Evening Trials

2003

	Wednesday 11th June, 2003
	Wednesday 18th June, 2003
	Wednesday 25th June, 2003
	Wednesday 2nd July, 2003

For solo riders from the North Kent Trials Combine Clubs, starting at 6:30pm. The 2001 and 2002 evening trials attracted around 70 riders each week! Sections will be changed each week to provide a variety. Results from each evening trial will be compiled immediately and class winners win trophies.

Round 1

Wednesday 11th June, 2003

Report 1 by Jamie Clarke

The first event was a brilliantly sunny evening. Around 85 competitors took part, including 4 sidecars. The event took place over 12 sections with two routes as well as separate expert sections. I had a go on a Gas Gas that I was very kindly leant by Roger Brown. I have to admit to being very much a "beginner and wobbler" and the help Roger Brown and Dave Plumb gave was greatly appreciated - I even got two cleans! With a BBQ afterwards (bring your own meat) and an excellent chippe near by it was a great day.

Report 2 by Rob Fleet of Motorbiketrials.com

Its that time of year again that makes you wanna rush home from your work on a Wednesday afternoon grab your bike and hot foot it straight down to Canada heights for there most Excellent Evening trials series. Relaxing after a hard days work seems to make these events more enjoyable and the turnout just proves that.The car park was full by 6.30 and people had already started riding the sections at 5.30,the sun was shinning all we needed was a Barby to throw the shrimps on and some 4x..

Eighteen sections were laid out Twelve around the car park for reds and blues,the white route had its own six mad sections using the new Sidcup 30 Rout which was situated at the top of the racetrack.mainly consisting of massive rocks and logs at awkward angles.I did try out a couple but by the time I got to the whites after riding the blues I was pretty knackered.Next week I will be attempting the white route for a laugh so can someone put the Ambulance service on standby.

The reds and blues started on the tricky sandbanks down the bottom. First section was quite awkward for the blues and made me drop marks almost every lap, the only person I see clean it was Gary but then he did lay it out! Section 2 was straight forward easy section but I did see Gary drop a mark on the forth lap..Silly boy. No3 was the log steps which is a great section to ride trying out different gears and seeing if you can keep the front wheel in the air all the way. Sections 4 - 8 were fairly straight forward and section 9 was causing all sorts of problems with Gr trying to climb the tree on his mont on the fourth lap having messed up the first bend, got distracted me thinks! 10 was a little more tricky with narrow trees and roots to get through which I had trouble a couple of times as well as Cliff the great G.L as B.B would call him

When Reg(sidcup member)&Gary laid out the blues on section 11 the last part of the section was a quite tricky drop then up the opposite bank by the last lap it was a main road,I can assure you this will be changed for next Wednesdays trial and since Im not riding the blues next week were gonna make them harder,,,,,your all going to be riding whites with me,,

Very good first night down at the Heights see you there next Wednesday Thanks to the Sidcup for the use of there land and to Dick-Lou-Gary-Reg(reds&blues) &Gr and me(whites) for laying out another great B/heath trial, oops sorry I meant Sidcup, I was joking im gonna get banned at this rate….c ya im out of here before Reg gets here with his digger......

Photos

Page 1 of photos by Rob Fleet (Motorbiketrials.com) of Round 1 are here.

Page 2 of photos by Rob Fleet (Motorbiketrials.com) of Round 1 are here.

There are 113 photos here and here of Round 1 at Braking-zone.com (and someone finally took a photo of me and of course I look a fool).

Round 2

Wednesday 18th June, 2003

Report by Jamie Clarke

Round 2 was a slightly cloudier meeting but it did not stop loads of people turning up with 20 new entrants as well as people from last week. With bikes ranging from 50cc to pre 65 and sidecars it was a great event. The sections were loosened up in places after riders comments from last week. I had a good trail getting all sections done twice and having time to have a further crack at the first 6 sections and I can now clean the first 5 sections. I must again thank Roger Brown for use of the bike and Dave Plumb for the tuition and patience.

Photos

Page 1 of photos by Martin Coulbert of Round 2 are here.

Page 1 of photos by Rob Fleet (Motorbiketrials.com) of Round 2 are here.

Page 2 of photos by Rob Fleet (Motorbiketrials.com) of Round 2 are here.

Round 3

Wednesday 25th June, 2003

Report 1 by Jamie Clarke

In addition to fooling about with solos I brought up my 1952, 500cc "Woods" AMC sidecar. I passengered while my mate Matt Sheppard rode. Lets just say its bloody difficult and very hard work. After that I again borrowed a a bike off Roger Brown (thanks you very much) and rode some sections. During this tour of the sections I noticed the, err, flying experiments as detailed by Rob Fleet below. I then bumped into Dave Plumb who helped me through some more section. I'm getting there, - honest!, but the Hill Climb is still scary (even though I've now cleaned it a few times). anyway thanks to the rest of the Sidcup club (and Bexleyheath) for putting on the trial. Thanks to Roger Brown for the bike and Dave Plumb for the tuition.

Report 2 by Rob Fleet of Motorbiketrials.com

This is the third write-up on Sidcups evening trials series for June 25th 03. I am having to do it again since our other roving reporters are all AWOL. Garys writeup should be along soon for last weeks event and also hoping we got some good pics from garys camera but the developers are letting us down at the moment!

Well last night I seemed to get possessed by a dougie trials demon and tried to do some stupid things on my bike which almost put me in casualty.I did say I would have a go at doing the white route and after riding one lap of the blues for clean i Thought well why not having done the last section I could see the first white route section teasing me in the distance saying come on big boy give me your best shot.Not being the fittest person on the planet I did struggle round the first two sections and then struggled a bit more on section 3.Having managed to drag my bike more like carried my bike over the first few logs i came to this sort of solid 6ft concrete wall which to my amazement had two white cards either side of it at the top,well I should know me and gary laid it out!!!.Having tried to convince myself that I could do the amazing riding up wall trick I bottled it for one more week, Having now promised people I will definitely ride it next week I will be true to my word and have ago I know I can do it easily in my sleep blindfolded and with one arm tied behind my back ''then I woke up''!!!…..joking aside the whites are good practise for any intermediate rider who wants to push themselves that little bit harder with out hurting themselves or there machines so see you all there next Wendesday where I will be taking the pictures of you stacking it big style..

Tonight and last week I have been tagging along with the amazing flying Lee Brocklehurst and Jamie Burroughs who in there spare time I think work for some circus on a trapeze,well that's what It looks like when you see the bloody great holes they've been jumping across NUTTERS!!.They have been winding me up to jump these holes god knows what for and in true crap your pants fashion I have declined.''BUT'' then Lee comes up to me and says''ive found another hole to jump''-great I thought as i scream at him 'im going to get my camera don't move'.Well this jump was the biggest and the hole was the deepest one so far-12ft down and 10ft across and was situated on section 1 if you got it wrong you were definitely going to casualty.Jb had a look and made the sensible decision not to av a go but Lee was halfway across the gap before I could even ask was he doing it,MAD man.. This is where the Dougie demon kicked in,I took one look at lee and handed the camera to Jamie and jumped on my beloved scorpa muttering to my self I can do this I CAN DO THIS.So off I go lining up for takeoff Jamie on the camera,a couple of dummy runs well quite a few latter I hit the other side like a herd full of elephants jumping off a cliff and lay there on the deck laughing through the pain much to the amusement of the crowd that had gathered. No problem I got over and might even have another go next week only if my dougie demon turns up.I felt much better when I see Dean Heathfield Mess it up he jumped the gap then let go of the bike.Then he broke his mudguard on a near vertical 14ft bank he was trying to climb.then bent his bars trying it again. KNOW YOUR LIMITS!!..The Elys had got wind of this impossible bank and soon appeared on the scene revving the nuts off the gas gas in true Ely style and making it over the top,with a few attempts.Don't know what one it was who made it over cant tell em apart all I know ones ok the others gobby and rude. Another great evening down the heights and it will all be ending soon just wish in the summer we could run this event every night the riders would all probably agree as well.The last one is on the 2nd of July and I will see you all then up by the brick wall,and yes I will be doing it.Im now off to the schoolboy national at Cowden run by the KYTC to get some pics and to do a bit of catching for Andy Hoggs boy Mathew,good luck to him on Saturday!!!!.Thanks to all who laid out the heights you know who you are cheers..

Photos

Page 1 of photos by Jamie Clarke (me) of Round 3 are here.

Page 1 of photos by Rob Fleet (Motorbiketrials.com) of Round 3 are here.

Page 2 of photos by Rob Fleet (Motorbiketrials.com) of Round 3 are here.

Round 4

Wednesday 2nd July, 2003

Team Clarke were on holiday so i'll leave it to others to say what went on ............

Report 1 by Cliff Barnett of Motorbiketrials.com

I arrived early at Canada heights to help layout the sections after they had been destroyed by some scum-bags the previous night. The weather was fine when “Bexleyheath” re-laid the sections, but come 6.00pm it was chucking it down. Fortunately for me I had already knackered myself out by 4.00pm and wasn’t bothered when everyone had to run for cover just as the trial commenced.

Today’s trial was a training day for me, I didn’t enter all four rounds because I couldn’t get the time off work and out of ninety odd riders that did enter only a handful of them have been returning their score cards on each event. The intermediate route had maybe two sections that were a challenge but nothing OTT and when “Bexleyheath” had finished laying out the course all four of the MBT team ended up heading towards the expert part of the course. Our destination was named “the wall” and little did I know Gary had already ridden up it at the last evening trial. When we all arrived at the wall Gary and Rob began taunting Ed and me, "both me and Luke have ridden up it said Rob, I’ll do it first said Gary to show you how it’s done", giving the impression it was his first time. His first attempt failed and so did his second, third, I’m starting to get bored Gary, fourth, fifth and finally he made it but I lost count. Ed and myself now had to deal with the two juveniles running around like headless chickens “go on ride it snigger…snigger…laugh, don’t chicken it you big Sheila’s said rob”. After some adult debait by Ed and myself and seeing as Ed hasn’t ridden for sometime we decided I should go next. Third gear was the plan and no clutch, a slow approach and a quick front wheel pick up with a barrel full of revs. My first attempt was nearly there and undeterred I made my second run a little more determined - up went the front wheel smashing into the wall with the back and I was UP!!!! One more attempt to confirm it wasn’t a fluke and UP again I went, we all headed back to the cars for lunch luckily for Rob. Ed made the wise decision not to attempt it which was agreed but what about Rob??? Sometime later it transpired in conversation that Rob had not ridden up the wall after all and with all the crap he gave me and Ed by Christ did he get some verbal abuse. Rob couldn’t not back down he really didn’t want to ride it and I think he expected me to bottle it - you should have seen his face when it was his turn to ride the wall, he looked so frightened and was very close to tears. Approach after approach I lost count the amount of times he ran up to the wall and bottled it – when he finally rode it I give the bloke credit where credit is due “you made it look easy” Two months ago I wouldn’t have attempted this but riding some trials with Rob and Gary has progressed my riding remember the team trial boys, don’t assume you will also beat me.“Who’s the daddy”

Prior to the above my plan of action for the day was to train, and Canada Heights is a great place for this as most of us know there are large areas of sand which is great for falling off and not hurting yourself. So my plan for today was to practise what I would refer to as “pushing the front wheel”. Allow me to explain. Do you find yourself riding sections as the crow fly’s and cutting yourself short when making turns? Are you a novice/average intermediate? Has your bike enabled you to progress? The third question here is very important because if you have no confidence in your bike you will need to sell it. The idea behind “pushing the front wheel” is to run the front wheel wider than you would previously dare so allowing you more manoeuvrability with in the section, it’s all about courage, if your riding a camber you sometimes need to run wide so enabling you to pass t hrough the next gate. Your mass or body weight must not go over the front wheel and I’m making reference to mainly down hill stuff here, try to relax and compose yourself, it works because when you walk a section it always seems ten times worse than when you riding it, you know when looking at a camber what you can do so when you enter the section “DO IT”. Pushing the front wheel has enabled me to progress up the leader board as an intermediate NKTC, if it works for me it should work for you.

A big thank you to the Sidcup Club and all those who helped make this event happen.

Before I forget, Gary is our newest team member and to join MBT there is an initiation test, have look at my initiation picture you’ll need to better me Gary.

Photos

Photos by Cliff Barnett (Motorbiketrials.com) of Round 4 are here.

There are 114 photos here and here of Round 4 at www.braking-zone.com.