Recently, Trials Guru was approached by a fellow enthusiast of motorcycle sport, Justyn Norek.
In case you don’t know him here is some information.
Justyn was born in Cracovia, Poland. As a teenager he followed the famous Tatra Trial based at Zakopane, an event frequented by Ted Usher, John Giles, John Brittain and many other British trials riders of note.
Justyn became friendly with Kuno Karlsson of Sweden a good rider in his day, which resulted in a visit to Sweden in 1966. Norak became friends with Ingvald Johanson of MC-Nytt the monthly motorcycle magazine.
Norek was always taking bike-sport photographs, a skill he developed to good effect and his work was now being published in the UK, Italy, Spain and the Netherlands.
He was offered the job of photographer for Team Husqvarna by their motocross manager, Bror Jauren. Husqvarna used many of Justyn’s images for their sales catalogues and were more than impressed with his work. However, Justyn was at that time at Cracow Polytechnic studying engineering and car design, so reluctantly he had to decline Husqvarna’s offer, which he deeply regretted.
In 1981, Norek moved to live in Italy, near Turin becoming design director at Idea Institute in 1992.
Norek retired in 2014 to concentrate in his painting. However, Justyn is now photographing motocross once more.
Sadly much of his early work has been lost or destroyed in Poland over the years so we are fortunate to be able to share with you on Trials Guru Justyn’s handiwork and skill in a small way.
The Highland Classic Two-Day Trial was held on 13/14 June at the Highland shooting estate, Alvie. Rick Lound was there to capture the action, here is a link to his photos. Thanks Rick!
Guest of Honour this year was Bill Wilkinson who enjoyed the experience and vowed to return again!
The fourth annual Bob MacGregor Memorial motorcycle run took place on Tuesday 28th April at the Perthshire village of Killin.
Trials Guru, John Moffat was the guest of honour and rode his late father’s 1951 AJS 16MC trials machine on a route that covered approximately 130 miles of Perthshire’s A and B class roads.
The actual machine used by Trials Guru, John Moffat, seen here in the 1953 Scottish with Arnott Moffat on board. Photo: Ray Biddle.
The route took in Glen Lyon, Loch Rannoch, Bridge of Balgie, Bridge of Gaur and out to Rannoch Station with a stop for fuel in Aberfeldy.
The organiser in chief was Kendal enthusiast Peter Remington who is a well known trials and scrambles rider from the North West Centre.
Mark Whitham’s Rudge outside the original ‘Bob MacGregor Greengrocer shop in Killin. Number 14 was MacGregor’s winning riding number in the 1935 Scottish Six Days Trial.
Former Scottish Six Days Trial Clerk of Course Mark Whitham entered on a 1935 499 Rudge, a similar machine to the type Bob MacGregor won the SSDT with in 1935, the last win by a Scottish rider.
Local painter/decorator Bobby Lafferty plotted and marked the route and obtained various landowner permissions. Catering was supplied by specialists Gourlay Catering from Crieff.
Local man, Bobby Lafferty gets ready to check the route the day before the run, just to make sure all is well! – Photo Karen Lafferty, Killin.
A variety of machinery was used ranging from early trials machines to more modern trail and road machines with a few Cheney Triumphs, one used by ex-ISDT rider George Webb.
The weather up to the event was not good with snow down to sea level the day before, but all the roads were snow and ice free even high up and everyone vowed to return next year. Roll on 2016!
With only a few days until this years’ annual Pre’65 Scottish Trial at Kinlochleven, the organisers and course plotters had to overcome extreme April weather to lay the event on the hill.
Here is a photo taken by Pre’65 course plotters today, Monday 27th April not far above the village which gives a flavour of the extreme conditions that can occur in the Scottish highlands.
Pre’65 course setters on Monday 27th April. Photo courtesy of Tam Weir, E&D Pre’65 Chairman
The weather forecast is better for the event, but it is not expected to be plain sailing with a mixed bag of sunshine and showers.
Taken on the main A82 trunk road at Glencoe, Triumph’s professional stunt-rider Kevin Carmichael and friends had a run up to the highlands but were caught out by the cold snap travelling home on Monday. Photo courtesy: Kevin Carmichael.
The Scottish Six Days Trial starts on Monday 4th May to Saturday 9th May, 2015. Be sure to purchase the official programme, priced at £3.00 available locally at Fort William.
The annual Scottish Six Days Trial commences on Monday 4th May at Fort William with first man Gordon Murray on his Beta 300 leading the pack out of the West End Car Park at 07.30 GMT. Riders leave at minute intervals.
The event has had some personnel changes since the last trial, incoming SSDT Secretary is Dutch born mathematics teacher, Mieke De Vos, taking over from Catherine Halley who is now an official route-marker. Colin Menzies has retired as Chief Marshal, with Brenda McColm and Catherine Anderson sharing the position.
Dutch born mathematics teacher, Mieke De Vos is the SSDT Secretary 2015.
Quite a number of the hardy observers have retired, one notable absentee is Inverness & District Chairman, Malcolm Smith who will be spectating for the first time in many years, having been a competitor and then an observer for 25 years or more!
There are some new hazards introduced for the event on the Wednesday as the trial goes down to Appin on the A828. The new groups are named: ‘Meall nan Tarbh’ (3); ‘Appin’ (2) and ‘Big Dar’s Burn’ (2) with ‘Glen Stockdale’ 1300m from the village. The local community hall will be open at Appin serving a variety of food and drink, but the organisers would like any spectators to park in a sensible manner so that the continued use of the area can be assured. On the Thursday 7th May, the trial ventures back down into Perthshire as far as ‘Lochs Wood’ which has been missing of late, but spectators are most likely to catch the event at Chair Lift or Ba House, before marching up to Fersit which is a good hours walk from the car parking area at the hamlet. Friday 8th May is the traditional ‘Road Trip’ day when the riders go around the Moidart Peninsula covering around 80 miles of scenic route is the weather is fair. Please follow in the direction of the route to avoid meeting oncoming competitors wherever possible.
Remember to purchase a copy of the programme, the proceeds help the “Leanne Fund”, a local Lochaber charity, it costs £3.00 and will be on sale in the West End Car Park and various businesses in Fort William during the event.
As usual Nevis Radio will keep you up to date with the goings on at Parc Ferme from 7.00 – 11.00 GMT every day Monday to Saturday with David Ogg, Si Abberley and John Weller… of yes, I almost forgot, Trials Guru (The Moffster) will make his annual return to the airwaves!
Just a few more days until this year’s Pre’65 Scottish at Kinlochleven on May 1st and 2nd – and here we have Kendal enthusiast Eddie Dobson with his home built Norton.
Eddie Dobson proudly displays his home built and prepared Norton.
And here we have Eddie in his younger days on Peter Remington’s Sapphire Ossa at the 1980 Valente Trial.
Eddie on the Sapphire Ossa in 1980 – Photo copyright: Jimmy Young, Armadale.
Produced by Stu Thomson of CutMedia – for The Edinburgh & District Motor Club Ltd – Scottish Six Days Trial – organisers since 1911, still going strong!
The annual Scottish Six Days Trial starts on Monday 4th May until Saturday 9th May in Fort William and surrounding Lochaber and down into Perthshire.
The event which has been organised by the Edinburgh & District Motor Club Ltd since 1911 is always over-subscribed and covers some 600 miles during the week long excursion.
Dubbed many years ago as the ‘Sporting holiday in the Highlands’ it is far from being a holiday for most of the riders as it is still regarded as a fairly hard event to compete in.
The clerk of course is Jeff Horne from Perth and he has found some interesting new hazards for 2015.
Jeff Horne is the SSDT Clerk of the Course 2015
There is a new event secretary, Mieke De Vos, a Dutch born mathematics teacher who lives not far from Edinburgh. Mieke has been around the SSDT for a few years now and was the finish marshal at last year’s event.
Mieke De Vos is the new SSDT Secretary for 2015
Nevis Radio will once again be covering the SSDT live every morning from the Parc Ferme situated in Fort William’s West End. Nevis Radio is the only media group covering the event. You can listen live on your mobile device or home computer. Coverage begins every morning at 07.00 GMT.
The presenters will be Station Manager David Ogg, Si Abberley and The Moffster (aka Trials Guru – or John Moffat if you prefer!). Security will be covered by ‘Big’ John Weller another of the regular Nevis Radio weekly presenters drafted in for SSDT week!
The Nevis Radio Crazy Outside Broadcast Team for the SSDT – From left: David Ogg (The Oggster); John Moffat (The Moffster) & ‘Big John’ Weller – The Security Man!
The coverage will once again be sponsored by Michelin Competition and Trial Magazine, Britain’s foremost trials only full-colour magazine.
The Moffster (Left) interviews 12 times World Trials Champion Dougie Lampkin on Nevis Radio.
Keep tuned to NEVIS RADIO during Scottish week, whether you are in attendance or at home working!
James Moorhouse on his Bultaco ‘El Donkey’ which he has rebuilt and modified himself for the annual Scottish Six Days Trial. Photo courtesy: Neil Sturgeon, Darlington.
Here at Trials Guru we like to bring you something different from the norm, so here we have news of a Skipton lad who has entered the Scottish Six Days Trial on a bike that is certainly out of age.
James Moorhouse has entered on a 325cc Bultaco Sherpa T which in effect a thirty year old motorcycle to compete against the modern trials machines.
Allocated riding number 181, we look forward to plotting James’s progress on a machine he has christened ‘El Donkey’. The reason for the strange name is by way of homage to the tuner from Barcelona, ‘El Puma’, Jose Luis Rodriguez of Puma Racing whose speciality is restoring and tuning Bultaco motorcycles. James has rebuilt his Bultaco in the style of El Puma, but to put his own touch on it, dubbed the motorcycle ‘El Donkey’.
Listen up for daily interviews with James on Nevis Radio during SSDT week and if you are at the event, be sure to cheer James on.
Moorhouse will be in company with friends, Boyd Webster and Alan Mudd.
Article: Trials Guru / Moffat Racing, John Moffat 2015
Bob MacGregor in the 1939 SSDT on his Rudge. Photo: Trials Guru Archive
In May 1935, 80 years ago now, Robert ‘Bob’ MacGregor rode his factory Rudge motorcycle to victory in the annual Scottish Six Days Trial, little did he know at the time, that he was to be the only Scotsman to have ever won the event and his ‘record’ would last well into the following century! MacGregor also won the same event three years previously when he became the first individual winner of the event. Bob was Rudge mounted for the 1932 event, although he did also ride for the Raleigh factory in reliability trials on previous occasions.
The 1935 results sheet, showing Bob Macgregor (Rudge) as the overall winner of the trial. Courtesy of Edinburgh & District Motor Club Ltd Archive.
Bob lived in Killin on the shores of Loch Tay and ran a successful greengrocers business in the centre of the Perthshire village. He was well-known locally and respected as a sporting personality of his time.
The Perthshire village of Killin is no stranger to the Scottish Six Days. This is the village in which Bob MacGregor ran his greengrocers business. Photo: Trials Guru Archive
MacGregor would regularly ride his machine from his home to the Coventry factory for refurbishment works and ride the machine home again, taking in a national event on the way. There were no works vans or motorhomes in those days so any travelling was done on the machine you competed on.
Front cover of the 1935 SSDT programme featuring Killin, which was won by Bob MacGregor – Photo Courtesy of Edinburgh & District Motor Club Ltd Archive.
After his SSDT victory, Bob continued to compete as a national rider until the outbreak of the second world-war in 1939 when he was enlisted into the British Army for a specific purpose, this venture was led by Graham Walker, the father of sports commentator Murray Walker. MacGregor became a motorcycle instructor and trained many hundreds of despatch riders or ‘Don-R’s’ as they were referred to by the military. Bob delivered training for off-road riding, using his trials riding skills to great effect. It was when he was in the army that he met and struck up a friendship with Hugh Viney who was a Sergeant and would become one of the post-war winners of the SSDT when he rode for AJS. MacGregor did ride a few more SSDT’s post-war but a new breed of younger men emerged in the sport such as Artie Ratcliffe, Johnny Brittain, Jeff Smith, John Draper and of course Hugh Viney, who had won the first post-war SSDT in 1947 at his first attempt. Since 1935, there have been only two Scotsmen to secure ‘podium’ positions, Bob MacGregor and Kinlochleven’s Gary Macdonald, who came third in 2003. Macdonald is the most successful Scottish trials rider of all time, having won ten Scottish titles and a British title.
Gary Macdonald – Scotlands’ most successful trials rider of all time! – Photo: Iain Lawrie, Kinlochleven.
MacGregor’s name lives on in Killin, firstly as the greengrocers business still bears his name although not now under family ownership. Secondly as an annual trial is held there, run by the enthusiastic Bob MacGregor Motorcycle Club, an event conceived by the local painter, decorator and trials rider, Bobby Lafferty. The event is always over-subscribed and supported by riders from far-afield. Thirdly, there is an annual road run around the area, organised by the Cumbria Classic Club headed up by trials and scrambles rider Peter Remington from Kendal. This year, former SSDT Clerk of Course Mark Whitham will be riding a 1935 Rudge ‘Special Competition’ model in the road run, an almost identical machine to that which MacGregor won the SSDT eighty years previously.
Mark Whitham’s 1935 Rudge Special Competition model.
MacGregor’s daughters regularly attend the main trial event to remember their childhood in the village and of course their father’s achievements in the sport of motorcycle trials. Gary Macdonald’s life-time ambition is to break Bob MacGregor’s SSDT record, now in its eightieth year – will he do it in 2015? We shall have to wait and see! Article Copyright: Trials Guru / Moffat Racing, John Moffat 2015 Photos by kind permission: – Iain Lawrie, Kinlochleven – Trials Guru Archive – Edinburgh & District Motor Club Ltd – Archive – Mark Whitham
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