It all started with singing of “we’re on the road again’. Team DOM was heading north once more to do battle with those North Islander’s in rounds 3 &4 of their series, this time in Tauranga.

Due to the longer drive, the 4 of us (Rat, Rob, Ross, Scotty) left earlier Thursday to catch the late ferry to Wellington for a night’s stay so we could get an early start in the morning on the road for Tauranga. Beaut weather all the way through to Taupo where we had lunch. Burger Fuel does a really good feed with a picturesque outlook over sparkling Lake Taupo.

Tauranga eventually appeared probably a bit quicker than expected, but still about 6.5 hrs driving. Well done Mr. Rat. Supermarket shopping is always fun for DOM but Rat had us sorted as he has been practicing whilst his better half has been away in the UK. Friday night is very busy in Tauranga’s strip so after lots of cruising for parking we decided to head back to the local shopping centre for a meal. Really good pub feed too.

Day 1 was up towards Waihi, 40 min north and this was new country even for me who lived in the NI for my first 17 years. Weather was brisk and sunny though there had been rain the week before. Property was mostly a pine plantation with round rock creek for 3 sections. The rest of the sections were in a loop through the trees and with a mixture of dry and greasy. Slippery stuff was really slippery and quite technical in places; more like what we would peg for Intermediate national level. Nasty 2^nd or 3^rd gear greasy uphills, slippy off cambers with pegs as the obstacle, undercut 3m drop-off. There was one angled wet log at the top off a 2m climb with off camber downhill after; I saw Scotty resting on the ground after this one. So, a tough day for us old bugger’s with Warwick Merriman on his home turf 1^st followed by Rat 2^nd. I haven’t dropped so many 5’s ever in a President trial with 4 of them. Rob however had a really good day pipping Francis by 2 for 1^st place in Clubman. Good stuff!

Back to town for a soak in the thermal pool then same pub again to feast and watch the rugby. Food was good again, but company was over the top with a drunken old git going off. Pub staff had to try and take his keys off him even. We left and finished the game back at the motel.

2^nd day was up behind TePuke on a new property with mostly rocky stream sections. Rocks had a bit of an edge to them so traction was less of an issue. Sections 1 & 3 were under trees with bigger rock and TIGHT turns so overall a more technical trial. Results were mixed though Rat was now totally at home on Andy Beale’s bike (borrowed this as his rear suspension link had broken week before) and he cleaned up for the day. Rat was so impressed rumor has it that the cheque is off to John Lawton. Warwick took a swim on section 4 and dropped back to 6^th, but still had done enough on Day 1 to take the overall by 2 points. Well done and in the series so far I think Rat has the nod for champ points. Rob had a bit of a bummer and slipped back to 6^th.

After prize giving it was back to the traveling; straight through to Wellington for the night. Early ferry and home by dark. A trip of nearly 2000km but really enjoyable and not prohibitively expensive at $500 each. You must have a strong tolerance for smell though as the bot-bot competition is relentless! Scotty seems to win that all the time.

Cheers

Ross B

Teddington April 2012.pdf (47.50 kb)

Teddington April 2012.rtf (2.18 kb)

We have a really busy couple of months ahead of us now. We start this weekend with a club trial at Teddington flat. Sections are being put in by Kendall, Richard and Andy and the trial will start at the usual time of 10.30 on Sunday.

Two weeks later we have the South Island Champs Rounds 3 & 4 in Nelson. If you haven't entered yet you should do it NOW and then book yourself some accommodation. This is always a good event and the property for this year I know is brilliant. There are entry forms on our entry form page.

The week after that is a club trial at the Waimak Practice area (Delis Park). That will be a peg on the day event with everyone expected to have a go at pegging one or two sections and then we can all ride them, dishing out the usual ridicule or praise depending on how good they are. Should be a good opportunity for those who haven't had a go at setting sections to learn a bit about how its done.

That will set you up well to come and help the following weekend at Kaikoura. Section setting will be done on Saturday the 19th and possibly Sunday the 20th. That's a week earlier than usual due to the WTC event in Aussie.

Which brings us to the one we've all been looking forward to. The World Trials Champs in Maldon, Victoria, 25th and 26th May. I don't need to say anymore, the worlds best right here on our doorstep (sort of). Jim Henderson tells me there are over 80 people travelling to the event from New Zealand. Should be an awesome weekend.

After that it's back to N.Z. and the Kaikoura 3 day trial on Queens Birthday weekend, the 2nd, 3rd and 4th of June. Entry forms are out now on the entry form page so you get yourself entered and book your accommodation for that one as well. Make sure you book yourself in for the meal on Saturday night!

We have something on every weekend, except the last, in June. A practice day at the Waimak on the 10th, and a club trial at Purau Bay on the 17th. Peter Dunn will be pegging that one so if you're available to help out contact Peter and let him know.

On the 23rd and 24th we have the much anticipated "Adventure Ride" in Westport. We have accommodation booked in Westport for the Friday and Saturday nights and we need to confirm numbers by the 1st of June. We will also require a deposit of $20 per person for the accommodation. If you haven't done so already please see contact me via the contact page to book your spot. For more information on this trip visit the Top of the South Mototrials website.

 Recently I had to make a decision as to what new trials bike I would buy. I decided early on that the Monty is too big for me but a dream to own as they just last forever. I love the look of the Gas Gas and love their motor, but for an inflexible old man they are hard to ride. I seem to find wheel spin everywhere. So it looked liked I would own another Beta as I love riding the new Evo and they are always good to own as they last well and sell easily. The only things I don’t like about the Beta are the forks and their seals and the fact that the kick start is very high for a short arse.

After doing a lot of research and talking with “What’s-it-worth” Ross and I decided to buy the new Sherco and if we didn’t like them to admit defeat and plead with John to sell us some new Betas.

When they arrived we were both amazed at the improvement over the 2010 model which always seemed to me to be rushed onto the market. The 2012 model has a new motor which is really sweet, new wheels, new Tech forks which are awesome, new steering yokes, new radiator, new back shock and linkages and a new improved petrol tank and air inlet system. I thought I would see how water tight the air system is and tried aiming the hose right at the inlet holes, and found it is possible to get water near the filter but the ducting keeps it well away from the carb. On my 250 this is a dellorto and on Ross,s 290 a Keihin. Both work very well

Our bikes came assembled which was very nice. By the time I finished work Ross had picked up the bikes and stripped his to check for grease and stuff and had reassembled after finding that all was already well. I still have done nothing to mine except follow Karl Clarkes advice to lower the rear brake lever and my own advice to put the bars into the short arse setting.

I have been amazed at the improvement from my old 2006 model and I think it is a major leap forward from the 2010 model.

My first ride was at the Kaikoura show riding a course that David Trewin had designed and I was really happy with the handling over big unpleasant stuff. Not being riding fit having only ridden the Greybeards trial since October I was amazed at the saving in energy of riding a very light bike. It feels like a 125 with lots of power.

My first serious ride and 4th time on the bike was the south Island champs. Slippery Banks Peninsula creeks have always caused me grief but I found the new ST250 handled the slime with ease and also with an extra 2 or more pounds pressure in the rear tyre. I find the steering a pleasure and lock adequate, somewhere between the Beta and the GasGas

Suspension is very good at both ends and soon I will know if the linkages are still easy to strip and grease. Karl Clarke rode the bike(nearly as well as I do) and was so impressed he dragged Brady over to ride it and spent all weekend trying to convince him to buy one. Eveyone who has ridden the bike mentions the huge tractibility of the bike. I am not sure whether it is just the motor that gives it the grip or if the total design just works so well.

My thinking is that now you have a genuine choice in easy to ride bikes and if you buy the Sherco or Beta you will be very happy

See you at the next Trial

Alan

Full results of the North Island Champs rounds 3 and 4 are available from the Trials Score website. http://www.trialscores.com/

Just click on the links below.

Round 3 results.

Round 4 results.

Way back in the early 1960s the Pioneer Motor Club as it then was named, held a weekend of events to commemorate its fifty years of existence.

Festivities started with a social gathering on the Friday evening and culminated with a NZ Championship race meeting at the old New Brighton horse racecourse a couple of days later.

Why are we telling you this old boring stuff?

Well, dear Pioneer member, your committee has embarked on the gigantic undertaking to do something similar early next year to mark our 100^th year of existence. Not an achievement to be sneezed at particularly in Christchurch where motorcycle clubs have come and gone quicker than promises of rate reductions from the City Council. Preliminary thoughts include the following:

A get-together for current and past members on a Friday evening followed over the next two days by a fun hillclimb, sidecar activities, gymkhana, possibly a Greybeards trial on the same day as the aforementioned, and a trial similar to that held when Mick Andrews was last here to complete the programme. The trial would have sections for modern bikes and also some laid out as in the trials of fifty years ago – somewhat akin to today’s Classic trials.

On the Saturday evening there would be a feed and a speech by a keynote speaker very well known in the motorcycle world. At this function it is hoped to run a continuous display of movies and slides from the Club’s events in the past. Also every effort is being made to get together a display of bikes that have a distinct connection with the club’s history. Does anyone know the present whereabouts of “The Chuffer”?

A date early in February looks likely at this stage so keep it in mind when planning holidays etc. As soon as possible everyone will be advised of the date to put in your diaries.

In the meantime this is what we want from you NOW

1 Advise anyone you know who is a former club member and urge them to come along and meet some of the people he/she used to compete against

2 Have a good think about the above listed programme and let us know of anything you think could be included to widen appeal

3 Let us know of the location of any old bikes which would fit in with the display proposals

4 Similarly, let us know if you have any slides or films which could be available to show at the function or if you know someone who has some that we could approach

Please please give these requests full consideration and help make the jubilee a very memorable event at least as good as the 1963 one was. After all we don’t want the old buggars who ran that show (many of them are still around) crowing that things were done much better in the good old days.     

Next Year will be the centenary of the Pioneer Motorcycle club and planning has already started for the celebrations. We have a number of events in the pipeliine including a Big clebration weekend early in the year and a proposed Kaikoura Six Day trial.

As part of that the committee are trying to put together a collection of Photo's film and video of events from the last hundred years. If you have someting you would like to share with us the person to contact is Peter Dunn who is going to be collating it all. Peter can be contacted on pjdunnbuilder@gmail.com or 027 4466257

The eight-round North Island Moto Trials Championship series kicked off with rounds one and two in Taranaki in February and Whitaker was far and away the dominant rider on that weekend.

His rivals are going to have to quickly work out how to match, and possibly beat, the talented 20-year-old at rounds three and four, set for the Bay of Plenty region this Saturday and Sunday.

The prime requisites for the sport of Moto Trials is balance and throttle control and even riders at the bottom of the pecking order exhibit scintillating skills in this regard ... it’s just that Kiwi international Whitaker is freakishly good.

So the pressure goes on this weekend for Expert Grade title hopefuls such as Motueka’s Karl Clark.

Dunedin’s Blake Fox and Tauranga’s Phillip Shilton have elected to step up from the A Grade to the Experts’ Grade this season, along with young John Haynes, from Reporoa, and they, too, will be looking to challenge Whitaker.

Day one on Saturday is scheduled for Everett's property, Wharry Road, Waihi, while day two on Sunday is set for Muir’s property, No.4 Road, Te Puke.

Riders can expect slippery ravines and moss-covered rocks to tackle on day one and a river bed with big boulders will test them on day two.

“A group of riders from the South Island has also committed to contesting the North Island Championships this season, giving us an entry list that would easily match that of a national event,” said North Island Moto Trials Championships co-ordinator Paul McLeod, of Te Puke.

“This will possibly be the last major event in New Zealand before some of these riders head across the Tasman to contest the World Junior Trials Championships in Australia at the end of next month – it will be a good blow-out for our top Kiwi hopefuls such as Jake Whitaker, Blake Fox and John Haynes.”

Lower Hutt’s Carl Robson was top rider in the A Grade at rounds one and two of the North Island champs and he will again be expected to lead the way this weekend, although Nelson’s Callum Anderson and Te Kauwhata’s Corey Davies should keep him honest.

Young Auckland rider Liam Draper has been something of a revelation in recent months and he surprised his more experienced rivals when he won the Intermediate Grade at rounds one and two.

Defending champion in the Intermediate Grade, Waihi’s Gary Samson, will be aiming to lift his game this weekend, as no doubt will Ashhurst’s Kevin Pinfold, Auckland’s James Snowden, Auckland’s Peter Boettcher and Te Puke’s Peter Blaymires.

Rangiora’s Paul Jackson leads the Presidents’ Grade after the opening two rounds, he knows he can expect a backlash from Tauranga’s defending champion in the class, Warwick Merriman.

It will also be worth looking out in this grade for notable riders such as Auckland’s Raymond Skinner, Tauranga’s Nigel Shilton, Hamilton’s Peter Osborne and Paraparaumu pair John Lawton and Kevin Tither.

Te Puke’s Benjamin McLeod and Reporoa’s John Haynes should be features in the Junior Grade at the weekend.

With this branch of motorcycling sport, the emphasis is not on speed, with the prime aim being to conquer the extreme terrain without touching feet on the ground or falling off. Points are lost for these “faults” and a rider with the lowest score wins.

Access to both days’ riding will be signposted from the respective main roads. There is no charge for spectators. Riding starts at 10am on both days.

“I’d like to thank Te Kuiti’s John Ravenscroft too for all the work he does to handle the on-line entries and deal with the event scoring too,” said McLeod, himself also a leading competitor in the Presidents’ Grade.

The eight-round series next heads to the Wellington region for round five and six on July 7-8 and then wraps up with the final two rounds in Hawke’s Bay on August 25-26.

Words and photo by Andy McGechan, www.BikesportNZ.com

The trial for the 24th of June has now been rescheduled for the 17th of june (the week before). That is to make way for the great Westport Adventure ride which has now been confirmed for the 23rd/24th of June. For more Information contact either me via the contacts page or Karl Clark at karlanddebbie@gmail.com