Wednesday September 30th 2020
Holy Moly - The last day of September - Hard to believe that Summer is over - Fall is here and Winter not far away. - For most people this has been a very stressful year with the Pandemic, loss of jobs and life - plus a total downturn in business for a large majority . -Â Overall, I think the Motorcycle Industry has weathered the storm so far, although many dealerships have been forced to shut shop.
In our small Trial’s World - we tend to be protected from these ups and downs - and certainly can survive, when others cannot. -  Although a lot of people are going through a very tough time at the moment, imagine how things were at the turn of the century? - This is a pic of Silverton in the Slocan Valley - a place that I have often traveled through and as I recall a good place to stop for breakfast - very old - very interesting history.
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Back in the day when Ossa were still building bikes, and Mick was still “Perming” his hair.
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Cody Webb wins US Rev Limiter hard Enduro - Trystan Hart - 2nd.
#RevLimiterExtreme
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Here’s a Classic shot for you - When Moto X was called Scrambles and men rode big heavy bikes with about 4″ suspension - In this pic you see Les Archer (Norton) Dave Curtis ( Matchless) I - and Raene Baeten -     ( Later killed in a race)
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This shot is from the Italian Trials Championship - Looks like they at least had some great natural sections.
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I posted this pic of Becky Cook showing her in a Downhill Mountain bike race - ( She is a former Ladies Trials rider in the UK only beaten by Emma Bristow)Â - What I noticed was the Go Pro camera mounted on her helmet, something that I think is a bad choice - I mentioned previously that I now have one of these mounted to the handlebars of my TRS and it works fine, so why take the chance of having a camera pressed into your brain in the event of a crash? - And before somebody says that will never happen - it already has - Former World Formula One Champion Michael Schumacher fell when skiing with this set up - hit his head on a rock and has been a vegetable ever since.
I think they banned them for MX for that reason.
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The Victoria Club held the Annual Joe Brown Memorial Trial last Sunday - Joe was a great guy who died of cancer many years ago - He was a Yamaha Dealer on the Island, so I got to know him and his wife quite well - a very sad loss for sure.
The Expert winner was Thomas Cordner (Vertigo) 13 points - 2nd Brandon Volk ( Vertigo) 28 - 3rd Andrew Watson (GG) 29. - watch for full results on Trials Canada or go to the VMC website.
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We talk a lot about Trials Technique on this site - and the changes that developed over the years both in the type of events and the machines. - One of the new stars was Bernie Schreiber, who perfected the  ” Floater” turn, he is shown here in the pic by Len Weed. - Interestingly enough - Len attended a few of our Calgary Trials back in the 70’s - with another guy by the name of Leon Wildbanks - they were on some pretty souped up Hodakas - good, but not good enough for some of the big hill climbs we used to have back then - plus of course there were the Muskeg sections !!!
I was chatting to a buddy last week about the long distance Trials , which were the standard back when I started riding in the 50’s - and I mentioned how surprised I was in my first event - to find a Tie breaker many miles out on a narrow Welsh Country road. - To me this was something completely new as was the rest of the stuff back then at age 16. -
Anyway - they had Officials at this spot on a hill, and you had to put your front wheel on a line across the road, then with the bike in neutral and a dead engine - you had to coast down the hill and stop with the bike across another line!!! This was timed with a stop watch and entered into the results to break any ties!!. ( The “Fastest” roll got the nod)
Naturally they had this test just after you came off the extremely muddy Welsh Moors ( bit like Muskeg) - so the wheels were all plugged !! What a great idea!! - Of course the big heavy BSA’s etc rolled pretty good - but the lightweights were painfully slow - and you could not put your feet down to help!!! - Brilliant !!!!!!
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Finally a reminder for those attending the Ross Rathbone Thanksgiving bash - don’t forget your mask !! you will need it to sign in. Yes we will be there so try to plan ahead if you need anything ( Like a mint hardly used 2020 Beta Evo 200 at a really great price!!)
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