For the most part whenever people....OK....me......think of motorcycle sport, it tends to be of the road race variety such as the Isle of Man Tourist Trophy (TT) Race, Mallory Park, Brands Hatch in the US; Assen on the Continent or Daytona in the US.
I love to watch road racing, did so many a time at Silverstone and Mallory as well as my one and only visit to the TT in 1976. Got to see some of the greats there such as Tom Herron, Percy Tait, Mick Grant and John Williams (I Think as I can never remember if it was him or Charlie) who was in the lead in either the Senior or Production race when he ran out of fuel approaching the finish and the win.
Instead of saying a few choice words that anyone could actually hear, he got off the bike and started pushing towards the finish while others went past. Due to this he got a 7th place finish instead of a DNF (Did Not Finish) in the record books.
Anyway, back to the point of this drivel....besides road racing, there are other MC sports out there such as Moto Cross or Scrambles, dirt tracking, drag or sprinting, hill climbing grass and ice racing and of course the one associated with old men....trials.
A few postings on some of the other blogs I read got me to thinking about what I would take part in if I had the time, cash etc and naturally as a kinda getting oldish type of geezer, observed trials has an appeal to me.
First, if you have an older, say before 65, bike, then you can enter Pre-65 trials and can compete with other slightly older geezers; other than the bike, riding gear , some practice and some skill, you don't need to rob a bank to finance it; and as you're going dead slow just about, if you fall over, you shouldn't get injured too badly.
From what I gather, there are various classes to take part in such as novice, amateur, skilled, professional and the like. The better you get, the higher you go in the classes I guess.
Anyway, several years back, even though I'm not a two-stroke fan, I got this desire for a trials machine. Ahhhhhh......but which make???
British was the first and only answer, but then it came up again to....which one? Good question....due to their reputation and following....a Greeves...followed by either a wee Cub or a Bantam. But a Cotton, DOT, James etc wouldn't be ignored either.
There is something about a Greeves
I love to watch road racing, did so many a time at Silverstone and Mallory as well as my one and only visit to the TT in 1976. Got to see some of the greats there such as Tom Herron, Percy Tait, Mick Grant and John Williams (I Think as I can never remember if it was him or Charlie) who was in the lead in either the Senior or Production race when he ran out of fuel approaching the finish and the win.
Instead of saying a few choice words that anyone could actually hear, he got off the bike and started pushing towards the finish while others went past. Due to this he got a 7th place finish instead of a DNF (Did Not Finish) in the record books.
Anyway, back to the point of this drivel....besides road racing, there are other MC sports out there such as Moto Cross or Scrambles, dirt tracking, drag or sprinting, hill climbing grass and ice racing and of course the one associated with old men....trials.
A few postings on some of the other blogs I read got me to thinking about what I would take part in if I had the time, cash etc and naturally as a kinda getting oldish type of geezer, observed trials has an appeal to me.
First, if you have an older, say before 65, bike, then you can enter Pre-65 trials and can compete with other slightly older geezers; other than the bike, riding gear , some practice and some skill, you don't need to rob a bank to finance it; and as you're going dead slow just about, if you fall over, you shouldn't get injured too badly.
From what I gather, there are various classes to take part in such as novice, amateur, skilled, professional and the like. The better you get, the higher you go in the classes I guess.
Anyway, several years back, even though I'm not a two-stroke fan, I got this desire for a trials machine. Ahhhhhh......but which make???
British was the first and only answer, but then it came up again to....which one? Good question....due to their reputation and following....a Greeves...followed by either a wee Cub or a Bantam. But a Cotton, DOT, James etc wouldn't be ignored either.
There is something about a Greeves
that just cries out "Ride me and get me filthy....then do it again."
I personally would love to have one of these and any other British trials bike just to mess around doing the feet up game. Though I love to see classic bikes tearing around on the track, it's not a sport for coffin dodgers or the faint of heart. But trials is something that even a novice can try and even enjoy.
Plus, there's no real age limit that I know off except one's own limitations. Now to find a patch of ground, a nice wee machine and have some fun....and this one the missus can't object to too much now can she?