I won't be doing a report as such on here from the latest event in the 2011 BTC as i have written a short piece for the T&MX with images and if they do use it you will probably only read the same thing twice!! I have supplied some photos to them as well so to be fair I won't put a large gallery up yet... which is just as well as the quality of my shots was crap! It appears that my lens did suffer more than I thought at the last round in Wales and it wasn't focusing very well, also some randon marks and smudges appear on many of them. Maybe some will make it into the paper and i will pop a few others on soon when i get the time to sort them out.

 The main reason for this page was to perform a U-Turn, like all good political parties do!
Upon arriving early at the trial on Sunday it became evident that not all was well in the Championship class. The first thing someone run across to tell me was that not only had George Morton and Craig Robinson not entered but that Ross Danby, Alexz Wigg and Sam Haslam had not appeared for the practice lap on Saturday. If all these riders had not ridden the class would have been down to 4 riders!! As it turned out Sam and Ross were there for Sunday, ( now word on Wiggy yet!) but even so... 6 riders in the British Championship class, what the hell!!
Myself and Ben Morphett's dad even talked about entering the next round as it could be some sort of a record being 45 and getting 8th in a championship round (he would definately beat me to 7th!!) Maybe, we said, they could sneak in an over 40's award as well. :) all i would have to do is accidently stall the bike within about a foot of entering the section and taking maximums without hurting myself.

 We may joke but it is getting a bit serious, what club is going to go through all the work, hassle and no doubt expense of sorting out sections and all the official route marking, tapes etc etc just so that 6 Champ class riders and only a few more A class come along to ride it. As always the biggest class was the B's. Which brings me to my U-turn....

 For many years, as some of you will know, I have been dead against returning to no-stop rules. I like to see man's control over machine be taken to the limit by allowing all the hop skip and turns etc, and bike design has progressed so much in the last 20 years it would feel a little like going back in time, but in the abscence of any other reasonable ideas i think we have to face up to the fact that no-stop rules may help to bring the sections back into the reach of a few more riders.
  I guess you only have to look at other championships like the novagar or S3 championship, or whatever it is called now, to see how traditional rules have encouraged a lot more riders to step up and give them a go safe in the knowledge that they won't be asked to climb the side of a house with no run up what so ever. I still have reservations about the extra pressure it will put on observers as no doubt there will be many arguments about whether someone actually stoped for a fraction of a second or not, but if the sections were set out in the first place under the no-stop ruling then I guess the situations may not arise so often.
Ohh, and also have the youth A's at the same event... they are more than capable of riding the present B class route.

 For people like me who love the trick stuff i think they should leave the indoor rules the same, and it would be lovely to have a British arena/indoor Championship again. Just hold it over a weekend at a big gathering, like the Weston beach race or at the IOM, motogp at Silverstone or something, so there is already a crowd and it would probably do Trials a power of good as far as publicity goes. Such a shame that the councils in this country wouldn't allow an event somewhere along the lines of the French Urban trials.
I also can't see the point in changing the rules for the average club trial... lets face it most events don't require trick riding, and if they do it is only the expert sections. The lower routes get plenty of riders in most clubs and to change to no-stop probably isn't necessary, and may just turn away the casual observers that help out if they get into an argument about stopping or not. There will always be a few who take club trials too seriously but most of us just want to go and have fun for a few hours.

 I floated the no-stop idea to a few riders in the A and Champ class at this event and instead of getting the expected "piss off old boy" reply almost everyone agreed that it has probably come to this.... so, for the first time ever, I would like the ACU to perhaps ask the general riding public what they think. Not what rules you want to ride at club level but what rules do you think will help arrest the decline of the national series. I don't have a forum on this site but I would like to have your views.. email me at heath@r2wtrials.co.uk whether you agree or not...  please also make a vote here.. although it says British Championship the same issues are affecting series all around the world, vote even if not in the UK.