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Dave Norris

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Dave Norris as we will remember him

The trials world in the UK were stunned on February 10th with the news of the death of Bristolian trials enthusiast Dave Norris.

Dave was the father of former Hamilton Yamaha teamster, Adam Norris who was a top UK rider in the 1990s.

In a personal tribute Trials Guru’s John Moffat said: ” I got to know Dave Norris in the 1990s as he was always around the SSDT, he chased after his rider and son Adam and we were always within speaking distance every day as Dave was a master at being in the right place at the right time, on time every time! Dave must have clocked hundreds of thousands of miles following Adam at events over the years.”

He continued: “I really got to know Dave in 2002 when I was SSDT Secretary and Adam was of course riding his umpteenth Scottish. I always enjoyed speaking with him and I just knew that he was like us all, a motorcycle sport enthusiast. He never passed me without speaking he was one of the good guys. I, along with many other friends will miss him greatly at Scottish Six Days time.”

Dave Norris’s funeral will take place on 9th March 2017 at Westerleigh Crematorium, Westerleigh Road, Bristol, BS37 8QP at 2 pm. Mourners can then attend and join the family at The Kendleshire Golf Club, Henfield Road, Near Coalpit Heath.

Our sincere condolences go to the Norris family, Delya, Lee, Jamie and Adam.

 

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By George he’s done it!

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George Moore from Northampton has been a busy lad recently, setting up ‘Montana Adventures’ in Spain. Trials Guru took some time out to have a chat with him and what he was doing.

Words: George Moore & Trials Guru

George: “I have been riding motorcycles since a very young age, when my mother introduced me to off-road riding as she rode a KTM 250 and she thought that the perfect bike for me would be a BETA REV3 250 which the clutch didn’t work properly, so as you can imagine, a baptism of fire.

I aspired to steal the KTM off her and when I could, I left trials behind and started enduro and when I was old enough, trail riding, this was my love of an ‘adventure’.

My enduro bike got stolen some years later and with running my own business and thinking I could not risk getting injured, I decided to take up trials again and got hooked. But for me it was still all about the adventures, my favourite events were road trials because of the between section riding. I have never been a good trials rider but always been brave and up for a challenge and within the first year of riding trials again I have entered the Scottish Six Days, I will ride a Montesa 4-Ride.

I have ridden and owned every modern trials bike and there are many that I truly love to ride the bike that I have always come back to is the montesa because it allows me to have the most fun for the least amount of hassle in the trials that I really enjoy.”

George in England :

“I have started and built up a successful tree surgery business over the last 10 years which I thoroughly enjoyed in which we built many custom made machines which I have loved as I am fascinated with how things work and am of the opinion that you can build most things with a welder and a good brain, not that I have a good brain when it comes to welding but I am very good at seeing the project in my head and getting the right people involved to make it all happen.”

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George in Spain:

“I came to Spain at Christmas time in 2015 to go on an enduro riding trip with a company very close to where I am operating my own business now and was a little disappointed in the level of riding, it was too easy, and how it lacked many things that I think are necessary in a holiday. When in Spain I met my now girlfriend Raquel and this prompted many more visits to spain and to this magical area, one of my journeys to see her I decided to drive and bring my trials bike. With my bike being in Spain I decided to do some map reading and some exploring and see if I could find the trails I had been craving when I had come out at Christmas and would you believe it they were everywhere.

This got me thinking, things were going well with Raquel and if this other guy can do a bad holiday then why can’t I do a good one.

So I carried on exploring some routes and finding great resteraunts for lunch and finding great accommodation and basically putting the frame work of the business in place.

And then to the bikes and the equipment well it could only really be the brand new Montesa 4 Ride, it was as if the planets had aligned the perfect tool for the job. John Lee Motorcycles sorted me out with all of the riding kit and spares I was ever going to need.

I had already built a business from the ground up before, which is hard so was determined that with this one I was not going to have any customers until it was 100% prepared.

I bought my bikes, a van for collecting customers from the airport and all parts and kit I was ever going to need and set off for Spain.

I started putting some videos and photos of my route finding on ‘facebook’ and within a day or so I had a chance message from someone I had never come across saying he wanted to come with three friends in September, this was ‘D-day’ which was brilliant, I had a target.

The four English guys lived on Ibiza and also do a trip of this sort each year so I was apprehensive as to how my tour would live up to home but they couldn’t have been happier and immediately booked up for the following year at the end of the tour they described as being the same as home but better because the landscape is bigger and the wine is better. I was at this point I was quite sure that I was doing the right thing in life.

I decided I had had enough of England apart from my favourite trials, I put my business up for sale and moved out with Raquel.”

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Montana Adventures:

“I decided when I had moved to spain that I wanted to buy some land and use it as a trials practice ground partly for my business and partly as a free and legal practice ground for brits practicing in the winter, I wanted to help trial sport as a whole but also bring some more people to my tiny village that I know call home.

I now do free trials practice lessons for the children in the village with two Osets I bought from John Lee Motorcycles.

And using this new goodwill from the locals I plan to run a three-day trial in this area in 2018 to bring even more people to this little village.

So far we have some professional German riders coming to practice, ‘Hippel Racing’ who fitted right in and had a lot of fun.”

George explains ‘Montana Adventures’ mission:

“It’s quite simple, to provide a top quality holiday.

It does not matter if you have never ridden offroad or ride the Six Days, I have stunning trails for you. This is not only for trials riders it is for motorcyclists who want to have a holiday on a bike in a beautiful place without being scared by an enduro bike or put off by not wanting to share a room with Fred or not wanting to be at the back of a ten man group.

We only provide small number tours with a max of six riders and we provide all your meals and take you to superb restaurants to eat good food.

We provide beautiful traditional accommodation with everyone having their own room.

We also provide the best bikes around, which unlike enduro bikes are suitable for absolute begginers to ride. We also provide all riding kit and safety kit as required and cover accidental damage with no charge. We collect and drop off to the airport.

The only thing you need to do is get to spain and bring some money for your beers!

I am based in the area known as Mataranna on the border of Aragon and Catalonia which is known for its beauty. The best airport is Barcelona.”

To find out more about Montana Adventures – click HERE

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Article copyright: George Moore (Montana Adventures) & Trials Guru – 2017

All photos: Copyright and Courtesy of George Moore (Montana Adventures) – 2017

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Highland Road Trip Takes Shape

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Long connections with the sport of trials – T. Arnott Moffat with John Moffat in early 1958 with Moffat’s ex-factory 350 Matchless (OLH722) in Edinburgh. Machines were ridden to events, competed with and ridden home again – Photo: Moffat Family Archive

When motorcycle enthusiasts, Peter Remington, John Holmes and John Moffat got together one sunny afternoon, the talk was predominately about one subject – motorcycling.

Former Trials and motocross competitor, Peter Remington from Kendal has for many years been the prime-mover of the annual Bob MacGregor road run at Killin, Perthshire in the April, just prior to the SSDT week.

He suggested to Moffat that it would be something different to have a road run up near Inverness to coincide with the now popular Highland Classic Two Day Trial (June 10/11). Remington made the suggestion that it be named after Moffat’s father who had been thirty-two years secretary of the Scottish ACU and was a keen motorcycle trials rider in his youth.

A suggested route would be Loch Ness based and initial soundings were taken from some local enthusiasts and the reports were favourable. There is an established annual Loch Ness run and checking the calendar it was feasible to run such an event the day after. This would allow some riders to make a two day affair out of the two independent events, one on the Sunday and the other on the Monday.

By a strange piece of good luck, Mairi Grant from Rogart discovered a copy of the 1957 Highland Two Day Trial programme and inside was the actual routes used sixty years ago.

And so the plans became a reality, with a permit approved by the Scottish ACU and the title: “Arnott Moffat Memorial Highland Road Run” was created.

The route will attempt to retrace as much of the 1957 Highland Trial as possible with a fuel and lunch stop on the way. The final route has yet to be confirmed, but entry forms are available and the cost is a modest £12. A donation will be made to the local Highland Classic Motor Cycle Club for their support of this event. All machines must be road registered and insured, with the preference being pre 1975 machinery, but all road-legal solo motorcycles are welcome. The only qualification being that you must be a ‘motorcycle enthusiast’.

Entry forms for the ‘Arnott Moffat’ on Monday, June 12th 2017 are available by contacting the event secretary, John Moffat by e-mail: highlandclassic@outlook.com

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Highlander’s Glass is Full

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The Twelfth annual Highland Classic Two Day Trial is becoming a very popular event, with the maximum entry being surpassed in less than 48 hours of it’s opening just after midnight on Wednesday, 1st February.

The go-ahead organising committee of the Inverness & District club were surprised at the take-up of entries of which they changed the format after protestations last year that it favoured previous years riders.

Club and company secretary, John Moffat said: “In 2016 we were accused of nepotism where we sent out paper-based entries to every rider who competed in the 2015 event and the Royal Mail were very quick at their delivery for some reason. The official entries opened a day later although this wasn’t the overall intention. Quite a few prospective competitors felt that this was unfair. However, I’d like to point out that quite a few regular riders have supported our event since it’s inception in 2005 when it went from a one-day trial to a two-day affair.”

Moffat continued: ” We are quite overwhelmed at the response this year as we were full by the Thursday evening. We made a conscious decision to reserve some of our entry for special ‘Guest’ riders which has been kept to a minimum and are over and above the 150 rider maximum. These riders were chosen for their contribution they have made to our sport of off-road motorcycling or were nominated by our ‘Trial Partners’ – that is Apico Factory Racing; Putoline Oils UK and Classic Trial Magazine who have been very generous in their support of the 2017 event. As a contingency, we have a 15 place reserve list in opertion, just in case any competitor pulls out, pre-event”.

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The ‘brainchild’ of Inverness Chairman, Malcolm Smith who thought up the original idea of the event which takes place on 10/11 June on the shooting estate, Alvie, near Aviemore which is run by the enthusiastic Laird, Jamie Williamson and managed by Estate Factor, David Kinnear.

This year the theme is ‘The Honda Edition’ and the Guest of Honour is 1977 British Trials Champion and Honda factory rider, Rob Shepherd. A special award will be made to the rider making the best performance on a Honda who has not won any other award. there is also a Best Female Rider award.

Shepherd will ride  a specially prepared Honda TLR250, but it is very likely that his ex-works TL305 will be there and it is hoped that Rob will demonstrate ride it during the end of one of the days.

Jean Caillou from France will be there, having entered on the ex-Marland Whaley factory Honda.

The ‘Guest’ riders announced so far are: Rob Shepherd – Honda (Guest of Honour); Yrjo Vesterinen – BSA (3 times FIM World Trials Champion); Vic Allan – MV Agusta (1974 – British 250cc and 500cc Motocross Champion); Chris Milner – Triumph (former Comerford Bultaco rider); John Hayden – Yamaha (Putoline Oils UK); Nick Shield – Yamaha Majesty (Classic Trial Magazine tester). It is still a possibility that Nick Jefferies – Honda may appear if TT committments allow.

Other notable successful entrants are former TT winner, Iain Duffus (Fantic) and Yamaha Motor Company’s Rob McElnea.

The event is billed as the ‘Friendliest Classic Trial in Scotland’ and that is helped by a relaxed atmosphere, a great place to ride off-road, sensible flowing sections, a ‘Specials’ category in case some machines don’t fully comply with class boundaries, cheese and wine at the end of Day One and for this some sections lost to the event a few years ago which are very traditional to Scotland.

 

 

 

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Dabill withdraws from SSDT

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Trials Guru’s John Moffat interviews Scott Trial 2016 winner, James Dabill at the finish. Dabill values a win at both the SSDT and the Scott highly – Photo – John Hulme/Trial Magazine

The trials world was shocked with the announcement by the reigning and seven times British Trials Champion, James Dabill that he has withdrawn his entry from the 2017 Scottish Six Days Trial in May.

Dabill broke the news via his own social media account today, 1st February. He recently changed camps from Vertigo to Gas Gas and is contracted to compete in the Spanish National Trials Championship plus the World series.

James broke the news as follows: “So this was a very long and tough decision of mine and after speaking with some of my close friends, family and Team Manager, I have decided to withdraw from taking part in this years’ SSDT.
It was not an easy decision as it’s one of my favourite events but I feel it’s the best way for me to really concentrate on having a good year at world championship.
With the first TrialGP being only a week after the SSDT, I don’t want to lose precious time training and preparing myself and my bike at the highest level possible.
I would like to thank everybody who respects my decision and I will see you up in Fort William for the first weekend and I would like to take this opportunity to wish all competitors a great and enjoyable week, Cheers Dibs”.

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James Dabill (Vertigo) on Chairlift in the SSDT 2016 – © – Image: Trial Magazine UK

Dabill’s announcement once again brings into question the tactics of the manufacturers who were always keen to win the prestigeous Scottish Six Days Trial, seen by many to have an impact on sales, in the UK at least, of trials machines. However, the World Championship does carry an equally prestigeous tag, that of World Champion.

James Dabill does value highly a win at the SSDT, he has achieved this twice in his career, 2007 and 2011, so this was clearly not a decision he wanted to have to take. However, he is a professional rider and his job is to satify his contractual obligations first and foremost.

Trials Guru’s John Moffat commented: “This must have been a very tough decision for James to take. I have interviewed him up at Fort William on the local Nevis Radio and been on stage at the presentation of awards when he picked up his wins in 2007 and 2011. He is always quite relaxed in the mornings before the off and really enjoys riding the SSDT. While it’s a great shame for SSDT fans that James will not be riding in 2017, but we wish him well in his World series, TrialGP endeavours and hope that he will return to ride the SSDT in the very near future.”

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James Dabill (Vertigo) – FIM TRIAL 2016 Cal Rosal, Spain – Photo: Mario Candellone

 

 

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Ted Heather 1937 – 2017

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Ted Heather   1937 –  2017  –   An Appreciation
Words: Frank Sweeting
Ted Heather was, I think, one of the quiet ones with his own brand of humour. When he was Clerk of the Course for the West Wilts Motor Club’s famous, or was it the infamous, Tanner Trudge Time & Observation Trial he would sometimes ring me up pretending to be perhaps Sammy Miller or another well known rider. I would usually be certain it wasn’t who Ted said it was and would be racking my brains to work out who it was on the phone, stalling for time so I could decide who it actually was on the line!
Ted was very independent and didn’t find it easy to ask for help marking out, and you had to twist his arm to get him to agree that you could come out & help him setting up before the day. Then he would say at Club Meetings that he didn’t get much help! He was quietly very proud of the many Trudges when he was Clerk of Course. I think it was 19 or 24 and it was only years later, after the Club had stopped running the Trudge because of dwindling entries that I realised Ted had wanted to make that milestone. Ted said nothing when we decided to stop running.
Ted drifted away from the Club after that, but kept involved every year in the SSDT where he would be in the parc ferme and would be out at ungodly hours putting up Route Markers. I guess those early mornings were no trouble to Ted after the many years of early starts that he had as Postman working out of Corsham. I recall him saying to me, with a chuckle, that David Hempleman-Adams, the explorer had given him a sponsored anorak which David had used on an expedition!
Ted was a keen gardener, and his own immaculate garden impressed sufficient people to ask him to look after theirs that he had more than he could really cope with. He did a lot of walking after he ‘retired’ and with the new hip that he had late last year he was planning a walking holiday in September when he would have turned 80. He liked dogs and had a succession of large dogs although I don’t think he had another after his dog, Sam, died.
Ted played his part in the Wessex Centre too, he had been President & had been awarded the Harry Croft Trophy, he had been a Centre Steward spanning the times before the days when Stewards didn’t need licences and when they did!
It’s rumoured Ted ‘helped’ riders who wanted to enter the SSDT by ‘putting in a word to the Committee’. It was rumoured that Ted paid the SSDT Entry Fee for one of the Centre’s best riders every year. Ted would just smile and be non committal if I gently tried to persuade him to let on. We know Ted was actually hurt that one or two of those he did help never actually thanked him for his intervention. The last time we saw Ted was at the in the Fort William parc ferme last year.
Ted leaves behind his widow, Rachel, they had no children.
Rachel was very involved with the Wiltshire St Johns Ambulance Service, joining in 1955 and has been the Divisional Superintendent for the Chippenham District.
I remember Ted telling me, with another little smile, that he had conducted Rachel’s driving test when they were in the RAF in Germany. She passed!
My wife Phyllis was Secretary of the Meeting for the Tanner Trudge while Ted was Clerk of Course for quite a number of years, and they always exchanged Christmas cards. Last year Phyllis’s said we weren’t going to Scotland this year, and Ted’s said he had a new hip.
We heard on Monday that Ted had passed away late last week from Wessex Centre Secretary, Theresa Talbot, who had  been told while at Sundays Vic Brittain Trial.
It was maybe 20 years ago that Ted had had an intestinal cancer which he completely recovered from. Some time after his hip operation.Ted had a DVT and a fall., He was readmitted & had another fall. A scan showed that he had a left lung shadow & a brain tumour, and he rapidly deteriorated.
Our thoughts are with Rachel.  Ted, RIP – you will be remembered.
Frank  Sweeting
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AJS on Trials Guru

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Gordon L. Jackson waits for the call to fire up 187BLF at the parade during the Centenary celebrations for the Scottish Six Days in 2011 – Photo: Tommy Sandham, Magor

Be sure to look in on our special section dedicated to the AJS & Matchless single cylinder trials machines of yesteryear, with four separate articles on the marque.

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Trials Guru’s John Moffat has had a soft spot for AMC single cylinder trials motorcycles from an early age. Seen here in 1999 riding his 1959 Matchless G3C at the Pre’65 Scottish Trial on Loch Eild Burn – Photo: Iain Lawrie, Kinlochleven

Jump straight to it… HERE

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MacGregor Run 2017

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Two great motorcycling enthusiasts from the North West, Peter Remington (left) and John Holmes

The enthusiastic Westmorland MCC headed up by super enthusiast Peter Remington have plans well advanced for the annual Bob MacGregor Memorial Road Run 2017, which takes place on Tuesday 25th April.

Again starting and finishing in MacGregor’s home town of Killin, Perthshire, the route takes in many of the old SSDT section locations from the 1960s and even earlier.

The route is around 180 road miles on a variety of A and B class rural roads and is still attracting some genuine trials machines of yesteryear.

The Guest of Honour this year is ever-green John Holmes a well known Cumbrian character who loves this run and the enjoyment it brings, especially if the weather is kind!

The start and finish is at the McLaren Hall, Main Street, Killin FK21 8UH and is open to Pre-1975 motorcycles (preferred). It is a circular route: Killin – Aberfeldy – Loch Rannoch area – Killin.

The first machines leave the start at 10.00 am and then groups of 5-10 leave at minute intervals. There is a lunch break on route.

Entries are to Peter Remington, Kenrig, Levens, Kendal, LA8 8DT or e-mail him on premington2@gmail.com

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1969 – SSDT – ‘Edramucky’, a section that the road run usually passes. Rob Edwards negotiates the hazard on his Cotton Minarelli – Photo: Rob Edward Private Collection

 

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Highland Classic goes HONDA

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The Highland Classic 2 Day Trial, Scotland’s premier event of its type will pay homage to Honda Trials with their HONDA EDITION, when the event is once again promoted by the very active and go-ahead Inverness & District MCC on June 10/11 at Alvie Estate, near Aviemore.

The Guest of Honour will be ROB SHEPHERD, British Trials Champion on Honda in 1977.

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Rob Shepherd (Honda) seen here on ‘Muirshearlich’ in the 1981 SSDT will be Guest of Honour at the 2017 Highland Classic Two-Day in June – Photo: Iain Lawrie, Kinlochleven

The decision was taken by the organising committee to continue to feature motorcycle trials brands as their headline theme and have announced the guest of honour, Rob Shepherd who is from the era when Honda was active in British and World trials with their twin-shock TL and RTL300/360 machines which were hand-built by their subsidiary company ‘Honda Racing Corporation’. Since 2013, there has been Bultaco; Greeves and Yamaha with The Thorpe Edition which paid homage to Dave Thorpe in 2014, a regular competitor at the Highland Classic.

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Alvie’s Laird, Jamie Williamson (second right) welcomes the riders to his estate in 2016 – Photo: Lorna Brackenridge

The event now enters its twelfth year as a two day trial and permission has been granted by Alvie Estates CEO, Laird Jamie Williamson who is an enthusiastic supporter of the event which now attracts an entry of 150 competitors from a variety of regions of the UK and Europe.

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Mick Andrews was guest at the Highland Classic in 2016 at the ‘Yamscot Edition’ – Photo: Lorna Brackenridge

The Highland Classic, sometimes referred to as ‘The Alvie’ or even ‘HC2DT’, has remained firm in that it accommodates Pre’65 and twin-shocks only. There are no classes for mono-shock machines and any motorcycles which have been heavily modified are put to the ‘specials’ category, although there have been very few times that the organisers have had to relegate entries to this class.

The entries will open on Wednesday 1st February and will only be available online as a pdf document from the club website, (www.idmcc.co.uk) and their facebook and event pages on social media. Previous entrants will not receive a hard copy by post. Return of the entry forms are to be made by post to the entry secretary on an ‘earliest receipt’ basis. It is expected that entries will fill rapidly as in 2016 they were full within 5 days! Entries will close when full, or Saturday, 15th April whichever is the sooner.

The first 150 entries received by the secretary will be informed of their receipt of entry and there will be a 15 strong ‘waiting list’ of reserve riders, which represent a 10% fall-back facility. E-mailed entries will not be accepted and all entry forms must be complete and accompanied by the appropriate entry fee, which will be £45.00 (50 Euros) for two days of fantastic trialling in the Scottish Highlands.

For 2017, there will be a ‘Best Female Rider’ award and ‘Best Honda’ cup.

The ‘trial partners’ for 2017 are Classic Trial Magazine; Putoline Oils and Apico Factory Racing.