The Members’ Magazine of the Trail Riders Fellowship Winter 2019/20
Yamaha Tenere ´ ´ ´ T7
If a vertical twin’s your thing this is a serious contender
The TRF Enduro Club TEC gets official nod from the board
2020 Members Handbook and 2020 Wallplanner With this issue!
A 30-page celebration of the TRF’s Golden Anniversary
Directors’ report on pressing issues Riding the Dordogne with Sport Adventure What is it about Austin Vince and maps? Extending the TET to take in SW counties Win a Fantic - raffle tickets inside Biker Down: Emergency and medical training
THE TRF TEAM TRF Chair & Marketing Director: Mario Costa-Sa mario@trf.org.uk 07721 480000 After 4pm please unless urgent Conservation Director: Dave Carling dave.c@trf.org.uk 07586 325260 Financial Director: Michel Sabatier finance@trf.org.uk 07801 187304 Police Liaison & TRF Governance Director: Stuart Bosworth stuart.b@trf.org.uk Heritage Director: Steve Neville steve.n@trf.org.uk Membership Director: Carla McKenzie carla.m@trf.org.uk Safety & Northern Area Director: Doug Cartwright doug.c@trf.org.uk Technical Director: John Vannuffel john.v@trf.org.uk 07730 796215 Training Director: Chris Barrable chris.b@trf.org.uk TRF Membership PO Box 4829 Shrewsbury SY1 9LP Membership Secretary: Helen John helen@trf.org.uk IT: Adrian Allen web@trf.org.uk Equestrian & Events Liaison: equestrian@trf.org.uk TRF Learning Platform: learning@trf.org.uk Press: pr@trf.org.uk Creative Communications & Website Editor: Greg Villalobos greg@trf.org.uk Advertising: Charlie Harris charlie@trf.org.uk 07768 855019 Editorial: Rick Kemp rick@trf.org.uk 07941 233777
Editorial It’s a lIttle late for Happy New Year but what the hell. You never know, it might be, what with various tRF 50th anniversary activities going on and our new Prime Minister being a convert to the sport. apparently, according to the Daily Mail, so it must be true, Boris’s bird Carrie symonds gave him a Yamaha ttR 125 for Christmas, ‘perfect for discovering the fun of trail riding’. the 50th anniversary is an apt time for looking back as well as forward (see ‘the Way We Were’, from page 65). Haven’t we come a long way? Okay, the rate of change may not be on a par with computer science or medicine but everything’s relative. Old style, oil-burning two-strokes to viable electric propulsion isn’t too bad. Had a quick look through my own archive and came up with this photo of me on a suzuki Pe175 in around 1978. a bit of a gamechanger that one. suddenly you had something that was lightweight, didn’t handle like a lorry and consequently, in the right hands, could be as rapid as larger capacity bikes getting from a to B. as you will read in the Directors’ Report and in some of the recollections of our senior members, the tRF hasn’t always been on the winning side when it comes to disputes with County Councils and land owners over Rights of Way issues but lessons have been learned along the way. this half-century anniversary can only add to the Fellowship’s legitimacy and gravitas when it comes to legal matters. speaking of senior and celebrated members, there’s a new feature in this issue of trail, ‘Member Profile’. It kicks off with life Member austin Vince, who many of you will know through his talks and his Pyrenean tours. Feel free to suggest anyone you think suitable for future issues – they don’t necessarily have to be associated with tRF activities professionally. We all do different things in our lives but we all enjoy trail riding as well. let’s hear it for member diversity. there’s another interesting piece in this issue on ‘the Value of Fellowships’ (see page 05). this was brought home to me not so much in an academic, feel-good way but by Chris evans of sport adventure, who I visited in the Dordogne. He said that he really liked having tRF members on his road-book tours because to a greater degree he knew what he was going to get, as they usually turned out to be the ‘right’ kind of intelligent, resourceful, genial customer who contributed to a positive experience. But whatever, whoever, whenever, I hope the tRF continues to grow and be ever more successful. It’s not all about money. Happy New Decade. Rick Kemp rick@trf.org.uk Trail is published quarterly and is designed and produced by Rick Kemp Media Services, for the Trail Riders Fellowship. The TRF is registered in England & Wales No.05884933 Registered Office, 218 The Strand, London WC2R 1AT. All advertising enquiries should be sent to charlie@trf.org.uk the views expressed by individual members in trail are not necessarily those of the trail Riders Fellowship.
CONTENTS
WINTER 2019/20 Issue #10
The Members’ Magazine of the Trail Riders Fellowship 03 Directors’ Reports: Anniversary activities, fiscal fessing up, Groups gathering, membership matters plus much more Mario 05 The Value of Fellowships: Academic and classic Royal Enfield enthusiast Caroline Dougherty explains why we feel good 11 Unsung Heroes: Wacky and Pops the Superhero duo you’ve never heard of 20 A Quick Leg Over a…Yamaha’s sensible Adventure offering brought into focus 28 Not Lost in France: East Kent TRF members take a road-book tour in the Dordogne with Sport Adventure 36 The Next Level: The TRF Enduro Club reports on the year’s activities and sponsorship of the GB Women’s Team at the ISDE 44 Member Profile: We discover Life-Member Austin Vince’s passion for all things cartographic – that’s maps to you and me 52 In The Hot Seat: The Biker Down course originated from Kent’s Fire and Rescue Department, based on its training it’s now available nationwide 56 The Great Western Trail: Now part of the Trans European Trail, the GWT was created by Trail online Editor James Higgs 65 The Way We Were: 50th Anniversary reflections by some of our more illustrious members 96 Tested: Visorcat’s visor wash ‘n’ wipe system
The much anticipated Yamaha T7 in action in the desert. Pic: Yamaha Cover main pic: Yamaha Inset pics: Mike Cowling and Sport Adventure
DIRECTORS’ REPORTS TRF Chair, Mario Costa-Sa, mario@trf.org.uk enlightens us on the state of the Fellowship In this Chair’s update you can learn about: Transparency in board decisions made by the Board of Directors. Our finance challenge for 2020 and what happened in 2019 to lead us into this position. A call for volunteers The beta launch of the Green Road Map. Major events for 2020.
Internal Communications and Transparency
Losing a lane
TRF Finances After five amazing years of growth in income with success by all measures, our winning streak had to come to an end and we were hit with a major cost. Going to court has been compared to playing at a casino and led by our Technical Director the TRF has had an extraordinarily successful run. Many good
Winter 2019/20 Trail 03
I was involved in the email discussion recently with a Group Chair who was clearly distressed at the possibility of losing a lane. The reality of our situation is there will be the occasional loss. This must not detract us from our role which is to defend the vast majority of lanes that exist. A doctor would not enter his profession believing that he would cure the world. A general would not go into battle expecting to win every fight, and a paramedic would not attend every incident expecting to save every life. TRF Members must not let the fear of smaller setbacks deflect our attention
Pic by: J Bentman
Our hectic year of events and riding has settled down over winter and the TRF’s decision making machine has surged forward. Following the successful reintroduction of Trail magazine as the main channel to keeping members informed, we are now focusing on the needs of our Group Officers. The TRF had a major meeting of Directors at Motorcycle Live. The outcomes complete with meeting papers were distributed to over 200 TRF Group officers giving unprecedented transparency in our decision making and communicating our rationale to Group Officers who are then in turn better informed to discuss issues with local TRF membership at group meetings.
things come to an end, and we certainly took a financial hit in 2019 on a legal challenge. The TRF fighting fund is the main defence that all Trail Riders have against widespread closure and in 2020, after five years of success, it needs to be replenished.
unduly from our overall success. There are approximately 6000 miles of unsurfaced green roads In England and Wales it is inevitable that from time to time, regrettably a lane will be lost despite our extraordinary efforts to save it. The Technical Director has quantified the unjust loss as less than ten Green Roads over the past five years. Over the last ten years, the number of successes the TRF has had far outweighs the number of setbacks. There have been four or five large-scale attempts to decimate the number of green roads available in the same way. Those 6,000 miles would have been reduced to 3,000. And the 3000 reduced to a few hundred. We will not carry on being able to defend so vigorously the thousands of green roads if we are unduly affected by small setbacks of losing the odd green road or fear of failure on each case we undertake.
The Green Road Map The Directors have fulfilled their commitment outlined in the TRF Aims and Objectives to launching a beta version of the Green Road Map in December 2020.
Volunteers Along with our call for finances we must remember that money raised thorough membership fees is far outstripped by the value of time given by TRF volunteers. We have doubled the size of the TRF whilst the indirect overhead per member has greatly reduced. This is only possible though volunteering. There are many benefits to volunteering, whether as a member, a Group officer or TRF Director. All of these are voluntary roles. On some projects and operations, it has been suggested we should simply pay people to do the work. The problem is who do we pay and who do we not. We simply can’t afford to pay everyone so in my view the fairest is to pay no one and remain a Volunteer organisation. There are opportunities to get involved in the TRF at all levels – right from simple membership tasks to Director level. Directors, Officers and Administrators in Marketing and Membership Business Process and Quality Managers
Topping up the TRF Fighting Fund John Vannuffel the Technical Director has been doing prolific work as usual. The TRF’s investment in Rights of Road has hit unprecedented levels of expenditure. This has been enabled by the growth in membership income and also by a decrease in overheads in real terms. In 2006 when the TRF represented 25% of Trail Riders we lost some 50% of the Green Road network, literally thousands of lanes. Nowadays the TRF represents 60% of Trail Riders and in the last five years we have fought off four further attempts of widespread closure. Less than ten lanes have been unjustly lost in the last 5 years. If membership was 100% of Trail Riders would we have lost any? The past financial year would have been outstanding, clearly the best ever in TRF history, except for one small fly in the
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ointment. After five years of outstanding legal successes, a less probable outcome of one particular case has hit us hard and caused a deficit in our overall finances. This loss has been amply covered by the TRF fighting funds, which in turn will need to be ‘topped up’ by some £70k. We can either do this by asking groups for donations, which has not been requested since the Deregulation Act in 2014, or by a simple £10 increase to the annual subscription. The alternative would be to cut back on RoR expenditure across 2020 or of course a mix of the two. We will be going to a consultation with Group Officers and the wider membership on this and other key issues in the New Year. Mario Costa-Sa, mario@trf.org.uk
The Value of Fellowships The TRF has faced many challenges over 50 years. The question to me remained, ‘why after 50 years and with the technological change of so much free information online is it bigger and more popular than ever?’ for quite some time, that Palaeolithic people must have come together periodically in much larger groups than family tribes. The evidence of this kind of art suggests this, as whoever made it not only must have put in her/his 10,000 hours to learn how to carve ivory, but must also have learned from someone else, and how likely is it that a small family group would happen to have an expert ivory carver available to teach someone?” On this fiftieth year of the TRF, I will leave you with Caroline’s view about Fellowship and the TRF and why it will endure. Mario Costa-Sa
Caroline Dougherty – Economic Historian What is fellowship for, anyway? I COMPLETED MY PhD in economic history at the beginning of last year, writing about goods transport in England before the railways. During my research I encountered and described a type of capitalism based on principles entirely different from those we’re familiar with — the power of relationships, and our need to belong. As I learned how this economic system worked, and observed how it resembles some of the ways we interact with each other outside of an economic context, I came to understand that what motivates a lot of our behaviour is our need to feel that we are secure and valued members of a group. Every one of us needs
to belong to some kind of group — throughout prehistory and most of history a lone human was a dead human. Because this need is so strong, and so basic, it’s reflected in the ways we consciously and unconsciously present ourselves to other people in our appearance, speech and actions. On one the hand, we may feel uncomfortable diverging too much from the norms of the people around us; on the other, we resist being just like everyone else. These seemingly opposing tendencies both focus on the same goal of feeling secure and valued—conforming reinforces our sense of belonging to a group, while differentiating emphasises our unique value and contribution to it.
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IN MAY 2019 I was privileged to host for a week Caroline Dougherty, who by chance had a lifelong love of motorcycles, particularly original vintage Royal Enfields. Caroline was particularly interested in the fellowship aspect of the TRF. What I took away from her is simply that an individual is likely to prosper better in their chosen field of interest, as part of a group. Caroline developed her ideas this whilst at the Schumacher College of Sustainable Living in Devon where she spoke about the 40,000 year old ‘lion-men’ found in Germany: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-man “A recent rethinking of evidence available
If we can acknowledge and appreciate the strength of our need to be a secure and valued member of a group, we can take some conscious steps to try to meet it consciously and explicitly, rather than either not meet it, or try to meet it in unconscious ways that might not benefit us. First, we can acknowledge how important it is for us to feel as if we belong, that we are among ‘our own kind’, however we conceive this to be. We can meet this need by participating in associations of people with which we have something in common. As an American, I was surprised to discover the number and variety of such associations in England—in addition to affiliating based on such fundamental personal characteristics as religion or occupation, the English form groups based on seemingly trivial commonalities; the country is full of hobby and activity societies, community choirs, am-dram groups, ‘friends of’ local places, and countless others. Often having similar interests and concerns is enough to give us a sense of belonging when we participate in a group that shares them. But what about feeling valued? In addition to belonging, we need to feel like we are ‘worth’ enough to the group that our belonging is secure — that we won’t be overlooked, ignored or even expelled, that we matter to the wellbeing of the group. So, to make ourselves valuable and valued we contribute, preferably something unique. In
your family, or group of close friends, there’s always someone who’s good at planning events, someone who makes great desserts, someone who always picks perfect gifts; everyone has a specific individual talent that contributes to the wellbeing of the group. As a member of the TRF, what’s your unique contribution? In the pages of this magazine you’ll find dozens of TRF members who’ve pitched in to make the group better, through acting in organisational roles, volunteering at events, or assisting with tasks that benefit the group. People volunteer their time to do these things for many reasons; one is to demonstrate to the group that it’s worth having them as a member. What’s your unique contribution? Can you organise events, work with venues, connect the group to other groups, share your skills and knowledge of routes, repairs or riding? What makes you someone the group values? How can you show other group members that they’re lucky you’re a part of it? ‘Fellowship’ may sometimes seem unnecessary, casual or superfluous— something fun, but not really essential to life, health or wellbeing. But it might be worth reflecting on the fact that, trivial or ephemeral as it may sometimes seem, in some ways ‘fellowship’ is the most important thing there is. Caroline Dougherty
ACU Joining Codes for TRF members Chris Barrable & Andrew Byatt, acu@trf.org.uk Members are asked not to contact TRF membership for requests for ACU codes unless urgent Requests should be sent to acu@trf.org.uk where Chris Barrable has agreed to action the request, assisted by Andrew Byatt. In the future, it may be possible for groups to manage the ACU code request directly. Please provide your membership info to
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support your request: TRF membership number TRF membership renewal date. TRF main group name. You can check this info here https://trail.trf.org.uk/members/my-profile/ More instructions are available here https://trail.trf.org.uk/green-road-resources/acu-joining-instructions-for-trfmembers/
TRF Raffle www.trf.org.uk/raffle The TRF raffle was launched at Motorcycle Live and many thanks to Clements Moto for supplying a 2020 Fantic Casa. The winner can choose a 125 or 250cc version. We are looking for a TRF National Raffle Manager to: Procure interesting bikes Manage the raffle Look at new raffle & lottery products Please contact: marketing@trf.org.uk
TRF Events Calendar and Wall Planner Scott Heyden, TRF Events Calendar: calendar@trf.org.uk Many thanks to Scott Heyden who has volunteered to manage the TRF events calendar for 2020 in addition to management of the TRF Facebook events page. Provisional dates for 2020 should be sent ASAP to calendar@trf.org.uk. We would like to start planning on a provisional basis, 24 and even 36 months in advance. Don’t be shy to put a dates in the diary for events over the next three years. Events can be re-scheduled, postponed or cancelled without undue concern.
about the first ride elsewhere in this issue. There will be two events on the 18th at the Valiant Trooper, Trooper Rd, Aldbury, Tring HP23 5RW, www.valianttrooper.co.uk 10:00am Ride Out Herts TRF will have a short ride out from the Valiant Trooper (VT) on Saturday 18th Jan at 10 am to cover as much of the original route as possible. Bikes from the 70s and earlier are particularly welcome. https://www.facebook.com/events/583383145 797969/ 6:00pm Drinks and Dinner We will reconvene at the VT for drinks and dinner from 6 pm. https://www.facebook.com/events/442300816705653/ The main TRF celebration will be the 50th-anniversary party to be held at the ABR festival in July.
TRF 50th Anniversary Event events@trf.org.uk Saturday 18 January 2020 will be the 50th Anniversary of the TRF. You can read more
Winter 2019/20 Trail 07
TRF Groups From Andrew Byatt, groups@trf.org.uk INCREASED SUPPORT FOR TRF Groups is on the agenda for 2020 and I am taking responsibility for Group Communications and Support. Doug Cartwright has offered to organise the next Group Officers meeting to be held in Cumbria in April/May. In the last few years, we have seen improvements which include the Group Officers Newsletter, the Group Officers meetings and the sending of the local membership lists as well as the TRF Strategy weekend. In addition, Group training programmes such as Rights of Road and Ride Leaders training to assist local Groups.
Andrew Byatt
Group Empowerment Current discussions on improvements include: Empowering TRF Groups to manage their members on the new membership system Central Funding for local Groups A quarterly video-conference for TRF Group officers Social Media support group for Group officers We will also be making a few tough decisions on groups that have not been welcoming new members as expected or completing the important group returns The aim is to provide a consistently high-level of service for all TRF members
Numbers of Groups In 2011 the number of TRF Groups was around 40. Eight years later the membership has more than doubled and the number of groups is still much the same, and it would be very useful to understand why. Occasionally we get comments from riders that it is too far to travel to meet and ride with other members, or they have to go one hour each way to their nearest monthly meeting.
08 Trail Winter 2019/20
New Groups Surely the solution is to consider forming a new local group. It only needs two people to set up a TRF Group, a Group Rep and a Treasurer. South West Wales, for instance, has been very successful in its recent set up and there is plenty of room for more.
Sub Groups Another relatively simple option is to arrange for a separate local sub-Group social evening in a Pub, Wiltshire TRF undertake this option but members also get together in one location for more organised presentations and help sessions often with external speakers. The advantage of the sub-Groups model is that it allows large Groups to retain critical mass, like Herts, Devon and South London & Surrey have prospered at over 300 members. Simply send an enquiry to groups@trf.org.uk with your ideas for changes in a particular TRF Group and we will be happy to help set you look into the options and discuss it with neighbouring existing Groups.
TRF Marketing Mario Costa-Sa, marketing@trf.org.uk THE TRF CONTINUES to perform well with membership numbers holding steady at around 5500. Following Motorcycle Live in 2019 there has been a boost in new members joining with over 150 member packs being prepared and posted in the two weeks following the show. Many thanks to all the volunteers who staed the stand and particularly to Robin Hickin, Jon Stonehouse and the team from West Mids TRF for managing the stand. Rupert Trigg, Norfolk TRF OďŹƒcer was again the real star, donating tens of thousands of pounds worth of professional exhibition stand and services to make the TRF look at its best at the show. The main marketing focus is on new Membership packs for both new and existing members and improving the TRF joining experience overall.
Many thanks to Graeme Collins of LVTRF for his work on this. Over 2020 we are focussing on initiatives to take us closer to our goal of 10,000 members by 2023.
Winter 2019/20 Trail 09
Financial Report Michel Sabatier, finance@trf.org.uk FINANCES FOR THE Year from September 2018 to August 2019 In summary, there are both positive and negative in the year to 31 August 2019 and although the TRF financial situation is still solid, it is much less solid than last year. For the year to 31/08/2019 Income has increased by 30% to £305K in comparison with the last financial year Membership costs have increased from £126K to £153K, this is mainly due to the reinstatement of paper Trail and to a lesser extent to the increased number of members Excluding paper Trail, membership costs per member (everything except RoR) have again decreased slightly We have spent £221K on Right of Roads.
Administration, 1%
Of this, we have recovered £33K of legal costs from the court cases we won. The net cost is 59% of our total spend A part of this RoR spent, we have spent £88K on the Warnford initial case and appeal. Mainly due to this, we have made a large deficit of £70K for the year. See more detailed below. Our total reserves have decreased substantially from £200K to £130K. This has significantly reduced our financial stability and ability to take on more cases if required. Donations from groups and members to the Fighting Fund were £30K for the year. Accounts are available on request to finance@trf.org.uk
AGM and Directors, 4% Finance, 2% Conferences, 1% Communications and PR, 3% Marketing 4% Membership 4%
Trail and Scheduled Service 17% Rights of Roads, 60% Website 3% Matched Funding and Heritage 1%
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Unsung Heroes Wacky and Pops
Road-book Enduro Tours in France DATES FOR 2020
Wacky (left) and Pops (middle) finest hour – bringing back Blind Lane from the brink
OF ALL THE great superhero duos, Batman and Robin, err I can’t think of any others actually…. That’s why we here in Devon are nominating Wacky (Ian Collins) and his Dad, Pops, as our green road superheros. For more than a decade they have tirelessly roamed the vast tracts of our gorgeous county seeking out lanes in distress. No lane short or long has been considered unworthy of saving: cutting back brash, clearing fallen trees of enormous girth, rebuilding bridges, restoring almost lost ancient fords and turning washed out chasms into sustainable rights of ways for all users; whilst utilising novel and practical methods of remediation, copied across the countryside. More than that, Wacky has engaged with county rights of way staff, is active with the P3 parish scheme, and brings together land owners, other user groups, the council and mobilises TRF members to roll up their sleeves and work towards a common good. If anyone has tried this themselves then they’ll understand the Henry Kissinger levels of negotiating powers required to succeed. Wacky and Pops we salute you - they don’t even wear their underpants on the outside…. thankfully…..
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22/23/24 April 13/14/15 May 27/28/29 May 10/11/12 June 2/3/4 Sept 23/24/25 Sept 21/22/23 Oct 4/5/6 Nov 18/19/20 Nov
Dordogne Pyrenees Issoire Lozerien Bis Issoire Pyrenees Massif du Morvan Dordogne Normandie
All trips are priced at £560 (payable to ABTA bonded and ATOL protected UK travel agency S&N Pickford). Price includes 3 days riding, 2 nights half-board accommodation, loan of road book and road book reader, support vehicle and driver, an opener and sweeper and a classy T-shirt. Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you would like any further information.
Chris Evans, Sport Adventure Tel: 0033 662 487190 chris.evans@sport-adventure.com www.sport-adventure.com
The Green Road Map THE DIRECTORS HAVE fulfilled their commitment in the TRF Aims and Objectives to launching a beta version of the Green Road Map in December 2020. A link was sent out to over 200 TRF Group Officers recorded by their TRF Group return as it is important that Group Officers have first sight of the map. This will allow for initial feedback and check for major issues. Perhaps most importantly it will also be the last opportunity before launch for the few Groups and Rights of Road Officers who have yet to engage in the project, to see the national strategic value of this resource as the definitive map of motorcycle access, and get on board.
The Green Road Map project plan is based on public-facing content. The launch to all members and additional functionality may be linked implementation of a new membership system. TRF members will be consulted on the GRM member features prior to the launch.
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The Hereford Hospice Trail
The Herefordshire Group of TRF presents Hospice Angel Mike Pullin with £2,500 for St Michael’s Hospice
For many years Hereford Group representative, Graham “Gray” Hutton was keen to set up a trail riding weekend for all TRF members to have the opportunity to join in and explore the legal green roads in his neck of the woods. The Herefordshire and Welsh borders offer immense variety in terrain and the scenery alone is truly breathtaking. IT TAKES A lot of time, thought and effort to set up something up like this, and is by no means an easy task. Thankfully the Herefordshire members are an extremely keen bunch of people and sprung into action by volunteering in which ever way they could. Ride leaders, tail enders, camp commandant, breakdown recovery, R.O.W liaison, raffle officers, entertainment, food, videos, advertising, marshals the list goes on and on. Entertainment has, and always will be, a key factor at HHT. A select few spend an evening going to a local gig to vet the band for ourselves, and although most, well all of
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us, are tone deaf and know nothing about music, we somehow seem to have booked a fantastic variety of bands and singers over the last three years. Now we really needed a reason to encourage riders, and having invited Mike Pullin from the Hospice Angels to one of our group meetings to explain all about his charity work with our local St Michaels Hospice it seemed a very obvious and worthy choice. So that was it, the Hereford Hospice Trail was born. The first weekend was held in a farmers field in Walton near Kington, Herefordshire and we soon realised that obtaining and
relying on people to supply generators, showers and loos was a huge logistical headache for us, even though the weekend was a roaring success. A suggestion was made that Baskerville Hall with all its in-house amenities could be ideal, we then made contact with the owner David and our new venue was booked. The participants pre-choose which friends and groups they wished to ride with, and this year we had eleven groups of riders setting off in different directions on a variety of distance ride outs to try and cater for all. We try hard to reduce impact on the local green roads and any cause for concern with the local neighbourhood about an influx of bikers in the area. I also inform the local police and this helps them and us to maintain a good and amicable relationship. The riders have a full two day’s trail riding, a dip in the indoor swimming pool, sauna, camping, food, live music including a once in a lifetime opportunity to listen to the “Grayettes” – now that’s got to be worth the entry fee alone. In 2019 the Herefordshire Hospice Trail again exceeded the previous year’s contribution with a whopping £2500 raised from entry fees and the event raffle (with prizes kindly donated by local Hereford and Leominster motorcycle dealers) for St Michael’s Hospice, bringing the Group’s accumulative total to £5,336. Chris Smart, Communications Manager at St Michael’s Hospice, said, “We are very privileged to have so much support from the Herefordshire motorcycling community. We want to thank the Herefordshire Group of The Trail Riders Fellowship for putting on such a well-organised event and for continuing to support St Michael’s Hospice. We look forward to visiting their 2020 event.” The venue is already pre-booked for this year and we, and I hope you can’t wait either. Join us all please on 12-13 September for Hereford Hospice Trail 2020. If you fancy an excellent weekend of green-road riding and entertainment call Graham Hutton on 07581 023924 or graham.hutton671@btinternet.com for more details.
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Come to where the action is... Come to Catalonia!
On trails...
On tarmac... Our rural, Our rural, off-grid of f-g rid F Finca inca is is the the p perfect erfect b ase ffrom rom w hich to to e xplore tthis his base which explore b eautif ul area area of of Spain Spain ior ior ttrails rails or or beautiful rroads, oads, ffrom rom the the m ountains tto o the the sea. sea. mountains R ide d own o ly o ver a nd explore explore the t he Ride down orr ffly over and rroads oads a nd trails trails u sing o ur new ne w H on d a and using our Honda C RF250L ttrail rail b ikes. CRF250L bikes.
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TRF Groups
TRF GROUPS LIST
For the latest details go to: trail.trf.org.uk/groups/
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1 Cornwall TRF New group details to be announced 2 Devon TRF Contact: John Heal | 01626 832413 | johnheal@blueyonder.co.uk | http://www.trfdevon.org.uk/ Meeting details: 2nd Tuesday of the month, 7:30pm at The Dolphin Hotel, Station Road, Dolphin Square, Bovey Tracey, TQ13 9AL 3 Somerset TRF Contact: Josh Cook | 07590 281296 | keeperjhc@hotmail.co.uk | http://www.somerset-trf.org.uk Meeting details: 1st Thursday of the month, 7:30pm, at The Maypole, Thurloxton, Taunton, TA2 8RF 4 Dorset TRF Contact: Steve West | 07831 229257 | dorsettrf08@gmail.com | http://dorset-trf.org.uk/ | http://www.facebook.com/groups/ 1655657811402165 Meeting details: 1st Tuesday of the month, 8pm at The Royal Oak Hotel, Bere Regis, BH20 7HQ 5 Isle of Wight TRF Contact: Andy Hawkins | 01462 811654 Meeting details: 1st Wednesday of the month, 8pm at The Eight Bells Inn, Carisbrooke, Newport, PO30 1NR 6 Southern TRF Contact: Ben Plummer | 07769652656 | twine007@me.com | http://www.southern-trf.org.uk/ Meeting details: 3rd Thursday of the month, 8pm at Southampton & District MCC, Cranbury Centre, Cranbury Road, Eastleigh, SO50 5HT 7 Central Bristol TRF Contact: Darth Speede | 07766090190 | hello@centralbristoltrf.co.ukv | http://www.facebook.com/cbtrf/ Meeting details: 3rd Tuesday of the month, 8pm at the Nova Scotia Hotel, 1 Nova Scotia Place, Hotwells, Bristol, BS1 6XJ 8 Bristol TRF Contact: Glen Summers | 01454 619246 | mail@trfbristol.org.uk | http://www.trfbristol.org.uk/ Meeting details: 3rd Tuesday of the month, 8pm at The Cross Hands, 1 Stapleford Road, Bristol, BS16 5AA 9 Wiltshire TRF Contact: Jim Cairndu | 07840 352996 | trf.wiltshire@gmail.com | http://www.wiltshiretrf.co.uk | http://www.facebook.com/ groups/WiltshireTRF | http://www.facebook.com/ wiltshiretrf/?fref=ts Meeting details: 1st Tuesday of the month, 8pm at The Pilot, Bowerill, Melksham, Wiltshire SN12 6TA 10 Loddon Vale TRF Contact: Graeme Collins | 07967 802525 | chairman@lvtrf.co.uk | committee@lvtrf.org.uk Meeting details: 2nd Tuesday of the month, 8pm, The Swan, Basingstoke Road, Three Mile Cross, Reading, RG7 1AT
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11 Sussex TRF Contact: Andy Wardrobe | 07414 529298 | sussex@trf.org.uk | http://www.sussextrf.org.uk Meeting details: last Thursday of the month, 8pm at Ashington Village Hall, Mill Lane, Ashington, RH20 3BX 12 Kent TRF Contact: Steve Neville | 07887 478552 | sneville@blueyonder.co.uk | http://www.kentishtrf.org.uk Meeting details: Last Wednesday of the month, from 7.30pm, Eynsford, Riverside Club, Riverside, Eynsford, Dartford DA4 0AE 13 South London & Surrey TRF Contact: Tony Rowlands | 07772 333328 | grouprep@surreytrf.org.uk | http://www.surreytrf.org.uk/ Meeting details: 4th Tuesday of the month at 8:30pm, Ripley British Legion, 25 Rose Lane, Ripley, GU23 6NE 14 Oxford TRF Contact: Martin Welch | chairman@oxford.org.uk | http://www.oxfordtrf.org.uk/ Meeting details: 3rd Thursday of the month at 8pm @ Yarnton British Legion, Rutten Lane, Yarnton, Kidlington OX5 1LN 15 Gloucestershire TRF Contact: James Osborne | 07766090190 | hello@trfglos.org | https://facebook.com/cbtrf? | www.facebook.com/groups/TRFGlosMembers/ Meeting details: 1st Wednesday of the month, 8pm at the Wagon Works Sports & Social Club, Tuffley Park, Tuffley Avenue, Gloucester, GL1 5NS 16 Hertfordshire TRF Contact: Mark Brown | 07958 506066 | join@hertstrf.org.uk | http://www.hertstrf.org.uk/ http://www.facebook.com/groups/HertsTRF/ Meeting details: 2nd Wednesday of the month at 7pm, different venues around London and North Home Counties Schedule on Facebook or contact local rep 17 Essex TRF Contact: Graham Coker | 07789 922537 | graham@cokerg.freeserve.co.uk Meeting details: 1st Wednesday of the month, 8pm at The White Horse, 2 Church Street, Witham, CM8 2JL 18 Suffolk TRF New group details to be announced 19 Norfolk TRF Contact: Rupert Trigg | 07899 918276 | info@norfolktrf.org.uk | http://www.norfolktrf.org.uk | http://www.facebook.com/groups/norfolktrf/ Meeting details: 2nd Wednesday of the month, 7:30pm at The White Horse, Trowse, Norwich, NR14 8ST 20 Cambridge TRF Contact: Andy Lonnen | 07969 461119 | newmembers@cambstrf.org.uk | http://www.facebook.com/TRF-Cambridgeshire-624123620992268/ | http://www.cambstrf.org.uk/ Meeting details: 3rd Monday of the month, 8.30pm at The White Swan, Elsworth Road, Conington, St. Ives, Cambridgeshire CB23 4LN 21 West Anglia TRF Contact: Geoff Groom | 07929 275465 | ggroom@btinternet.com Meeting details: 1st and 3rd Thursday of the month, 8:30pm the Scott Bader Social Club, 122 High Street, opp Parish Church, Wollaston, Wellingborough, NN29 7RJ
22 West Midlands TRF Contact: Steve Whetton | 01527 451089 | enquiries@westmidlandstrf.co.uk | http://www.westmidlandstrf.co.uk Meeting details: 1st and 3rd Wednesday of the month, 8pm at Wilmcote Sports and Social Club, 16 Aston Cantlow Road, Wilmcote, Stratford upon Avon, CV37 9XX 23 Worcestershire TRF Contact: Laurence Gibby | 07775 574440 | Gglen998@gmail.com Meeting details: 1st Tuesday of the month, 7:30pm at The White Hart, Fernhill Heath, WR3 8RP 24 Herefordshire TRF Contact: Graham Hutton | 07581023924 | graham.hutton671@btinternet.com Meeting details: 1st Tuesday of the month, 8 pm at the New Inn, Fownhope, Herefordshire, HR1 4PE 25 Mid Wales TRF Contact: Marianne Walford | 01686 430522 | marianne@trailrides-wales.com | http://www.facebook.com/groups/ 354419968236284/ Meeting details: Last Thursday of the month except December, no fixed venue. 26 South Wales TRF Contact: Christian James | 01446 410073 | christian@swtrf.org.uk Meeting details: 1st Thursday of the month at 8pm at the Ty Nant Inn, Nr Radyr, Morganstown, CF15 8LB 27 South West Wales TRF Contact: Rob Williams | 07974 102372 | rwmotobiker@aol.com Meeting details: Last Thursday of the month, 7pm at Hagans Café and Fish & Chip Shop, 2 Pensarn Road, Pensarn, Carmarthen, SA31 2BS 28 Shropshire TRF Contact: Mike Price | 07718902682 | alwynmike@hotmail.com Meeting details: 3rd Thursday of the month, 7.30pm the Gaskell Arms, Mutch Wenlock, TF13 6AQ 29 East Midlands TRF Contact: Lee Jordan | lee@jordaninstall.co.uk | http://emtrf.co.uk/ Meeting details: 2nd Wednesday of the month, 8pm, The ClockWarehouse, London Road, Shardlow, Derby, DE72 2GL 30 Lincolnshire TRF Contact: Nev Cooke | 07845 067047 | cookie60@btinternet.com | http://www.facebook.com/groups/ 253106844849995/ Meeting details: 1st Thursday of the month, 8pm Woodys, Woodland Waters, Willoughby Road, Ancaster, Grantham, NG32 3RT 31 Peak District TRF Contact: Alan Gilmore | 07807818542 | a.gilmore_home@outlook.com Meeting details: 1st Thursday of the month, 8pm the Fisherman‘s Rest, Belper, DE56 2JF 32 High Peak & Potteries TRF Contact: Russ Unwin | 07968 770629 | russ.u@hotmail.com Meeting details: 2nd Thursday of the month, 8pm The Black Horse, Endon, Stoke-on-Trent, ST9 9BA 33 Derbyshire & South Yorkshire TRF New group details to be announced
34 North Wales TRF Contact: Neil“Timpo“ Thompson | 07980 555874 | timpo@bikerider.com | /http://www.facebook.com/NorthWalesTRF/ Meeting details: 1st Wednesday of the month, 8pm The Burntwood Pub, 26 Burntwood Road, Buckley, CH7 3EN 35 Manchester TRF Contact: Phil Kinder | 07809 647293 | philmancunian@googlemail.com | http://www.facebook.com/groups/13477365684 Meeting details: 4th Monday of the month, 8:30pm at The Sycamore Inn, 4 Stamford Square, Ashton under Lyne, OL6 6QX 36 Lancashire TRF Contact: Keith Westley | 01704 893215 | keith.westley@outlook.com | http://www.facebook.com/TRFLancashire/ Meeting details: 1st Tuesday of the month, 8pm The Rigbye Arms 2 Whittle Lane, High Moor, Wrightinton, WN6 9QB 37 West Yorkshire TRF Contact: Tim McEnhill | info@wytrf.org.uk | http://www.wytrf.org.uk Meeting details: 1st Thursday of the month, 7:30pm Cue Garden, Stadium Mills, Stadium Road, Bradford, BD6 1BJ 38 East Yorkshire TRF Contact: Julian Mamo | 07583 694431 | julian.mamo1@googlemail.com | http://www.facebook.com/groups/ 959312044201559/ Meeting details: 2nd Tuesday of the month, 7:30pm the Bay Horse Inn, 75 Market Place, Market Weighton, York, YO43 3AN 39 Ribble Valley TRF Contact: Paul Stewart or Gary Barker | 07791 934041 or 07711 064574 | admin@ribblevalleytrf.org | / http://www.ribblevalleytrf.org Meeting details: 1st Tuesday of the month, bi-monthly, at The Petre Arms, Whalley Road, Blackburn, BB6 8AN 40 Teesside & North Yorkshire TRF Contact: Leo Crone | 01325 463815 | leocronektm1190r@outlook.com | http://www.facebook.com/groups/teessidenorthyorkshiretrf Meeting details: 3rd Wednesday of the month, 7:30pm The Lord Nelson, 40-41 St James Green, Thirsk, YO7 1AQ 41 Cumbria & Craven TRF Contact: Nigel Summers | 07891 403992 | nigel_summers@sky.com | http://www.facebook.com/groups/ 1631280750485319/ Meeting details: 2nd Tuesday of the month, 7:30pm the Cross Keys Inn, Milnethorpe, LA7 7AB 42 TyneWear Teesdale Contact: Paul Smith | 07980 144446 | smip694@aol.com Meeting details: 4th Tuesday of the month, 7:30pm The Golden Jubilee Pub, Yarm, TS15 9XN 43 Northumbria TRF Contact: Greg Villalobos | ride@northumbriatrf.org.uk | http://www.northumbriatrf.org.uk/ Meeting details: 1st Wednesday of the month, 7:30pm, Petros Restaurant, Spa Well Road, Winlaton Mill, Blaydon on Tyne NE21 6RT
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Yamaha was very pleased with the reaction to its Ténéré 700 at the ABR Festival back in the summer of 2019 where Festival goers were queueing round the block for test rides. Fortunately for Manchester TRF’s Phil Kinder getting his hands on Yamaha’s new big adventure twin was less fraught.
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A Quick Leg Over a...
YAMAHA TÉNÉRÉ Photos: Simon
n in concept show The original ally available, fin 2017 is now t disappoint and it doesn’
T7
aha
Smith & Yam
Winter 2019/20 Trail 21
IT IS A cold and frosty December morning as I turn up at my pal Simon Smith’s house, a short drive away from me to test the new Yamaha. Simon is the service manager at CMC Motorcycles a newish dealer in Manchester, he approached me with his boss about doing a review for Trail magazine once the T7 demonstrator arrived at their shop. Needless to say it’s now arrived and it’s all ready to go and they’ve even filled the tank for me. The Yamaha has a very purposeful appearance about it, it looks like a rally bike and nothing else, the four headlights (two dip four main beam), the chunkily-spoked anodised wheels, the small screen and mounting bar for a sat nav reminiscent of a navigation tower all nod towards inspiration from the Dakar, and to be fair so they should, as the original Ténéré was
With two dip and four mai n give a good spread of illum beams the led headlight s ination
named after the toughest stage of the toughest race on earth. There’s a 21-inch wheel at the front and an 18 inch at the rear just as there should be on a proper dirt bike, an aluminium bash plate that looks quite adequate and robust. Fully adjustable 43mm KYB upside-down forks with 8.3 inches of travel can be found up front and a fully adjustable KYB shock with 7.8 inches at the rear, all pointing to off-tarmac design. It looks tall and narrow but not too tall and the wheelbase is long with a slightly limited steering lock again all pointing to dirty intentions. We set off on the icy roads and the bike feels very powerful and linear with very smooth gear change and controls, the comprehensive digital speedo/ rev counter/ fuel gauge/ gear indicator/ ABS on off etc has everything you could need and more, the clutch is mechanical but extremely light and the brakes (twin front, single rear disk) feel very well balanced. The standard exhaust
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very little grip and everything feels in check, drifting the back wheel without any nasty surprises probably due to good geometry and the seemingly long wheelbase (not rider skill). Simon and his pal Tom both CRF250L mounted get a few pictures here then we head east on a combination of tarmac and rocky lanes towards Saddleworth. On the rocks the T7 again feels very stable at speed with only a very slight lack of damping at both ends but to be fair we are on standard road biased tyres and the suspension is straight out of the box and not set up for me, but even so it is way better than you would expect from a dual-sport
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note sounds purposeful but not at all offensive, the ergonomics in general feel absolutely spot on for my six foot frame both on the seat and on the pegs. First port of call is my best buddy and fellow TRF member Allan Hopwood’s farm on the edge of the Peak District where I have permission to ride on Allan’s fields. The grass is lush with an icing of frost on it but the fact is it has rained for the best part of the last two months and the ground is very soggy under the turf. The standard road biased dual sport tyres are offering very little in the way of grip on this surface as you would expect, but once moving the whole bike feels very stable and controllable, up through the gears with
bike of this size. It also has to be said that it certainly does not feel like it’s just over 200Kg wet weight either, in fact it doesn’t feel anywhere near that. It does however feel like the quoted 72 ponies and 68 Nm of torques inside the 698cc motor borrowed from the MT07 are absolutely genuine, this bike pulls like a train and the fuelling is pretty much spot on, no nasty surprises just linear usable power everywhere. A quick bacon butty stop then we push on to a couple of tricky rocky climbs and
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descents and the bike is relatively faultless again, I am well impressed to say the least. Getting close to Yorkshire we then turn onto a tricky muddy lane with deep ruts and plenty of rocks dotted about requiring multiple changes of rut, a challenging lane on any bike even with enduro tyres, the T7 sailed along it no fuss requiring only the odd dab here and there, it has very good ground clearance both height and width wise for a bike of this size and particularly this weight. At about lunchtime Simon and Tom head
back home with all the photos needed and I vanish over the horizon (Pennines) to try the T7 on some fast twisty roads. The abundance of power is still apparent on the fast Pennine passes of the A62 and A628 Woodhead, the bike is stable even when nudging the speed limit and the small screen does a good, if not brilliant, job of keeping the wind blast at bay, the standard plastic wrap around hand guards also do a good job of keeping my digits reasonably warm and look quite robust, obviously some heated grips would not go amiss this time of year and aluminium hand guards would be much more suitable, particularly for those with off-road aspirations. In between the two trans Pennine passes I pick up a few West Yorkshire trails around Holmfirth and New Mill, it’s a bright sunny winter’s day and the whole world seems to be out for a walk, the
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quiet exhaust and sophisticated look (bike not me) however seem to be bringing admiring nods from most, and one gentlemen even stops me to ask about the bike and if he can take a picture. Later on, and on the right side of the Pennines, the sun has now gone down, I nip down a local lane with no street lights to see how good the headlights are and am not disappointed, a very good spread and intensity with the two dip lamps staying on when the two high beam lamps are activated which is always a bonus. Last test of all as I reluctantly take the Ténéré back to Simon in the evening is the pillion test, my good lady wife braves the cold to give her expert opinion on the T7’s rear seat, Donna comments that the seat is a little harsh and the foot pegs are a little high but I suppose this is a serious dirt bike and not a GS.
All in all, I am massively impressed with this bike, there is very little that could be improved especially bearing in mind its £8,999.00 price tag, I would only want more off road-oriented, dual-sport tyres such as TKC 80s fitting, perhaps quality aluminium hand guards would be more suitable and a rear rack, however there are bungee points on the rear end, these are all personal accessories I would like though and not things that should be fitted for everyone at the factory. My only criticism was slight bounce on the suspension both front and rear, but I didn’t try to adjust this out as I was having far to much fun to be fiddling. This is the perfect bike for me and I genuinely am amazed at how good it is, but don’t take my word for it, get yourself down to your nearest Yamaha dealer with a T7 demonstrator and book yourself a test ride, they may even encourage you to get it dirty!
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Special thanks to: Simon Smith and CMC Motorcycles for making this test possible (and taking photos) and to TRF member Allan Hopwood for the use of his land.
Vital Stats Engine: Liquid-cooled, 4-stroke, 8-valve, DOHC, twin-cylinder, Fi Capacity: 689cc Power: 72.4hp (full power), 47hp (restricted) Gearbox: 6-speed Clutch: Wet multi-plate Starter: Electric Fuel capacity: 16 litres Wheelbase: 1,595mm Seat height: 875mm Wet weight: 204 kg SRP: £8,999.00 To find your nearest dealer go to: www.yamaha-motor.eu/gb/en/dealer-locator/
28 Trail Winter 2019/20
Chris Evans
Not Lost in
France Sport Adventure’s Chris Evans has been running road-book trail tours in different parts France for some 30 years – so he’s very good at it. Trail caught up with him in Siorac-en-périgord in the dordogne in early november last year. Rick Kemp reports Sport Adventure has been having TRF customers for years and Evans likes it that way because, to some extent, it makes his life easier. “I’m after customers who are competent riders, who are responsible and who are interested in the road book and navigation. What I don’t want are motocrossers who just want to go as fast as possible. I prefer good riders who have a culture of riding. What I like about the TRF
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SpoRT AdvEnTuRE dEScRIbES its activities as ‘road-book enduro tours in France’. Each of the six or so different locations runs to broadly the same format. For a fixed price, for 2020 that’s £560, you get three days riding and two nights half-board accommodation. depending on location, you might want to include the night before and the night after as well, and these can be booked at the same time as the tours.
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years and has a French wife. What he does keeps him enthusiastic about riding bikes and that shines through. Fellow East Kent TRF member Roger pitt and I had loaded our bikes – his KTM500 and my Fantic 250 EFI – on to Roger’s two-bike trailer the previous afternoon, together with all our riding gear, tools, jerry cans and spares, so that we could hit the ground running first thing on Sunday morning in time to catch the 7.50 a.m. Eurotunnel crossing. From calais we had a 600-mile run, give or take, to the hotel where dinner had been booked for 7.00 pm. That should have been ample time in which to arrive and have some pre-dinner drinks.
customers is their approach plus they’re nice people to get along with. What I’m not set up to do is nursemaid 16 people round a route. “In the hierarchy of difficulty the normandy is possibly the easiest, next comes the dordogne and the Morvan, followed by the pyrenees, which is both scenic and beautiful. Then there are the more hardcore routes of the Issoire and the Lozerien bis. The pricing and accommodation is the same for each event because, more and more, we get customers coming down with the family and hiring a Gite or Airb&b nearby, so they don’t need to add the night before or the night after. “For example, I’ve got one guy who’s already booked ten places for himself and his mates here in the dordogne in April and after his three days riding, the family flies in to bergerac for the rest of the holiday.” Evans has a ‘keep it simple’ policy when it comes to Sport Adventure, which is why he doesn’t do hire bikes. He concedes that if you’re working from a single premises and running the same tours it might make more sense but Evans is also of the opinion that most riders feel more comfortable on their own bikes. “besides,” says Evans, “nothing depreciates faster than a off-road bike.” Evans is very happy doing what he does. He has been living in France for the last 30
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We had all the correct paperwork, the required Id and credit cards – so far so good. However, due to a slight contretemps at the first fuel stop, where some azzole put essence in ze gazole, we arrived 24 hours late after an overnight stay in a hotel while the fuel tank was pumped out, thanks to AA’s European breakdown cover. The dordogne was wet last november and many of the trails consisted of a mud base covered in autumnal leaf litter deep enough to hide the lumps of limestone beneath, which made the going the trickier side of
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gentle. In fact, there were places where pilot error let down the abilities of the Fantic 250 (I do need to get out on the trails more this year). Maintaining speed over the ground is key to mastering these wet conditions. You know how it goes: on the climbs you can spin out or bog down; hit them hard enough and you stand more chance of a successful outcome. The Fantic was outstanding, literally, being the only customer’s bike that wasn’t a KTM. on standard gearing the Fantic will bop along very nicely on the road with plenty of overtaking potential on single-carriageway roads. on the trail you notice that there’s a bit of a jump between second and third gears, which caught me out a few times, but a smaller front sprocket is available if that better suits your riding style. The Fantic also proved nimble enough on the occasions when going ‘off piste’ was necessary to avoid fallen trees. Surprisingly, at the end of the trip, I didn’t find myself desperately wanting a KTM but there again I hadn’t ridden one, so I wasn’t able to compare the two. one thing I hadn’t fully appreciated before our trip was just how many trails there are in France. To have someone else scout the route and then produce a road book to follow is actually something of a necessity if you want to ride a continuous, joined-up route. Again, this is part of what the Sport Adventure package offers and that only
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comes from the experience of one man – chris Evans. After a day in the saddle the banter in the bar was almost as refreshing as the shower. our fellow customers were almost all TRF members, and many of them Welsh – we had a good laugh. It says a lot about the Sport Adventure experience that these guys were prepared to travel from Wales to the dordogne, when most of us think that travelling to Wales is pretty adventurous with some rewarding riding. As chris Evans has said, he welcomes TRF participants on his trips and has a good deal of repeat business. In fact, one member holds the record – he’s been back 35 times. Then we had the trip back home. We set off with plenty of time in hand to catch the 19.50 from calais, arriving at Folkestone at 19.25 local time. Arriving before you leave – love it. but it wouldn’t be that simple, would it? no. our tow vehicle had one of those electric handbrakes that you flick on when you stop and which are supposed to release automatically when you pull away. Yeah, well, not this time. Another call to the AA and another ride in a breakdown lorry. We arrived at the garage at about midday and were told that no one would be able to look at our car until 14.00 because they were all at lunch. of
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course they were, we were in France after all. To cut a long story short, we ended up on a road-book rally of our own, trying to make the last crossing of the day at 23.50, otherwise we would have overrun our five-day-
Roger Pitt: East Kent TRF Bike: KTM 500EXC “To bE HonEST, I’d only used a road book once before in a local Long distance Trial [LdT] with limited success, so I’m really a newbie when it comes to using road books. It was quite exciting being introduced to a new skill and, as I hope to do my first rally sometime in the next year, it’s a skill I will need to have. It was a brilliant introduction because we had GpS as well, so if you lost the plot with the road book you could at least see which way to go to get back on the GpS ‘runway’. “Also, on the second day, another thing I learned from the group leader was not to get too bogged down in trying to be super accurate with the trip readings. It’s better to be able to take in the view and relate what you’re seeing to the symbols in the road book, so you’re riding the view more than riding the trip. “The terrain was interesting, possibly more what I’d been used to riding in the south-east of England except for some of the rock slabs, where you really had to pick a line. There were lots of roots to potentially catch you out and it was very wet, so you had to keep the momentum going and feel the grip. My KTM had Mitas Enduro pro tyres and I was using a mousse in the rear and tube in the front for various reasons, not all of them technical,
flexi booking and would have had to pay hundreds of pounds extra. As it turned out, we smashed it and checked in at 23.07. Well, you wouldn’t want life to be dull, would you? but I was pleased with the results. “I was running a 14:52-tooth final reduction ratio, which is quite low overall gearing but I think that was about right for the conditions. Also it suits my riding style. I like to have a bit of power for open going and road work but first and second gears with a gentle throttle for the technical going, plus on the KTM you’ve got the softer option on the traction control. “I think that Sport Adventure provides an excellent opportunity for anyone who is a competent rider to have some great riding, particularly if you want to improve your road-book skills. The whole package and the accommodation in the dordogne is great. There’s a briefing after breakfast every day, which highlights any potential dangers or confusions with the road book and explains about the lunch stop, fuel and back-up vehicle. Also provided by Sport Adventure are universal mounting bars for the road- book readers and GpS mounts. Everything had been thought out and taken care of. “but be warned if you’re driving down and taking your own bike. It’s 600 miles south of calais, so it would be worth going with a friend to share the driving, or better still take the fly-ride option of having your bike transported while you fly to bergerac. Go on, spoil yourself!” Tel: 0033 662 487190 E-mail: chris.evans@sportadventure.com Web: www.sportadventure.com
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The TRF Enduro Club (TEC) was set up by Leo Swinfen of Wiltshire TRF in October 2017 and following detailed discussion over six months, has recently been given unanimous support of the TRF Directors. Andrew Byatt, TRF Director, ďŹ lls us in
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Photos: Ashleigh Blight Photography
The Next Level
TEC hopes to facilitate events aimed at potentially (but of course, not exclusively) the younger members who, over time, might find motorsport too energetic and therefore become more active members of the gentler trail riding opportunities of TRF. It was also considered that there was an opportunity to increase revenue by way of encouraging new members to join the TRF, this has already borne fruit as riders are constantly asking Leo and the other members of the Club, “who are the TRF and how can I join?” It is hoped to encourage members to learn the skills of competitive motorsport in the best and correct way. The TEC gives existing TRF members an extra riding outlet and additional experiences which it is hoped will be recognised as providing further benefits of being a TRF Member. The education of the wider community, both motorcycling and non-motorcycling as to the health and welfare benefits of motorsport and Trail Riding in general and the importance it has in supporting the economy is seen as an important opportunity. It is hoped that sponsored/supported
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ThE TEC WaS set up to bring together all those like-minded TRF members who wished to participate in enduro-based events. There had not been anything similar when Leo joined the TRF and he has worked hard to develop the Club. Currently there are over 300 members on the “Private” Facebook group which was set up in October 2017 and is available to access by invitation only to all members of TRF and specifically selected supporters, this number of members shows a healthy demand for the benefits of the TEC. The TEC will promote the strict adherence of the CoC while allowing an outlet for TEC members to enjoy the performance of their machines and improve their skills away from the public road. It is hoped by bringing together these like-minded, and potentially younger members of the TRF, their enthusiasm can be directed to official and regulated motorsport events. The camaraderie and team-spirit that has developed seems to provide an additional benefit to being a member of the TRF and a reason to continue to be so. It might be felt that the TRF potentially runs the risk of being only attractive to the older members of the motorcycling fraternity, the
events will assist in further raising funds for the TRF to help fight the challenge of byways being closed to our use. The Club will actively discourage illegal riding and breaking of the TRF code of conduct whilst on public Rights of Road. There is also a feeling that it will help generate further fellowship amongst motorsport members and hopefully maintain their interest and membership of the TRF. The TEC hopes to be able to provide skills and training days for the benefit of all members and will be actively working towards the certificates that will assist in this process. The TRF will work to provide simple membership of the TEC Facebook Group (which is open to all members of the TRF) and hopes it will be ultimately selectable via the membership process which will allow the management of the Facebook group to ensure only paid-up TRF members and specifically selected individuals have access to the Private Facebook Group. access will be removed if members they do not maintain their TRF Membership. The TEC members will be expected to follow the TRF’s Code of Conduct and core principles at all times whilst on public Rights of Road and will also encourage the use of non-competitive based motorcycles for trail riding, with race numbers and logos not on
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prominent display, if at all possible, and will work to ensure that members act as ambassadors to the TRF at all times. The TEC runs an Enduro Team representing the TRF and promoting it at every opportunity and also hopes to develop Enduro Club Group events that can teach and educate trail riders who may wish to participate in enduro or other competition-based events, in a structured and controlled manner. The Club also has a Public Facebook Page which is used as the shop-front to the Enduro Club Group. access to the Private Facebook Group will be facilitated from the Page. https://www.facebook.com/endurotrf/. Into the future it hopes to develop a website to further enhance the positive messages of the TRF Enduro Club. It will be promoting Group safety and courses such as “Clerk of the Course” and other relevant training. Leo Swinfen with support from treasurer Martyn Peters (WTRF) will continue to develop sponsorship and support of the Club to assist in raising awareness and Club funding. The Club will be working hard to mitigate bad publicity due to inappropriate behaviour, and will also engage and educate with existing TRF members who might not fully appreciate the sense or value of supporting an Enduro Club Group.
Events the Club has competed in over the last year Leo Swinfen (Wiltshire TRF) and anthony Milliar (Somerset TRF) competed in more than 30 events each in 2019 so have exposed the TRF Enduro Club to significant numbers of participants and spectators, this which has resulted in new members joining the TRF. So, now into the second year Leo has competed in some events for the second time being much more prepared and slightly more experienced, taking on the “Welsh 2 day Enduro”, he admits he completely messed up his times first time around but this year he managed to stay on time both days only by split seconds on one of the tight checks and was really happy with that. Though this event he met some fellow TRF members there competing as well, including Paul Clarke and Joe Bayfield. In addition, Leo entered the “Portsmouth 5hr Enduro” and came 2nd in sportsman and was very happy with that as it was his first event on his new 200 BETa. Leo also re-visited “Dawn 2 Dusk”, last year he struggled to finish the 12-hour in a 2-man team with Rory Jones but this year did the 12hr race solo and came 13th out 67 in the Clubman class. a great achievement. Rory Jones entered Romaniacs this year and did something never done before, putting a TRF Enduro Club jersey through the prologue in the famous extreme Enduro event and he got to see the likes of Graham Jarvis and even talk to him. Leo and Rory also entered the “Sucker Punch” extreme enduro again, last year in the novice class this year in the Sportsman class with Rory finishing on the podium in 3rd place. Leo was over the moon for him as that is no easy feat, it’s one hard event, Leo was just happy to get a finish. Leo also competed in many events with Mercian Dirt Riders and Wales and West Enduro Club and also C.O.R.E events and WOR events. amongst others he entered the hundred house Enduro a really good long time-card event also the Coronium Enduro in Cirencester Park. he continues to help others compete in their first events including TRF members
Simon Bush, Vaughan Curtis, Ben Robinson, Jo Po and, Martyn Peters, all whom competed in the hafren Rally and some also entered the Beacons Rally. Simon Bush competed in a hare and hounds with Leo at C.O.R.E and they all really enjoyed it and they have even gone on to do events on their own such as the Foxwell Enduro also held at Cirencester Park. Leo says, “It’s nice to have people private messaging me asking how do I get onto the Enduro Team or how do I get into the TRF Club Facebook page and many more questions besides.” he continues to prove he is a worthy ambassador of the TRF. he never tries to act like he’s some expert that has years of knowledge as he admits readily that he doesn’t, but he is more than happy to help people get into a sport that he considers to be “awesome” and there is a discipline for everyone. he says, “personally I love all of it
but some people prefer time-card enduros or some hare and hounds or even for some its “Extreme Enduro” or Rallies, there is something for everyone. In the future he is hoping to be able to run one event a year to encourage first timers into the world of enduro from the TRF and continue to raise money to help support the GB Women’s ISDE team. Leo and anthony would like to say a big thank you to the sponsors and hope that they can continue to support the TUC and that others can support the good work of the Club going forward. 2019 was a bit more challenging for anthony Milliar. after winning the local and South West Enduro Championships in the expert class last year he has had to step up to the challenge of being upgraded into the championship class. also, anthony decided that he would compete in the British Enduro Championship as well. “The British championship has been a steep learning curve with the events being two-day events, so the body really takes a pounding”. his results have been consistent with finishing in the top ten in class. It’s just a shame that a big crash at the last round cost him a
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decent overall result. however, even with the injuries anthony has still managed to win the local C.O.R.E enduro championship which made a very good end to the year. It’s nice to know that the hard work and consistency does pay off. hopefully 2020 will be more of an eventful year and he will see some better results. anthony would especially like to thank ashleigh Blight Photography for the photos and also all the sponsors who have helped to make it all possible: R&K Design & Build, MYa Consulting, Stonier hobbs, Somerford Plumbing & heating Ltd, Rotor adventures, aBCautorite Limited. But Bum Butter and ashleigh Blight photography to name but a few. The TEC will be controlled and managed by Wiltshire TRF as one of its approved activities. TRF ENDURO CLUB OFFICIALS Chairman: Leo Swinfen (Wiltshire) Treasurer: Martyn Peters (Wiltshire) Representative: anthony Milliar (Somerset) TRF Director Oversight: andrew Byatt (Wiltshire) Facebook Admin: as above
GB Women’s ISDE Team end of the day where they have to change tyres, filters, brake pads etc with no outside assistance, one night Jane changed two tyres, front forks, air filter, brake pads, oiled her chain and still had 2 minutes left to check the spokes, so next time you take your bike in for service remind them of this. On day six it was a short ride to the final MX test which was more like a Supermoto track, all three Team members finished inside the top 10 ensuring their 3rd position overall and it was great to see them on the podium with the TRF logo emblazoned across the front of their riding shirts. Mick’s background is from enduro both as a rider and a team managing for husqvarna and Sherco at British, European and World level for over 15 years so he knows the importance of promoting supporters and sponsors. Now the event is over, we are
ThE TRF SUPPORTED the British Women’s team at the International Six Days Enduro in Portugal at the end of last year and Jane Daniels, Nieve holmes and Rosie Rowett managed by Mick Seward came away with a fantastic 3rd place overall and an individual 3rd place for Jane. It was the first time that GB has been represented by a women’s team and it was potentially likely that they would receive a good deal of publicity anyway but the achieving a podium finish guaranteed a good return for their sponsors. The first week was spent walking special tests, some more than 67 miles! For race week the women had to negotiate around 300kms per day which included 6/7 timed special tests of between 5 and 10km in length plus three fuel/service checks per lap (2 laps). Then there’s a 15 minute work period at the
looking at how they may be able to recount their experiences at a TRF presentation or similar. The 2019 team entry was fully self-funded with help from supporters who had faith in them The TRF Enduro Club (TEC) agreed to use some of the funds they had already raised to help support the ISDE Team as they believe through the joint publicity this will bring will help raise the profile of the TEC and the TRF. Here are some links to the event and the Women’s Facebook profiles. ISDE Portugal 2019 11th – 16th November https://fim-isde.com/ GB ISDE Team: https://www.facebook.com/isdeGB/ Mick Seward – Team Manager: https://www.facebook.com/mick.seward.77 Jane Daniels: https://www.facebook.com/janedanielsendur o/ - Current World Champion Nieve Holmes: https://www.facebook.com/nieve.holmes Finished 2nd in European Championships Rosie Rowett: https://www.facebook.com/rosierowettracing/ - Finished 4th in European Championships
Rosie Rowett in action
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The Women all have high-profile Social Media followings which hopefully will bring additional awareness to TRF. I am sure many of the ‘older’ TRF members cut their riding teeth on the scrambles, enduro, trials or other forms of motor sport before they discovered the gentler trail riding hobby. The TRF will be looking to support theWomen’s Team team again in 2020 with a programme of much higher level of commitment and support as it is considered that the women are great ambassadors for the sport and fantastic role models for other girls and women wanting to join in the pastime, we all love. Andrew Byatt
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To advertise in Trail magazine contact: Charlie Harris T: 07768 855019 E: charlie@trf.org.uk or visit www.trf.org.uk/trade
TRF Life-Member Austin Vince has devoted the last 20 years to exploring the Spanish Pyrenees. Arch Stanton uncovers the oddball story that spawned Vince’s navigation events 44 Trail Winter 2019/20
Member Profile
A Life Mapped Out Above: Exploring the Spanish Pyrenees is where Austin is happiest... Right: Vince during his Army days at Sandhurst
The sequence of dots that, when joined together, finish with a Middlesex maths teacher presiding over Europe’s most respected navigation challenge begins with a very sad little 13-year-old trainspotter, crying himself to sleep. It was 1979 and Austin Vince was at boarding school at Mill Hill, north-west London. A lanky bully named Rory Jenkins, in the year above him, was making his life hell.
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Like the best bullies, student. We were doing Rory seemed to have no the ‘Ordnance Survey’ part motive save sheer sadism, of the curriculum and and being a foot taller their prep had been to than little Austin, had draw a square grid, 12 x 12 nothing to fear from the cm. Onto this grid they elfin fourth former. Howhad to draw a 1:50,000 ever, this was cold comfort map of a fictional place. to young Vince who, in the The challenge was to use claustrophobic world of the as many of the official boarding house, could find OS symbols as possible no escape from Rory’s but with an emphasis on relentless attentions. contour line inclusion.” “Initially, I knew nothing When the homework Woodrow acher David about the bullying but I will assignment was on y rl Geography te ea in’s potential spotted Aust never forget THAT homecollected, Mr Woodrow work,” remembers David found that young Vince’s Woodrow, Austin’s geography contribution was not only the best in the teacher at the time. I am chatting to him in year, it was in a completely different league to the work of his peers. The detail was the Three Hammers, a local pub that has been Woodrow’s regular after a 36-year astonishing and rather than it being the career at Mill Hill School. result of the allotted 30 minutes, this pupil’s “This was the ‘middle’ set that I taught and ‘map’ had obviously taken several hours. Mr Austin was a pretty forgettable, mediocre Woodrow continued: “He revealed that he had found solace in the quiet world of map-making and had got up at 5 a.m. for two
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Now 65, and retired in Devon, he clearly remembered the young Second-Lieutenant Vince: “The Officer Cadets had to devise a map-reading exercise for notionally boy-soldiers, Junior Leaders (as they were then called), recruits, that kind of thing. They had a weekend to create the assignment. On the Monday morning, subaltern Vince produced a bulging folio of sheets of maps, pro formas etc. that must have taken him the full two days. Every other young officer had done a fair job, but on further questioning, it came to light that Vince had been motorcycling all over the local area and had created what was essentially a massive treasure hunt.”
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days in a row to work on the map and take his mind off Rory Jenkins’s endless sniping.” With three A-levels and an Army scholarship under his belt, in 1984, aged 18, Austin set off for India overland, passing through Turkey, Iran and Pakistan on a variety of buses and trains. Upon his return it was four years of civil engineering and then, before joining the Standard Graduate Course at RMA Sandhurst in September 1988, there was a short two-week ‘pre-Sandhurst’ course that he was required to attend at the HQ of the Royal Army Educational Corps, Beaconsfield. The director of that course back then was Captain Steve Warburton and through the regimental association I tracked him down.
had a history of street bikes but had the idea of transitioning to machines that were being described as ‘trail-bikes’. The idea of the street-legal dirt-bike was in its infancy but we leapt at it and could see that these single-cylinder air-cooled 350s etc. were the obvious choice for a 40,000-mile trip on rough roads with crap petrol.”
To get the final part of the story I realised I would have to track down Gerald Vince, Austin’s elder brother and, I discovered, motorcycle mentor. “Austin wasn’t a natural motorcyclist but he wanted to travel, and explore – that part of him was insatiable. We both realised that a motorbike was probably the best way to do that and so, back in 1992, we planned an around-the-world trip that we called Mondo Enduro.” Gerald Vince is 63 but a youthful vigour enters his voice as he recalls those heady days: “We wanted to cross Russia and Siberia and, back then, nobody had done that. We all
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trail-riding. I had never thought of it like that before but I had to admit he was onto something…”
Gerald then changed his tone and became a bit more serious. “We did two big trips, Mondo Enduro and Terra Circa, but when we got back from the second event, in 2001, Austin decided he didn’t want to do a third big trip. Instead, he had become obsessed with creating a map-reading event in the Pyrenees. We’d done a recce out there in 2000, which of course was navigated by map and compass, there being no such thing as GPS. Austin had it in his head that the map-reading was as much fun as the
Something like… The Vitally Important Navigation Challenge Event – The V.I.N.C.E. Austin Vince has been running self-navigated trail-rides in the Pyrenees for almost 20 years. Put simply, it’s orienteering on a trail-bike with a party every night. There are two identical events in 2020; Twinshock Trailfinder 9/10 June (for classic dirt-bikes) and The V.I.N.C.E. 2nd/3rd Sept, for any machine. The 2020 events have a new GPS class so if you fancy the riding but are wary of the map-reading, you can still have a blast. The events see 85 checkpoints spread out about 5 miles apart on a staggering network of 600 miles of trails covering 780 sq miles. Team must be 2, 3 or 4 riders. Go out for the 2-day event but stick around afterwards for a few more days riding using the maps supplied. The 2020 event sees all 100 riders in a hotel in the town of Arnes, Catalunya (100 miles SW of Barcelona). Sign up at www.austinvince.com/navigation-events
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In The Hot Seat ‘Biker Down’ is Kent Fire and Rescue’s response to a safety concern identified amongst bikers, namely that as bikers often ride in company, the first person ‘on scene’ at a motorcycle accident is often another biker. The course’s founder, Jim Sanderson explains
Not a scene any of us want to encounter, especially if it’s a friend in trouble. But knowing what to do in this situation could make a BIG difference....
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with graphics that show how hi-vis clothing, dayriding lights and retroreflective materials don’t guarantee we’ll be seen by other road users, it highlights the fact that a biker’s best defence is assuming that he/she might not be seen and riding accordingly. The course is highly interactive with plenty of lively discussion and questions, plus the hands-on experience of the first-aid module. At the end of the day, participants receive a free Biker’s First Aid Kit and a certificate of attendance, as well as an ‘aide memoire’ to help remember the content of the course, and a Medical Data Carrier for medical and emergency contact details, to be attached to a rider’s helmet. With over 45 teams around the UK, mainly from Fire and Rescue Services, 6,109 bikers
Module One – incident Scene Management: presented by a fire-fighter, this module explores how to ensure the safety of a fallen rider and anyone else involved in offering first aid, as well as advice on alerting the emergency services. Module Two – Casualty Care: this is delivered by qualified Life Support Practitioners and deals specifically with motorcycle-related first aid, including typical trauma and mechanism of injury to legs, dealing with major bleeds and basic life support, CPR, managing spinal injuries and crash helmet removal. Module Three – The Science of Being Seen: devised by Kevin Williams from Survival Skills Motorcycle Training, this module looks at the way the brain interprets data sent by the eye, as what’s visible isn’t always seen. illustrated
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SAnDeRSon, Who iS also operational Crew Manager and member of the Kent Fire Bike team, witnessed a motorcycle accident back in 2010 whilst off-duty and used his own training as a fire-fighter to assist at the scene. on reflection he realised that his skills and knowledge could benefit fellow bikers, and so the Biker Down scheme was born. he delivered the first course in August 2011 at Ashford Fire Station in Kent. Consisting of three modules over a 3/4 hour session, the idea is to offer riders the opportunity to acquire skills (based on operational fire-fighters’ training) that will enable them to cope should they encounter, or be involved in, a road-traffic collision, rather than just giving information on the consequences. The belief is that this will bring about more of a sense of responsibility and a change in attitude, which will keep bikers safer, both with regard to their riding techniques and how they react at the roadside. The course is free to all bikers of all ages and abilities, and includes the very latest advice surrounding the thorny issue of helmet removal!
attended the course throughout the UK from 2016 to 2017. Biker Down has had feedback from many who’ve attended not just bike accidents, but also car crashes and even non-road related incidents and have been able to put their skills to good use. The Biker Down scheme has a large following on social media, with a regularly updated Facebook page (Biker Down UK) providing an online resource for motorcyclists. Biker Down was recognised at the Prince Michael of Kent international Road Safety Awards in December 2012 when it collected one of the 12 awards and one of only two in the motorcycle category. it went on to win a national ‘Alarm’ Award in August 2013. in november 2019 Jim received a Recognition Award from the Ministry of Defence for his efforts in delivering Train the Trainer Biker Down courses to military instructors who, once trained, deliver the course to their own personnel at bases throughout the world. What’s next? now keen to pursue a longheld ambition to get out on the country’s Green Roads, he recently joined the TRF and contacted Mario Costa-Sa about Biker Down. The decision was made to explore how best to tailor Biker Down to suit the off-road/adventure community, and so Jim is now working with the TRF to produce Biker Down Adventure Rider. Watch this space!
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Jim Sanderson Biker Down was devised by Jim Sanderson, an operational Crew Manager/Fire-Fighter with Kent Fire and Rescue Service and lifelong, dedicated motorcyclist, a DVLA Approved Motorcycle instructor and one of Kent Fire and Rescue’s (Standard Police Motorcyclist) Fire Bike Riders. he’s an iAM ‘First’ qualified Green Badge holder and an iAM national observer and has his ‘Masters’ in Motorcycling. Contact details: for further information about Biker Down, or to sign up for the course (UK-wide), email Jim at bikerdown@kent.fire-uk.org, or you can make contact via Facebook by searching Kent Fire Bike. For national enquiries look for the Biker Down UK page.
Feb 8th & 9th, Devils Punchbowl, Hampshire Mar 7th & 8th, Isle of Man Apr 4th & 5th, Wye Valley Apr 10th to the 12th, Gibraltar Race UK Prologue, 3 Days, 1350km ‘Sardinia Gran Tour’ On Road/ Off Road Rally over 145kg Dates TBC May 2nd & 3rd, Monmouth to Rhayader, Wales Portugal ‘Top2Bottom’, Dates throughout the year ‘HAT, Pavia to Sanremo’ 450km Classic & Discovery (Easy Going) Bikes over 145kg, Dates TBC ‘Rally of Sardinia’ Vintage & Modern Enduro, Dates TBC Jun 6th & 7th, Devils Punchbowl, Hampshire ‘HAT, Sestriere Adventourfest’ Group tours with Official Guides, 500km around the mountains of the Via Lattea’ Dates TBC July 18th & 19th, Devils Punchbowl, Hampshire Jun 19th to July 4th, GibraltAr Race, THE EASTERN DESCENT Estonia to Greece, Rally for all Abilities, Bikes over 145kg or Pre 2000 Aug 1st & 2nd, Monmouth to Rhayader, Wales Sep 5th & 6th, Devils Punchbowl ‘HAT, Hardalpitour ‘Extreme, Classic & Discovery‘ Bikes over 145kg, Sep Dates TBC ‘Italian Lakes & Mountains Marathon‘ Road/Adventure Bikes, Sept dates TBC Oct 2nd to 5th, Isle of Man Portugal ‘Top2Bottom’ Guided Trail Riding, Date TBC Nov 5th to 9th, Gatescarth & the Lakes, 3 Day Adventure Nov 14th & 15th, Thetford Forest & Hunstanton Dec 27th & 28th, The Mud Run, Herts, Essex & Cambs
The Great Western Trail By its creator James Higgs The Great Western Trail (GWT) is a circular, 810 mile (1,303 kilometre) ‘green road’ route through England’s south-west peninsula. It was published as an adjunct to the Trans Euro Trail (TET) to address the needs of trail riding and adventure motorcyclists wishing to spend their leisure time and money in the region. It is my gift to the motorcycling community.
The route is a trinity of sustainable trails, scenic roads and things to do throughout the region, which includes Wiltshire, Somerset, Dorset, Devon and Cornwall. The route follows a mixture of public roads and byways, both metalled and unsurfaced. Although lawful for all road-legal motorcycles, the Great Western Trail is best suited to lightweight, single-cylinder machines fitted
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Ian and Georgina at the start
Georgina powering through Gilbert’s Water on the Trewolvas Road, St Columb
James snapping a selfie at West Cliff, Porthtowan
The Himalayan taking a short rest
Facebook: Trans Euro Trail (TET) Watch: Mark Lewis’ three-part GWT adventure YouTube: Great Western Trail (TET UK) off road camping trip by bike
with trail or dirt-friendly tyres. Other users of the route, such as cyclists, horse riders and drivers of four-wheeled vehicles should recognise that they may encounter roads or terrain which are either unsuited or impassable to them. The route features several one-way roads and is intended to be navigated in a clockwise direction. ‘Great Westerners’ travelling anti-clockwise will need to re-route on encountering ‘No entry’ roads, which are typically found in urban areas. The outward and inward sections of the route intentionally pass near to one another in several locations in order for Great Westerners to create shorter adventures if they wish. Join the TET Facebook group to learn more about these free, community-maintained routes across Europe. Better still, post photos and videos of your own GWT/TET adventures to help inspire other riders:
Andrew Sillence and his faithful Husky 300
on
Blez on Cubert Comm
ey
Classic Cornish chimn
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Behind the Scenery “I WAS OFFErED the role of linesman for the UK TET after my predecessor – Brian Eland – stood down in order to focus on his motorcycle business. Brian and I worked with one another to improve the first draft of the route and ensure it was both legal and sustainable prior to publication. Maintaining the route requires the continued support of the motorcycling community in order to identify and report problems, either via email or the superb TET Android app – a free download from the Google Play store. Photos of obstructions, temporary closures and notices relating to proposed permanent closures can all be submitted with GPS location data via the app, which makes it easy for me to respond to problems. I’m fortunate to have a good knowledge of the green roads of Southern England and Wales, which made creating the GWT a straightforward – if time consuming – process, though I did spend a few days riding parts of West Devon and Cornwall to ensure the route was suitable for typical trail riders and the TET ethos. I am grateful to TrF group officers in the Midlands, North Wales and Northern England for sharing their own local
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knowledge, which has enabled me to modify the route when needed. Change is no bad thing, and enables us to demonstrate sincerity in keeping things safe and sustainable. I’ve been sent a few suggested revisions and additions to the route which have ranged from the wholly sensible (less sustainable routes within a national park) to the absurd (routes where the entitlement to use a motorcycle is dubious, at best). An enthusiasm for researching our highways and byways is essential! In 2018 I created a draft route north from Dover and Newcastle which – if incorporated into the TET – would make an enormous green road roundabout of England & Wales. As fun as this must sound, I’m hesitant to submit it for publication as I believe the TET works better as a (more-or-less) continuous line through its constituent countries, rather than a series of loops. Never say ‘never’ though…”
Photo: R. Schedl
POWER TO THE TOP KTM 300 EXC TPI 2020 KTM Factory Riders are continually shifting the boundaries of possibility. Their demands have resulted in a new generation of complete high-performance enduro machines that offer outstanding handling and agility, improved ease of use and efficient power delivery across the whole rev range. The new 2020 KTM 300 EXC TPI is a race-refined machine of the highest caliber, built to conquer every challenge in your journey to the top. For more information on the 2020 EXC range, visit www.ktm.com or contact your local authorised dealer. Please make no attempt to imitate the illustrated riding scenes, always wear protective clothing and observe the applicable provisions of the road traffic regulations! The illustrated vehicles may vary in selected details from the production models and some illustrations feature optional equipment available at additional cost.
following businesses are offering Friends of the TRF The discounts to TRF members 58% Discount Suzuki GB bikes.suzuki.co.uk/owners/acu-licence-holders/ On parts for ACU licence holders 38% Discount John Banks Renault on Traffic Vans 25% Discount EBC Brakes Direct www.ebcbrakesdirect.com Brake and clutch components 20% Discount CCM Spares www.sparesccm.com The place for CCM owners quote membership number Custom Lids www.customlids.co.uk Discounts available on all motorcycle clothing Flexiplates visit: www.flexiplates.co.uk Quote code TRF15 Herbert & Ellison Discount on seat refurbishment www.herbertellisonupholstery.co.uk/ 15% Discount Cotswold Outdoor www.cotswoldoutdoor.com Cycle Surgery www.cyclesurgery.com Gear 4 Motorcycles www.gear4motorcycles.co.uk WM Moto (Carlisle) www.wmmoto.co.uk Available on parts and selected clothing Adventure Spec Motoz low-impact trail tyres www.adventure-spec.com Memory Maps www.memory-map.co.uk J&S Oxford www.jsaccessories.co.uk
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Bikestop www.bikestop Off-road clothing discount MotoKing www.motoking.co.uk Viewranger www.viewranger.com Discount on digital maps code: TRF2017 10% Discount Rally Raid Products www.rally-raidproducts.co.uk Discount available on all custom Rally parts Midwest Racing www.midwestracing.co.uk Available on parts, accessories and clothing Premier Bikes www.premierbikes.com KTM franchise with discount applying to parts and clothing Endurotek www.endurotek.co.uk Parts and accessories Manchester Xtreme www.manchesterxtreme.com Please quote your TRF membership number PC Advanced Motorcycle Training http://www.cbtanddas.co.uk Bolt Bikes www.boltbikes.co.uk Gerbing www.gerbing.eu Discount code is TRF10 EDZ www.edzdirect.com Base-layer clothing Discount code is TRFC_10 Bike Revival www.bike-revival.co.uk Shock Absorber specialist J&S Oxford www.jsaccessories.co.uk MX Zone www.mxzone.co.uk IAM www.iamroadsmart.com
Rewire Security Tracking, cameras, CCTV, alarms www.rewiresecurity.co.uk Dirtbikebitz Bike parts, riding gear and helmets www.dirtbikebitz.com Opie Oils & Service Parts https://www.opieoils.co.uk// Nomad ADV Lightweight travel & rally gear www.nomad-adv.com Fowlers of Bristol http://www.fowlers.co.uk Smith & Allen Lubricants https://www.smithandallan.com Transylvania Trails http://www.transylvaniatrails.com Bikefix Discount on servicing and repairs www.facebook.com/Bikefixyeovil Dirtbike Express https://www.dirtbikexpress.co.uk Fraser’s of Gloucester 5% on spare parts www.frasersmotorcycles.co.uk Various Discounts Centre Trail, France www.centre-trail.com 15 Euro cash back on booking Enduro Tyres www.endurotyres.com Special rates Trail Rides Wales www.trailrides-wales.com Free guides for members on selected days Bike Seal bikeseal.co.uk Catalan Adventure 10% off accommodation and 50% off bike hire
Check the website for up to date information on discounts offered www.trail.trf.org.uk/members/benefits/
The Way we Were Many thanks to all who contributed to these Anniversary pages. The majority of the photos on these first three pages are from Mike Cowling. We hope you’ll agree that they are suitably nostalgic and might give some of our younger members an idea of what times were like back in the day. THE WRITTEN CONTRIBUTIONS, some hard won, are a testament to the fact that trail riding is good for you. Some, like Brian Thompson, are no longer with us but have left a huge legacy and of those that are still here, most have their full complement of marbles. We salute you.
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In the Beginning The First TRF ride out and meeting - Mario Costa-Sa, TRF Chair
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The TRF’s FiRsT meeting occurred at the Valiant Trooper in Aldbury on 18 January 1970. This is a story about the major part played by the ACU and the local Berkhamsted Motorcycle and Car Club (BMC&C) had in the TRF’s inception. The idea for a TRF had been around for some time before January 1970, the chief exponents being journalists Ralph Venables and colleague John ebbrell. it is believed they had already been turned down by the British Motorcycle Federation (BMF) so they enlisted the help of Berkhamsted club secretary ernie Wrigley and the Berkhamsted club and the south Midland centre ACU “right of way” committee. A “Green Roads Run” with a difference was organised by the Berkhamsted club. it would be unusual because of what was planned to follow. A brand new national club would hold its first meeting. The tentative name was the Trail Riders Fellowship. The Green Roads Run was under the leadership of Dick and Jean sutton of the West Middlesex Amateur Motorcycle Club. The run took in the icknield Way for approximately 17 miles. They riders formed Over £50K’s worth of Eg
li Vincent
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four groups on a wide range of machines ranging from a 50cc italian cross-country machine to a 1000cc egli Vincent. incidentally, this bike today would be cheap at £50,000. sections of this 3000-year-old icknield Way had fallen into disuse and had been abandoned by ramblers and horse riders. Motorcyclists rode the Way, legally, to promote the desire to see the full length of the icknield Way properly recorded as a byway by the local authorities. it was decided in pre-NeRC days, that the run would open up the route and help upgrade a section of the Upper icknield Way, which had changed from being recorded as a RUPP (Road Used as a Public Path) to a bridleway (No Vehicles Allowed) and back to a RUPP at the
TRF 50TH ANNIVERSARY change of county borders. The day began with the “Green Roads Run” ride out, which was limited to a maximum of 24 riders and it concluded at the Valiant Trooper. The riders’ ages were quite widely spread with the youngest at 16 and the eldest, George Abbay, a 67-year-old who had travelled from shipley in Yorkshire to ride in the event. Weather conditions were not good. A 1000cc Vincent, drizzle and a muddy green lane in January must have been challenging. At the end of the day, at 5.00pm, the inaugural meeting of the then proposed “Trail Riders Fellowship” took place and amazingly, another 50 people showed up to attend the inaugural TRF meeting. BMC&C’s kindly made its clubroom available for this meeting for the thirty who took part in the run and at least a further 40 who were present by 5.15pm when proceedings began.
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The three original sponsors, Messrs. John ebbrell, Ralph Venables and ernie Wrigley, provided a written summary of the general idea behind the Fellowship. The following persons were elected to serve the Fellowship and to guide it through its formative period. President: George Abbey Director: ernie Wrigley Secretary: Colin salmon Treasurer: Mike Brown Editor: John ebbrell Affiliation to the BMF was to be sought. After the meeting about 60 riders enrolled as founder members. This meeting was chaired by BMC&C’s chair at that time steve hoole. The meeting must have been a huge success because 56 riders paid their subscription and became the first members of the TRF.
Members of the BMC&C were very much into “green laning” in the early 1970s, as well as offroad sports in general. Throughout the 1970s “green roading” was always mentioned in the BMC&CC club minutes and had a regular agenda spot. The 1970 agenda titled “A General idea” included a proposal of guidelines on how the new fellowship should be operated and was signed by John ebbrell, Ralph Venables and ernie Wrigley. These were: 1) That membership is open to any person of goodwill. 2) That the TRF wishes to work in harmony with existing motorcycle organisations and willingly collaborate with local authority, government agency or amenity society. 3) That it extends the hand of friendship to all other users of the countryside in the interests of our common heritage. 4) That it would organise venture runs. These may range from casual friend-callingon-friend to carefully planned large scale get-togethers. 5) That it would have have as few awkward rules as possible. There were other proposals for the aims of the newly formed TRF and not all have been quoted. Over the years, the TRF has fought to protect our interests in the countryside and has succeeded many times in its objectives to maintain our legal right in riding green roads. The TRF still keeps true to promoting the aims of the inaugural meeting: in January 1970 issue of the Berkhamstead Gazette there is a report about the proposed meeting of the TRF and the statement: “This Could Be The start Of something Big”. Rediscovering the First Rideout inspired by a chance conversation with Alan Kind on Friday 18 January 2013 about the start of the TRF, Michel sabatier, the TRF’s Finance Director, and myself braved the snow and went for an evening drink in the
Valiant Trooper. On the following sunday we followed as much of the icknield Way as we legally could around the Ashridge area and leading toward Princes Risborough. Being wimps and new to trailriding and as it was snowing at the time, we decided to take a 1970 Land Rover to help with the navigation. Now, 50 years later, this route features regularly as part of our Dunstable Downs Green Road Ride and you too are welcome to come and enjoy the same pioneering run that the TRF members rode many years previously. Thanks to: BMC&C – Mike Dunks, Peter Weight and steve hoole who supplied the majority of thetext that Mike Dunks edited for the TRF. TRF – Robin hickin, Dave Tilbury, John Gardner and David Giles for their individual contributions but especially to Alan Kind for being the initiating spark that started the trail of discovery. Ralph Venables article: dates & publication unknown The Berkhamsted Gazette (writer unknown), 23 January 1970 Refrs: “Unity”, the journal of the British Motorcycle Federation, Dec 1969-Jan 1970, see Letter John ebbrell
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Brian Thompson: The man who saved trail riding
A FOundeR memBeR of the organisation in 1970, Brian Thompson was national Rights of Way Officer for the Trail Riders Fellowship for 14 years, and was held by many to be responsible for saving trail riding from
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possible extinction during the passage of the Wildlife and Countryside Act in 1979. It was thanks in no small part to Brian’s hard work that the Act created the Byway Open To All Traffic, the routes which form the backbone
Pics: Tony Sleep & TRF Archives
Long-standing TRF rights-of-way stalwart Brian Thompson, passed away peacefully in 2009.
of our trail riding heritage to this day. during this period, he also successfully claimed byway status for many famous and historic routes, including Stile end Pass, Breast High Pass and Gatesgarth Pass in the Lake district. Brian went on to use the expertise he had accumulated to win a senior post in the Rights of Way department with northumbria County Council. In his 14 years there he opened up 500 miles of public rights of way, and arranged the construction of 50 bridges. In 1985, thanks to the Churchill Trust, Brian was sent on a fact-finding tour of the uSA looking at the trail riding facilities that President nixon had established by ordering the individual states to set up dedicated areas open to off-road vehicles. Sadly his report to Parliament on how we might make similar provision in this country came to nothing. Brian remained a tireless worker for the TRF bringing considerable rigour and experience to his work as regional Rights of Way advisor for the north of england. Below is his story of trail riding in the uK.
THE STORY OF TRAIL RIDING IN THE UK ing movement soon gained a foot hold in the uK. The TRF started in l970 and I was a founder member. George Abbey started the West Yorkshire Group the same year and became club President. I started the derbyshire group in l970 one of the first. Regional groups sprung up all over the country. especially strong groups got going in Kent, the South West, Teeside, the South midlands and Cumbria. At first the TRF hadn’t a clue about rights of way and it took till l975 before the TRF appointed its first national Rights of Way Officer (me of course!) based on me being an ex-policeman and being a rights-of-way officer for the Ramblers Association who soon threw me out when they found out I was a trail rider. The first challenges were on the Ridgeway that runs for 250 miles from Oxfordshire to Wiltshire and Public Inquiries followed with partial success. during these early years the Ramblers Association were just as vociferous as they
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(a personal version; angry critics of any inaccuracies can write their own version!) IT ALL STARTed in America. Well that’s no surprise! Around l968 the Japanese introduced small lightweight trail machines like the Suzuki 120cc Trail Cat. There was also a Hodaka 110cc that never made it to the uK. A lot of ‘trail’ Honda 70cc and 90cc models appeared around this time based on the familiar Honda 50 and 90. Suzuki and Yamaha soon followed. In l972 President Richard nixon made a Presidential Order to accept and make provision for trail riding in the uSA and so we have state supported and organised trails on a big scale especially in Washington State, California, the mid West and new england. I toured all these sites in l984 for the uK Govt who were interested in making similar provision for trail riding in the uK. Led by motor Cycle journalist John ebbrell (killed in a road accident in l974) the trail-rid-
TRF 50TH ANNIVERSARY
are now in campaigning for a total ban on trail riding. Having failed to make any political headway during the l981 Countryside Act when the Tory Government saw no reason to restrict trail riding and rejected the RA and Liberal Peers who had pressed for a ban. The l981 Bill was the high water mark for TRF success never to see it again as the tide of public opinion turned against trail riding and in particular against the new ‘sport’ of off-roading 4x4s which, during the late l980s caused havoc by going out in large convoys of 150 vehicles. The PR damage has never really recovered. Which is why the ‘love affair’ as Peter Plummer called it with the 4x4s by the TRF has not exactly been a success with this writer offering few discernible benefits. The TRF was fortunate in having very wise management from l978 to l988 with canny trade union official Seymour moss as chair for many years. There was also useful unity in having the ACu and BmF joining forces with the TRF in the corridors of power. The ACu (as now) have the key to the official corridors and the TRF had the finance to make it a success.. It no longer seems to work quite the same! The first round of public inquiries into TRF Byway claims came along in the early 80s, in the Lake district based on claims I made on behalf of the Cumbria Group utilising
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invaluable veteran ACu riders (then in their 70s) who gave unique user evidence at public inquiries which clearly helped enormously in getting Byway status for most of the superb Lakeland mountain passes like Gatesgarth, Stile end and Breast High Passes. At that time the anti-vehicular lobby was less powerful and amazingly we even had support for Byways from Kentmere Parish Council and others. I have not heard of a single parish council for a decade who is anything but hostile. Anyway the TRF in its first big test in a national park came through rather well with l0 out of 20 Byways claimed. Of the five major mountain pass ‘trails’ open and well used in the Lakes in the 70s, 80s and 90s only two Byways (Breast High and Stile end) are still fully open, as a result the Lake district is no longer a major trail riding area. The Government carried out an official ‘Green Lane Study’ in l977 which found that the problem of trail riding (alleged the RA) was negligible and there was no justification for a ban. Indeed, this study declared that the TRF was second only to the Ramblers Association in being a leading rights-of-way body ahead of the horse riders and cyclists. Yet still the TRF felt unable to fund a full-time national RoW officer and this of course still applies relying instead on volunteers. With hindsight this was not a wise decision and somehow the TRF 20 years ago should have found a way of financing this. A big step forward came in 2004 when the TRF appointed four regional RoW advisors working under contract for one day per week. Throughout the l980s several challenges by the police to prosecute TRF members were made. The first major challenge came in l977 at Chapel en le Frith magistrates Court in derbyshire against five TRF members for riding a public bridleway. The TRF backed a defence and I engaged a lawyer to defend all five. I provided convincing evidence that the bridleway was in fact an old road and the magistrates threw out the case and found the trail riders not guilty. many similar attempts were made but none ever reached the courts again as the TRF were able to convince the police and Crown Prosecution Service to back down.
except one very important case in north east derbyshire (I was no longer TRF nat ROW Officer then) which led to demands for a change in the law to take away our common law rights which in turn led to neRC. It did not help that in many areas the TRF did not seem interested in making Byway claims and were just content to use green lanes with the wrong status. In mid and north Wales for example not one single Byway claim was made over a 35 year period though mid Wales was a major trail riding area and still is. The exceptions to this unofficial policy of course were in Wiltshire, in the north east, South Yorkshire, and the western dales where the TRF rose to the challenge and worked very hard over many years making Byway claims which today are a vital trail riding resource. So looking back over 38 years the record of achievement (and I don’t count riding up and down green lanes) that reflects real credit to the TRF is patchy but is still something we can be proud of even though these gains are now under attack especially in the dales. The severe pressure for change to take away trail riders’ common law rights came to fruition in 2006 with the passing of neRC 2006 which in my opinion closed about half
of the 5000 miles of green lanes. We had no friends during the passage of the Bill. even the British Horse Society put the boot in and the vehicular lobby TRF/ACu/BmF/LARA proved ineffectual with all party support for closures and worse the cancelling of a 1000 TRF Byway claims. The blackest day in TRF history! But thanks to those valiant few whose efforts before 2005 to make Byways had succeeded, there are still 4500km of Byways and we also have plenty of uCRs, so trail riding WILL continue and survive long into the 21st century! Brian Thompson 16 September 2008
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Nigel Gardner’s Early Days “These were simple times, and I was lucky to be part of the original group in the TRF. We often had long wet and difficult days out riding, however we always got home, often on a tow rope, and with a soggy OS map.” I ReMeMbeR ReADIng in the the MCn or Weekly that it was possible to explore the countryside on motorcycles using a hidden network of unused roads called green lanes, I was intrigued, and around that time the Japanese bike manufacturers had started to produce amazing looking motorcycles which seemed to beg to be ridden off road. The newspaper gave details of where to meet up with other likeminded riders, which of course was the Valient Trooper in Tring, no more than twenty miles from where I lived. I told my friend Jeff Instrell who is featured in the photo with me next to our bikes in Wales about the group. He was keen to attend so we waited until the date of the next meeting and set off for the Trooper.
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I seem to remember that the meeting was held in the room at the back of the pub or back bar. It was very well supported and you could tell that the group was friendly and enthusiastic about the riding. A chap called Tony Mclusker would call the meeting to order. Details would be shared about future trips and weekend ride outs, then a slide show on recent trips and ride outs would be shown. Most of the photos would show either a rider stuck in some bottomless swamp or trying to make progress down a lane which had become very overgrown. It must be taken into account that in the early seventies many lanes had been neglected or not ridden for many years,
often one lane may have taken several hours In the photo the riders are from left to right. to progress down, due to being blocked by not sure about the chap in red, next guy is fallen trees or not being marked in any way. Jeff Diamond, younger brother of Frank. Very In fact often it could be unclear where the serious and a great fan of nighttime trail start of the lane was, or its route to riding, then Frank Diamond, then Jeff Instrall, completion. then Peter Plummer, who was a writer on the As each photo was shown, shouts and TMX paper, and in the helmet next to his howls of laughter could be heard, and new trusty Ossa Tony Mac, then Dave Javis, and members attending were under no illusion excellent rider who was sadly killed on his that an adventure was in store for any rider bike in a RTA All good men and true. There mad enough to leave the Tarmac. were many others but this photo was taken I was 19 at the time, and most of the riders on one of the many wonderful trips to were from a trials or scrambling back ground Wales with the TRF. Most local Herts rides would start from the so were used to riding off road, but did not Rookery transport cafe on the old A1 as there want to be riding in a competitive way, but was plenty of parking and the promise of a had a genuine love of riding of off road and cooked breakfast. being in the company of like minded people. It must be remembered that the bikes What’s not to love here I thought. We were were very different to today’s, heavy and hopelessly hooked from the word go. unreliable, and often on wet days prone to Tony was a school teacher, and was a good a host of electrical faults. The lanes total public speaker. He had a posh voice and was unmanaged by the councils were water a natural at keeping order, his nemesis was a logged, blocked by fallen trees and blocked guy called Frank Diamond, one of the by landowners often in denial about rights funniest men you could meet. They would of way or deliberately trying to divert rights banter as the slides were shown, with much leg pulling about break downs due to suspect of way from their property. maintenance or dubious riding practices. These were simple times, and I was lucky Frank and a chap called big John to be part of the original group in the TRF. grimshore were great exponents of a style of We often had long wet and difficult days out riding called the body english. This would riding, however we always got home, often involve keeping the bike upright and leaning on a tow rope, and with a soggy OS map. over with your body while still seated, very I write this in gratitude to the men and few people would stand on the pegs, unless women who started the TRF, and allowed in a survival mode! me to be part of something very special. Much ale would be drunk, Any regrets? Yes, I wish I’d joined at 17! and Tony would calling for quiet as he would try to explain the routes and points of interest. At this time there was very little fiction between ramblers or land owners due to very few riders accessing the countryside, a far cry from today’s litigatious world. I don’t remember why we stopped meeting at the Trooper or when, but the From left to right. No t sure about the cha p in red, then Jeff Dia Jeff Instrall, Peter Plu meetings moved to the mond, Frank Diamond mmer, Tony Mac and , Dave Javis guinea Fowl in Cuffley.
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l i a r T e g a Herit
Steve’s beloved AJS
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Steve Neville, the TRF’s Heritage Director, is also the Fellowship’s archivist. He has previously occupied the role of National Rights of Way Officer and, like the rest of us, he’s obsessive about his two-wheel activities. All of which gives him a unique perspective MY FIRST ‘MOTOR’ bike was an NSU Quickly purchased for the princely sum of 50p in 1973. This was not road legal but in those days there were plenty of bits of disused land where my school mates and myself would push it to for a good old razz about on. We had an old WW2 airfield, RAF Gravesend, nearby and used the old perimeter track to ride up and down. Further afield there were a couple of disused quarries which provided plenty of off-road challenge. In 2020 these are golf courses and country parks; such is the pace of change. Even the golf course is now about to be cut through by the east Thames river crossing. Road bikes like the Suzuki T250J/T500M took over for the next five years but their novelty eventually wore thin. Plus the odd
s a step up in The Yamaha IT175 wa t 33mpg...? bu g, lin nd power and ha
An NSU Quickly very similar to the one Steve owned in 1973
crash made me limit my road riding and it still does to this day, having not ended the habit of breaking bits of myself from time to time. I had discovered Dave Taylor’s trail park near Dartford in 1979 and gave it a go on a Yamaha DT100. But riding around in circles was boring and so I contacted the TRF whom I had read about in the motorcycle press. My local group was called the South East TRF Group in those days and so I equipped myself with a KE125 and went trail riding. The bike was rubbish but riding green lanes was great fun. The KE had to go and I managed to get a good PX deal on the new Yamaha IT 175. This was a real step up in the power and handling stakes but the fuel consumption was heavy; 33mpg. Nevertheless I used it for three years to explore Kent, Sussex and Surrey. In 1983 I took it to the ISDE in Wales. We marshalled on some days and explored the lanes of mid Wales with Dick Sutton. He was a TRF founder member and had an intimate knowledge of mid Wales; and people on remote farms named ‘Dai’ and ‘Gwyneth’. In those days we could ride the Ridgeway along virtually its entire length. Somerset was full of great trails all with the status of RuPP. Great swathes of the Dales and Derbyshire could be ridden. so what was the issue?
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TRF 50TH ANNIVERSARY good and an oil seal leak developed. I sold it but then had a legal battle with the new owner who didn’t like it either. I bought it back from him in a stripped down state. Back to square one. I rebuilt it and sold it again and this time explicitly told the new owner I thought that these bikes were rubbish. He took it to Scotland. Oddly enough the later XR250s have a good reputation for reliability. Lesson to me is to never buy a new model Honda and risk becoming part of its unpaid product development team. So it was back to 2-strokes. This was the start of a relationship with Kawasaki’s KDX range of enduro bikes. Back in the 1980s and 1990s there was a lot of debate about trail vs enduro bikes. Also in those days FIM approved enduro tyres were not readily available and so we tended to go for motocross tyres. Lots of legal wrangling about this. Plastic petrol tanks were another issue and a legacy of fibre glass tanks exploding on cafe racers and consequently being banned; metal only guys. So I merrily rode my KDX with plastic tank and motocross tyres. I relished the better handling of a competition bike in comparison to the DT175, RuPPs were roads right? Higher rights of UCR overruled bridleways and footpaths; ‘Once a highway, always a highway’. The clue was in the name, even if they were used like footpaths and bridleways. Now almost all those green roads are Restricted Byways. By 1983 It was time to go 4-stroke being cleaner and more economical. The Yamaha was replaced with a Honda XR 250 which had just been launched. Initially I thought it should have been a good trail bike. Like all 4-strokes it was a fussy starter; electric starting was well over a decade in the future. My right thigh thus developed bigger muscles. It was a bit unreliable so I sold it to help buy a new house in 1986 and replaced it with another XR250 the following year. It went to the Isle of Man where we discovered the huge number of green lanes enabling us to see the racing from almost anywhere. Its not so easy these days, so I’m told. The second XR250 was a big mistake. The engine was not reliable either and it blew up spectacularly. The engine rebuild was not
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TS185 and XL185s that were its contemporaries. It never caught fire and I never fell off riding on tarmac. Now we have plastic tanks and good choice of legal tyres. I had the KDX200A2 model. Air cooled and a nice light bike to ride on the trails. Drum brakes at both ends meant for an interesting stopping experience in the wet. A few years later this was changed for a KDX200E2 with water cooling, disc brakes and a power valve. I loved that bike but I always thought that I should have a 4-stroke. That was something to do with my job which has, over about five decades, been an air-quality practitioner working for major London authorities. Clouds of blue smoke and poor fuel consumption was not something I thought I should have to be responsible for. Around this time I volunteered to be the National Rights of Way Officer. In those days we had more limited funds and in spite of having some very able people working with us there were a several bad legal cases which bit us. Norton Malreward was a failed RuPP reclassification appeal and RuPP 13 was a case in Hertfordshire where a guy called Hedderson tried suing TRF members for riding a RuPP that crossed part of his land. Even though we seemed to win cases somehow we lost tens of thousands of pounds in costs. We kept on winning Ridgeway public enquiries but eventually would loose that, our oldest road. It was at that point we realised we needed to become a limited liability company. A story about the TRF’s
legal battles warrants a book or dissertation in itself rather than just an article in Trail. So I bought a KLX300. Again a lovely bike but I’d made a grave mistake in buying a grey import from a crook selling from a shed in his back garden. The crankcase broke on the inside of the engine by the kickstart. I eventually got a new engine and fitted it into the bike but oddly the bike was stolen from my garage a month after that. I could not prove anything though. Like all of its 4-stroke contemporaries it was a bitch to start especially when hot. Time for a fag; except I don’t smoke so many a Mars bar was consumed waiting for it to cool. Electric starting was still rare but the Suzuki DR350 and later DRZ400 had it fitted. So it was back to the KDX200. Easy starting and my blue cloud of smoke was back! This time an E1 model almost identical to my previous KDX. It was a good bike like its predecessors and I kept it for a few more years through the late 1990s into the 2000s. By this time more 4-strokes were becoming available and at long last they almost all had electric starting. Well the XR250 didn’t and neither did its popular big brother the XR400. This was the time of CROW, leading to NERC and suddenly everyone in the TRF was becoming really worried. Was there much point in owning a dirt bike if all the trails were going to be closed anyway? Somewhat eccentrically I’d developed a habit of exploring some of the gentler green roads on my Kawasaki GPZ600. As long as they are dry
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TRF 50TH ANNIVERSARY are dry and there are As long as the roads what one can ride... no steps, it’s amazing
and didn’t have steps its amazing what one can ride. My Fireblade/R1/GSXR riding friends wondered what I was doing. Most of these now own big adventure bikes. My next trail bike was a two-year-old Suzuki DRZ400E. Happily it had a quiet aftermarket pipe because the standard one was a straight through pipe with no baffle. Not only that but it also came with an pair of Supermoto wheels to swap and the front wheel sported a huge disc. Stoppies were now a reality. So even if we had no trails, twisty tarmac roads would still be fun. At last I had a reliable four stroke trail bike and it had an electric start. Economy was impressive and it had plenty of power. The weight was noticeable as was the handling which was good up to a point. But trail riding is about appreciating the countryside so with its smooth engine a delight to ride a long distance. By this time TRF member’s trail bikes were turning more and more orange. These orange machines also came
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with concrete saddles, ten-hour service intervals and the refinement of a 1955 Massey Ferguson. The Suzuki took me out and about on TRF rides and in spite of NERC we still had green roads to ride. The TRF become a limited company and fought back against unreasonable TROs with increasing success. Many of these were in the form of car-only regulation in the extended winter months. I’ve always believed that a green road should be able to sustain 250 kg of bike and rider and if not should be surfaced and drained so it can. A horse weighs 600 kg and has at least as high a surface impact as a motorcycle but there are few, if any horse TROs. The Suzuki met its demise by way of a total ignition failure whilst riding in Normandy. I never could find a spark ever again in spite of replacing several components. So the Suzuki ended up in bits on eBay and the sum of its parts yielded more cash than if I’d sold it as a non-runner.
So what next? Yamaha had its WR range and had developed from a 400 through a 425 to a 450. A Kent TRF member was selling his 2007 WR450 and so I bought that with an extra set of standard trail wheels. The WR was similar in many ways to the Suzuki and so I had a feeling of deja vu. It was more powerful, handled better and was thirstier. The worst feature was the silly 7-litre tank. Fortunately I acquired a 12-litre tank and the range anxiety went away. These days we don’t seem to get so worried about the enduro or trail bike suitability and noise; very much like the wax cotton or bright colour jacket argument.
battery. Top speed in the summer is 98 mph and the range on minor roads is just over 100 miles. Recharging is slow giving the equivalent of 12 miles per hour. So a long recharging lunch gives an extra 20 miles. Having been developed in California its really a summer only trail bike and the weight and chassis highlight its dual sport credentials. Whilst its cheap on energy use the reliability is not what it should be. Its on its 4th rubber drive belt and second charger. Initially these were covered by the 2-year warranty but the last charger was only covered 50%.
I recall in the early days there used to be leather boot or welly comparisons. I suppose it is the way of things that issues are no longer issues but we discover other “problems” to worry ourselves with. Even those orange bikes, the KTMs, are quiet and fully homologated; with pathetic 30 day warranties though. But there is still noise and pollution. That’s how the Zero DS appeared in my garage. I’d often wondered about almost silent trail riding and now it appeared to be a possibility. So in 2016 I bought a 2015 model with a 44 kW motor and 12.5 kWHr lithium
A fuel injection WR450 2015 model replaced the 2007 model and it was very much deja vu again but just a little better all round than the old one. Electric is currently an alternative but not a replacement for internal combustion. So 40 years after I started trail riding on my KE125 I’d be pleased to tell my younger self we can still ride green roads on motor-cycles and that a whole new world of ‘adventure motorcycling’ is opening up to us all.
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TRF 50TH ANNIVERSARY
My Time with the TRF:
IanThompson I was not a founder member of the Trail Riders Fellowship. The TRF was launched on 18 January 1970, but I didn’t join until 1 August 1970, paying ten shillings annual membership fee. I WAS An engineering student at Cambridge University and had been ‘green laning’ for over a year, before reading about the new Fellowship in Motor Cycle news. Undergraduates were banned from keeping cars or motorbikes in Cambridge, but I managed to get permission for a moped by finding digs as far out of the centre as possible. An nSU Quickly was much more fun on muddy green lanes than it was on city streets. In my third year at Cambridge I ‘built’ a green lane special by putting a trials tyre on the back of a D1 BSA Bantam. On this I mapped out and led the inaugural ride of the Cambridge University Motorcycle Club along a string of green lanes to newmarket. In 1972 I had a job in central London. TRF Bulletin 12 announced that County Representatives were to be co-opted to deal with Rights of Way problems. I just wanted to ride. I invested £120 in a Honda CB100 roadster, which I found could be ridden (very Cambridge green lane bike 1969
slowly) on Thames valley green lanes feet up with the front wheel packed solid with mud and the back wheel spinning sideways. Honda used this gem of an engine as the basis for some brilliant trail bikes. I moved to Wiltshire and explored the controversial Ridgeway, churned and rutted by agricultural vehicles in winter, with damage being blamed on motorcycles. I rode the Ridgeway and stormed the Paso di Stelvio in Italy on the same Yamaha 350 two-stroke twin roadster. Work took me to Somerset and I started riding with other people some of the time. Exmoor was a trail riding paradise, and I still had the opportunity to reach Wiltshire’s lanes with riding companion Paul Sander on his ex-army BSA 350. TRF Bulletin 58 for January 1978 had twelve groups advertising events. I tagged on to the Bristol Group and the Yeovil Group and rode with Bill and Ann Riley in Wiltshire. This was the year I bought a trail
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Salisbury Plain 1973
Dover to Land’s End 1986. Ian shown here aboa rd the XT250 he still owns
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TRF 50TH ANNIVERSARY trail riding, fitting in solo explorations between monthly group runs. I met Rod Dixon, Somerset CC Rights of Way officer who predicted the cancellation of the Limited Special Review. We were winning! I teamed up with East Somerset Bridleways Association to fight a common cause for rights of way. In December 1979 nine TRF volunteers cleared a path through my
Honda roadster green laning
bike, a Yamaha DT125. It was noisy, smoky and slow after the 350 roadster, but the exhaust pipes didn’t catch on the sides of deep ruts. I helped the Yeovil Group with research for the Somerset County Council Limited Special Review of RUPPs. The Yeovil Group seemed very organised. In December 1978 I fought my way through a green lane in Compton Martin, south of Bristol, which was completely overgrown and wished something could be done about it. The following year saw my DT125 replaced by the much better DT175. I was hooked on all 1988 Lane clearing, Cornw
Compton Martin green lane and were paid £54.88 expenses by Avon CC. I talked with the West Somerset Bridleways Association and helped to organise motorcycle marshals for their Quantock long-distance horse-riding event. Bristol TRF group had an Exmoor camping weekend, when 14 riders in two groups rode 37 lanes on Saturday and 29 on Sunday. I was riding two or three times a month, usually solo. I was volunteered to be rights of way man for Bristol group. The Yeovil group was fading, but the Bristol group remained
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groups. I met Colonel Rik Stokes to discuss trail riding wardens for the Quantocks AOnB where there were issues with unregistered bikes and anti-social riding. I ventured into Cornwall for the first time for a weekend of self-guided green laning. Four of us rode lanes around Honiton in Devon. I linked together 31 lanes for a ride between Taunton and the south coast. 1983 saw my first weekend away in the Brecon Beacons with Mick Comber from Devon. I attended an Exmoor national Park Consultative Committee Meeting in Dulverton. I rode the Ridgeway ‘before it was closed’, but it wasn’t. I explored a route from Beginners Run, Taun Bridgwater to Bruton with Gwynne ton 1982 Thomas who lived on the Mendips. In 1984 I moved to Cornwall where I still live. There was no Cornwall TRF group, so strong. On a typical outing near Flax Bourton, I set one up. I began planning a ‘big ride’ – Bristol group rode a Yamaha IT250, Honda Dover to Lands’ End on as many green lanes XR200, Suzuki TS125 and nInE Yamaha as possible. Most TRF members took their DT175s. So, I bought a Yamaha XT250 four bikes to events on trailers – that was why stroke single, which I still have. they were called ‘trail bikes’! I would ride my I visited the Devon Record Office to study Enclosure Award maps. In 1981 we formed a bike all the way from Dover to Lands’ End new group for Exmoor. Trevor Compton led unsupported, carrying camping gear on the us on a pre-Christmas run where we fought bike. It took a week. There were a lot of lanes. our way through snow drifts on Exmoor next, I rode from Scotland south to Derby on tarmac roads. Our first ‘beginners’ run’ from green lanes, with logistic support and route Taunton attracted 28 riders, split into three finding from TRF experts Alan Kind, Dave Giles, Gordon 90 19 a rop Eu de Thackray and many others. Picos I thought I would write a book about trail riding, based on my own experiences. I was very fortunate to gain the support of Jeff Clew at Haynes who published my ‘Exploring Green Roads & Lanes of Great Britain’ in 1988. While still doing stuff in Cornwall – organising runs, doing rights of way work, lane clearing, horse riding events, weekends away – I wondered about exploring green roads and lanes of Europe. I took the ferry
TRF 50TH ANNIVERSARY
Grwyne Fawr, Wales
1983
from Plymouth to Brittany with Roger Fogg to try some French green lanes. I rode with John Rubin in the cork forests behind the Costa del Sol, in the French Pyrenees and the Spanish Picos de Europa. I sampled Andorra and north-east Spain, taking the bike on the trailer so the family could come on holiday as ride that Alps 1994. ‘I wouldn’t .’ op bike to the paper sh
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well. My big ride was in 1994, when I rode my 1981 XT250 from Cornwall to the Italian Alps. Seeing my preparations for this, TRF Secretary Sally Madgwick commented, ‘Trail riding in the Alps? I wouldn’t ride that bike to the paper shop!’ Haynes wanted a second edition of the ‘Exploring Green Roads Book’ to include pedal cyclists. I put together a route from the Mendips to the Wash – west to east across England, and rode my bicycle, linking off tarmac sections with the bike in the boot of my car. Then Haynes turned down the second edition. no-one was interested in ‘Exploring Green Roads of Europe’. I was enjoying riding a mountain bike – you could ride bridleways –
no-one shouted at you. I was still trail riding in Cornwall, but in 1998 I bought a 1927 Douglas EW350 and moved on to vintage motorcycling. The Douglas was replaced by a 1929 Sunbeam project, which I still have, together with Japanese road bikes and the trusty XT250. I took the XT250 out the other day – it now qualiďŹ es for Vintage Motor Cycle Club events! When we started trail riding in the 1970s, we hoped we would be able to continue riding green lanes in the next century. Fifty years on, the TRF has never looked stronger. I wish all of you good luck for the future. Keep riding!
Pyrenees 1993
Ian Thompson, honorary life member
ve, Fording the River Do 87 Scotland to Derby 19
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TRF 50TH ANNIVERSARY
The TRF 50 Years on:
Pete Plummer “A passion, a pleasure and a pain – and an itch”. ‘Plum’ has worked in the motorcycle industry as a ‘mender’, a journalist, an off-road competitor and a rights-of-way campaigner
IN THe COMPANy of others I’ve carried an XR75 over the Strata Florida, buzzed around the Dales on a Wolfhound and faced an angry farmer and his shotgun in Rutland. There was a KLX650 for the Coast to Coast and time well spent powering across exmoor on a Maico and a DKW. Almost always fun. I’ve also ‘enjoyed’ the hospitality of Barnstaple A&e and Bideford Magistrates Court. May the good times keep rolling! The 1968 National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act proposing downgrades and closures (and impending doom) was discovered whilst riding around Northamptonshire on my old Inter‘ Norton. With notice of the act stapled to telegraph poles and gateposts nationwide, other would-be ‘TRFers’ were soon doing the same. No trail bike, my ‘cammy’ Norton was my introduction to vintage racer, lane clearer, future Trail editor and lifelong friend Dave Jackson. I first spotted DJ asleep under a BSA Gold Star, so a meet-up was a must. His passion for bikes and the countryside was key and dictated endless strategy meetings in pubs as we lodged objections with the Doe. After a decade as a mechanic and MoT tester (a ten-year test then), I’d gone scrambling – but this was different. It was fun and challenging with a sense of purpose. With the passion of the newly enlightened, I was taking motorcycling to the people – or so I thought, ‘stupid boy’. The feeling back then was that ‘all councils are bastards’ but in fact Northants County Council was helpful and interested. Contrary to popular belief it agreed that ’once a
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highway, always a highway’ would not hold water in modern times and that trail riding needed to be ‘sold’ as a bona fide leisure activity – something I have done ever since. Conscious of the image to be created, I wrote into the constitution: ‘to show respect for the countryside and for those who live and work there’. What is not in the constitution – and I feel it necessary to point it out – is that all land is owned by somebody. The right of way may be maintainable at county expense but the RoW only applies to the surface crust. Just like any hard surfaced road, it is there to enable a journey from A to B, and not to roar about on. OK. So there you go – lesson over. ACU clubs focusing on sport had few RoW offers, the RAC Motorsports Association almost none. Up north George Abbey, Margery Price, Howard Wadsworth, Brian Thompson and others were active. The Berkhamsted club, meeting at the Valiant Trooper, Aldbury, Herts, had a nucleus of trail riders including ‘Wrig’, Seymour Moss, Brian Catt, Fred Chandler, Bob Gill, and Dick and Jean Sutton. The TRF was created with the help of that nucleus and local sections of the Vintage Club. The 1970s and 80s were growth years but the glorification of the hardening image of both on and off-road motorcycling was a negative. I’d started Motorcycle News’s ‘On the Trail’ column in 1971. Responding to the need for competitive events on private land, the Welsh Trail Riders Association (WTRA) was formed and affiliated to the ACU in 1972. With the emphasis shifting to superbikes and
taught me that unless you are an ace, the more power you have the slower you go. On the subject of bikes, a long association with Kawasaki perhaps makes me favour the KMX200 but the DT175MX must be the definitive. My personal favourite is my own 370cc Can-Am Qualifier 2. The worst is a Tribsa (also mine), a pre-unit 650 Triumph with BSA box/ Triumph clutch/ Norton forks. For fun, the factory 50cc Malaguti, with a whole 5BHP, and the fantastic little Minarelliengined 80cc AJW Wolfhound come top. There’s one four-stroke – the KLX250G – on my favourites list, and for the extra adrenalin ‘rush’ that ultimate animal, the works 100MPH, seven-speed 250 DKW. Take my word for it. I thought there would the usual Hondas and Suzies when I started compiling my bike list but even I’m surprised. Apart from the yamaha two-wheel drive, the rest were roadlegal and road- registered for the road/ trail/ enduro. The Laverda and the Norton Wasp are well remembered but there were so many others. My own little 170cc ISDT Cotton Minarelli was a great little bike while my Greeves Griffon with power and a four-speed box was a tad hairy.
Plum’s biking biography
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speed at that time, off-road needed a voice so I became involved with the launch of Trials and Motocross News, then Dirt Bike Rider and the British enduro Championships. With rights comes responsibility. I started the National Trail Riding School, spent a week at Uffington on the Ridgeway Inquiry and met the RACMSA regarding cowboy fourwheel drive activity. Attending a meeting at Westminster with Dave Kersey (LARA) made me especially pleased and proud to have done my bit, but then many others have too. As a teenager, repairing everything on two or three wheels with an engine gave me a unique insight into a career that, like the TRF, also spanned 50 years. That small trail and enduro bikes are the most fun was confirmed by the road-legal stuff of the period. It also
Not being unkind, some of us are old school and don’t write about ourselves but thinking about it now, I’ve enjoyed something that can never be repeated. From the age of seven or eight, my uncle Fred was filling me up with bike stuff, so I was buying and selling old bikes while still at school. And I mean old – like MOV Velos, ex-WD ‘Big 4’ Nortons, 1930s enfields and so on, and I’d joined the vintage club aged 14. I was also riding to Towcester Grammar illegally on a 250 Velo and parking it round the corner in an old lady’s washhouse. At 16, I was riding to school (legally then) on a 350 Matchless and a 1929 300cc Raleigh. At 17 I’d bought a lovely gold and black 650 Thunderbird. Two bikes I should have kept – my 1937 ex-Brooklands single knocker Norton and my bevel Ducati 900SD – were both sold to pay the tax man! When I started work it was all Mobylettes,
TRF 50TH ANNIVERSARY
Moto Rumis, Little Guzzis and Gileras, all the scooters and British stuff plus Maicolettas and Bonds, sidecar outfits and the odd KR200. I also traded a few Vincents and actually owned a Comet for a short time. They were shit then, and they still are! I wasn’t a technician. I was a mender and had to rebuild wheels, mags, dynamos, etc. It seems to be something that has rubbed off. My son Dave, who was 50 a short time ago, would come home from school and build half-a-dozen bicycle wheels for me while sitting on the floor watching the telly. Luke, now 40, from the age of seven or eight was taking good, sharp pics with a mechanical Pentax. Looking back I was pushy to the extent of being shameless in promoting off-road interests and that included my ‘On the Trail’ column in 1971, helping the Welsh lads with WTRA in 1972 and being involved with the launch of TMX in 1977. As a freelance I started the trail, enduro, classic and quad columns and as staffer was dep ed, ass ed, tech ed and even midlands ed working from my coal shed, where I am now, sweetheart, would you believe. To give enduro the presence it deserved (it was the only UK bike sport without a title championship) I started the British enduro Championships. I approached the ACU and it wasn’t interested, so I ran it as the TMX champs for the first year. It went fantastically well with the presentation taking place at the Bristol Show. Thinking I was in it for the
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money, the ACU then invited me to a meeting with the Trials and Rallies Committee at a pub in Gloucester. They said they would buy it if they could afford it. I couldn’t believe they were offering money, so I sold it to them for around four quid – the price of a pint and a cheese sandwich at the pub on the day. Can-Am: NVT (Norton Villiers Triumph) were the official importers of the civilian enduro bikes but I’ll tell it like it was. They didn’t have any money, so I raised it by pre-selling the bikes to the dealers. I hired the tail-lift truck, broke the bikes out of the crates on Liverpool docks, and assembled ‘em here in the garden. I had as many as 20, all identical and lined up in the street. Kawasaki: Starting with the late Alec Wright, who treated me like one of his own (I worked at Competition Developments as a mechanic in the 1990s), I enjoyed over 25 years of support with bikes. I ran a Kawasakisponsored trail school, a schoolboy MX team and prepared bikes for a number of riders including Arthur Browning, Dave Jeremiah and Andy Roberton. Memorable times: Driving 79 miles to Andover with the Can-Am/ Rotax Transit. Picking up three team bikes I’d prepared earlier and driving to Wales. Looking after the team and covering the event in words and pictures for TMX, driving home on Sunday night and then getting on a Z650 and riding 180 miles to Morecambe before returning home on the Monday. Attending all the trade shows including ‘Ally-Pally’, Paris, Milan, Munich, Indianapolis etc, setting up distributors in europe and riding to Magura, near Stuttgart, along with the late Chris Ventress on a ZZR1100. Best times: Undoubtedly being given the opportunity to choose the full power ZZR1100 off the Kawasaki stand at the NeC Show and being awarded British Dealer News’s trophy ‘for services to off-road sport and the motorcycle trade’ – fantastic. Proudest moment: Of course, I am most proud that my sons Dave and Luke are both proper blokes, are well thought of in the industry, and have independently created successful careers for themselves. What else is there, mate?
Visorcat wash/wipe system £36.99 SRP www.visorcat.com Another produCt lAnded on the mat at the editorial office before Christmas – Visorcat. We’d seen the product for the first time at Motorcycle trade expo at the start of 2019 and it looked well thought out. Basically it’s a glove-mounted visor wash ’n’ wipe system, there have been other products designed to do the job over the years but none has stood the test of time and they have varied from the ‘not bad’ to total ‘Mickey Mouse’. previous products have all been designed for road-bike helmet use and, to a large extent, so has Visorcat but we thought we’d give it a go anyhow. What’s in the box? With Visorcat you get the strap-on hardware, 50ml of cleaning fluid (Shift-It) and a user Guide plus there’s a ‘bored biker on board’ screen sticker (?) presumably intended for another form of transport. the Visorcat applicator comes with an index finger loop, adjustable wrist strap and fluid reservoir. the clever bit is the design and construction of the sponge holder and wiper blades. Moving the Visorcat from left to right across the helmet visor opens the sponge cover allowing contact then sweeping it back again closes the sponge cover and brings the wiper blades into play. that’s the theory. In practice you’d be well advised to er, practice before heading out on a damp motorway. With adventure-style helmets becoming increasingly popular among green-road riders we thought we’d give the Visorcat a try away from the tarmac. In conversation with Visorcat director Jill Boulton she mentioned that the product wasn’t really compatible with a helmet peak as movement could be compromised.
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Mud in Your Eye Fitting the rubber and plastic construction to a gloved left hand is simple enough, the reservoir cap is captive so no need to worry about losing it but make sure it’s pressed firmly home. Adventure helmets have a deep visor so you can get your hand in roughly the right place keeping it below the peak. Wearing gloves with armoured knuckles requires some attention to detail when positioning the Visorcat and tightening the wrist strap. Green-road riding, unlike sealed roads, tends to require both hands on the bars at all times so visor wiping when on the move isn’t really an option. Conversely, on green roads you stop a lot more frequently for various reasons and that’s the time to use the Visorcat, it’s quick, easy and allows you to ride with the visor down more of the time. Also, depending on where you live, a day out on the trails can involve a fair bit of road work too and if you follow a tractor and trailer down a tight lane you’ll need a visor clean. Vulnerability might be an issue off road but the Visorcat does come with a warranty. Confusingly on the box it states a 2-year warranty but on its website it claims “Comes with a lifetime unlimited mileage manufacturer’s warranty (covers all aspects of the product except the sponge, which is a consumable item…) If you road ride as well, get one. If you don’t, it’s better than a damp rag in your pocket. If you have a favourite product or accessory please get in touch: rick@trf.org.uk
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