DSC_0617609

DSC_0617609, originally uploaded by roybevis@btinternet.com.

More Welsh photos

DSC_0617609

DSC_0617609, originally uploaded by roybevis@btinternet.com.

More Welsh photos

AMCA SIDECAR MX

Having missed the Powys Enduro and not having ridden since the Welsh on Sunday July 26th we ventured up to Anchor Hill, Kerry near Newtown to have a go at an AMCA Sidecarcross Championship round. 

It was wet so I decided to leave the 525 enduro engine in for this one, thinking that we'd be able to get better traction with the smaller engine.

Practice was wet and the track wet and slippery but it went ok.

For race 1 the conditions were perfect. We got an ok start, about 7th and managed to work our way up to 3rd. The 525 was struggling on the big hills against the big Zabels and 650 Husabergs but was flying on the flatter part of the track. 

We held third for some 3 laps before Steve France came flying past us. Arm pump set in and we soon lost sight of the leading three. We finished 5th.  Well happy with that.

Race 2 and after another mediocre start we managed to work our way to the front. We didn't stay there long though but it was good while it lasted! Coming down the big hill and over the ski jumps the bike seemed to land with the brakes on. Coming up the big hill to the finish line, she was crabbing to the left and was losing power until we stopped before cresting the top. We had three more attempts with the same outcome each time. Freewheeling back down after the fourth attempt we noticed the problem. The Sidecar wheel had clogged up solid with mud and couldn't turn! Iwan hastily scooped the mud away and we got going again. No problem. We finished 7th which left us a bit disappointed really. But we cheered up a bit when we learnt that we had 4rth overall. Well happy with that.

Looking forward to the next one now at Shobdon in two weeks time.

Welsh Sidecar Snippets

• Mark & Neil Rowlands had trouble with the bike cutting out in deep water and eventually pulled out of the event.
  
• Stewart Lines unfortunately had to withdraw his entry due to work commitments.
• Craig Radford broke a front shock on Thursday, borrowed one from David Williams and then had a big off at Cwmwythig injuring his neck/shoulder.
  
• Simon Bradford put a stick through his radiator in the Abbey check. He was fortunately at the end of the check and was able to reach Bill and Emrys to fit a replacement rad before any engine damage was done.
• Richard Chandler had a short day on Thursday when the woodruff key sheared. He fixed it overnight and won the clubman class on Friday.
• Newcomer Eirian Davies was very unfortunate to seize his 450 Husaberg on the last bit of off-road going on Friday - 6 miles from the finish. 
• At one point, Graham Jones and Simon Rogers were very nearly joined in their chair by sidecar no. 7 on the dusty Thursday morning Irfon Check.  Trying to avoid the worst of the dust "no 7" kept a little bit too close for comfort and didn't see the dayglo arrow pointing to the right. Gareth Andrew was very amused by the frantic gravity defying braking manouver and huge dust inducing skid in front of him. Graham Jones probably wasn't!!!
• Gareth Andrew put in some blistering test times both days and all on the same tyre!!! Hats off.
• Alun Davies and Rhys George were forced to push their outfit off the line on both days when it refused to kickstart. In doing so they showed quick feet and a good turn of speed. With their sparkling yellow kit they are now known as "Cool Runnings" after the Jamaican Bobsleigh team. 
• Out in his first enduro as a driver, Roger James impressively cleaned the Abbey check on Thursday which effectively won him the Clubman Class. He also won the award for the most tape collected around a front wheel at the Abbey Test!
• Everyone seemed pleased to have the Church Farm test back in the Welsh after a long absence. Riding it Friday would have been nice too.

Thanks

Thanks Terry, Trigg, Gethin and Andrew for servicing us over the 2 Days. The pickup's never travelled so quick in it's life. Top Job!

INTERNATIONAL WELSH 2 DAY - Test 1 - Church Farm - Thursday

_MG_7946, originally uploaded by ysbytymike.

Really enjoyed this test - one of the best tests we've ever ridden!

2009 International Welsh 2 Day Enduro

We finished the Welsh!!!

First time in 4 years we completed the Welsh 2 Day. Bike was awesome - we were a bit nervous about its handling after jacking up the suspension last week and having very little time to test and set it up. Bill Bradford looked at it Thursday morning in the work area, made a few damping adjustments and the bike's handling was spot on. Well chuffed!

Made a lot of changes after the Brechfa to the engine as well. Bike absolutely ripped after the carb, exhaust and ignition changes we made and the 540 pulled like a rampant tractor!!! 

We surprised everyone (including ourselves) on the special tests both days by posting top 3 times on 4 out of the 5 tests. What pleased us more than anything was getting to within 2 seconds of Simon Bradford's times on 2 of the 5 minute Abbey tests, four seconds on the Cwmwythig test and 8 seconds on the six minute Church farm test. Simon is in a class of his own and is the benchmark by which the rest of us measure ourselves. 

Don't mention the last test at Cwmwythig though where we finished 4rth fastest - 22 seconds behind Simon, who showed us all how it should be done - safe, smooth and very, very quick.

After experiencing a good day on the tests on Thursday which would have left us in second position, 15 seconds behind the leader (Simon Bradford) and 49 seconds up on 3rd placed David Williams, we experienced some bad luck on the Myheryn stage where the rear moose broke up and decided to jump out of our rear tyre, leaving us stranded by the windmills.

A very nice sportsman rider promptly stopped and offered us a tube, levers, a portable gas canister and a helping hand. We shortly got the tube inflated, strapped the damaged tyre with 12 large zip ties and nursed the bike to the checkpoint - 8 minutes down on time but still in the event. Shortly after the check the tyre totally disintegrated and we basically rode about a mile down the road to Terry, Geth and Trigg and the service van on the rim. We then  stuck a spare moose in and an old tyre we used in the Brechfa on.

 The 8 minute time loss dropped us down to a disappointing 9th position overall on Day 1. 

The Abbey check turned out to be tight on time and many of the frontrunners dropped time here including Graham Jones, Gareth Andrew and Alun Caio Davies who each dropped a minute and the Smith brothers and Chapmans who dropped 2. Cleaning this check cheered us up a bit after our Myheryn disappointment and put us in a positive mindset for the Abbey Test where we finished 3rd to Gareth Andrew and Simon Bradford, 4 seconds down.

Friday started well for us with a good Abbey test leaving us in second position 1.7 seconds down on Simon's time. Cleaning the slacker Abbey check we arrived at Cwmwythig just before the rain. We had concerns that the new moose we fitted for day 2 was a bit tight and would have the same effect as running too much pressure in the rear tyre. This would reduce grip on the slippery grassy Cwmwythig surface. This proved to be the case and we ended up sliding out on a fast right hander and hitting a fencing post side on. This spun us around and we ended up facing the wrong direction. We ended up 22 seconds down on the class leader but still 4rth quickest on that test. 

The rain came as we reached the Splashes but the rest of the time checks went well with most of the Championship class cleaning them all, including the notoriously challenging Irfon Check which was this year slacker than usual leaving us with 10 minutes spare. David Williams, Alun Davies and Martin Chapman had a bit of bad luck here though when they followed the previous day's route marking, ended up in a deep bog and lost time. A disappointing way for the three to end this year's Welsh.

We were happy to finish 3rd on Friday - some 7 seconds down on Gareth Andrew in 2nd and a further 23 seconds behind event winner Simon Bradford. Over

all we moved up from 9th on Thursday to 6th on Friday - 9 seconds behind David Williams who dropped 7 minutes on that last Irfon Check. Not good but it could have been much worse if it wasn't for the kindness of a fellow competitor who helped us out.

Without the moose misfortune on Thursday which cost us 8 minutes we would have finished in a great 2nd position against top quality competition!!!  That has given us a heap of confidence and has made this year's Welsh 2 day a really good experience for us. Including Terry who was beginning to think that he was jinxing us at the welsh!!!  

Finally, congratulations to Simon and Neil for winning the Welsh for their 3rd time and Gareth and George on their superb ride into second place. Roll on next years' Welsh 2 Day. Can't wait!

WELSH TWO DAY  2009  RESULTS

SIDECAR EXPERTS

 

No     Name                                           RT  SPTest1   SPTest2   SPTest3    Pen Total

1   1 Simon Bradford / Neil James          0    05:49.4     08:01.2     04:10.5      1081.12

                                                                0    03:52.0     07:28.3                       1761.47

2   9 Gareth Andrew / George Edgvean   1    06:07.2     08:03.0     04:07.9      1158.16

                                                                0    03:54.6     07:45.3                       1858.05

3   8Graham Jones / Simon Rogers        1    06:22.9     08:22.1     04:20.9      1205.9

                                                                0    04:00.3     07:52.0                       1918.16

4   3Nigel Smith / Richard Smith             2    06:33.6     09:40.0     04:24.3      1357.89

                                                                0    04:09.0     08:06.4                       2093.25

5   6David Williams / Graham McPhee   0    06:02.5     08:29.1     04:27.2      1138.88

                                                                7    04:01.7     07:53.2                       2273.79

6   7Aled Evans / Iwan Evans                 8    05:58.6     08:05.1     04:12.1      1575.84

                                                                0    03:54.5     07:53.0                       2283.4

7   10Martin Chapman / C Chapman      2    06:45.3     08:53.0     04:43.3      1341.68

                                                                4    04:17.9     08:26.6                       2346.14

8   2Alun Davies / Rhys George              1    06:12.4     08:31.3     04:23.1      1206.85

                                                               10   04:11.7     08:04.7                        20 2563.2

9 11Paul Manning / Roger Tuck             0   06:35.3     08:36.7      04:28.4       20 1200.33

                                                                     04:16.0     08:13.6 .

SIDECAR CLUBMAN

No   Name                                            RT SPTest1   SPTest2    SPTest3     Pen Total

1 18 Roger James / Sam Wilk                0   06:42.1     08:44.5      04:50.6      1217.2

                                                                0   04:27.0     08:36.8                        2001.06

2 26 Anne Giles / John Giles                 10  07:31.0     09:10.6      05:11.7      1913.3

                                                                4   04:31.6     08:39.8                        2944.69

3 23 Richard Nevill / Peter Williamson    8   07:13.3     09:02.6      04:45.4      1741.22

                                                                8   04:32.1     08:37.4                        3010.67

4 22 TBA / Colin Solley                          11  08:48.9     09:58.1      05:14.1      2101.06

                                                               13  05:20.6     09:29.6                        3771.21

5 19 Arthur Walton / James Georges      6   06:38.9     08:55.2      04:41.9     1576.02

                                                                     04:30.2      08:32.6                       20 .

6 25 Alistair Nevill / Sharon Nevill           8   07:14.9      09:19.7     04:58.2      1772.75

                                                                     04:36.4      08:55.2 .

7 21 Neil Clarke / Robert Whaney         12  08:01.9      10:03.1      05:12.6      2117.61

                                                                     05:46.0      09:12.7 .

8 27 Eirian Rees / Jason Davies            30 10:25.8       09:43.2     09:01.1      3550.06

                                                                     04:55.9      09:09.7 .

9 24 James Cliff / Adam Dear                      07:02.1      08:47.0     05:01.3

                                                                     04:30.6      08:43.3                        20 .

10 29 Tom Powell / Mike Curnow                09:13.2      08:52.4      04:48.6

                                                                     04:33.1      08:47.7 .

12 17 Richard Chandler / Liz Millett             06:44.8

                                                                 0  04:25.8      08:32.8 .

13 28 Gareth Hampson/John Fillingham     09:14.6

                                                                     04:48.6      09:05.5

Ready for the Brechfa

2009 Brechfa Enduro

Since our last event was the British Championship MX at Frome we had to convert the outfit into enduro trim for the Brechfa. Main work was to put a radiator fan and thermostat sensor switch on, make up a strong sump guard from Duralloy, fabricate a folding footrest from a Honda CRF perch and stick on some lights. They don't need to be working as we don't use any public highways in the Brechfa. Oh yes, I took out the 580 motor and put in a 6 speed 540 instead. New chain and sprockets were bought, FIM Michelin Enduro tyres fitted and we put on Stewart Lines' Maximum Group Sticker kit for good measure. (Looks nice - Thanks Stewart). 

Even though the weather was horrendous on the day it was a good event for us where we finished 2nd first time out on our new 2008 VMC in a British Championship forest enduro. 

Bike suspension was set up for mx and was too low for the deep Brechfa ruts causing us to drop 3 minutes on the going. Bash plate was also too wide and the square outside edge often dug into sidewalls of the ruts stopping us dead in our tracks. 

Something else wasn't quite right - Iwan reckoned we were severely down on power compared to the 525 we used last year. For some reason the carburettor or ignition would stop the bike from revving above 3/4 throttle and left us under powered - especially on the forest roads. Not good when bike is carrying a combined weight of 32 stone! 

On the second lap we lost the use of our front brake when the plunger screw popped out and disappeared. Shortly afterwards, a deep rut took out our rear brake lever. Riding the test and the last long check without any stopping power was fun!!! I didn't tell Iwan about losing the brakes (didn't want to mess up his super positive mindset) and had to endure about an hour of verbal abuse in my left ear about pulling my finger out, giving it some more, taking stupid lines, bottling out on downhills, etc. I was glad to see the finish!

Under those circumstances we were happy with 2nd but we both know it should have been better. Lots of changes to be made for Welsh 2 Day therefore to improve the bike. 

These include adapting the bash plate, raising the suspension by 2 inches, adding mudguard extensions, improving carburetion, changing ignition and swapping back to my old exhaust pipe. Bearings, oil filters and clutch plates will also be changed and new tyres fitted. May buy a set of ear plugs as well!!!

Looks like I'll be eating my supper in the garage for a few weeks then.

ROUND 1 BRITISH ENDURO CHAMPIONSHIP
Brechfa Enduro Results: 
Championship Class
1 43 David Williams/ Graham Mcphee 
2 38 Aled Evans/ Iwan Evans
3 42 Marc Rowlands/Neil Rowlands
4 45 Alun Davies/ Rhys George
5 46 Nigel Smith/ Richard Smith
6 44 Craig Radford/ Gareth Clarke
7 39 Graham Jones/ Simon Rogers
8 40 Stewart Lines/ Neil Bann
9 47 Gareth Andrew/ George Edyvean

Clubman Class
1 122 Richard Chandler/ Aled Jones
2 119 John Giles/ Anne Giles
3 118 Eirian Davies/ Jason
4 116 Simon White/ Andy
5 117 Alistar Neville/ Sharon Neville
6 120 Richard Neville/ Peter Wisenden
8 123 James Cuff/AN Other
7 121 Roger James/ AN Other

Photos on this link:
http://aledje.zenfolio.com/p928021704