Innholdsfortegnelse for Issue 70 Spring 2024 i Classic Dirt Bike

IN BALANCE It’s not long into any conversation before phrases such as “remember when” crop up. This is a truism not restricted to motorcycling circles but as this is a motorcycle magazine it’s where the gist of a conversation I was involved in went. Soon, lines like: “Remember when it rained so hard the whole of the valley was flooded and the start had to be moved?” cropped up. We in the group nodded sagely, remembering when other events were modified to deal with adverse weather. The thing was none of us could really remember many events being cancelled because of the terrible conditions. Bizarrely for us in the UK it was several weeks of unbroken good weather which caused the most problems as we remembered when the terrain was…

A slight inaccuracy crept into CDB’s In Balance editorial column in the last issue where there was mention of a roadside survey by the DVLA – the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency. The press office of the DVLA communications team would like to make it clear the DVLA doesn’t have the powers to stop anyone in moving traffic. Its media relations officer suggested the survey was more likely to have been conducted by the DVSA – the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency – which does have roadside checks as part of its remit.…

Message from the Pre65 Scottish Trial is ‘don’t panic’ as there’s been a delay in receiving the cost for the supplementary road traffic insurance from the insurance company. The knock-on effect is the club hasn’t been able to send out the confirmation emails to successful entrants but is aware that everyone is keen to know their number. The secretary has received emails and messages from some who are concerned that they have not received notification when payment for their entry needs to be made. Hopefully things will be back on track very soon so in the meantime, keep an eye on your email inbox and spam folder and the club will put up a post on Facebook and website to alert you when the emails have been sent out.…

Galloway MCC’s Off-Road Festival heads to the club’s track at Cumstone Farm, Lockerbie near Dumfries on May 17-19. This flagship event will incorporate two full days of classic/twinshock motocross and trials as well as the traditional Friday evening grasstrack. Laid out will be a proper, fast, flowing scrambles track just like they were back in the Sixties and Seventies where not only will the Scottish Grand National on Sunday take place but a special Battle of Britain with the fastest 10 riders from Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland taking to the track on Saturday. This event, in partnership with Westmorland Motor Club and Yorkshire Classic Club, will also include a round of the Northern Classic & Twinshock Championship 2024. The Trials team will set out some varied and challenging…

This year will see G2F Media strengthen its relationship with Belstaff, having recently been appointed as the brand’s Moto consultancy agency. Famed for its wax cotton jackets manufactured in Stoke-on-Trent back in the early days, Belstaff’s products are well known to G2F Media’s founder Jake Miller: his dad sold the classic Trialmaster jackets through his Essex motorcycle store back in the Seventies and Eighties. G2F Media’s long-serving client Dougie Lampkin became a Belstaff Moto Ambassador in 2016 which led to the north Manchester-based agency to start working on behalf of the brand on selected projects. G2F Media is hugely proud to have played its part in Belstaff’s Trialmaster 75-year celebrations at the Scottish Six Days Trial and Goodwood Festival of Speed. The latter of these events brought together 75 motorcyclists…

1. Light bulb moment Seventies trail bikes are really popular these days; light, uncomplicated and easy to ride as they don’t need a stepladder to get on them. Problem is, they mostly came with 6v lights which just don’t cut it in the current climate. Westcountry Windings has developed a 12v conversion for the lighting circuit which doesn’t affect the ignition side of the stator and will light the road ahead of you. The conversion is for both battery and non-battery systems and only requires the minimum of parts changing – bulbs, regulator, battery if fitted – everything else is compatible. Turnaround is relatively quick but depends on the level of work going on at the time. The basics: What is it?: It’s an upgrade for your stator to go…

WES Silencers celebrates 50 years in business this year and to celebrate this golden anniversary new silencers will be marked with an original logo used in the Seventies when the company was formed. Though now based in Spain and part of José Franqueira’s ARS Trials Parts company, WES was formed in 1973 by Birmingham-based Dick Walker. A move to Brecon in Wales followed in the mid-Eighties where production remained until Dick’s retirement in 2011. ARS Trial Parts took on WES – it was the Spanish importer from the beginning of the Nineties. Dick continued with the new company as design and quality adviser with the title honorary president and based in El Escorial near Madrid, until his demise in 2022. While the WES catalogue runs to silencers for 30 different…

Guest of honour for the Moidart Run on May 2 is announced as Jonathan Tye. The younger of two motorcycling brothers from Derbyshire, Jon will tell you he was always envious of elder brother David’s motorcycling success, yet David was known to be equally envious of Jon’s RAF flying career. In truth both brothers made their mark in off-road motorcycling with trials, scrambles and ISDT successes coming their way. David was one of BSA’s factory team riders while Jon rode for Francis Barnett. Jon, genuinely pleased to be asked along to the Moidart as guest, accepted in memory of David who he describes as not just his brother but his best friend too. Jon will flag off riders from the Moidart start just outside of Kinlochleven before riding in the…

Fans of BSA’s Victor GP will know of the GP Victor website dedicated to this fabulous MX machine. The site was started by Mike Wadsworth and has been keeping the GP legend going for a lot of years. If you’ve visited the site recently then you’ll also know Mike died after a long illness but not before making sure the website would be in a safe pair of hands. Those hands belong to Peter Quick, who runs a business dealing with BSA’s unit singles www.bsaunitsingles.com so the GP Victor site fits in well with him. The site address remains www.gpvictor.com and the aim is to keep the GP Victor out there.…

Geoff Shuttleworth has been busy again and produced a follow-up to his book The New Dawn which chronicled the rise of MX over scrambling in the Seventies. The lad’s new book is called Changing of the Guard and it is likely to be a right royal read. It covers in depth the British MX championship from 1983 to 1989 and at 140 pages is a third bigger than its predecessor. Within the pages will be the British Open Championship, British 125 and 250 Championships and all the British and Irish GPs from the period, which include Farleigh, Hawkstone, Frome and Killinchy. Plus Dave Thorpe’s three world titles, the Haynes Four Stroke Championship positions, British Sidecar Championship positions and AMCA Champions. He’s found space to squeeze in lots of rider profiles…

Traditionally the 90th anniversary of anything is represented by stone, perhaps for longevity and suggests a certain slowing down – though not in Sammy Miller’s case. Having just turned 90 the lad shows no signs of changing his hectic life… “90? Just a number, there, boy!” he laughs. There was a huge gathering last November at The Sammy Miller Museum, Bashley Manor, Hampshire to celebrate his reaching nonagenarian status where he rode into the party on the museum’s four-cylinder Gilera. Assembled were family from Ulster and his friends – many of them legends in motorcycling in their own right – and included Gordon Blakeway and Ron Langston who, with Sammy, made up the Ariel Dream Team of the Fifties. Not content with being the most successful trials rider ever, Miller…

Back for 2024 is the Twinshock Sidecar Charity Series which was launched to great success in 2023. Organised by three enthusiastic passengers, two of whom suffer with colitis, they were keen to provide a new style series for the pre84 twinshock sidecar crews to compete in. The idea was to create a prize fund from the crews’ £20 joining fee, each team choosing a charity to support and race for. The winning teams donated their prize money to their chosen charity. Sponsorship was also generously donated by Snows Commercials, friends and family. In 2023 the series was supposed to be five rounds but only had four as the fifth was cancelled. In 2024 there will be six rounds. Chosen charities included Space4Autism, Dementia UK, Macmillan Cancer, Children’s Hospital Southwest, Crohns…

JOHN DICKINSON No doubt you have all heard that the FIM, in its infinite wisdom (other views are available), after 10 years of pretending to implement no-stop rules in world championship trials – or TrialGP as it prefers – has switched to what appears to be an ‘anything goes’ observing format. Stop, foot down, reverse, chat with your minder, do a backflip, have a brew, etc, etc, safe in the knowledge that nothing short of a life threatening, bike smashing, totalising crash will incur a five-mark penalty. Anyone here actually give a monkey’s? Thought not. But it has of course given rise to a return of hotly contested (online) debates of the ‘stop’ versus ‘no stop’ variety to which, while being entertaining to follow, there is actually no answer! The…