Novogar - Some Thoughts

[john collins]

As promised I post some thoughts on Novogar and recent disscusion on Section severitty/twin routes etc.

It probably pays to step back in time a little -and remember the original concepts.

The old MCN Clubman

[Andy]

I consider Trials Central as being VERY fortunate in having a member of the ACU Trials and Enduro Committee willing not only to post in these forums, but to post lengthy messages that take time to put together. John has taken the time to post a message that is basically looking for feedback yet NOBODY, out of almost 300 reads of this topic, has any opinions or feedback on what he's saying.

The ACU are on these very forums asking for rider opinion. If you don't tell them what you want then you have no right to complain later!

[stuessenhigh]

I agree Andy, it is VERY good to see such posts from John Collins.

I also agree, its a shame no-one has responded yet. From my part I feel that I cant really respond yet since I have never done trials in the UK...BUT..you can be sure of my two-penneth worth in about a years time..by which time I'll hopefully have a better idea of how things work there

On a similar note, I also hope those that can, will support the forthcoming forum, which I think is at ACU house??

[tordijarres]

Quite simply, I agree with all John said about the Novogar. It's the minority dictating to the majority.

However one problem I forsee is that, certainly in the past, many of these big one-lappers have attracted amongst the best in the country (As were Brit Champs Rounds), and the organisers don't want to see their event "devalued", such that the winners' roster reads Miller,Ratcliffe,Lampkin,Rathmell,Thorpe, Sauders,Crawford,Jarvis, etc...then Bloggs, Murphy, Heinz57

As he says, things have changed and organisers have to accept that. Perhaps over time, prestige will maily come from the reputation of the event, rather than the name of the winner or the list of entrants?

I do hope that the number of rounds is reduced. For anyone with any sort of family commitments (or indeed business or weekend-working), to try and make it to all these is nigh-on impossible. Then there's the cost of attending all the rounds. In effect you are restricting the likely championship runners there and then and certainly not on riding ability-grounds. How about 6?

[timp]

John, you have hit the nail on the head.

1 There are far too many rounds.

2 Often I have heard from the organisers that because its a national its supposed to be hard!!!!

3The club gets a few top names entering so put in a few sections to sort them out so spoiling the trial for the majority of riders.

4 I think some of the clubs running rounds are only doing so to make sure they get a decent entry because of the captive audience a champ round gives them.

If a trial is good enough it doesn't need to be a champ round to get a good entry (eg The Jack Wood,Dave Rowland,Bemrose). These trials have clubman routes and are very popular and would not need to be made harder to find a winner and could still run a clubman route but if they became one route only they would be spoilt. Therefore these clubs would probably not want to run a novogar round if they couldn't have a clubman route.

On another note the name of the championship is not sustainable. If the sponsor changes would it still be called the Novogar championship. Would it not be more suitable to call it the 'Novogar Traditional trials championship' or something similar.

Mark T

[jools]

I agree with John completly.

I have riden the majority of the nationals this year and out of those i have enjoyed perhaps 2 of them.

Is'nt the Novogar series etc supposed to be a stepping stone towards the British Champs (expert class)? This year we have had sections set out for riders of top 10 in the british champs (championship class) and they have gone round the trial on 3, and all the majority of the riders have been on around 120. Dont see the point! Also the riders who tend to support the series are ordinary people who have to go to work the next day, and dont want to be thrashing their bikes up impossible sections or huring themselves. some of the trials this year have been way OTT!!! a lot of people who rode the series last year said they wer'nt going to bother again because the trials are far too hard because it is set out for the minority, who perhaps do 1 a year and not the majority who its meant for that support the series through the year.

[bikespace]

John Collins has it spot on as usual. I'm not a**e licking, he's just one bloke that seems to have a hold on reality.

Just looking at the replies so far, I'd say most of the replies are from quality riders, Jools, Timp, Tordi, who will manage far better than the likes of myself to get round an over-ambitious trial, but they are in total agreement too.

Where are the people that want the killer trials? They are few and far between.

It looks like we may become a victim of the rise in level of the Novogar's at our round on the 25th Sept.

At last count, before we all went away for the Manx 2 day, there were 47 entries. We've got a couple of weeks left before the entries close, but would like to see a fair few more.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE - Get the entries in - If you've been a Novogar entrant over the past 3 years you will enjoy it. Good solid sections - nowt stupid.

Experts, Inters and the sort of clubmen that enjoy the SSDT type sections WILL enjoy it.

If not you can beat **** out of me afterwards.

The rest of the team involved are of the same opinion, so don't worry, it won't get out of my hands and become another nightmare. (I'm bigger and uglier than them anyway - except Graham Evans who wins the ugly bit).

Get the entries in - Link below to our website - click on the big yellow Novogar bit.

[original]

bikespace ive entered someone and i cant see their name on the list , has it been updated recently?

cheers

[bikespace]

Drop me a PM with their details and I'll get it checked out. I know there are three local lads that entered last week, and I've not received the updated list with them on yet. As far as I know that list was up to date at the beginning of last week (that would be about the 21st August).

[physco]

the traditional trials as we used to know them used to bring in mega entries,160 plus for such superb events as the bemrose,jeffries,wye valley,clayton,hoad,perce simon,etc,to name a few.why?,because they used the old rules,full no stop.long traditioal sections easy to observe.if any sport is losing its direction it should always go back to its grass routes.their are plenty of alternatives now with all the separate championships to produce future world champion,s etc.the clubman are the grass roots of the sport,ask them what they want.travel is so much easier now that if we do not have a set of rules to produce a world champ let them ride on the continent.just remember who its was who rocked the boat with the stop hop and jump rules,the foreiners.we then produced our very own superb seven times world trials champion and what happens we get no world round until this year,so is it the spaniards who are running the sport or the acu?.

well done to andy for getting this forum up and running,lets just hope the acu listen to our thoughts.