John Lees was competing in Class A on his Triumph Twin
I finally got onto the communities site through IE instead of my usual Netscape only to find that, as you say, I could not post a message. Three of us Mike Robinson, Tom Beckerleg and myself all failed to spot the last sentence of the final instructions because at the breakfast stop they were papier mache. The next day we managed to read the bit that casually mentions that class A follow route to Corkscrew. We did not have this on our route as we cut out the bits that don’t apply and this year we were not to do Corkscrew or so we thought! So there we are exclusion we presume.
We had got behind after leaving the first time control, we waited 50 mins until time to go in to discover that early arrival did not matter! We left after quickly reading the bits abouts local councils and rights of way not realizing the punch line for us at the bottom. Well thats enough for us and the Edinburgh only possible on a specialized machine, Goatscliff was near impossible and stupid. I came across two riders on road tyres struggling half way up. I had to stop as well but could not stop at the marshal to claim a bulk as this was the last thing in my mind until I got to the top, too late I did not have the energy to go back down and complain.
A very miserable trial made worse by an important route change, our last Edinburgh as we feel at the moment, no point in doing it if exclusion is so easy. We take a lot of trouble in checking the route and annotating the various instructions regarding restarts etc. before the event if a section is deleted that is OK but to add one in for a motorcycle makes life very difficult. We even laquer our route sheets after photocopying them at 120%. No we can do without last minute changes !
Editors Note – John was writing this before the results came out. They show him failing Goatscliffe but marked as not having to do Corkscrew! John was best in Class A as noboddy in his class climbed every hill. I have read and re-read the original route card and the ammendment and like John I am confused!
Stuart Cairney was driving his Imp
First drama of the trial for me was at my local filling station when I couldn’t open the bonnet to access the filler cap! As you can imagine I was reluctant to butcher it open with a lever and wondering what the heck to do when Andrew managed to slide a screwdriver in and jiggle the catch – subsequently we discovered that slight pressure on the front edge of the bonnet wwould release it. All this was a legacy of fitting a repair section to the bottom of the front panel. It had been working fine but I hadn’t strapped in the spare wheel until the last minute and this must have caused slight distortion.
Anyway as far as the trial is concerned I failed Litton – I had deliberately left the engine in PCT spec to see how it would go and but the conditions there were such that I could have done with the extra revs. At least I got to the start line at the first attempt! For much the same reason the only other failure was Bamford although I must admit to lifting for one of the concrete troughs which left us on the final relatively smooth bit of concrete before the end with only about 1200 -1500 revs and it just petered out.
We encountered a problem on the first green lane across the moors due to a BMW parked right in front of the gate – not sure whether it was deliberate or just inconsiderate; the sun roof had been left open (tilted) in the rain so maybe they were just plain stupid… However we discovered that the small pedestrian gate alongside was just wide enough for an Imp, literally by about half an inch, so we were able to continue; albeit pretty slowly as it was so rough. We saw a police car in the village at the foot of Jacobs Ladder and there was talk of protesters organising a sponsored walk to deliberatley co-inside with the trial – lets hope this is not the sign of things to come….
Jim Scott heard something go on Hucklow but couldn’t see anything amiss but by the time he’d cleaned Bamford the diff was graunching and he called it a day in the hope of restricting the damage. Final point of satisfaction for me was trickling off the Old Longhill restart with no wheelspin whatsoever, whilst the final mistake was a slight caused by missing slots when we were running on our own and getting tired near the end – the electric woodpecker in the back signalling that we were out of fuel. Fortunately we were able to coast down the hill into Buxton which left a brisk walk to Safeway’s petrol station with the can… All in all a good trial – shame about the rain.
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