Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 58 Spring 2021 i Classic Dirt Bike

❝ To have become legendary as only dabbing once in the six day event, Jackson must, by default, have cleaned every other observed section ❞ Birthdays and anniversaries, Christmas and new year are all occasions which we love to celebrate, in normal times with our friends and family – then there are other occasions, those smaller events which also require a celebration. While national successes will make the headlines of the national press there are occasions which are momentous in a particular field and once they have happened are talked about and discussed for years, especially if there is documented evidence. Documenting momentous occasions has been the job of photography since the art form was invented and once discovered it added accuracy to descriptions of events as well as providing…

One of the ‘must do’ events in the classic trials calendar is Inverness and DMCC’s Highland Classic Two-Day on the Alvie estate near Aviemore. This all off-road event boasts all the traditional trials terrain a rider could want and then some, and with a great run across the fells it's not a pocket handkerchief course either. In common with most organisers, the club's keeping a close eye on the regulations for social distancing which are in force to combat this pandemic. So, the current situation with the trial is it’s looking possible for it to go ahead, however things change on an almost daily basis so no final decision is being taken just yet. The committee will meet, online, in February for an update session, with a decision on the…

Just announced is the change of ownership on the Trialsart tank shelters used on Honda RTL and TLR models. They now join the Rockshocks fold though Gary Fleckney tells us the Trialsart business will run separately but alongside the Rockshocks business. The tank shelters provide superb styling to cover the aluminium petrol tanks on these iconic Honda models and allow a slightly more comfortable seat to be fitted too. So, if your TLR is looking tired or your RTL is losing its shine, contact Gary on 01234 741800 or email info@ rockshocks.co.uk there will be a website for Trialsart but at the time of going to press this was not finalised.…

This whole pre-65 thing is an interesting concept, it doesn’t matter if we’re looking at the scrambles or MX scene, or vintage enduro or, as with this feature, the feet-up game. To those of us within the scene there are a multitude of classes which we instinctively categorise. To us the distinctions are clear and obvious, yet others who only touch on the old bike thing will categorise almost any British powered machine as ‘pre-65’ regardless of when it was made. I don’t propose to delve into the subject of pre-65 as opposed to twinshock or classic for that matter, as if this pandemic carries on I may need to visit it in future issues. So, for this feature it will be the actuality of pre-65 being discussed. The pre-65…

In the picturesque New Forest area of Hampshire, Belfast man Sammy Miller has made his home and as well as his business activities it is also the home of his collection of classic motorcycles. Naturally the trials world features highly but not exclusively in the halls as there are road racing, scrambling and ISDT machinery too, plus some really tasty vintage and veteran road bikes as well. There is an excellent website www.sammymiller.co.ukwith opening times detailed – there are both summer and winter opening times. The museum address is Sammy Miller Museum, Bashley Cross Roads, New Milton, Hampshire, BH25 5SZ and its telephone number is 01425 620777…

Relying on something technically obsolete to showcase a company clinging onto its existence on the international stage doesn’t sound like a recipe for success does it? Yet for the 1973 ISDT, Triumph did just such a thing and it very nearly worked for them as they placed the highest in the event they had for many years. Sadly for Triumph it wasn’t enough and almost as the British and American teams rode into the finish, the news came that the British industry had collapsed. The bikes were impounded and the legal wrangling began. What is unclear is just how this bike, ridden by Malcolm Rathmell in the event, made it back to the UK. Malcolm himself was on the way to the airport barely half an hour after finishing the…

We all know what happened in 2020 as far as off-road sport was concerned – virtually nothing, writes Dave Gittins. Although one or two clubs managed a couple of practise meetings with no spectators and the Llanthony and Bath clubs pooled their resources and combined to stage a very successful meeting at the end of the season, as did Westmorland, the usual atmosphere was missing and I suffered withdrawal symptoms big time! Anyway, on the assumption that 2021 will be a big improvement I have arranged a championship programme of six meetings; and since 2020 would have been the 25th anniversary of the series we can mark that occasion with a few surprises. The rules etc of the championship have not been changed for 2021. The usual classes of Pre-65,…

Red Marley hill climb was a feature of Easter Monday Midlands motorcycle action from the 1920s when the Worcestershire village of Great Witley reverberated to the sound of motorcycles attempting to be fastest up a quarter mile hill. A simple knockout contest – first across the finish line went through to the next round – served the event well until its final running in 1970 as a modern event. So popular was the hill climb there were buses laid on to take the public to the village and to say you’d done well at Red Marley was a note-worthy thing. Given its location close to the British motorcycle industry there was a major factory presence there with lots of star riders entering. Sadly interest waned and entries were returned for…

There were enduros in the UK before the Eighties, just not so many of them, then all of a sudden they were everywhere. On the face of it, a sport with long courses, without the intensity of scrambles or the technicality of trials but all of the good bits of each, has to be a winner. So it proved, and when the classic scene started gaining pace then people wanted to ride the Seventies and Eighties bikes which we used to see in the press when those journalists of the day were whisked off to far-flung lands to ride and write about whatever was on offer. As ever with this type of sport, more depends on who’s riding than what’s being ridden, and as long as it meets the entry…

In 1960 Gordon Jackson was certainly one of the top trials riders in the sport, his factory AJS registered VYW 659 was a superb machine and this was to be his third win of the SSDT – so far so good Creeping up the 1960 leaderboard as the week wore on, Gordon had shared the lead with fellow AJS team member Gordon McLaughlan after Wednesday, when the pair finished on 10. On Thursday Gordon McLaughlan added eight marks to his score while Jackson made do with five extra points which put him up to the top of the pile, one mark ahead of John Draper who’d had two clean days. Gordon Jackson added another mark to his score on Friday to finish the week on 16 as, in those days…

The Hagon Shocks supported Classic Dirt Bike Show is as much at the mercy of this global pandemic and official attempts to deal with the virus as everyone else is. So, for 2021 only, the best classic off-road show in the world will decamp from Telford’s International Centre to Staffordshire County Showground on September 18/19. Long regarded as the season opener for our scene, the Hagon Shocks backed Classic Dirt Bike Show’s traditional date has been hit by social distancing regulations for 2021 but will return to its traditional February date and Telford venue for 2022. Though regulations change on an almost daily basis, signs are vaccinations will have advanced to a wider age group and there should be light at the end of the tunnel. With a one-year date…

As you will see elsewhere in this issue, the popular MX championship run by Dave Gittins through the AMCA, hopes to run a programme of events in 2021. There’s more in the feature on p60 and naturally all things depend on Government pandemic restrictions, but here’s a taster of the events list: As things stand for 2021, championship meetings include: April 25: Bath Classic May 23: Westmorland MCC June 13: Acorns MCC July 11: Mortimer Classic August 29: Moseley September 26: Llanthony Classic…

At the Ventoux Trial Classic last October, the WTB (Works Trials Bikes owners' group, recently formed to preserve historical trials motorcycles), was displaying for the first time four exceptional machines, some of them previously hidden from public view for decades: ■ Don Smith's personal Bultaco Sherpa Type 27, which the multiple European Champion rode to victory in the famous St-Cucufa trial in 1967 ■ The Yamaha 360 prototype, built by five-time French Trials Champion Christian Rayer in 1971/72 with help from the factory that led Yamaha to eventually produce its famous TY model ■ The Yamaha 250 OW10 cantilever, as ridden in 1974 by Mick Andrews to win the Scottish Six Days and the French world round in Sancerre, before being ridden to second spot in the 1975 French championship…

In classic sport, choosing what to ride is often less about what’s winning and more about what you fancy riding. There will be those who need to win and therefore will carefully pick out a particular machine because it already has the attributes needed for success or it can be relatively easily brought up to spec. Most factory ‘secrets’ are generally well known since the factories which needed to keep these secrets, so their works teams would have a slight advantage, are long gone. With this information out there machines used in pre-65 trials are probably of a higher spec than their actual base models sold to the public in the day. General improvements in accessories and components have had an effect on the way old motorcycles work too, not…

With events having been cancelled or postponed it’s provided plenty of time to sort out those jobs which have built up. It even got to the stage where attention could be paid to our IT465 Yamaha – but before we revisit this awesome machine it is sensible to follow on from last time and say things are looking good for a change. Now, there are never enough hours in the day to enable you to spend all the time you’d like in the workshop, as in common with most people my time is divided. Just because my job entails writing about old and off-road motorcycles doesn’t mean I have copious amounts of time to spend fettling old bikes as a living has to be earned, domestic harmony maintained and so…

For many enthusiasts, 2020 has been a write-off as far as events go, however the all-too-brief windows of sporting opportunity have allowed some action to happen. While those events which did go ahead had to adjust and run in a much reduced format, it didn’t affect the quality of the action. Take Westmorland MCC for instance, when the first lockdown ended and governing bodies laid out rules for events to happen, Westmorland stepped up to the mark and put on a scramble at their land on the Westmorland County Showground. Then we all went back in to lockdown or at least restrictions, but even here there was some leeway and once again CDB was invited along to Westmorland County Showground for a traditional scramble. Obviously with social distancing being enforced…

It was almost duty bound to happen, once there was a classic sporting scene, along came a show to cater for it. There’d been a few attempts to build things up and all of the classic shows such as the Classic Motorcycle Show and the Classic Motorcycle Mechanics Show at Stafford all had an off-road element, but things took a turn for the better when Alan Wright put on a one-day show to test the water. All of a sudden the classic dirt bike scene was official, it had a show. With anything off-road and covering all the various classes and eras which make up the classic scene welcome, there is plenty of scope for all sorts of interests. As well as the trials, scrambles and enduro scenes there was…

Raking through the archive at Mortons for background on Maico for this feature brought to light some interesting revelations which maybe some people will know and maybe others won’t. In the mid-Fifties for instance the FIM proposed a championship for 250cc MX machines, by all accounts it was not over-enthusiastically received and sort of fizzled into life for 1957 when seven-race series took place with rounds in France, East Germany, Belgium, Holland, Austria, Italy and Luxembourg. No one in officialdom referred to it as a championship, there was no official crown, yet this didn’t stop Maico from claiming their rider Fritz Betzelbacher as European champion in their publicity material. He was backed up by Willy Oesterle and the two riders effectively topped the series, as far as Maico were concerned…

Almost since its launch the popular National Twinshock Championship trials series has been supported by Kia Motors, thanks to the efforts of Kia dealer David Dench. The relationship has worked well, however Kia’s focus has moved to electric vehicles and the trials series no longer fits their plans. The series organisers would like to thank David Dench and Kia Motors for their great support and generosity over the last six years. Initially for twinshock and air-cooled mono machines, the scene has changed considerably over the years and being described as a Twinshock Championship does not now accurately reflect the series. So, to herald the announcement of a new sponsor there is also a name change, the series will be known as The Rockshocks Classic Trials Championship. Rockshocks have a good…

The following press release from Edinburgh DMC about the SSDT and Pre-65 Scottish Trial is reproduced here in full: "Due to the current coronavirus restrictions still being in place, the Edinburgh & District Motor Club Board of Directors has taken the decision to cancel both the Pre-65 Scottish and the Scottish Six Days Trials for 2021. "This decision was not taken lightly with committee members from both events wanting them to take place but, the sensible and responsible thing to do was cancel. Not only did we need to consider all the riders, officials and followers that enjoy both these events and the amount of preparatory work that goes into making them possible, but we also had to take into account the risk to the local community by bringing large…

In the world of competition motorcycles success is never guaranteed, it can’t be, there are too many variables. On a MX GP startline there isn’t a rider who doesn’t think they can win – the simple fact they’re on the startline means they are focussed on the chequered flag and passing it before everyone else. Of course there are many factors which can affect the final outcome of a race and often the work of a team is to limit the things which can go wrong in the cut and thrust world of a top-line scramble. It helps if the motorcycle is right but what is ‘right’? When Sten Lundin won the 500cc world MX crown in 1959, aboard a Monark, it certainly seemed the right rider was on the…

Ian Cheetham and I have known each other a long time, we’ve been in the same trials club since the Seventies when we rode modern trials and now seem to have gravitated to the pre-65 and twinshock thing together too. This pandemic has caused all sorts of plans to be remade and in an attempt to provide a feature editors cast about for what is close to home. Now, unlike me who wanted the healthy, outdoor life and went into the building trade after school, Ian went to serve an apprenticeship in engineering at the steelworks, which is the only reason for our home town to exist. “My apprenticeship at BSC Consett was brilliant, can’t fault it,” says the 58-year-old retired automotive development engineer, ”they even found me the job…

What caused the downfall of the Spanish industry isn’t within the scope of this short piece, suffice to say the once proud industry had gone the way of the British manufacturers 20 years earlier. Trials as a sport was, if anything, more popular than ever but changing dramatically. As events became shorter and more technical, a new style of riding was needed and, to match this, a new style of motorcycle was also needed. Unfortunately the major manufacturers were not so keen on being involved in a sport which measured sales in ‘tens’ rather than ‘thousands’ and either wanted to produce a bike which had multiple use or have a super trick one-off for a top rider to win world championships. This did leave room for enterprising smaller manufacturers to…

There is no doubt the classic world has seen an explosion of interest since those far off days when a few oddball enthusiasts started celebrating their love for old motorcycles and the sports they competed in, by hosting dedicated, or adding a classic element to existing, events. We were indulged, it would never catch on we were told, it’s never going to be more than a minor interest… Yeah, okay... Trials, scrambles, enduros all now have thriving classic or vintage scenes, some events have the classic element as part of what’s going on… even the ISDT – or ISDE if you’re a modernist – now has a classic section. In some cases the classic or historic element has taken on a life of its own to the extent it arguably…