Answer to the last quiz – rider is of course Yrjo Vesterinen – 3 time World Trials champ – including the one we put on back in 1975 see pic below. He is being congratulated by Gerry Marshal (rip) of the CMA, while yours truly on on the left wearing my white Trials cap.
UPDATE! The future World Champ watching Vesty in the Friday quiz was Jordi Tarres. – Brett says Jordi has that poster on the wall in his shop.
Brett – Harlow and Pete Varey got it as did Stan and Roger Boothroyd ( He took the pic below) Note ! We had a lot of Canadian riders in that first ever Canadian World round.
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Quiz today – Who is this rider push starting a Triumph?
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American Lady rider Louise Forsley has signed to ride Beta in Trials and Enduro for Beta USA.
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You know you have to be doing something right, when you get this many riders entering your Trial!!!! Yes that is the Costa Brava Classic. ( Now comes the Ballot)
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So will you be doing this over the weekend?
or this? – Which ever you do, enjoy it and stay safe.
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I had an old customer of mine stop in yesterday, and as we have not seen each other for a very long time, we had a lot to catch up on, but also, we spent an least an hour talking about the Motorcycle Industry, the current poor situation overall in sales and in particular the effect that the KTM issue has had on the market.
Obviously our conversation involved the downturn in modern bike Trials sales overall ( World wide) and possible solutions. –
Now, having been around for some time, I have quite a few ideas on this subject, in fact I had those back when I joined Yamaha in 1973, and I did mention these thoughts to the Japanese Sales manager.
For people new to Trials – ( and the Japanese were in the early 1970’s ) -This new type of competition being promoted in the USA as “The new Moto X” was totally mis-read , and while first Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki and Kawasaki all jumped into the market – hiring UK riders to promote the bikes, ( Great for UK riders wanting make some money)
As previously posted, I joined Yamaha Canada in late 1973, excited to be getting into the Industry and especially as Yamaha were bringing out a Trials bike with Mick Andrews as their star rider.
However, when our Japanese Sales manager Mike Shibuya asked me how many TY 250’s I thought we could sell in Canada in 1974, I hesitated because I really did not know, but I gave him a guess of 300. – BUT at the same time I told him that likely only about 40% of these bikes would ever be used in competition – the rest would be used as trail bikes – BECAUSE they had a low seat and a torquey engine – easy to ride for the whole family (The 175- and 80 came later) – I should add that this scenario was also the one promoted by Mick Andrews. – A FAMILY SPORT.
Roll on to the Fall of 1974 and Mike asked me the same question “How many for 1975?” – Knowing I had to up the total a bit – (We had sold out of the 73’s) I said 400 -!! This brought a poor response, but Mike said ” No problem with Canada Dave San – but I ask the same question to the US guy, and he says we don’t want any !!! WE STILL HAVE OVER 1,000 in the warehouse.
As many people know – Suzuki and Kawasaki soon left the market and Honda just used the Montesa Factory outlet as an excuse to continue, mainly in order to sell their scooters in Spain.
Turning the page to the modern day – The Japanese are much smarter and only dabble in the Trials market in Japan. ( Except of course with Mr Bou – and THAT is all to promote the Honda name for advertising – I don’t blame them!!
Meanwhile over in Europe small Trials factories continue to survive and compete at the World level. Why? because in Europe as in the UK ( Where trials riding was Born) The Sport of Trials is really popular.
For many Euro Factories, Trials is part of their Culture – yes it tends to be a lot of Hop and Bop – but they also of course have the HUGE classic Trials.
Getting back to my conversation with my buddy – we also chatted about how we need more kids taking up Trials – after all it’s the best ever way to learn riding technique.
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