As with last year, the online entry system is available for this event and can be accessed here www.lncmc.co.uk/online-entry/.
This single venue classic trial for both motorcycles and cars is held in Lew & Eastcott Woods, Near Lewdown (approx. 10 miles from Launceston), and will take place on Sunday the 26th of March.
Spring will soon be here, the evenings are already lengthening, thank goodness, bulbs are coming up in the garden, but don’t leave the winter woollies in the drawer just yet, February and March can be very chilly.
Early January saw Richard Simpson and myself beetling off (no not actually in a Beetle) at around 5.00am to sign on for marshalling at Fingle Bridge for the MCCExeter Trial, the rain was almost impressive which was a good reason to leave the Dellow at home and use the modern.
A peculiar sight to behold at Fingle, lots of bods mingling around in the dark with torches trying to keep dry whilst we are waiting to be assigned our duties, I ended up on traffic control whilst Richard was getting people to form an orderly queue for the hill, this suited both of us as it gives you a chance to talk to competitors and spectators. There was extra entertainment at daybreak , basically watching the river level slowly rise and hoping it wouldn’t breach its banks and flood the pub. We heard that Tillerton Steep had already been cancelled due to a deep flood at the foot of the section, apparently the MCC had failed to provide the marshals with snorkels.
Several of our club members appeared through the half light, Simon Oates and Simon Riddle, cheery as ever, probably because they had the hood up and were mostly dry, on their way to a Gold and a Triple. Ray Goodright also on his way to a Tin award had moved from class R to class O in the very well turned out Arkley Midget with paintwork gleaming. I had to admire the attitude of the bikers who had ridden through some pretty awful weather during the night but on arrival at section were still cheery despite a few of them having trouble with water in the electrics, apparently it’s not considered a good mix. As can be seen from the accompanying photos there was the usual eclectic mix of cars, I think Richard had intended to take some pictures of the bikes but in the dark and during the deluge photography tends to take a bit of a back seat.
Above – This one driven by Liam James was one of two Dellows out, although Mike Leete claimed to be in a MK7 Dellow but I reckon it looked more like a beetle.
Below – Messrs Oates and Riddle (Sans roof) setting off for the hill, I do hope he looks where he’s going or is the Liege on auto pilot?
Above is the 650CC Citroen and the bottom picture shows the A 3300CC Model A Ford , with a somewhat well loaded Morris Minor somewhere in between, motorsport diversity at its best.
The river in full spate made interesting watching, must have been very concerning for the Pub owners although when we went in later for coffee, they seemed very relaxed about it.
Think I’ll cancel the picnic
BTRDA SPORTING TRIAL GOLD & SILVER STAR FINAL 2022
“Who knows where the time goes”, I certainly do not know. Another 12 months have flown by and yet again we are at Gold Star final time. Preparation was basically a hose down, set of plugs & top up with anti- freeze. The entry consisted of 35 English drivers with 4 from Northern Ireland. Nigel Cowling and myself left home at 6.00 am at -5 degrees, kitted out in thermals plus many layers to travel to Frocester near Stroud, we arrived early so got scrutineered and fortified with a bacon & egg bap.
Clerk of Course, David Webster from Northern Ireland had done a super job at laying out safe sections given the conditions. The site is North West facing & did not get any sun all day with the result sections were frozen hard as the temperature stayed at zero throughout. Clearly grip was at a premium, in theory a fast trickle in first gear was required?
We were told to use 4 psi we set off to tackle 3 rounds of 9 hills. At lunch time after 2 rounds Thomas Bricknell led by 4 points from Richard Sharp with Bob Packham in a live axle Kincraft just 1 further point adrift. In the Silver Class Matt Sharp in a live axle Sherpa was just 4 points in front of Jason Daniel. Alan Murton & myself were battling away further down the field in our own private little dice separated by only 1 point.
After the lunch stop tyre pressures were dropped to 2 pounds and thick fog descended. Thomas drove a superb final round dropping only 4 points(67 in total) to stretch his lead and win the Gold Star beating Richard Sharp (2nd ) with Bob Packham ( 3rd ).
In the Silver Star Matt Sharp consolidated his lead as Jason Daniel dropped away but finished second with John Cole taking 3rd place. Alan & I found more grip on 2 psi & continued our battle. Alan held his concentration better and I got lost in the fog with the result that he beat me by 9 points and 3 places. On the last section there were strange noises coming from Alan’s engine and he fortunately switched off before really serious damage was done. On stripping the engine on Monday he discovered that he had run a big end with some crank damage. I understand replacements have hopefully been sourced.
We were finished and loaded by 3.00 pm and nearly home by dark.
A most enjoyable Trial with the car not missing a beat (always a bonus) and I hope to be back next year.
A very well organised event, many thanks to the BTRDA officials & especially the good turnout of experienced Marshalls.
Last but not least many thanks to my passenger Nigel Cowling but even his clear prompts (or perhaps another phrase more appropriate) did not stop me messing up in the fog.
Full results & photos & videos on BTRDA facebook page- hllps://en-gb.facebook.com Mike Wevill
Forthcoming Events
Thursday 16th February, committee meeting at Tresmeer Village Hall 7.30pm.
Friday 3rd March Annual Club Awards evening at Trethorne Leisure Centre, tickets are £20 for adults, children under 12 £10 (subsidised by the club). Please book your tickets with Lisa Gregory or contact any committee member.
Thursday 9th March Annual General Meeting at Tresmeer Village Hall 7.30pm, come and have your say in the running of the club. There are two positions that will become vacant , that of Chair and also Secretary, both these positions are important to the general running of the club so please give it some consideration.
Sunday March 26th Launceston Trial for the Fulford Cup. Once again nifty Nigel and the team will be putting on this event at Lew Woods by kind permission of Mr P Newman. This event is a single venue event but run as per classic trial regulations, includes cars and motorcycles.
Product Review LNCMC Draper Good under pressure By Richard Simpson
A relatively cheap, robust, and easily-portable powered tyre-inflator would go down well with a lot of trials competitors, whether on two or four wheels. After I’d wrecked a comparatively expensive German foot pump trying to seat a 4.00 x 18Pirelli trials tyre (100 psi got it on the rim, left it for a couple of days, let it down to a sensible pressure and the bead promptly hopped off the rim again), I was prepared to try a mechanised solution. I stumbled upon the Draper 12 Cordless Air Compressor 20582 that looked like it might be man enough to work in the garage, and light and portable enough to be practical on the course/road. It can inflate tyres to up to 150 psi via a 15 cm flexible hose, and incorporates various power sources and lighting systems. There’s an LCD pressure gauge reading in PSI, KPa and bar, and a needle nozzle, and air-bed nozzle, besides the Schrader valve for car and motorcycle tyres. But there’s no Woods connector for narrow cycle valves. You can program it to shut off when it reaches a pre-determined pressure So, readers, I bought one!
It’s of pistol-grip design with an array of LED lamps in what would be the front of the trigger guard if was a gun. It comes with an Li-Ion battery and mains charger, plus an adaptor and power lead for a 12 v car lighter socket. The idea is that you use the battery in the workshop and the car lead (with the engine running because it draws a lot of power) on the road. Apparently, the Li-Ion battery can be a fire-hazard in the car, which may give anyone considering buying an electric car (which is basically made from Li-Ion batteries) pause forthought. In use, it does pretty much what is asked of it, although the casing feels a bit more flimsy than it looks. Be warned: the battery will work at full power until it is discharged…the machine just stops rather than running down gradually. It’s also perhaps just a little too bulky to carry on a motorcycle: it only just fits into the supplied ‘handy’ storage bag. And that’s the downside dealt with.
Upside is it successfully generated sufficient power to seat that trials tyre properly, and when I got another bike with a Tubliss set up (small high-pressure innertube securing a tubless tyre on a tubed rim) it coped with that too!
The LED lighting system is also, literally, a brilliant companion in the workshop. It could also be very useful in emergency situations…it switches from white to flashing red lights and the red flashing lights can be switched to signal SOS in Morse Code …—… Does anyone even know what Morse Code is these days?
At some point in the next year or so Triumph Motorcycles is going to launch a full-on range of motocross and enduro bikes.
Meanwhile, in rural Dorset, former Haynes four-stroke winner, engineer and farmer Martin Perrett is keeping the marque’s name alive in Twin-Shock and Evo racing.
The story begins back in the late 1970s, when Martin and his brother built a bike dubbed the Perrett Protoype, which featured a unit Triumph 500cc twin with a Webber carb in a home-built chassis, using a Manx Norton forkleg as a monoshock rear suspension unit. The bike was actually raced in the Haynes series and ACU meetings by much-loved local Roscoe Shepherd: notable at the time for being probably the top (if not the only) black motocross racer in southern England, until a bad crash sadly ended his career.
Martin is still building Triumph-based motocross bikes, and his latest creations were in Action at the Farleigh Castle Veterans MotoCross last Summer.
Built on KTM chassis and gearboxes, the Triumph engines are turned around to line up the primary drives with the KTM clutches, meaning the exhausts point backwards! Two chassis are used: one a twin-shock and the other an evo (single shock rear end).
Tailpiece
As you can see from the above January has actually been busy one way or another, it’s been a bit like it with me, whilst the Dellow is quietly sleeping under its dust sheet in the garage and hopefully one day finding a new owner I have been beavering away at the 2cv, AKA Mona the Vampire attacking the rust with grinder and welder. It never ceases to amaze me the availability of parts available for the classic vehicle market, both 2 & 4 wheeled variety. With the Citroen I firstly replaced the complete rear panel that houses the back lights etc, next was the front vent and lower half of the windscreen frame, and now the lower bulkhead to floor panel. The body as can be seen from the photo below removed/detached from the chassis, the latter of which is to be replaced with a new galvanised one with sump and fuel tank guard.
Once this is done I shall be putting more thoughts to the engine, again various options available including a conversion kit for a 900 cc BMW motorcycle unit which would be fun although I suspect it might not go down too well with some scrutineers as for class 1 eligibility, or maybe yet another supercharger implant? Decisions, decisions.
The scissor lift unit really makes life much easier on tasks such as these leaving the body dangling in the air.
All for this month but keep the contributions coming J.T. billjan299@gmail.com
