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A very sad memory today from our home Country – and this happened not too far from where Taff lived.
It was quite normal when we were growing up, to see these huge mounds of black coal waste on top of the hills in Wales, – After all, coal mining was the backbone of the UK economy at that time..
We can well remember the mining tragedies -one disaster at Gresford, not too far from where we lived killed 266 miners .
Of course nobody could have envisioned the terrible tragedy that happened on that fateful day, but with hindsight it could have been prevented. There are no longer any coal “tips” on the hills in the Welsh Valley’s
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Answer to the last quiz – Richard Sunter a good rider from the UK.
Pete Varey and John Kitchener got it.
Quiz today – Who is the Alberta rider? and Where? A nice natural section.
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I was chatting to a friend some time ago, about the changes we have seen during our long involvement with Motorcycles, what new inventions improved things. – For myself, the first thing would likely have been the glued on rubber ball ends to the levers on the handlebars – brought about when someone got speared in a fall.
Next would be the swing arm rear suspension, this came in 1964 -and was fitted to the Royal Enfield Trials bikes. – And also the James models made at the same factory. ( Our first bike was a James Captain)
The next big update in suspensions, was when Yamaha installed the Monoshock rear , that had been designed by Tilkins of Holland. -Everybody jumped on the single shock idea.-But nothing (IMHO) ever equaled that Yamaha design. Remember when Mick Andrews was on that Prototype TY Monoshock? – That bike was brilliant, except the long shock did not work that well, and was a bit heavy being mounted high under the tank. – Plus the Japanese did not want to show the world trials factories just how good it was, before introducing their new TY Mono. – Mick of course won the Scottish on that bike, and would have loved to have kept riding it because it was more competitive than the twin shock. ( Mick told me all this later)
The new soft Michelin tires and disc brakes made the bikes fantastic, for grip and braking, – Next up came Hydraulic clutches, and liquid cooling., but perhaps the latest installation of estarts to the Trials bikes, has been the best thing ever, especially for older riders.
Many of our readers, will of course remember these changes, and can relate to just how great the new bikes are. The younger riders, really have no idea, unless they jump on a stock vintage twin shock fitted with Dunlop 4 ply rubber.
An interesting memory for me from my Yamaha days, was when chatting to a Factory Sales Manager, one time in Vancouver, I mentioned some of the things that I thought should be on certain models ( quite a few) – What he said was this “But if we do all that you ask for next year – what happen for following year?”
As some of you might know the big Japanese factories plan production four years ahead.
Obviously this slow to react approach, can be very frustrating in the competition World, remember that when Honda hired Sammy Miller to develop their Trials bike – He went to Japan to test the first Pre-production 250, and after riding it for ten minutes (maybe less) he told the Japanese staff – the steering head was at the wrong angle and needed to be changed – They told Sammy to come back in three months!!! – Now Sammy as we all know was a very skilled engineer and would have none of that – he got the test bike into the workshop hacked the frame and rewelded to the angle he knew worked, ( From working at Ariel) and bingo – the TL 250 went ahead to production. – However, although Sammy ran a very successful Honda Trials team in the UK, utilising the long stroke engine which he preferred. – Honda did not like being told how to design anything and fired him. – All this story is in Sammy’s Book on Honda – You might be able to see it if you catch up with Pete Bustin,- because he has my copy!!!
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