Mick Andrews TY250 frame kits

[Joe Henderson]

Dear all

When I first started trials on the Isle of Wight in 1971/2 I had saved up for the best bike I could buy (following Sammy Miller's advice in "Sammy Miller On Trials" - my copy was signed and well thumbed by the time I lent it to a mate and lost it forever) This was a 1969 250 Sherpa T.

I could have bought any bike I wanted to and turned up with the thing fitted with trials tyres, MOT certificate, tax disc and child's bike bulb horn and I would have been waved through and allowed to ride the trial. We were men in those days and trials included as standard about 30 to 40 road miles as a matter of course. (no pun intended).

I could have used a "Hog Snort Horror 500 of the type that takes seventeen stone Cyril from the workshops half an hour to start" (copyright "Bike" magazine circa 1972) or a diamond-studded Slimline-framed Sammy Miller Replica Bultaco 325, and it would not have stopped Nigel Crouch beating me soundly on his cracked-tank, sewage-dripping, never-washed, blue-and-white-tanked, Apple Records-stickered 250 Bultaco, or indeed my being humbled by Alan Stay "Mad-Dog" stay running over me while cleaning his fortieth section in a row and beating me on his Bultaco M10 foul-pig-of-a-thing with it's threepenny-bit wheels, thirty quid price tag and a bent frame

The point I am trying to make is that, prior to the discovery of well paid superstar riders and before the "we can not possibly let a young lad like that loose on anything above 125 cc until he has grown some chest hair" nanny-state type of regulation was unearthed, trials bike eligibility had never been divided by capacity; make; country of origin; cost; or indeed the age, ability or wealth of the rider. Turn up on whatever you like, good or bad, and more strength to your arm, Sammy Miller et-al were still going to beat you.

The pre-65 movement was started by a load of blokes who were disgruntled by Sammy Miller going over to Bultaco, while at the same time struggling with the concept (which ahd been widely accepted since Olympia 1956) of rear suspension on ANY motorcycle, and should be treated as a special case, rather like a lot of the original riders.

I am not so much of a Luddite to not realise things in the modern world have changed, but can we not let the genius, bouncy, pajama clad, poetry-in-motion artists get on with their own, beautiful, game, while we look on in wonder and then get back to riding whatever we want through whatever sections we want with the awards going to the better riders amongst us, while still allowing the rest of us to spend as much, or as little on our bikes, as we can afford, and make up for our massive lack of talent with tall stories, piss-taking in the sections and general joshing and camaraderie in place of the sour looks and po-faced whispering behind peoples backs that are the result of too much regulation and compartmentalisation.

On a different note, when did it become normal to use the term "Racing" in connection with trials. As per Sherco Racing, Jitse Racing etc?

I suppose it is all part of the general Jazzing-up of everything nowadays. Next it will be "Extreme Trial-Racing Moto Trials. Not, I note, Observed Trials!

Hopping to another twig ( I wish!) I have just come back from the rained-off Bucca round of the NSW championships.

Bugger!

All the best,

Joe.

[Reinald]

Well said Joe and what a great writing style. Hog snort 500? that's gold.