Monday November 3rd/25

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We hope that some of our bloggers were able to take advantage of the nice weather yesterday and get out for a ride – I was only able to do a few laps around the back yard on my TRS 125 !!

Answer to the last quiz – Manuel Soler a regular on the World Trials scene back in the day – Harlow was quick in, just beating Brett to the keyboard this time.

Quiz today – Who can name the three people in this pic?? ( Another great shot by Deryk Wylde)

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Here is another Harlow Rankin photo of Manuel Soler – this time at the 1975 FIM Trial that we put on at Bragg Creek Alberta.- On the left is – Ron Mallett who was the one with the bright idea that I should set up the course for this!! also in the pic, is a young Stan Bakgaard-. ( I did not see one rider ride any of the 40 sections as I was out front checking to make sure the ribbons and checkers were in place)

I remember this section, because it was one I got talked into changing to make more difficult!!! – I think the best score was a three!! It was also the last time I took notice of anybody else when setting up a Trial!!! – I always found it best to just have one other helper when plotting a section. ( just to hang the ribbon)

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It is now 50 years, since we plotted that first ever World Trial in Canada, an idea as mentioned by former Calgary Cub President Ron Mallett (rip) who was also the CMA rep for Alberta. — As I recall, I didn’t consider this to be too much of an issue, after all, I had ridden lots of Trials in the UK, and also organized Trials in the Calgary area for a number of years, so I knew the terrain West of the City quite well.

I had also formed a good relationship, with the Alberta Forestry people, who had a head office in Bowness, and a local ranger, who lived just a couple of blocks from me in Calgary.

The other big development, was that I now worked for Yamaha Canada, and could pull a few strings for bikes etc. ( one for Joe the Ranger)

Although I can’t recall how many hours or days I spent out in the bush searching out the loop for the event – I can tell you it was considerable, and because of my job with Yamaha, I was away travelling every week. – This meant that sometimes I was out by myself exploring on my odd days off, ( something I would never do now) – I knew of course what I wanted – a long loop,(69 MILES) just like in the UK – as I was sure the Europeans would appreciate that.

I also knew that we needed a gas stop, ( which involved a river crossing) and a plan for 40 sections – plus of course observers to man them all and transport to get to these often obscure spots in the Forestry Reserve.

How we managed to put this all together, is a miracle, and obviously entailed a ton of work and meetings with Ron who handled all the paperwork. – We were lucky to have good old Walt Healy on board who had become my good friend and sponsorship from Yamaha Canada.

The one thing we could not control was the unpredictable Alberta weather, which while great prior to the event, turned ugly last minute, which had myself riding out front of the riders on the loop, checking everything and easing up on some sections.

As mentioned – this was the first year of the FIM World Trials Championship, prior to that it was called the European Championship, it was also the first year that safety helmets became mandatory for Trials.

The bike I used to do all the set up, was a Yamaha Canada TY 175, fitted with a larger gas tank, and of course at this time Yamaha were very much involved with the trials scene, with Mick A.ndrews.

I remember that when Mick came out the previous year to do a Yamaha Promotion, I took him out to practice some of our sections, which of course he made look very easy, so I was not concerned about the degree of difficulty that I had set for this ground breaking World Trial – but as results showed, Mick struggled that day and it was Yrjo Vesterinen who won, losing 41 points on the 40 sections. – – ( Yrjo contacted me a few years ago to say how much he enjoyed that experience of riding in Canada.) – We had I think 28 Canadian riders, something you would not see these days.

We have a DVD video of the event, taken by John Whitby – no sound, but at least it shows some historic footage of how this all started all those years ago. Also Harlow Rankin has a stack of great pics he took at the trial.