments should follow suit.

Brilliant!! you just can't script stuff like that!!

Awfy glad you added that comment, i was about to take the p*** for you taking Picy while driving!! :biggrinsanta:

Great minds think alike mate .... I used to have a Martin Lampkin scrapbook!!!! Anyway, the GOAT (greatest of all time) to date is Doug, no question. He took the sport by the scruff and moved what Jordi did to a new level. 5 consecutive Circus titles, 7 consecutive proper WTC crowns, 99 GP wins. Will he stay in that position?? remains to be seen. Bou is a genius and has changed the sport again HOWEVER what if he has a major injury? What if he stops? The what ifs are important because until he beats Dougs palmares and comes to blighty and wins the Scottish and the Scott, he won't be the GOAT!

...I love the smell of Napalm in the morning Lieutenant Colonel Bill Kilgore

Sad news about White Bros if it's true another well established dealer going to the wall, I doubt they'll be the last before things get any better. The misconceptions about the public sector are mind blowing, 25% of civil servants earn less than

Have a trawl back through the Trials Photography threads, there's loads of tips and suggestions in the threads already. What have you bought?? What lenses?? Built in Flash or off camera??? What makes a good image is simply down to the person looking at it, what I think is good may differ from what you think. Settings ISO 400, set your shutter priority to 1/250th of a sec and the camera will do the rest. Fill in Flash is always useful but don't think you must freeze the action, some of the best shot infer some movement, drop me a pm if you want any more info.

.....which takes us to a whole different discussion and field of Physics. Wiki comes to rescue once again. Anti Gravity

Anti matter trapped for the first time clicky if you trap it long enough....

Have to admit I'm all for getting some of the layabouts in this country off their backsides and back into the workplace, it's about time. HOWEVER there has to be jobs for them to get into and if we're about to start slashing jobs everywhere it craetes a bit of a conundrum. Hope it works though, fed up with us being a nanny state and people expecting something for nothing

Forfar...that's only 30 miles away from the Millionaire Shortbread you pair....

An Irishman goes to the Doctor with botty problems.... 'Dactor, it's me ahrse. I'd loik ya ta teyhk a look, if ya woot'. So the doctor gets him to drop his pants and takes a look. 'Incredible'he says, 'there is a

obvious photoshop job but funny!

A man entered the bus with both of his front pockets full of golf balls and sat down next to a beautiful (you guessed it) blonde. The puzzled blonde kept looking at him and his bulging pockets. Finally, after many such glances from her, he said, "It's golf balls". Nevertheless, the blonde continued to look at him for a very long time, deeply thinking about what he had said. After several minutes, not being able to contain her curiosity any longer, she asked; Does it hurt as much as tennis elbow? ........................... Teacher calls a class of 6 year olds in from the playground "Hello Johnny what have you being playing today"? "I was in the sand box with Mary, Miss" "very good Johnny ,if you can spell sand you can have a biscuit" "s a n d miss" very good and what have you been doing Mary" "I was in the sand box with Johnny Miss" "Very good if you can spell box you can have a biscuit" "b o x Miss" And what have you been doin Ali" "Nothing Miss Johnny and Sally wouldnt play with me" "Oh thats terrible Ali thats discrimination, if you can spell discrimination you can have a biscuit. ............................... There was a Yorkshire painter let's call him Yorkie Utterthwaite who was very interested in making a penny where he could, so he often thinned down his paint to make it go a wee bit further.. As it happened, he got away with this for some time, but eventually the local church decided to do a big restoration job on the outside of one of their biggest buildings. Yorkie put in a bid, and, because his price was so low, he got the job. So he set about erecting the scaffolding and setting up the planks, and buying the paint and, yes, I am sorry to say, thinning it down with water... Well, Yorkie was up on the scaffolding, painting away, the job nearly completed, when suddenly there was a horrendous clap of thunder, the sky opened, and the rain poured down washing the thinned paint from all over the church and knocking Yorkie clear off the scaffold to land on the lawn among the gravestones, surrounded by telltale puddles of the thinned and useless paint. Yorkie was no fool. He knew this was a judgment from the Almighty, so he got down on his knees and cried: "Oh, God, Oh God, forgive me; what should I do?" And from the thunder, a mighty voice spoke.. "Repaint! Repaint! And thin no more!" ........... An elderly man is stopped by the police around 1 am and is asked where he is going at this time of night. The man replies,

So there are these two guys Kayaking from Iceland to Greenland but they get so cold one night that the start burning some of their kit to warm themselves up, inevitably the kayak catches fire which just goes to show...... you can't have your Kayak and heat it.. :rolleyes:

Them mudguards look sodding pricey, but it does look absolutely superb!!

Much as I'd love to think that every one of our top riders was on the shopping list of the major factories, I'm with Gizza on this one. The harsh realities and economics we see around us must be having a massive impact on the factories and outside of Bou, Raga, Fuji, Farjado, Cabestany and probably still Doug, the rest are second picks, the teams need a second rider. I would never "down" any of the guys, Dibs, Alexz, Michael, the two young Guys Sheppard/Challenor but the reality is there for us to see. "All that was on offer" might be a closer statement than any British trials fan would like to admit.

Must be true... Pics of Wiggy shaking hands with Malcolm Rathmell and Marc Tessier on Facebook. Good news for Alexz, one more piece of the Jigsaw in place

I need one of these....... decent and clever bit of engineering that!!

I always feel it's right to give young chaps the proper start in life and help them appreciate the finer things........

Can't see if this has graced Kenny yet.... Paddy is passing by Mick