The magazine for fans of classic and twinshock trials, motocross & enduros

Blinking ’eck

Or at least that’s what it seems like. It’s only a moment since the whole off-road world was looking forward to the off-road show at Telford for 2011 and here the latest info for 2012 has just landed in my email inbox, direct from Alan Wright himself. But that’s by the by at the moment as the other catalyst to the end of the old season and the beginning of the new is the availability of the pre-65 Scottish entry forms.

For classic trials riders this popular event leads to a mad scramble to fill the forms in and get them back to the event secretary. If you’re reading this in November or early December there’s just time to catch the last post, though don’t delay as last year there were some major disappointments due to the weather playing havoc with mail deliveries. However, when the trial came along the weather was brilliant, though it seems that our summer was at the beginning of May and after that it’s rained a bit.

One of the reasons for the year seeming to have flashed past in the blink of an eye is how much I’ve actually crammed into it. I’m not alone in this of course as at events everyone I meet has the same view on it, there never seems to be enough time to do everything. Part of the problem, if it can be classed as a problem, is the number of excellent events out there and it’s my nature to try them all if I can.

I’ve been lucky enough to be loaned a superb selection of motorcycles to try these events on and sometimes the loan of such motorcycles has led to other things. For instance, sadly lacking in my personal motorcycling experiences has been enduro.

This was partially cured last year with an invite to try a Vinduro event and one that led to Classic Dirt Bike investing in a budget priced Can-Am, one of the 250cc Rotax two-stroke models. The bike was ‘launched’ on our stand at Alan Wright’s show in February 2011 where opinion ranged from ‘you’ve got a bit of a challenge ahead of yourself there’ to things less printable in a family magazine such as CDB.

Yet, in what seems like the blink of an eye, the bike was on the start line of an enduro in the middle of September. There’ll be a bit about this later on in the magazine – though you’ve probably read that already and are leaving my witterings until last. Suffice to say that the Can-Am acquitted itself well and the next stage was to get the bike road legal. As I’m writing this the Can-Am is now MoT’d so another milestone is passed, though a potentially bigger hill to climb awaits.

The machine is an ex-military one so has no registration documents or even an older number to try and reclaim. There are ways round this, but they involve an incredible amount of form filling but will be worth it in the end as the legal niceties cannot be ignored. This aspect becomes more important as we’re going to give the bike away in a grand reader competition next year. It won’t be in the condition it’s in at the moment, no, it will be much prettier. The reason we’ve left it in what a fellow editor’s wife kindly described as ‘shabby chic’ condition is so it can be used without fear of damaging a pristine finish. There will be some tweaking to do here and there, a bit of welding for instance, the odd bracket or two needs to go on the frame so we can mount things like a chain tensioner, also the petrol tank needs to have a way of attaching a route-card holder.

All these modifications are the result of riding the bike in events to make sure it was working properly and if the frame had been painted then any welding would have meant damaging a pristine finish.

No doubt there will have been some comments on the condition of the bike on our stand at Stafford show – as I write this it’s a day or two away but was a couple of weeks ago as you read it – that’s the explanation for the ‘used’ look. The show is of course an ideal place to source one or two of the more generic parts like an enduro headlamp lighting unit and slightly more modern looking mudguards than the Army green ones. So, possibly by the Dirt Bike Show in November, the Project Can-Am will be looking a bit better.

Speaking of looking a bit better, the editorial BSA B40 has been looking a little the worse for wear as, due to building the Can-Am it’s been a bit neglected, though always reliable. That’s about to change as some fancy bits and pieces have been acquired – a nice stainless steel rear spindle from Phil Denton engineering was the catalyst to the improvements, then a pair of blue anodised snail cams turned up.

These bits were offered up and made other bits look shabby, mainly the mudguards that were split, riveted, bent and generally rough looking. So, some nice new white ones were acquired, Bultaco ones if you must know, and they’re waiting to go on.

With all these new parts it became obvious that some other areas needed a bit of work too, a bit of welding for instance, some new stays to carry the front mudguard and… well, no wonder the year’s gone in the blink of an eye.

Tim Britton,
Editor