John Lampkin, the Beta Motorcycles UK importer has a reputation, a good one for customer service!
Here is the 2018 Scottish Six Days Trial Beta Preparation Guide for riders entered in the annual event.
If you are entered on a Beta in this year’s SSDT then remember to register with Beta-UK before the event in good time!
Download the Beta guide:
The 2018 Scottish Six Days Trial (7-12 May) official programme has a fresh new look!
The programme will be available on sale from Tuesday 24th April from the following outlets:
BP – Road to the Isles Filling Station, North Road, Fort William, PH33 6TQ
Esso Filling Station, North Road, Fort William, PH33 6TQ
Gleaner Filling Stations, Fort William PH33 6SU & Invergarry PH35 4HL
WH Smith, The Parade, Fort William PH33 6EU
The Granite House, High Street, Fort William, PH33 6AD
Marshall & Pearson, 35 High Street, Fort William, PH33 6HD
Co-op, Ballachulish, PH49 4JS
Co-op, Kinlochleven, PH50 4RW
Co-op, Corpach, PH33 7JG
Claymore Filling Station, A82, Glencoe, PH49 4HP
Pre’65 Trial – Merchandise stall
Spar, Spean Bridge PH34 4EP
Trials UK shop in the Parc Ferme during the week
There will also be an opportunity to purchase from ‘The Hub’ area in the parc ferme area on Weigh In Sunday, 6th May.
The official programme price is £4.00, the proceeds of which support the Edinburgh & District Motor Club Ltd ‘Community Fund’, which contributes to local good causes in the Lochaber area.
You can purchase a copy by post at £5.50 – HERE
This year the programme page numbers have been increased and it will continue to have the ‘pull-out’ additional competitor list, sponsored by Acklams Beta of Harrogate, which is handy for putting in a pocket when spectating out on the hill.
The 92 paged 2018 official programme gives all the daily routes with spectator suggestions and competitor’s early days, now located towards the back of the programme making this information easier to find. It also has more articles than before.
Trials Guru reports the passing of Weardale stalwart Walter Dalton, one of the North East’s best known trials characters.
Walter was employed by Portland Blue Circle Cement at their Weardale plant at Eastgate and was a regular competitor across the border in Scottish trials which also included the Loch Lomond Two-Day and Scottish Six Days events, plus the Pre’65 Scottish.
In later years he took up riding Pre’65 trials on a 500 Ariel and supported Spain’s Carlos Casas on a 200cc Triumph Cub for many years in the Pre’65 Scottish.
Dalton competed in many Scottish Six Days Trials back as far as the late 1960s. He rode both Bultaco and Montesa machinery.
In 1984, Walter entered the SSDT and the Pre’65 Scottish on a Reg May built ‘RM Special’, this machine was actually road registered as such. The machine was a BSA B40 motor in a much modified Bultaco Sherpa frame, with Alpina front wheel and Pursang rear wheel and a modified 340 Sherpa alloy tank and specially fabricated oil tank. The machine was not strictly Pre’65 but the organisers were less strict in those days.
Trials Guru extends sincere condolences to the Dalton family.
Images: Akihiko Hattori & Yamaha Motor Company
Yamaha Motor Company have re-entered the World trials arena by confirming that they will contest the 2018 FIM ‘Trial-E’ class with the announcement of their ‘TY-E’ model. The machine will be ridden by the factory rider Kenichi Kuroyama.
Kuroyama, is an eleven-time national champion of Japan. He rode for eleven years in the World championships and achieved four world title rounds and scored twenty-five podium positions.
The re-entry of Yamaha onto the world stage is significant and to be electric powered, even more so.
The question now must be asked, will the mighty Honda concern make inroads to electric-trials with their own electric powered machine?
Images courtesy of Akihiko Hattori, taken at the Tokyo Show, March 2018:
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Youtube watch:
Published by Simon & Schuster
17 May 2018 ǀ Hardback ǀ £20.00
A COMPELLING AUTOBIOGRAPHY FROM THE TWELVE TIMES WORLD CHAMPION OF TRIALS
When Dougie Lampkin was born, his father Martin had placed a motorcycle next to his cot before he returned from hospital – if anyone can say that they were destined for a career in motor biking it was him.
So far, nine members of the Lampkin family have competed at a high level of the sport, but it was Dougie who set new standards, winning seven consecutive outdoor world titles and five indoor world titles, earning him the MBE at the age of twenty-five.
Off-road motorcycling continues to grow in popularity, with more than 100,000 people taking part in the UK alone, and millions more following online or on television. In this superb memoir, Lampkin brings the excitement of his sport vividly to life.
He also shares the behind-the-scenes drama behind some of his most famous Red Bull challenges – such as the day he took his trials bike for a ride through Red Bull’s Formula One factory, with Christian Horner looking on in sheer amazement as he rode his bike over a multi-million-pound F1 car, leaving it without a scratch.
To date, some 10 million people have watched this episode on YouTube.
Trials and Error is a brilliant book that goes beyond the story behind trial biking, and the journey to becoming world champion – it is also a love letter to his family and community, to whom Dougie attributes his many successes.
Article: Ian Coulter
Image: Bexleyheath & DMCC
Organised by the Bexleyheath & District Motor Cycle Club, the ‘Battle of Burwash’ trial has been running for around seven years. It’s been named after the Battle off Hastings (1066) as it’s only down the road from the famous battle.
Held on 2nd and 3rd June, it’s run on a brilliant piece of ground over seventy acres of streams, rocks and high banks, which makes a challenge for all abilities.
Run over two days starting on the Saturday at noon with four laps of eight sections with results and awards that same afternoon.
Sunday is three laps of thirteen sections, which are different from the Saturday, the results being compiled that night and up on Motorbiketrials.com by Monday morning.
Camping is available with plenty of room for campers, caravans and tents. Easy access via concrete path so no getting stuck problems. There will be toilets and fresh water available on site. Event postcode TN218XA. Camping available from the Thursday afternoon.
I was born on the 1st of February 1940 in Perth, Scotland.
What is the family history in relation to motorcycles and can you tell us about Jimmy Buchan’s achievements in racing?:
My father, Jack, rode in the TT, the Scottish Six Days and the International Six Days. My brother Jimmy was in my father’s sidecar for the International Six Days at sixteen years of age in 1951 in Italy!
Jimmy rode the Isle of Man for the first time in 1954 and won the Clubmans TT in 1955 riding a BSA Gold Star. Then in 1956 he won the Manx Grand Prix double riding a Manx Norton.
Tell us about the retail motorcycle business you owned in Perth?:
‘Buchan Motorcycles’ was opened in 1960 by my father on Rannoch Road, Perth. In 1972 I took over the business, not because my father had decided to pack it in, retire and play golf all day, but because he felt you’re never too old to travel and got on his bike.
He planned on going from the foot of Argentina to the tip of Alaska. Off he went on his bike with insufficient cash banking on his charisma to be his currency and his iconic tam o’ shanter to explore the other side of the world.
Unfortunately, having reached as far as Mexico, he took ill before making it to the U.S and couldn’t complete his journey.
By the mid 1970s I opened a branch of the business in Forfar and in the next decade another in Perth Town Centre.
As you sold Bultaco and Montesa, did you deal directly with Comerfords and Montala Motors/Jim Sandiford?:
Yes, I dealt with all them directly and also dealt with Greeves Motorcycles, Honda, Yamaha and Suzuki directly.
You rode a 50cc Heldun (mistake in SSDT programme saying 60cc Heldun) in 1968. Tell us about the Heldun and how did the SSDT ride come to pass?:
Having spoken to the Heldun representative at the 1967 Motorcycle Show, chatting about trials, they suggested I visit the factory at Birmingham for a test ride. This lead to me being offered a bike for the SSDT for the following year. The Heldun was powered by a Sachs engine.
In 1968 SSDT I completed the SSDT which is mentioned in this article http://www.classic50racingclub.co.uk/the-heldun-marque.html (they made a mistake in calling me John instead of Donald!)
You rode the ISDT in 1969. Tell us about the bike you rode on? None of the Scots finished in 1969, not even Ernie Page, what put you out of the event?:
I rode on a Greeves, it was a Comerfords International Six Days model, 250cc, part of the British Vase B team. I was hit by an Italian rider, I think on day two and fractured my ribs causing my premature departure from the event.
How many times did you ride in the SSDT?:
I think it was five or six times.
Any favourite events in trials in Scotland?:
Any Scottish champion trial, none in particular. I competed in the length and breadth of Scotland, from Rogart to Ayrshire. Riding various bikes from the aforementioned Heldun to Triumph 500cc.
Were you a member of Scotland’s oldest motorcycle club the Perth and District Motor Club?:
Yes, I was a member from the late 1950s until the late 70s.
Did you organise any events?:
Yes, I was the trials convenor for a few years of the Perth & District MC.
Did you scramble or road race at any time?:
Yes, I road raced on a 50cc in Errol 1958 and at Beveridge Park, Kirkcaldy in the early 60s. I took part in various organised scrambles and hill climbs.
Many thanks to Donald and his family for putting this interview together.
The article on Heldun, linked to in this article is the copyright of the Classic Racing 50cc Club UK.
Other ‘Great Scots’ in the series: HERE
A short film by Wired Tree Videos featuring Gary Macdonald of Kinlochleven, Scotland’s most successful trials rider of all time.
This was shown at the Fort William Mountain Film Festival
Copyright: Wired Tree Videos
It is with great sadness that Trials Guru reports the death of North-East trials rider, Billy Maxwell.
Born on the 14th December 1942, Billy was a big man with a big character and a very good rider in his day. Originally from Biggar in Lanarkshire, he emigrated to the North East of England in 1966 and set up in business as a demolition contractor in 1972 as Maxwell’s Demolition.
As well as riding in his ‘native’ north-east he regularly rode in Scotland especially the Loch Lomond and Aberfeldy Two Day events. His best friend was John Noble of Candie-burn, Biggar.
Trials Guru’s John Moffat knew Maxwell for over 40 years and said: “Billy was a great guy, always willing to help an unfortunate rider. This he demonstrated to me as a young rider when in 1975, I rode my first Loch Lomond 2 Day and had not adjusted my drive chain properly, it kept coming off the rear spocket when traversing the moor. Billy arrived with Jimmy Ballantyne close behind. They stopped and Billy got wired in about my stricken Bultaco and properly adjusted the chain cams and soon I was on my way. When I came into the finish, he came over and rechecked the chain and asked if I got round alright.
Moffat continued: “I once asked Billy why he didn’t properly buckle up his Alpinestar trials boots, he always seemed to ride with the straps flailing about. He said in his Geordie accent, ‘It’s simple John, they don’t make boots wide enough to get around me calves’. I looked and sure enough Billy had the thickest calves I have ever seen and there was no way they could ever have buckled up properly.”
Billy owned a number of classic motorcycles, an Ariel HT5 which he rode in the Pre’65 Scottish and the ex-Ron Thomson Gold Star BSA, PFS916. He certainly loved his bikes.
Moffat added: “Billy Maxwell was a big built, tough hard working man, but he also had a heart of gold there is no mistaking, he was one of the sports true enthusiasts.”
Here’s to you Billy!
Funeral Arrangements:
The family have asked Trials Guru to include the following intimation.
Bill Maxwell’s funeral will take place on Wednesday, 14th March at 1.15 pm at the West Road Crematorium, Newcastle Upon Tyne – NE5 2JL. Followed by a celebration of Bill’s life at the South Gosforth Club, Gosforth, -NE3 1RS
TRIALS GURU - DEDICATED TO TRIAL 