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

Picture this

But every now and again, life chucks something up that highlights the differences between, in my case, Tim Britton circa 1978 and Tim Britton circa 2012.

I’ve had the sad task of clearing the family home out after the passing away of my mother a couple of weeks before Christmas and part of the clearing has included an incredible number of photographs including a few hundred of me and certain contemporaries in the North Eastern Centre trials of the 1970s.

Now, looking at photographs is a major part of my job but generally they’re of other much more famous, or much better, riders than me, though I will allow that workshop pictures will be of my hands or of me doing something to an unsuspecting motorcycle.

There’s a reason for this and it’s to show that basic tasks can be tackled by anyone on the principle of ‘if he can do it, so can I’. But looking at pictures of yourself nearly 40 years ago is quite scary, though a few others in the office found it quite funny to see the 51-and-a-bit-year-old CDB editor as a teenager in the image I scanned at home and brought in on my computer.

In my eyes, little has changed since that day in June 1978, at the Melmerby start of the Allan Trophy Trial, a localish event for us in those days, when my dad called ‘look this way’ and captured me on film. There’s even a Bultaco next to me, my black engined, red tanked 325, which would have been newish then, instead of the blue 250 I have now. Apart from that, everything is the same…

A further delve into this picture archive turns up other gems such as the start of the Scott trial in maybe 1979. The Scott was a bogey event for me inasmuch as I entered it four or five times and only ever made the start once.

Entry acceptance tended to herald some form of personal disaster and eventually my dad, in a rare display of tact, suggested that the Scott was an event I might possibly consider not entering since broken bones, industrial injuries and even burglary had conspired to prevent me from riding it.

In an equally rare display of actually listening to what my dad was suggesting and an even rarer incidence of agreeing with him, I stopped entering. The jinx still exists as I did think about ‘one last go before I get old’ sort of thing last year. No sooner had the thought entered my head than I had to spend a few sessions with an osteopath to loosen up a seized muscle. Anyway, the one time I did make the start, the trip down to Richmond from Consett was full of incident as, belting down the A1 we were passed by a wheel… our trailer wheel to be exact.

But, despite this, there is photographic evidence that I started the Scott Trial and I’m on a Montesa with seriously bent handlebars. Yes, I could have fitted the new ’bars available but I felt that the chances of them getting bent in the trial were less acceptable than the already bent ones becoming more bent and saved the new ’bars for after the Scott. Once back home, on went the smart red Renthals.

The ’bars were forgotten about until a couple of weeks ago as I was sorting things out in my dad’s garage, there, under the bench we put in to do metal work on, was not only the Montesa ’bars but a pair of black coated Bultaco ones that I’d forgotten had been broken in a trial.

They would have been put there, not with any hope of straightening or welding but just in case ‘a bit of tube was needed’ and it’s a sentiment I now recognise in myself. In the scrap box under the bench in my own workshop was a 3⁄4in thick piece of steel plate, saved from goodness knows where but saved nonetheless for that day ‘when it would be useful’ which had arrived. As the entry confirmation for the Scottish pre-65 arrived at the start of the year, there was a growing need to fettle the B40 and one task that has been hanging on for too long is that of making new mudguard stays.

I wanted them to be similar to Bultaco ones for two reasons, a) they look nice and b) it means I can fit Bultaco guards and have a spare for two-day events in case of accidents, by simply taking the ones off my Bulto.

Some 10mm steel tube was acquired, an 8mm bending spring sourced and, after much filing and hacksawing, the steel plate was shaped into a former to ease the tube round. An hour’s metalworking produced the brackets and a friendly welder welded the lot up. Even the MoT tester said ‘they look nice’ and ‘are you going to paint or chrome them?’ Glancing again at the pic that started this meandering down memory lane, I had to admit that the chromed ones look very nice.

Tim Britton,
Editor