An eventful PST Deer Flats trial 5/3/09

Quite an eventful trial for a good number of people.

-First time Dean rode a trial in 25 years, AND the first time I'd seen Curt L. AND Allan T. (he's had a top 7 ride in the Champ class at a national, "back in the day") since 25 years ago (but I've been out of the sport a long time.) Dean was ultra-excited after the trial.

-Local trials can no longer be considered a low-tech sport, as Curt and his buddy had on-helmet INTERCOM systems to talk to each other with, just like the pros started doing last year or so.

-Incredible weather. No wind, no rain, not too hot, not too cold.

-Highest turnout in a long time for a local trial (we're doing something right, that's for sure.)

-The most challenging sections I've personally seen in a PST or PNTA event, at least in a couple of the classes.

-The most time-penalty points I've ever seen, anywhere. (Keeps us on our toes!) Allegedly, half of the Expert class finished on the last MINUTE of eligibility...one minute later and DNF for half the class. Another example: Dean asked me how much time was left, and I looked at my count-down and told him "ten minutes left"....I thought he might fall over from the shock, since he was only on his second loop at the time.

-Our first Champ class at a local trial in a long time. Max N. is the best rider to ride in a local PST event in many many years? When you travel north from another state to attend a LOCAL trial, dominated the last PNTA points event - he won by what, 60 points in Oregon?, and bring your own minder to shout out instructions as to where to hop your back wheel, and you just recently finished in the top 4 at one of the nation's top trials (California's El Trial DeEspana - he was mentioned in at least one big national motorcycle magazine,) you're definitely on a hot streak. He'll do well at nationals this year.

-Good work trials marshals. Lots of work was put into this event, and we really appreciate that.
For example, in my section in the morning there were SEVEN DIFFERENT places where points were taken by a decent number of riders (the most 'diversity' I've ever seen for a morning section), and no dangerous parts at all in that section, and cleanable but still a decent challenge, and the perfect level of difficulty on this section, and turns and logs and rocks and roots all in the same section...good section design, a pleasure to check/observe.

-A woman wins the Expert S class (we know she's a great rider, but has that EVER happened with any other female in our group...ever?) Not surprising, really, as she's had a number of top 6 WORLD rides...one example: http://www.trial.cz/vysledky/2004/vysledky_TDN_2004.pdf
Hopefully she can show up at lots of events in the future.

-Dean and my first time at Deer Flats....ever....and we are local folks who first got into trials locally 33 years ago. An incredible area to ride.

-The best scenery I've ever seen at a trial...that almost eye-level snow-covered alpine view of the craggy peaks on the other side of the valley, to the south, was incredible.

-Dean played EIGHT volleyball matches in his volleyball league in the hours after riding the trial....I'll check to see if he's still alive....and to see if he needs to seek professional help. :-)


But the most important thing is: how are you doing, Mark L.?

Toni Bou leading....so far

Toni Bou has won 2 of the first 3 days of the FIM World Championship. Adam Raga is a close second. Cabestany is 3rd.

It's looking like a tight race for the title this year.

Patrick Smage finished 12th and 4th, respectively, on the first 2 days, but didn't ride on the 3rd day of the championship. Patrick is US Champion, and is riding in the Junior class at the world rounds this year.

You have to see it to believe it!

The most amazing trials performance I've ever seen:
Fujinami video

...now why can't I do that? (Oh, because unlike Fuji, I'm human...)

Dale D.

Upcoming Ioco trial March 15

Ioco (just over 1 hour north of Bellingham) is having CPTA's next event on March 15. Bill and Wayne and myself will likely be there representing PST. Any more takers? (And Ron and Tom and Brad and Don, etc. have ridden there before, as I've seen from the results.)

Also note, their beer has a higher alcohol content than ours does...reason enough to attend, no?

With a Nexus pass (thanks, Bill) we had to wait in line exactly ZERO minutes the last 2 times we crossed the border, as there was NO line-up whatsoever in the Nexus lane.

If you regularly travel to Iran, and you're a reformed Al-Qaeda member between 18 and 30 years old you'll, uh, likely have a harder time qualifying for the Nexus program (takes a few months?) than most folks. My point is that I don't think everybody qualifies (former felons, etc.?) for that program, but it makes sense to get into that program if you travel to British Columbia more than a couple times a year.

For more Nexus info: http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/travel/trusted_traveler/nexus_prog/

Ioco has way way more snow than most places, though...it's kind of amazing, really. Surprisingly it's almost at sea level, too. So it's a bad place to go if cold temperatures are forecast...so check the local forecast up there, or you might be wasting your time:
http://www.theweathernetwork.com/weather/cabc0229

Ioco has better/more terrain than likely any regular trials spot in Washington, some believe.

If you also attend CPTA events you get TWICE as many events per year to ride than PST events only. This will make you a better rider.

Web site for more info: http://www.trialsclub.org Email their webmaster (Billy D.) if you need more info that the web site doesn't cover at all.

Photo credit: Ron Walsh

Dale D.

PST Calendar for 2009 set!

Calendar is fairly similar to last year. Should be fun! Note the date of the Columbia Cup...should be a great event. Nothing officially planned for Funny Rocks area, and only one event officially planned for Walker Valley...but wait for further notices on these locations.

JANUARY 2009
(Watch football)

FEBRUARY 2009
1 Ice Trial - Bill Thompson & Dan Lemon

MARCH 2009
1 Spring Trial - Mike Berg & Curtis Mann Gold Bar
28-29 PNTA - INTA

APRIL 2009
5 Fool's Trial - Ted Green & Robert Schwenke Gold Bar
25-26 PNTA - COTA

MAY 2009
3 May Trial - Mark Palmer & Jim Shive Deer Flat
16-17 Columbia Cup - Mark Lawson, Don Petrick & Nick Jones (Fundraiser)
23-24 PNTA VMC
30-31 NATC Nebraska National

JUNE 2009
6-7 PNTA - CPTA Ioco
14 Summer Trial - Chris Seitz & Ron Ringuette
27-28 NATC Tennessee National

JULY 2009
18-19 NATC Vermont National
25-26 NATC New York National

AUGUST 2009
1-2 PNTA PST - Larry Drawhorn, Chris Seitz & Tom McIntosh Gold Bar
15-16 Ute Cup

SEPTEMBER 2009
13 Autumn Trial - Bob Larsen, Kyle Larsen & Ed Reus Gold Bar

OCTOBER 2009
4 Halloween 1 - Gary Lawver, Tom McIntosh & Steve Kraski Walker Valley
25 Halloween 2 - Jon Payne Gold Bar

NOVEMBER 2009
8 PST Annual Banquet

DECEMBER 2009
(Watch football)

Event dates can change, so be sure to confirm any non-PST events
shown below with the clubs that host them.

Dale D.

PST trial 9/21/08...wet but fun!

"Liquid sunshine" was the order of the day when a band of hearty trialers turned out at Goldbar (Sherwood forest, actually) on 9/21/08.

Scores were high, and smiles were wide. Plenty of variety in the sections, which is always nice. I witnessed great camaraderie amongst the riders all day long.

Luke Matlack was the overall winner. The #2 overall rider, when I asked how he did that day, said "I stunk up the place". But I saw him have a number of good rides.

Trials riders are a hearty bunch...on section 8 Mark and I saw one Advanced rider fall maybe 12 feet (his head was maybe 12 FEET off the ground before he landed lying on the ground.) He seemed to just get up and shake it off. Well done. We also saw a wheel dangling off that same ledge, from another rider, as we waited in line to ride that section.

Thanks to Ed Reus & Bob/Kyle Larsen for putting on a fine event! I know personally that Ed (and I'm sure Bob/Kyle) put in a lot of effort on this event.

Next PST event is 10/12/08 at Walker Valley (see PST web site for exact location, however.)

Don't forget the PST annual banquet, Nov. 9th at Shawn O'Donnell's in South Everett. $20 per person, RSVP only. Thousands of dollars worth of prizes. Contact Gary at whlsofyr@hotmail.com

Dale D.

Will Duggan is 2008 PNTA champ

Will Duggan is the (unofficial) 2008 champion of the Pacific Northwest Trials Association. Good job, Will!

Those Canucks are showing us Yanks a thing or two about keeping our feet on the pegs.

Photo from www.PugetSoundTrialers.com

Dale D.

Got building skills?....then we need you!

If you know ANYTHING about building, then we need you to help us build homes for those less fortunate than us. See www.Habitat.org for more info on how you can help.

If you don't have the time to help in building, then any donation of new materials or money would be appreciated as well!

Habitat has built more than 250,000 houses around the world, providing more than 1 million people in more than 3,000 communities with safe, decent, affordable shelter. HFHI was founded in 1976.

Dale D.

Bou wins 2008 world title

Congratulations to Montesa's Toni Bou on his second straight outdoor championship!

Will 2009 be Dougie Lampkin's last year?

The real story of 2008 was the recent success of young Jeroni Fajardo. He ended the year beating Raga and Fuji to place 2nd at the Portuguese round, and finished 3rd at the next (and final) round in Spain (beat former champ Fuji there too.) In 2009, look out senor Bou!

Loris Gubian won the Junior class, and then in his first Championship class ride he finished in the top 11....wow.

USA #1 rider Patrick Smage finished 7th in the Youth class despite missing a ton of rounds due to an injury. He was on pace to finish around 2nd place or so. Next year, Patrick! He's our best hope for some sort of world title since Bernie Schreiber.

CHAMPIONSHIP - Final Results
1. Toni Bou - 225
2. Adam Raga - 208
3. Takahisa Fujinami - 183
4. Jeroni Fajardo - 142
5. Albert Cabestany - 133
6. Dougie Lampkin - 130
7. Marc Freixa - 104
8. James Dabill - 98
9. Michael Brown - 72
10. Daniel Oliveras - 65


JUNIOR - Final Results
1. Loris Gubian - 183
2. Alexz Wigg - 171
3. Alfredo Gomez - 150
4. Matteo Grattarola - 137
5. Sam Haslam - 125
6. Ross Danby - 118
7. Guillaume Laniel - 111
8. Fredrik Johansson - 51
9. David Millan - 50
10. Laia Sanz - 50

YOUTH - Final Results
1. Jack Challoner - 171
2. Francesc Moret - 159
3. Alexandre Ferrer - 152
4. Adrian Pastoriza - 128
5. Benoit Dagnicourt - 114
6. Pau Botella - 107
7. Patrick Smage - 99
8. Pere Borrellas - 83
9. Jonathan Richardson - 75
10. Jake Whitaker - 64

Christy Williams T-Shirts for Sale

From TrialsCanada.com:


Christy Williams tells me that she has T-shirts for sale to help with the costs associated with this year's Trial des Nations in Andorra. The writing on the T-shirt reads: Trials des Nations. Team Canada

Christy has sold shirts for the last eight years, and the money is very useful; each rider selected for the Canadian team has to go to considerable personal expense to participate in the trial.

Christy says that she's having some trouble selling the T-shirts, as the U.S. national rounds consisted of only two rounds this year and she's unable to compete in all of the PNTA rounds. So there hasn't been a lot of marketing opportunity.

The T-shirts are just twenty bucks each if they can be picked up at the next Ioco (BC) trial, or dropped off locally. Otherwise they're twenty-five bucks including shipping and handling. This is a good deal for a good cause, as I'm told that these T-shirts are the "coolest ever..."

Here's Christy's email address: christy@survivorbootcamp.com

The best ride ever!?

2007 and 2008 World Champion Toni Bou shows us that you don't need a front wheel to ride a world-class section! Unreal, really. See:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7n5seTdHgyQ

The 2009 Beta is now out

The new 2009 Beta trials bike is out, and it looks pretty good. Only time will tell how good.

See photos at:
http://www.trialscentral.com/user_photos/andy/2008/2009_beta_trials_bike/index.htm

Swedish world round: it's Raga, Bou, and Fuji

Bou and Fujinami second and third in Sweden

Thursday, September 4th, 2008 - Honda Motorcycle Press Release - Total Motorcycle - http://www.totalmotorcycle.com

Toni Bou and Takahisa Fujinami – both Repsol Montesa HRC took second and third place respectively at this weekend’s Grand Prix of Sweden, the eighth round of the 2008 FIM SPEA Trial World Championship. The win went to Bou’s arch-rival Adam Raga – Gas Gas as the championship returned to Sweden for the first time in fifteen years.

Located at the Uddevalla motocross circuit, which has featured in the World MX championship recently, the setting for round eight was impressive, to say the least. The first group of sections wound their way up and down a rocky outcrop opposite the MX track while the remainder of the sections were located in the woods surrounding the circuit. This gave the lap two very different characteristics, with plenty of grip on the open rocks, but more slippery conditions under the trees.

Bou, Fujinami and Raga once again set the early running, the three evenly matched over the opening sections. Fujinami cleaned the first eight sections while Bou dropped three marks and Raga just one. However it was the second half of the first lap where the marks began to mount, on the slippery sections under tree cover. Fujinami picked up the only five of the day for the leading three on section eleven, a combination of a muddy bank and moss-covered rocks. However, despite this, he was in second place by the end of the first lap, behind Raga and ahead of his team-mate Bou.

With just six marks covering the top three, the pressure was on for the second lap. The scores were markedly lower the second time around, with Raga adding just two to his first-lap tally. But the competition between Bou and Fujinami was intense, the pair neck and neck throughout the lap. However, it was on section thirteen where it would go wrong for the Japanese rider. Fujinami lost two marks to Bou’s clean and this moved him from one mark ahead to a single mark behind his team-mate by the end of the event, once again claiming third spot behind Raga in first and Bou second.

Bou - 2nd :
“I’m happy with second today. Both Adam [Raga] and Fuji were very strong, but finishing second to Adam is very good for the championship, even though he closed the gap a little. I made some small mistakes on the first lap today – nothing too bad, but some that I should not have made. But my second lap was incredible – two marks – I was very pleased with that. I think maybe the pressure of maintaining the championship positions was on my mind this morning, for the first lap. It would be nice to be able to ride without thinking about the championship and just focus on the race, but it’s not always that easy, especially with only three rounds left. It was easier to do on the second lap, as you can see in the scores, but not so easy to start with. I think this has been a very good trial; some of the sections were a little easy and overall, it could be made harder for the future, but a good trial anyway.”

Fujinami – 3rd :
“Third place again! I’m not so happy with the result, as I was second after the first lap and wanted to remain there, but I am pleased with my riding today. I made some small mistakes, but the biggest problem was two marks I picked up in section thirteen on the second lap, when Toni cleaned it. By that point, I was one mark ahead and that put me behind with only two sections to go. Both Toni and I cleaned the last two, so he stayed ahead. I like this trial; the first part of each lap was quite easy – the rocks were dry and had lots of grip and you can see from the scores that almost no marks were lost there. But the second part, in the trees, was more difficult. It was damp and while it was possible to clean the sections, it was also easy to make mistakes and pick up a three or even a five.”

Laia Sanz –
Repsol Montesa HRC had another difficult weekend on the Scandinavian sections. After finishing the European Championship round on Saturday in fifteenth, she finished eleventh in today’s Junior class. She admitted she had a poor first lap and while her second was better, it was not enough to improve on her position by the end of the event. “Today was a disaster for me. The second lap was better, with thirty marks against forty eight for the first, but still not good enough. I was making stupid mistakes on the first lap and that was where the problems were. The first part of the lap was OK, but the second was very difficult. It felt almost like two separate trials, the sections were so different. I was also running out of time on the second part, which meant I had to rush some of the sections, which also did not help.”

FIM World Trial Championship Series 2008
Round 08 Uddevalla, Sweden
1 Adam Raga (SPA-Gas Gas)
2 Toni Bou (SPA-Montesa)
3 Takahisa Fujinami (JPN-Montesa)
4 Dougie Lampkin (GBR-Beta)
5 Jeroni Fajardo (SPA-Beta)
6 Marc Freixa (SPA-Gas Gas)
7 Albert Cabestany (SPA-Sherco)
8 Michael Brown (GBR-Beta)
9 James Dabill (GBR-Montesa)
10 Daniel Oliveras (SPA-Sherco)
11 Henri Himmanen (FIN-Beta)
12 Martin Kroustek (CZE-Beta)

From the good folks at:
http://totalmotorcycle.com/BBS/viewtopic.php?t=30153&sid=2896e1d04eb186dad6d8e12877b3b820