Friday January 20th 2023

January 20th, 2023

Sorry - I’m a bit late writing up the blog today - not often the old guy sleeps in!! Looks like we will have another nice day - and slowly warming up - but this is what it looked like out  in our driveway in 2015 !!

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This was a shot I took yesterday from the back deck - showing much better conditions looking out over a frozen Swan Lake in Vernon.

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Nice to see Adam Raga make the cover of Trial Mag UK - He deserved it winning that super difficult Indoor at Sheffield - especially as he had back surgery only 9 weeks previous.
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We had a nice visit yesterday with Max Lang - who bought a new TRS from us on a day very much the weather in the top picture - stuffing it into his Boler trailer - He still has that bike.

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Quiz - This is a shot of a new BSA dealer  - but does anybody know what BSA stands for??
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Thursday January 19th 2023

January 19th, 2023

Not our Valley - but maybe I should dig out our Welsh Flag to post!! ( I got it at the 1983 ISDE)
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Here we have a nice shot of the 1974 Yamaha Factory  “Cantilever”  TY 250 that Mick Andrews helped develop and then won the 1974 Scottish Six Days Trial  that year. - It was also fitted with a “Pumper” style carb from a snowmobile. - When Mick came to Canada later that year to put on Trials demos to promote the new standard TY 250 - I was given the job of setting up sections at Blackfoot Park - not an easy job as I had to haul in a bunch of rocks to hand-build  some stuff. - Glad to say this promo went over really well and with Walt such a great guy and Trials fan - we were soon selling a lot of these bikes.

Next up in 1975 we also had the task of setting up the first ever World FIM Trial in Canada, which we have mentioned before - but when Mick’s bike arrived prior to the event, I was surprised that he had brought his older TY Twin shock model, so asked him why this was. - The story is this - Yamaha Japan  were super pleased with the success of that early Prototype Mono-shock, but , because they did not want rival factories to copy it - they kept it under wraps, while they developed the all conquering 1984 TY 250 mono.   - Now you know the “Rest of the Story”  told to me by the man himself.
May be an image of motorcycle, outdoors and text that says 'YAMAHA MOTO92 FINA FINA'

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Davey Craig sent me this link to a really good video which features many of the stars in a contest called   World Superbike  - in this riders from all aspects of Motorcycle competition go - head -to head in various  events to arrive at the overall points winner.  Check it out - it’s quite long but very interesting - with perhaps a surprise ending for some.

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https://youtu.be/LI-uI1t4iqs

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Emily is off on another adventure - this time back to the frozen North. - A few years ago Pat Horan invited me to go on a similar trip  to deliver gifts to the kids - I declined as the cold weather has never suited me, but we did supply a bunch of Outlaw Bakpaks for the kids, which were well received.
May be an image of 2 people, motorcycle, snow and text that says '2023 ANNUAL ICE ROAD EXPEDITION The team will be riding their motorcycles over 850km along winter ice road from Fort McMurray, AB Fort Chipewyan, AB and ending in Fort Smith, NWT January 20-22 5th Annual Ride North Moto Road Expeditor will delivering food shelters Wood RIDE NORTH MOTO HOW CAN YOU HELP donations can dropped Motorsports McMurray SPCA. Region along reach up arranged more information 4G MOTORSPORTS www.ridenorthmoto.com/ mike@ridenorthmoto.com petlu FORT mcmuRRaY ISPCA BEYOND mdra HIAPO HANDS MOTORCYCLEHANDCOMS'

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Answer to the Wednesday quiz -  the lady rider is Olga Kevelos - on a DOT - she rode the Scottish Six Days every year until she retired - she also won a Gold Medal at the ISDT. - In her later years Olga was the UK rep on the FIM Board. - Nobody got it all correct some thought the bike was a Greeves a brand she rode for a few years.

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Just saw this post regarding the CPTA - a good reminder that Canadian Trials cater to the whole family.

Ioco Trials Riders

Ron Walsh  ·   ·

CPTA trials will include Women’s classes this season. Watch for more events for women, kids and beginners this year at Ioco. Trials is an inclusive, family sport for all ages. CPTA is focusing on rider development so get involved.
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I  see they have had some snow in Wales and also quite a lot in Scotland, but it never lasts long - our weather in the Valley is staying fairly mild.
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Shot of the day - just throw it away!!
May be an image of 5 people, people playing sport, motorcycle, dirt bike and outdoors
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Wednesday January 18th 2023

January 18th, 2023

This is a great shot of Les Birchall taken in North Wales in the 1980’s - Les has been living in Eastern Canada now for many years, and is a member of the Vintage club in Ontario.
May be an image of 1 person, motorcycle and outdoors

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Quiz - Who is this lady Trials rider getting a helping hand - and what is the bike???
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Glad to say the Westside road wasn’t like this on Monday!!
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This poster was up on FB - Looks like Mick is still very popular.

May be an image of 2 people and text that says 'TRIAL VINTAGE SALON 2ROUES DU LYON MOTOS ANCIENNES -PRÉ 65 ET PRÉ 85- legend Eriatk DU 23 AU 26 FÉVRIER 2023 LYON-EUREXPO YAMAHA 19167 YAMAYA NOCTURNE VENDREDI 23 Î Horaires l'ouverture du salon: Jeudi 23: 19h Vendredi 24 Samedi 25:de9hà21h Dimanche de Programme: Expositions Démonstrations Stages Sessions AVEC LA PRÉSENCE EXCEPTIONNELLE DE MICK ANDREWS Picture PictuBy By CLaudio CONTACT Yves LAMERCERIE 95 8-legend.trial.lyon@gmail.com legend trial Iyon'

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Probably True!! in a lot of cases. — I wonder how many of our group watch this series on Netflick?
May be an image of 1 person and text that says 'Even if you hear a bad story about me, understand, there was a time was good to those people too, but they won't tell you that. Insta: PeakyQuotes56'

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Tuesday January 17th 2023

January 17th, 2023

Monday I took a drive over to the Westside of Okanagan Lake for a visit with Roy - plus showed him the new Wulf Trials helmet, with the flip up visor - he has been asking about one of these for sometime, as he has poor eyesight and  needs to wear glasses. - Suffice to say this really fits the bill for him - we can also get these with tinted visors for sunny days - the visor pushes up into the shell of the helmet when not in use and becomes invisible. - Retail is $175.00 and available in Red-White-Blue. - We ship Canada wide. - call us or email if you need more info.

It was great to visit Roy for the first time since November - and we had a good chat, while he had Trials  stuff playing on You Tube - We  talked about a lot of stuff - including the new upcoming season and I mentioned the new blood we have in the Valley. -
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David H Rhodes's photo.

Not that Roy ( or myself) will be out riding anytime soon as there is still a ton of snow in the Valley.

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Here is a shot of Ross wearing his Wulf gear - he has been very happy with both the quality and price for many years. ( Note! we have lots in stock)
May be an image of 1 person, dirt bike, motorcycle and outdoors

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A blast from the past -

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Monday January 16th 2023

January 16th, 2023

I clicked onto You-Tube over the weekend and watched various Trials tapes - but also the one from Sheffield, where Toni Bou got bent out of shape about something before it started - Dougie Lampkin was  not impressed.  Turned out to be a bad night for Toni.
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A group of our  new Vernon riders  visited the Scotch Creek Practice area on Saturday with Ross doing some tutoring. ( Please note this is a Private location and can only be visited by appointment)
May be an image of 2 people, motorcycle, dirt bike and outdoors

May be an image of 1 person, bicycle and outdoors

May be an image of 1 person, dirt bike, motorcycle and outdoors

Katie also stopped by Scotch Creek on Sunday  to enjoy some practice at the Rathbone Indoor arena, and sent us this nice group shot.

May be an image of 4 people, people standing, bicycle, outdoors and text that says 'AVSR ANSP'

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Another foggy day in the Valley - but I think I might take a drive over to see Roy today on the Westside for a coffee and chat - take him some magazines.

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Sunday January 15th 2023

January 15th, 2023

2023 Dakar Rally final standings top 10

1 047 - K. BENAVIDES (ARG) KTM 44h27m20s
2 008 - T. PRICE (AUS) KTM +00:00:43
3 010 - S. HOWES (USA) HUSQVARNA +00:05:04
4 007 - P. QUINTANILLA (CHL) HONDA +00:19:02
5 042 - A. VAN BEVEREN (FRA) HONDA +00:20:30
6 077 - L. BENAVIDES (ARG) HUSQVARNA +00:22:42
7 018 - D. SANDERS (AUS) GASGAS +00:22:57
8 011 - J. CORNEJO FLORIMO (CHL) HONDA +00:51:21
9 015 - L. SANTOLINO (ESP) SHERCO FACTORY +01:17:53
10 033 - F. CAIMI (ARG) HERO +01:38:04
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This shot that I took out of my office window just showed up on FB -from eleven years ago -  Glad to say we don’t have all that snow today- but still too much for riding.
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Not Trials - but the Italians have always been very good at building Motorcycles - check this out.
May be an image of motorcycle and text that says 'GILERA GILERA ??? MOTORWORLD Gilera Marte Italy, 946'
1946 Gilera Marte (solo) | Italy ??
In 1941 Gilera started the production of a special military motorcycle by military order. The prototype was LTE model with a 499 ccm 10 hp engine. The model called Marte was produced in solo and sidecar versions (the sidecar version appeared in 1942).
Keeping the engine of the LTE motorcycle, the designers raised its compression ratio to 5:1 and increased the power to 14 hp. But, while the engine was similar, the chassis was completely different. The first change was that the redesigned transmission included a crankshaft for the rear wheel instead of a chain drive. The second one is that a spur gear is used to in the the rear axle of the motorcycle to drive the wheel.
Suspension is the same as its predecessor model: a parallelogram front fork combined with Gilera’s patented rear suspension consisted of springs in horizontal boxes to provide better traction for the rear wheel.
A total of about 2,500 Marte solo motorcycles were produced. In 1946 Gilera produced a civilian version of the Marte - 222 machines were produced during the year, and 158 bikes were converted from the military version to civilian.
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Here is a shot of the latest Italian 2023 Beta Trials model line up. No this is not outside my shop ( still a ton of snow out back) - We not received any new Betas yet -

Check this out - Trials doesn’t need to be an indoor circus to attract spectators
May be an image of 2 people, outdoors and text that says 'Drama at Laggan Rocks as Malcolm Rathmell rams heather after running over a blue marker card on the oppo the site side of the section. His bid to claim a baulk failed and the Bultaco ace dropped to tenth before fighting back,'

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Birthday greetings to Roger Boothroyd - who turned 79 yesterday - Roger has been posting the monthly Newsletters for the Victoria Club for a very long time, and they are always an interesting read.

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This is a section used in one of the regular English Trials events - Wow! I remember when we were able to have these types of sections in our Trials back in the day.

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Interesting story behind this old Greeves  as it seems the engine was later the one fitted to the James that Mick Andrews rode and we posted a pic of a few days ago.

Notice the flat style handlebars - which were popular back then - I had similar on my James Cotswold 197.
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Today is the last day of the Dakar - an event that is so huge - but one that gets very little media coverage - Did you know that the former  Ladies World Champion   Laia Sanz is in this one co driving a dune buggy,?

Sorry I don’t know who took this great pic.May be an image of 1 person and outdoors

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And finally - Quiz pic was of Sammy Miller taking a dive at Waterworks corner in the Isle of Man. - He was age 75 at this time - riding for fun, but in his early years Sammy was a top competitor - we saw him racing in the 1957 250 TT, where he was leading going into the last corner at Governors, when his bike seized - he pushed in to finish 7th. - Miller quit road racing to concentrate on Trials when he said - unless you had the top factory bikes you couldn’t win - He went on to win over 1100 Trials, and was responsible for  the light weight Bultaco taking over in 1965, ending the British big 4 stroke era.

We had two  winners - Brett Clark and Pete Varey.
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Saturday January 14th 2023

January 14th, 2023

Well Friday 13th didn’t turn out too bad after all - long time Alberta  buddy Gord picked up his new TRS 300 - his third of this brand. - Glad the driveway  was just wet and not ice like a few days ago. - ( You know this guy can really ride)  - This snow can go anytime.

May be an image of 1 person, motorcycle, bicycle and outdoors

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Quiz for today - who is this rider in trouble at the waterworks hairpin in the Isle of Man?

Ist möglicherweise ein Bild von 1 Person, Motorrad und Straße

Answer to the Friday Quiz - Quite an easy one - Gary Nordstrom of Victoria BC  - and the bike is a Saracen with a Triumph cub engine fitted

Roger Boothroyd was first in with the correct response - as I knew he would be - after all it was Roger who took the pic!! - Brett also got it.
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Somebody asked me the other day, what I thought of the new Electric Trials bikes -  my reply was this -

For me - Motorcycles have always been for the sound - from the old BSA/ Norton etc - to the high revving two strokes of the later years. - Not that  loud bikes eg Harley’s going my place on the Hiway  - are my favorite - but racing engines are for me really something special ( maybe that is why I’m deaf)

I did watch a You tube video on the new Dragonfly e bike - and you  know what ? it did absolutely nothing for me. - We have been approached by several e bike companies to sell their product - but the answer then and still is a very Definite “NO”

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Friday January 13th 2023

January 13th, 2023

This date always has superstitious   people concerned about bad things happening - but as we are not,  we just think of it as just another day as we head into the weekend.

Birthday greetings to John Dearie  who turns 60 today, ( Did you know that John rode the Scottish one year?)
After a couple of very quiet years because of the Pandemic -things have started to open up again, and for this year, we have already been contacted by two new groups, asking for our input at hosting Trials in the OK Valley.  - We can also confirm that our friends up in the Shuswap, will be hosting their two events, and we will continue to support these.  - Things will kick off at the Coast quite early as usual, but we will be sponsoring the April Trial at Ioco as we have for the past few years.

Meanwhile we have heard that the ATRA have plans to host some events  - all good  news and very positive for the sport.

We will post updates on all these when we know more. Watch this space !!
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The answer to yesterday’s quiz was - Turk Perepalkin from Victoria, sitting on his first motorcycle - a 1952 DKW 125 - this was the model that BSA copied when they brought out the BSA Bantam.

Only Roger Boothroyd guessed it was Turk - nobody got the bike.
Below we have another Cannuck with one of his prize possessions - Do you know who it is and what is the bike??
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Check this out - a 10 MILE loop - with Mud !!  I think they will get a good entry for this event - maybe some Cannucks will head South - Sounds like traditional Trials at it’s best.

May be an image of text that says 'BRETISH AMERICAN CUP FEB 18TH/19TH 2023 Lombardi Ranch Brought to yOU by: SACTOPITS ewisportusa offroad alpinestars 0 7ertho GRD Global Racing Oil'

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Back in the day - quite a few top riders bought Rolls Royce cars, as a Status symbol - this is Barry Sheene.  - Barry started his road-racing on a Bultaco, but also dabbled in Trials a bit before that.

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Here is a great pic - Martin Lampkin, giving his young son Dougie a ride.

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DAKAR RESULTS AFTER DAY 12.

Provisional overall standings after stage 12 (top 20):

1 8 - T. PRICE (AUS) KTM 40h47m36s +00:01:00 (1)
2 10 - S. HOWES (USA) HUSQVARNA +00:00:28 +00:01:00 (2)
3 47 - K. BENAVIDES (ARG) KTM +00:02:40 +00:03:00 (3)

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Thursday January 12th 2023

January 12th, 2023

Who is this and what is the bike?  ( Hint rider lives in BC)
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Answer to the Wednesday quiz - Geoff Duke at Ballaugh Bridge in the Isle of Man TT  - Brett Clark was first in with the correct response.  The full front wheel fairings were later banned by the FIM as being unsafe in cross-winds.
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Nice to see Adam Raga take time to put on a Trials school for the kids while he was in Yorkshire for the Indoor event.

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It seems there is a show happening in Calgary  - here is the poster.
May be an image of text that says 'MOVE YOUR SOUL COMMUNITY MOTORCYCLE SHOW FEBRUARY 3RD-5TH FRE, 2-8PM SAT11-GPM, SUN11-4PM VJMC NEW HORIZON MALL NEW HORIZON MALL- PARKADE LEVEL WEST ENTRANCE ACCESS FREE PRESENT AND ATTEND BRING A DONATION TO THE FOOD BANK & WIN A PRIZE SELL YOUR USED MOTORCYCLE FREE INDOOR, HEATED PARKING OVER 60 BOOTHS.... CARTER POWERSPORTS AND CALGARY HARLEY-DAVIDSON TackCarter Powersports CALGARY Fnl Jae HARLEY DAVIDSON ASSO? ASSOCIATION VJMC RIDE, WE COMPI CONTACT: SUPPORT VETERANS FARLEY CAVICSON Vintage Japanese Motorcycle Club COLLE GROUP CALGARY, ALBERTA QUANTZ- AND 403-710-7722'

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Wednesday January 11th 2023

January 11th, 2023

Here is a good shot of what the Dakar Rally is all about !! Riders are now in their second week.
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Quiz for today - Who is the rider and where was this pic taken??

Answer to Tuesday - hidden bike is a Scott Flying Squirrel - three quick correct answers from John Kitchener, Pete Varey and Brett Clark - with quite a few others but not all correct.
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We posted this pic of the new 2023 TRS because it shows the estart - while the younger crowd prefer to still kickstart their bikes, there are a lot of customers who absolutely love the “Magic button”
>>May be an image of dirt bike and motorcycle

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