Last year we spent the week of October half term visiting sections for the Land’s End. As my services were no longer required, it was a full week of surfing at Croyde, but I noticed that the Tarka Trial takes place on the last Sunday. As a car driver, that’s not an option…. or is it? I passengered for Andy Abraham in a very last minute pairing for the Edinburgh ’22, so gave him a call to see if he’d like to come all the way down for the Tarka and I’d passenger for him on the KTM 660 Outfit. He agreed, so after a Saturday spent mostly in the pub avoiding the rain, so arrived at the start in Bideford as first bike away, and with me having had precisely zero experience of riding a Chair! £20 ACU licence obtained and a borrowed set of boots and helmet from Andy, and we were on our way.
The outfits skipped the first section as it was under water, so arrived early at Jennetts Way (previously used on the LE) and waited for the marshals to take up their places. Fortunately it was an easy start, so just what we needed to get some confidence and start to work out where exactly to put my weight on the bike. Not far after was Spinnay Lane, another ORPA, but this time much more of a challenge, with the track bumpy in laces and uneven, necessitating switching from hanging out to the left to jumping right and putting weight on the driving wheel. We made it through, so all very positive!
After a 10 mile cruise through the lanes and over the river Torridge with the wind in your face (it feels great standing up just holding the bar), we arrive at Luppincott. As with all the sections, we’re early, so there’s 10 minutes to wait while the marshals set up. As they are all doing double jobs, there’s no benefit in releasing us early. This looks like much more of a test, with a washed out gully along the right of the narrow track, so we’re going to have to have me hanging right off the side of the outfit to counterbalance. I’m only 11 stone, and Andy is ‘significantly more’, so this could be a challenge. Unfortunately we slow for the first step and the bike stalls, so its a fail, but we re-start and drive the whole section no problem, so it’s a ‘virtual’ clean. A really tough test, but proof that we’re starting to understand each other better and getting the bike to conquer some pretty awkward terrain.
Another cross country ride, and some green lanes that could be sections with a restart in the right place, and we’re at the Sugworthy Autograss track. There are two sections in the wood, both incredibly windy requiring all the weight to be hung off one side, then the other to swing the bike round. We make it through clean though, so a great confidence boost, and then a timed test being run by Class 8er Stuart Holton which is equally windy with several 180 degree turns on wet grass.
Now to Spittle Stream, and after a very deep ford (we’ve had a lot of rain this week), the section is a tortured S shape using a high bank on the right round a tree, then a mud pit on the left before a steep blast out back onto the proper track. It’s a real challenge and another one exercising the full width of the chair, and hanging off the back to get grip on the climbs, but another clean!
Now to Oakwell Lane, a really rough and bumpy climb, and it’s our first proper stop, grinding to a halt crossed up on the steepest part of the climb. I think if we had another go and gave it a bit more, plus if I got my weight in the right place quicker, we could have made it, but a 7 it is. Then Oakwell swamp…. good description. Very loose, but some tree roots to stop you. We gave it a blast and made it through. We skipped the next one, coming back up the hill on the stream, as it’s not wide enough for a chair, but it looked a real test. At lunch Steve Kingstone confirmed that the Matchless didn’t have the ground clearance to get into the stream over the bank! Lunch was taken at the garage in Torrington, before heading on to the well known Riverton. We had our only restart of the day, but got away no problem and enjoyed seeing it in the light.
On to Hurscott, and a tough climb with several corners, and a definite great effort to get through clean. My foot slipped off the back at one point as we bumber over some rocks, but I held on tight to the rail as we made it out of the lane. Now Kingscott, and another rough climb with patches of mud, similar to the last, and I think we’re getting good at this! Definitely working well together and anticipating the changes in weight needed before they come. Some bouncing on the muddier stuff and we’re through again, quickly followed by the other outfits who are all running at the front of the trial. The next section Stony Cross escapes my memory, so onto the last set of 4 sections in the woods where Chris Barham the CoC works. As we wait for them to open, Chris talks of the difficulty of getting the sections right – it’s a classic trial, not kickstart, but these sections will decide the overall winners, but prove to hard for some! We drop down off the main track on a very steep bank, and accelerate despite all wheels being locked on the brakes. Fortunately we stay on board (unlike Geoff Westcott’s partner who is thrown over the front as he hits something and stops suddenly!), but can’t make it round a sharp right hander as Andy fails to see the tape marking the section until too late. We drive out though, and prepare for an even more daunting challenge, a straight blast back up the bank, across the track, then on up the other side into uncharted territory amongst the trees. We give it a good go and get to the same place as Geoff, stopping just after the cross track on a steep bank. but then witness Steve Urell make a good go of it, getting to the 2, and then even better Anthony Milliar and Mike Curnow fly up at double the speed of everyone else and disappear beyond the section end into the wilderness. They emerge several minutes later taking a cross country route back down having secured first place for the day amongst the outfits.
The final two sections are loose and tough, with several failures part way up, but we clean the first, and get most of the way up the last before running out of grip in the loose compost like surface. A chance to see some solos make a hash of the earlier sections, and then Mark Wills to show how it’s done cleaning the 2nd one in the wood as we wait to cross. Only 1/2 mile to the pub and a well deserved pint. Overall I loved the experience, and would definitely jump back in a Chair again. It takes much more teamwork to read the navigation while getting ready or all the corners and moving the weight accordingly, and the teamwork on the sections is fantastic, as demonstrated by those that really worked well together. By the end of the day I think Andy and I had it sorted, and were really pleased with how it went. Plenty of time to chat at the start of sections (how come so many bikes on the MCC events are running so late…?), and overall a credit to Chris Barham, John Barthram and the team who put on such a great event. Well done North Devon Motor Club.
When the Results were published Dave commented:-
The results show that we were 4th outfit home, the 12 when we stalled really costing us, but we outclimbed the Venerable Geoff Westcott by a point! There were 4 clean runs, Anthony on the outfit, one in class B1 and two in B3, but two of those incurred penalties on the timed tests, so the B3 of Byron Williams was the overall winner. Of the other outfits, Steve Urell and Julie Williams came in with 17 after a fail on one of the stony climbs, Martin Keswick got 31, us 35 and Geoff 36. The back of the field (name withheld!) just missed out on a century falling two runs short, showing that the trial really was testing!
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