The Pre’65 Scottish Trial will take place on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th April in 2017, however it doesn’t magically appear year after year.
The official ‘setting out team’ have been busy this November looking for new routes and sections to keep riders on their toes and to stop the event becoming the same old event year in, year out.
The biggest challenge now is to test the top riders due to the massive improvements made to Pre’65 machinery, with very few original bikes being entered now as the Pre’65 scene has changed dramatically over the years.
Machines that would have been turned away ten years ago are now accepted, with four speed Bultacos being just one make that has come of age.
1959 Scottish Six Days Trial – Paul Kilbauskas with his 500 Royal Enfield – Photo: John Davies
Many say that it is sad that so many genuine machines have been assigned to the backs of sheds and garages once again as the Pre’65 movement evolved in the late 1970s to encourage the use of old trials irons. The Pre’65 Scottish unfortunately gets more attention than most events, purely because of its’ popularity and status as being still ‘THE’ event to get an entry accepted to.
Ernie Lyons on his 250 Bultaco, a machine that is now accepted in the Pre’65 Scottish, seen here riding the sections known as the Moon in Glassamucky, Co Dublin – Photo: Pat Ewen, Dublin
However what hasn’t changed since 1984, the first year the Pre’65 Scottish was run as a one day event on a midweek, is that it still takes a team of dedicated individuals to actually put the trial on the ground.
Super-enthusiast from Olot, Carlos Casas loves the Pre-65 Scottish as much as he does the SSDT – Photo: John Hulme/Trial Magazine UK
Please be aware that riding in the Kinlochleven area without the full permission of both the landowners and the government agency, Scottish Natural Heritage is strictly prohibited. Many of the well-known Pre’65 Scottish sections are located on SSSIs.
Toshi Nishiyama (Japan – BSA B40) Pre’65 Scottish 1999, watched by Mick Wilkinson on far left and Robert Woodfield on right centre – Photo: Iain Lawrie, Kinlochleven
Entry forms and regulations are now available for the 2017 Pre’65 Scottish Trial on Friday 28th and Saturday 29th April.
The event has been running since 1984 and is limited to 180 competitors. It is expected to be over-subscribed which necessitates a entry ballot which is drawn just before Christmas.
The 2017 event is sponsored by Hope Technology of barnoldswick in Yorkshire and is in memory of part founder, Simon Sharpe who died this year and was a regular competitor in the event.
‘Team Sharpe’ son and father: Sam & the late Simon Sharpe at the 2016 – Photo courtesy: John Hulme, Classic Trial Magazine UK
Here are the entryform and regulations for the 2017 Pre’65 Scottish:
Guy Martin, star of the film ‘TT3D – Closer To The Edge’ and various television series is to ride a 350cc Ariel in the 2016 Pre’65 Scottish Trial on Friday 29th and Saturday, 30th April, 2016. He will also undertake duties as the official guest of honour for the event which takes place around the village and hillsides of Kinlochleven, Argyll.
Trials Guru’s John Moffat (left) with Guy Martin (centre) and George McCann at the Bon Accord Grampian Motorcycle Convention at Alford in 2011 where he was guest of honour – Photo copyright: Jean Moffat/Moffat Racing
The Pre’65 trial secretary, Anne Gordon added: ‘We are delighted to announce that Guy Martin, Motorcycle Racer and TV star has agreed to be Guest of Honour for the 2016 event and has also entered the trial to try his hand at Pre’65 trials riding. It is a great honour for us to have him at the trial and we would like to thank Simon Sharp and Owen Hardisty at Hope Technology (our Saturday Day Sponsors) for helping us to get Guy to the event after we approached them at last year’s SSDT. We are really excited to have such a celebrity at our event and hope he enjoys taking part. I don’t think there will be many people who have not heard of Guy, as he is well-known through his very illustrious motorcycle racing career as well as his many film and television shows that have us all enthralled with his very hands on and down to earth approach’.
The Pre’65 Scottish is always massively oversubscribed with over 150 potential entrants disappointed at not getting through the inevitable ballot of competitors. However it should be clarified that Hope Technology are the event sponsors and as such, are entitled to what is effectively a ‘wild-card’ reserved entry as part of their sponsorship deal, which in this case has been granted to Guy Martin for 2016. The appearance of Guy Martin at this event, both as a rider and guest of honour can only be good for the sport of trials and the ever supportive inhabitants of the town of Kinlochleven.
Guy Martin picks up his 350 Ariel that he will use in the 2016 Pre’65 Scottish Two-Day Trial on 29/30 April from Hope Technology’s designer Owen Hardisty – Photo courtesy of Hope Technology.
Who is Guy Martin?
Born in Grimsby, Lincolnshire, England in November 1981, Guy was the central racing character when supported by the Irish-based Wilson Craig Honda team in the docu-movie, ‘TT3D – Closer to the Edge’ which was filmed during the 2010 TT races and screened in 2011. This set Martin on the road to a lucrative television career having competed for many years at the Isle of Man TT with success, but so far no outright TT win to his credit. He has ridden for AIM Yamaha, Relentless/Tyco Suzuki and Hydrex Honda teams in the past.
Martin is interested in all things mechanical, his main occupation is an HGV mechanic with an independent truck company in Grimsby Lincolnshire, which specialises in the maintenance of Scania trucks. His father Ian who also ran a similar business is also a former motorcycle road racer who retired from racing in 1988 after an accident at Scarborough’s Oliver’s Mount.
Martin has been the central character in several television documentaries which has taken him half way around the globe to India and most recently to Latvia in a Chanel Four production in which he retraced the life of his late maternal grandfather, Zanus ‘Walter’ Kidals in the war-torn Baltic state of Latvia which saw occupation by both German and Russian troops in the second world conflict. His grandfather was a displaced person known as ‘DP’ arriving via Hull where he met an English girl, married, settled and worked in Britain.
By coincidence, the town of Kinlochleven saw many DPs, like Martin’s grandfather; arrive from war-torn Europe and the Balcan states of Poland, Latvia and Lithuania as there was work available at the North British Aluminium Company smelter in Kinlochleven. One such man was Lithuanian born Paul Kilbauskas, who arrived in 1947 and found employment at the aluminium works and with co-worker and friend Ian Pollock discovered the many paths and sections that are still used by both the Pre’65 and Scottish Six Days events that make use of the Leven Valley in early May. Kilbauskas later became a ‘Tunnel Tiger’ working on the large hydro-electric schemes in the Scottish Highlands.
Guy has harboured a desire to compete in Pre’65 trials since 2011, but television and racing commitments rendered it a ‘back-burner’ for a few years.
The Pre’65 committee having secured sponsorship with Hope Technology which has an association with Guy through his interest in mountain bikes and eventually Simon Sharp and Owen Hardisty made the approach to see if Martin would be Guest of Honour at the annual event, now in its thirty second year.
Guy Martin has turned his skilled hands to many things in front of camera, including a two-year restoration of a Supermarine Spitfire fighter aircraft which had been buried in a French beach since the second world war; a rebuild of a narrow-boat called ‘Reckless’ and much more; including riding a hydroplane motocross bike across a lake and setting a speed record for a pedal-cycle. He was even fortunate enough to be allowed to work on the last flying Vulcan bomber aircraft XH558 during preparations for its final flight in 2015.
Guy’s Ariel:
On loan specially for the Pre’65 Scottish Guy will be riding a 350cc Ariel HT3 which used to belong to Lancastrian ace, Chris Gascoigne who campaigned the machine for many years and has been a winner in Chris’s hands many times over.
Added attractions for the 2016 Pre’65 Scottish from 1966:
The 1967 SSDT programme cover featured the 1966 winner, Alan Lampkin on his factory BSA 748MOE
There will also be an appearance of the 1966 Scottish Six Days winning BSA C15T of Alan ‘Sid’ Lampkin. Registered as 748MOE, it will be ridden in the Pre’65 by Alan’s son, James Lampkin to celebrate 50 years since Sid’s SSDT victory on the very last British four-stoke machine to win the Highland classic. This will be James Lampkin’s first pre’65 Scottish although he has competed in the SSDT for many years.
James Lampkin: “Dad realised that it would be 50 years since the BSA won the Scottish in 1966 after he bought the bike back again in October 2014. It is very original having passed through quite a few owners since it was sold off in 1967. Although he doesn’t ride trials himself anymore, he was very pleased when I agreed to enter on the BSA. I’m really looking forward to it”.
1966 SSDT winner, A.R.C. ‘Sid’ Lampkin seen here with John Moffat (Trials Guru) in November 2014. James Lampkin is visible on the left of the photo – Photo courtesy: John Hulme/Trial Magazine.
Mike Ransom on Mamore in the 2008 Pre’65 Scottish Trial – Photo: Iain Lawrie, Kinlochleven.
Trials Guru caught up with former Francis Barnett teamster, Mike Ransom and asked him about his trials career.
Mike Ransom: “I’ve been riding motorcycles for sixty years now and enjoyed every minute of it.
I never rode in the International Six Days, but I did ride my Francis Barnett in France at Rochepaule at Claude Coutard’s place where I won the Pre’65 event. From memory there were over three hundred riders there with all the various classes. I lost three marks on the last section on the second day. It was a fabulous event and a lovely journey to get to it.
My first Scottish Six Days was in 1957, when I received a Special First class award. I managed to win a Special First in every Scottish I rode in.
In 1999 I won the 250cc cup at the Pre’65 Scottish Trial, the same award I won thirty-six years previously in the Scottish in 1962 on the same machine – 307AKV.
Unlike many of my contemporaries, I have kept riding, I will be 80 in June and two years ago I bought a modern bike, a Montesa 4RT.
In 2012 I rode in the Relaince trial on the clubman’s route as it was fifty years from when I rode it on the Barnett which was brand new at the time. I finished runner up to Bob Baker by one mark”.
Mike’s modifications:
“My Francis Barnett is virtually original, it has the original hubs and they haven’t been skimmed. I was permitted to modify it it in 1964 to the specification it is now.
I altered the steering head angle to the magic 67 degrees, to do this I had to add 0.75 of an inch to the top frame tube. I did various modifications in 1964. I lifted the bottom tube, moved the motor back in the frame and narrowed the rear . I then took the two tubes that run under the tank and triangulated it with one.
At one stage ,I removed 0.75 of an inch out of the swinging arm, but immediately replaced it as it wasn’t successful.
At the time, the factory wasn’t keen on any modifications from standard, their policy was for bits to come from the shelves at AMC. I think the writing was on the wall financially as they went bust in 1966. They must have thought something of me, as they offered me the bike for just the purchase tax payment.
I do all my own welding and I am fairly proud to say that nothing has moved since 1964!
By comparison to the modern frames in T45 tubing, it weighs about forty five pounds more and I find that this hampers the machine somewhat.
I know that I made these modifications before anyone else and there are more James and Barnetts now than ever before!”
Mike Ransom on Am Bodach in the 2008 Pre’65 Scottish Trial – Photo Copyright: Iain Lawrie, Kinlochleven.
Trials Interest:
“My interest in trials started with push-bikes as children. We started a club called Old Park Hammers. Alan Morewood and Philip Beal were original members. My Hercules was very second hand, but I thought it was the bee’s knees when I put a big sprocket on the Sturmey-Archer.
We also competed round the Sheffield area riding Cycle Speedway using the old bomb sites which had been spread into red ash. I started motorcycling on a Cyclemaster which of course fitted into the Hercules frame. My mother entered me into a competition which I won at sixteen years of age.
My next bike was a model 18 Norton with girder forks on which I passed my driving test. This was followed by a BSA Gold Star B34 trials which weighed in at a whopping three hundred and eight pounds.
The Gold Star had a mere six inches of ground clearance and I ran it in going to the Motor Cycle show in London. On the way back I opened her up and shut her back down at 92 mph on the A1. That was on standard trials gearing!
I was at this time about 18 and I rode this all over Yorkshire you recall we rode to trials and back to Sheffield using ‘bobby dodgers’. I broke three pistons in it, taking the bottom plate off then scooping the bits out, before carrying on or home Otley, Ilkley, Bradford and Halifax were many miles from home. We had no other means or could not afford any alternative. I later found out that Goldstar pistons did not have split skirts, my local rebore chap kept using Hepolite split skirts which gave up”.
Competition:
“My first club was the Sheffield and Hallamshire, we were affiliated to the Yorkshire Centre. At the time there was perhaps 16 South Yorkshire Group Clubs such as Woksop, Doncaster putting on trials which included an South Yorkshire championship which I won quite a few times. Major trials were usually Centre status events where we did the long distances.
Centre trials in Yorkshire were around 60 miles one lap events and always included miles of moorland, something the modern rider would not comprehend; riding to the trials would be another. Trials were essentially a winter event and we took to Scrambling in the summer, I was Yorkshire centre champion in the late fifties riding my Enfield.
I did ride for Yorkshire three times in the Inter Centre Team Trial in the late fifties. At one event at Honiton Tom Ellis was team manager and he booked us in to a Temperance Hotel and I have recollections of Artie Ratcliffe, Peter Fletcher and Arthur Lampkin bringing crates of beer into the hotel lounge.
Tom Ellis was a bit upset, not about the beer but the noise the clinking of the bottles was making, we may have been chucked out. One weekend I did ride in the West of England trial at Newton Abbot on the Saturday a trade supported event to which I got seven pounds and ten shillings expenses, that was the standard rate.
We then had to travel the next day to Brecon to ride in the inter centre team trial. We then came back to Sheffield to be at work Monday morning and remember no M4 etc”.
Scrambles:
“I did win the 500 final at our club scramble one year on my HT Ariel, but the Scrambles circuit was more like the Scott Trial (I have about 6 silver spoons) in those days and on that day the course was very hard and suited me. Of all the South Yorkshire Trials clubs that existed only two now put on trials.
The Hallamshire is now affiliated to the East Midland centre. It does mean that all that land we used, is now lost. I know where we used to trial and scramble at Rotherham ( Listerdale) is now a huge housing estate.
I had a Royal Enfield 350cc springer, very novel in those days, which I also scrambled; a Tiger Cub and a loan of a 250 BSA. I purchased John Harris’s HT Ariel which I had quite a lot of success with. Winning the National Peaks Trial twice on the trot, and the Hillsborough Jack Wood twice on the trot too.
I got a bit of support from Ariel and rode in two British Experts finishing 16 both times, not bad when you consider we were the best in the world then. Tony Bou eat your heart out, he was not born then.
In one of the British Experts, Roy Peplow and Gordon Blakeway came together, which resulted in a broken leg for Gordon. I then went into the team with Sammy Miller and Ron Langston for that year’s Scott Trial.
Eventually I got a 1961 Barnett with the AMC engine in, it was wide and the motor would not pull second gear. I used to get quite slick at changing down to bottom when the motor died. I trialed that up and down the country locally and Nationally and I must have done well enough for Mr Denton, Sales Manager at Barnetts (then at Coventry) to offer me a ride on the new 37A Villiers motored Barnetts, for the 1962 Scottish.
The first trial was the Reliance a regional restricted event in those days, where I won it, and team members Ian Williamson and Johnny Roberts finished second and third with Eric Adcock on the DOT fourth. So an excellent start and then up to the start in the Market place in Edinburgh the result was the third place on 29 marks, behind Sammy and Gordon Jackson, Gordon having done that fabulous dab the year before 1961″.
Mike Ransom on Am Bodach in 2006 at the Pre’65 Scottish Trial – Photo copyright: Iain Lawrie, Kinlochleven.
Trials Guru: Many thanks to Mike Ransom for sharing his memories and giving us an insight into trials as it used to be. Mike was a skilled and talented rider in his day who kept going after many of his contemporaries had hung up their boots. Mike Ransom regularly rode the Pre’65 Scottish on the same machine that carried him to success in the Scottish Six Days in 1962. It is a pleasure to be able to share his story on this website.
Mike Ransom leaves Gorgie Cattle Market, Edinburgh at the start of the 1963 Scottish Six Days – Photo courtesy: Jimmy Young, Armadale
Mike Ransom’s name will forever be associated with the marque, Francis Barnett, the motorcycle manufacturer founded in 1919, by Gordon Inglesby Francis and Arthur Barnett, and based in Lower Ford Street, Coventry, England.
TRIALS GURU 