Answer to the last quiz – the guy pictured with Mick Andrews is Helmut Classen – the accomplished ISDE rider, and original Importer for KTM Canada – Also the first big promoter of Optimol Lubricants. in Eastern Canada. ( Yes Helmut is still going strong at age 89 and still waving the Opti flag!!)
Correct answers came in from Brett Clark and Harlow Rankin. – later Pete Varey also got it right.
Quiz today – Who is the rider and what is the bike?
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The Trial Cahors went this past weekend in France, and as expected it was a win for that man Toni Bou – another incredible performance by the master of trick riding. With the 2024 FIM Championship now decided in most classes – Toni can now display the #18 on his helmet.
Meanwhile young George Hemingway took the Trial 3 World Championship on his Beta – without any big dollar backing and certainly at age 16 he has already proved himself a Champion along with his elder brother Harry. – In fact the British lads have done brilliantly doing this expensive series with only the family support. plus help from John Lampkin and the Beta Factory supplied bikes.
The same can be said for the Peace brothers, Billy green, Toby Martyn etc. – and lets not forget the ladies – Emma Bristow has said this is her last year at World level competition but there are a bunch of gals now making a big impact on the sport on very small budgets.
Only time will tell if this will continue with travel budgets stretched to the limit.
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The bottom line is there is little money in Trials, and that is why so many top riders have elected to leave the sport for the more lucrative hard enduro series. It is said that the only rider making any money is Toni who has a very large dollar contract with Honda. ( It has been reported that Toni rides a very special light bike worth about a million dollars)
At the local club level, we have seen numbers steady, but no big increase at the entry level, that is why it’s good to see some clubs hosting kids trials, but this all costs money and we are living in tight times.
The only events that have shown a “Huge” increase in rider entries, are the vintage Trials, the Costa Brava etc with over 700 would be riders, that enter, and then have to wait for a ballot to trim the number to 400. – Now lets be honest, the riders on these vintage bikes, are themselves mostly vintage – they are middle aged with money to spend “Tricking” up the old bikes. – Plus !! the sections are reasonable in degree of difficulty, so the chance of injury is small, but the reward for a weekend of fun with fellow enthusiasts is huge.
However we should also mention ( I know you have heard this before) entries for the Scottish Six Day Trial are still staggering with the entry again needing a ballot to trim the entry to 380 the most that can be handled during daylight hours over the 100 mile plus course for every day, during the first week in May. – Remember, these are all “Old fashioned” style sections – no crazy stuff.
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Meanwhile “Down East” the Ontario club seems to be going strong with their vintage events – here is a nice pic of Dave Butler’s Greeves which he rode in last week’s enduro.
The pic below is from a recent Ontario Trial.
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