Well ! it’s Christmas Eve and the last day for shopping!! – Sorry but if you had planned on doing that at Outlaw – We are closed now over the Holiday!! Ho Ho Ho !!
Of course you can still click on here and try to guess our quiz for today ! Who are all these riders !!! both on the bike and watching??
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Although the very mild weather we are experiencing at the moment is certainly fantastic for late season riding or driving during the Festive Season – We have to hope the big snow thing happens up on the Mountains otherwise 2024 could be another bad year for forest fires.
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While we keep this site mainly posting Trials news – We have always had strong links to other branches of the sport, We saw this post that mentions our old friend Guy Laycraft who was on this winning Team at the Baja. I think Desert Racers are similar to Trials riders in some ways because of their unique love of this rather dangerous game. As I have mentioned before – our good friend Al Perrett (RIP) was always bugging me to go race the Baja – “Dave how old are you? – Al – I’m 6 months older than you – Great we could win the Senior class !! – And that was the end of that conversation. I told him he was nuts.
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With only one week to go before 2024 – We have been thinking back about the 2023 season – not that it was much – because of the Fires – but Ross did host a couple of Trials – plus the Ryon Young School .
Also we saw our new Trials Gal Katie join the other Canadian Team members over in France at the TDN – So a lot of enthusiasm out there, and of course we were able to get one ride in late at Summerland, and a few over at Roy’s place on the Westside.
Looking ahead to next year – We have some new plans for our sport and a return to the OK Valley for events, more on this later, but while this old guy is not able to hike around setting up stuff anymore – I still remember every trail and section that we have used before and can act as “Field Marshal” – Not that we are neglecting Ross for all his efforts – we just feel he needs a break, especially after the big fires.
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On the National scene – Michael Traves is still putting in a lot of effort to get Canadian Trials organized across the Country and while we think that because of the size of the Country and the economy, getting any National Series might be a dream – But remember when we had the WTC we hosted events both East and West – and while our Western riders made the effort to drive all the way to Quebec – nobody came the other way!!! ( as I recall?) – In fact if you look back at the History books it has always been this way – In 1975 when we put on the first ever World Trial in Canada – the #1 Canadian rider from Ontario – did not show up.
Not that I’m casting blame on anybody – it’s just the huge logistics that make things extremely difficult – especially in these tight money times. But good luck to anybody that makes the effort.
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For the past couple of years we have been inundated with requests from Electric bike Companies to act as their dealer – The latest ( after EM) is Mecatechno – and yes we do follow this latest trend but we can honestly say that while these full size E bikes might be good – the pricing is out of this world. – We believe that Trials bikes should always be gas powered and that is our position. EXCEPT for the kids bikes.
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We have heard from Stan who is now on his winter interlude in Mexico – ( he clicks onto the blog every day) Other buddies have joined him – Bruce Baker from Castlegar plus Kiwi Trent Burgess We hope to get some pics over the next couple of months! ( Did you get that Stan????)
Stan was also the first one in with an answer to the Saturday quiz – However it was wrong!!
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And lastly today on the Christmas post – We would like to congratulate Katie Mcg on her 2023 season – As a new gal – she showed dedication and unbelievable fortitude in everything she did.
We take our Outlaw Cap off to this wonderful young lady and wish her well in 2024. and yes she rides an Outlaw Beta. We took this pic of Katie at Ross Rathbone’s Trial – Taff is acting as minder.
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