Rob on his 400cc Triumph in the Pre’65 Scottish on Loch Eild Path in 1993. Photo copyright: Iain Lawrie, Kinlochleven
Hello Readers, I hope you enjoyed the Festive Season? We are cruising towards a gradual finish now. I mean surely nothing more could happen to me? Well actually yes – just for a change, I had an epileptic fit! I was fitting so badly I had to be put into an induced coma.
I must have been enjoying it because they couldn’t wake me up. The good news is I only had one of these.
However, I did have another stroke which effected my speech, balance and I couldn’t write. Now for the good news all these problems are in the past.
I think its something to do with having a competitive spirit and a lot of luck.
I promise I will not talk of illness ever again! My miracle recovery occurred when I stopped taking the pain killer fentanyl. It took me a year to get it out of my system but it has transformed me. Don’t expect me to be riding in the SSDT again but I hope to be spectating. From now on this is a stroke-free zone! To cheer you up the next part of my story is a number of things that I had forgotten about but thanks to doing my story with Trials Guru, I have remembered some. I hope you find them amusing. Best Wishes To All and Thank You – ROB
Guisborough – Tocketts Mill trial on a borrowed Triumph Cub. Photo Courtesy: Neil Sturgeon, Darlington
Trials Guru comment: We are indebted to Rob Edwards for explaining exactly why he disappeared off the trials scene some years ago. It is now made crystal clear by the man himself exactly how his health issues were considerable and very serious and limited his lifestyle and activities. For many years there was a genuine mistaken belief that Rob had picked up some germ or bug when he was on his South American travels promoting with Montesa, now we know the true story about his Churg-Strauss Syndrome. This is not the end of Rob’s story, he will continue to share excerpts of his life in trials for a little longer. Remember the complete story is available on Trials Guru, just click on the button: Rob Edwards Story
One of the first images we used when Trials Guru was a fledgling facebook page. Jordi Tarres (Beta) at the World Trials Championship round at Glen Nevis, Scotland in 1992. Photo: Iain Lawrie, Kinlochleven.
It’s just over eighteen months since Trials Guru started off as a page on facebook and nine months as a stand alone website.
We are pleased to see so many enthusiasts of the sport of trial taking a keen interest in what we do.
There is more to come in 2015 with perhaps some more southerly photos of our sport from a well-known writer and journalist from the off-road world of motorcycle sport.
In the meantime have a good new year from Trials Guru – ‘Dedicated to the sport of Motorcycle Trials World-wide’.
All written material Copyright: Trials Guru / Moffat Racing, John Moffat
1978 – Rob receives his award at the Scottish Six Days. He came second to Martin Lampkin. D.K. Laing and Bob Adamson (centre) look on. Photo Copyright: Mike Rapley
Hello Everybody,
I must apologise for my rather morbid last episode. I think I answered the question as to where I went to some years ago. Unfortunately I am not out of the woods yet but I will return to less miserable times before we bid each other farewell, but not just yet. Having survived my perforated bowel the next problems were the various things that can occur with this type of operation. First of all the eight inch scar on my stomach wouldn’t heal up. Typical of me I had managed to get MRSA, oh and sepsis as well as a fungal infection in my blood, but apart from this things were going great! I then had another suspected mini-stroke and had a brain scan just to check. This didn’t show up anything that wasn’t expected apart from an aneurysm at the base of my brain. Knowing the size of my brain I was sure it would only be a small one!
Back in hospital again it is then. The surgeon told me that if I moved I could be paralysed or it could be fatal, but I still decided to go ahead with the operation.
This involves passing technical gear into an artery in the groin up to the brain. When I was taken to have the operation I began to wonder if I was doing the right thing? The operation was not supposed to take long but it was six hours before I arrived back to the recovery ward. I must admit that I was relieved that the operation was now behind me! I bet you are waiting for something to go wrong? Well you wont have to wait that long. A nurse would check for bleeding every 15 minutes.At 3am I had to press the emergency button because of a very strong pain in my thigh. Two nurses came straight away and checked the sheets for blood but I wasn’t bleeding externally I was bleeding internally. When the equipment was removed after the operation they had nicked an artery in my groin. The blood was filling my thigh to the point where it was twice the diameter of the other before the flow of blood was stopped the swollen side had almost burst open. The pain was horrendous and the blood that was in the wrong place had to come out in its own natural way, bruising. I was black from the tip of my toes up my back and across my shoulders. I now had to have regular blood transfusions. You will like this next bit. Three days later I was visited by my specialist. At first I thought I had not heard him properly. Excuse me I said but did you just say I didn’t have my operation? Yes he said it was not accessible, sorry. In fairness to my surgeons they didn’t risk anything that could have caused me serious damage so I am very grateful for that. When I picked up after this latest episode I was glad to get back to my workshop. I now make models out of scraps of aluminium. I was working away then all of a sudden I had no idea what was happening I didn’t know where I was, totally confused. We rang the doctor and he was here within minutes. After a few basic tests like putting on my coat and shoes I failed hopelessly. He said I had suffered a stroke and rang for an ambulance. On arrival at A&E I was checked over and was told I hadn’t suffered a stroke and the confusion was called by the antibiotics I was taking. I was sent home despite the fact I couldn’t even dress myself properly. I put my jumper and trousers on back to front anybody passing must have thought the circus was in town. After a dreadful night at home walking into door frames and not being able to tell the time we rang for an ambulance first thing. By now I was beginning to wonder who was more confused me or them? A scan revealed I had suffered another stroke. It had also effected my peripheral vision. This usually effects vision in one eye but I had it in both eyes well I would wouldn’t “eye”. Bye for now – Rob
1979 – Scottish Six Days. Rob, seen here on Pipeline, was 18th on 167 marks. Photo Copyright: Eric Kitchen.
Barry Robinson from Ilkely, West Yorkshire has been taking photographs professionally for over 57 years. He started and has never really stopped! A proper enthusiast of our sport his images of trials, scrambles, quad racing and road racing have graced many periodicals and national newspapers. A member of the National Union of Journalists, Barry was a close friend of Eric Rathmell, Malcolm’s father and their wives were very close friends too. He got to know Eric way back in 1953 when he rented a cottage in Otley at that time.
A very private person, Barry told Trials Guru: “Not a lot of people are aware of my long connection with the Rathmell family or that I actually rode trials, as an expert; scrambles, as an idiot, or was a Yorkshire and Lancashire champion grass track sidecar passenger and rode televised scrambles as a solo and sidecar passenger”.
“This Doug Todd picture was taken in 1960 and the blonde boy in the background is one Malcolm Charles Rathmell, now aged sixty, or more. The other is brother Gerald and Eric is ensuring I tie the Velocette on correctly. The haircut, by the way is courtesy, of a ex Royal Air Force barber who never forgot his basic training. The Velo is a 250 MOV with a spring frame built by Eric Rathmell. The engine kept dropping an exhaust valve, probably due to being over revved”.
Barry has also ridden many of the factory trials prototypes over the years, purely because he accompany and take photos of the Yorkshire based factory riders when practicing. We are proud to be able to show you a small selection of Barry’s photographs with his permission on Trials Guru, some of his images have never been seen in public before. Barry was a photographer with weeklies, Motor Cycling and Motor Cycle News. He still covers events and reports regionally for Trials and Motocross News.
A Barry Robinson photo of Malcolm Rathmell back in the 1970’s. Barry has had a long standing friendship with the Rathmell family since the early 1950’s. Photo Copyright: Barry Robinson, Ilkely.
Robinson knows most if not all the Yorkshire riders in trials and scrambles back to the days when Arthur Lampkin was racing a Gold Star BSA.
Malcolm Rathmell in the 1975 Jack Leslie Ellis Trial on the prototype 348 Montesa. Photo copyright: Barry Robinson.
We hope ‘The Maestro’, will be taking even more photos for years to come.
One of the factory special prototypes that Barry has swung his leg over – Malcolm Rathmell’s Montesa 349. (Photo Copyright: Barry Robinson)
Copyright:
Text: Trials Guru / Moffat Racing, John Moffat 2014.
Photos: By kind permission of Barry Robinson, Ilkely, West Yorkshire. (All Rights Reserved)
Rob with good friend Martin Lampkin. Photo Copyright: Barry Robinson, Ilkely
Hello Everybody, many thanks again for following my story in trials. I hope you all had a Happy Christmas and I would like to thank you all for making my Christmas so special this year. Wishing you all the best.
I hope you all have a Happy and Healthy New Year.
Thank you for the great comments that you have sent me, they are really appreciated. The part of my story that we have reached now is almost beyond belief.
Many people have asked me over the years, why I suddenly stopped riding and disappeared to? What comes next should answer these questions. After several weeks in hospital following the Subarachnoid haemorrhage, I was allowed home again. I was only home a matter of days when I suddenly got a terrible pain in my left leg. It went from my heel up to my knee. It was a Sunday morning at 4 a.m. but was so bad we had to call the doctor. He wasn’t at all happy and told me I had a pulled muscle. The pain persisted and we eventually called out another doctor and rang straight away for an ambulance. By the time the ambulance arrived, the pain had stopped but that wasn’t the end of it. The pain was the Churg-Strauss doing its’ thing. It had cut off the blood supply in my left leg from the knee downwards destroying everything leaving only the bones. I could spin my foot round like a propeller. I had no feeling in it whatsoever. I couldn’t walk at all. The strange thing was I had no feeling in the leg but I had a toothache type of pain that was to last for years. During this time it was impossible to sleep and I spent the nights watching the TV. I was put onto a pain-killer called Fentanyl which is a lot stronger than morphine but I still had the pain.
Rob Edwards in 1981 -Photo Copyright: Barry Robinson, Ilkely.
I then developed a different pain this time it was Gallstones. I was back in hospital again to have my gall-bladder removed. I came home from hospital but developed a pain in the small of my back. I went to see my local GP and she wanted to admit me to hospital. I declined the offer as I had had enough of hospitals to last me a lifetime. She did however give me an envelope with instructions that if I needed to go into hospital to give this envelope to the ambulance staff. As usual, it all went wrong! Just after midnight we had to phone for an ambulance. The problem this time was a pulmonary embolism or blood clot on the lung following the gall bladder operation. I caused a bit of panic in the hospital because I couldn’t breath and collapsed on the floor. Instead of using the oxygen mask they pulled it off and pushed the plastic pipe directly into my mouth and turned the supply flat out. I was kept in bed for three weeks and was not allowed out of bed at all. The next thing that happened was I suffered a mini stroke. I woke up and my arms were moving about on their own but this stopped quickly. I was in hospital just overnight. Panic over but not for long. I got a pain in my stomach. I managed to get to the phone to ring my wife, Bev. She came home post haste and finding me laid on the floor she phoned for an ambulance. I don’t remember much about the reception part of the hospital as I was in so much pain but I can remember the consultant telling me that they did not know what was wrong and they would not know until they opened me up. They said something had pushed my diaphragm up into my chest cavity. I was in the operating theater for seven hours. When I eventually woke up,I was told that at the end of my operation they had tried everything possible to keep me alive however this was to no avail and they were prepared with the possibility that I was not going to make it. Suddenly I fired up again, maybe it was just a drop of water in my carb! The problem was a perforated bowel caused by Diverticulitus which was a condition I didn’t know I had. I think we have all suffered enough for now and as crazy as this sounds there are still more serious problems to come before I am out of the woods. Thanks for taking the time to read all this, I know its not about riding sections, but it makes things clearer for those who remember me riding and disappearing from the trials scene. Bye for now! – Rob
Happier times, a superb photo of Rob Edwards in the 1979 Scottish on his Montesa Cota 349. (Photo Copyright – Eric Kitchen)
We know where and when this photograph was taken, but we would dearly like to find out who took it or who owns the copyright please. If anyone knows can you let us know?
I am getting well on with my story now and thanks for your support, I hope you are still enjoying it.
In September 1980 I set off on what was to be my final promotional trip. It started in Venezuela then Argentina and finally Paraguay. By the time I reached Paraguay I was exhausted and I had no choice other than to go home.
Rob Edwards in the 1979 SSDT on his 349 Montesa at Laggan Locks. Photo copyright: Iain Lawrie, Kinlochleven
I visited my doctor who sent me straight to hospital. X-rays showed that I had practically no air in my lungs at all.
I didn’t need an x ray to tell me this, however it was nice to have my suspicions confirmed.
I was put on oxygen 24 hours a day. With daily visits from physiotherapist I began to make a small amount of progress.
Nobody could put a name to it the nearest they could get was asthma.
I had now been ill for almost twenty years being treated for asthma taking large quantities of steroids called prednisolone. Without these I would not have survived but the side effect is I now have osteoporosis quite badly.
Christmas 1988 I was really ill and after a blood test was admitted straight to hospital.
At first the doctors thought I had Malaria.
After many tests Doctor Amanda Isdale finally diagnosed my problem as a condition called Churg-Strauss Syndrome.
Rob Edwards on an unfamiliar bike, a 250 Ossa in the 1980 SSDT at Rhuba Rhuadh on Day 4. Photo copyright: Jim Young, Armadale.
The illness causes inflammation of the blood vessels called vasculitus and it can stop the flow of blood anywhere in the body with drastic results. So why the asthma?
The answer to this is Churg-Strauss disguises itself as asthma and that’s the reason its so hard to identify.
At the time of diagnosis I was one of only one hundred people in the UK with this problem. Trust me to get something that nobody else wanted!
I had now had the Churg-Strauss for several years so the only treatment open to me was chemotherapy.
I had the treatment every two weeks for nine months. Chemo and me didn’t get along and one morning after my treatment my wife called out our local GP.
When he arrived he told me that after my next infusion I should stop in hospital as I was wasting his time and everybody-elses.
Not exactly what I was expecting but as we know there are good mechanics and bad ones it appears Doctors are the same!
After several weeks in hospital I was allowed home for the weekend.
After the security of the hospital I felt a bit insecure.
I was watching TV when I felt a tremendous pain in the back of my neck at the base of my skull.
The next thing I knew I was in intensive care and I was being told I had suffered a particularly nasty stroke called a Subarachnoid Haemorrage. I am beginning to realise that every illness I get is difficult to spell why cant I get the flu?
Whats happened so far is only the tip of the ice-berg. From now on things get a whole lot worse! – Bye for now – Rob
As we head into the festive period, may we take this opportunity in wishing all readers of Trials Guru a very Merry Festive Season and a Happy New Year. We hope to bring you new articles in 2015 and more photos from the sport of Motorcycle Trials.
We will be continuing the story of Rob Edwards, remember to ‘like’ his page if you are on facebook!
Trials Guru started out in March 2014 and already has a following both here and on facebook.
Also, there will be a press release issued early in 2015, stay tuned for that.
Best wishes,
The Guru
Trials Guru likes to ride occasionally too. 1959 350 Matchless (G3C). Photo courtesy: David Robinson, Mid Calder.
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