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

We prefer to call it ‘focused’

The thing is it all starts off in innocence and all you’re doing is thinking ahead to make the job a bit easier for yourself. In my case I felt the line became a bit blurred when I began measuring the width of rubber bands I was cutting from an old 2.75in x 21in inner tube. I’d got the steel rule off the board and had laid it across the tube to measure what width I wanted. It suddenly occurred that the actual width of band needed for the job wasn’t an exact science and near enough would actually do in this case.

When those moments of realisation hit they’re accompanied by a quick glance around to see if anyone was watching. Luckily, this time, I was alone.

I suppose to anyone not actively dealing with preparing a motorcycle for competition a lot of what we do could easily be classed as pedantic. I mean the older I get, the less keen I am on carrying a load of stuff around a trial with me. For a start it’s heavy and having inspected the contents of some haversacks I’ve often been of the opinion if the rider needs all that gear perhaps they shouldn’t be setting out.

Part of the problem is most competition bikes don’t actually do all that much mileage and the last modern trials bike – an air-cooled mono Yamaha – I owned had come to me after two other owners and not done 250 miles. I quickly increased that and after a year with me a zero could be added on to the end of that figure. Yes, one event was the Scottish Six Days Trial but even so I hadn’t felt I was doing excessive mileage.

But, mention of the Scottish these days and some riders pale at the thought, yet I love it – I’m not brilliant at it but love it. Anyway, I’m in the workshop cutting rubber bands... why? So I can put a load of tools on the bike.

Some time ago I got all the tools out that I need to do a reasonable amount of work on the B40 and laid them out on the bench. There were an awful lot of them. After a wee bit of thought I narrowed my selection down to that needed to remove each wheel, change a spark plug and fit a spring link. For quite some time all this was tucked nicely into a bum bag until the pedant took over. Could I do without the bum bag? Some more thought and machining of special sized nuts and bolts narrowed the kit down to a spark plug box spanner that fits the rear wheel nut as well as the spark plug, its tommy bar is an M10 Allen key that also fits the rear brake plate torque arm bolt and the front wheel spindle.

For longer trials, it is advisable to carry more tools or... possibly... make the same tools do more. For instance most tyre security bolts have a nut that needs a 13mm spanner, so a quick glance around the bike to see what other nuts it will fit drew a blank. Before you say ‘use an adjustable’ I tried that and on my wheels at least, the head is too big. But a bit of thought showed if I cut one end off the spanner I’m left with a flat bar in effect and this is spot on for a tyre lever. I’d not use it on its own to lever the bead over the rim but when the initial levering is done I use it to hold the bead in place while working round with the shorty tyre lever. I was sceptical at first myself but it works and means one less tyre lever needed. At this stage the kit is still all packed in a bum bag though and it needs a little nudge to go to the next stage.

The way of the world these days, most people seem to have business cards, for us here at Mortons they’re a useful tool to hand out, which is what they’re there for when I think about it. However, they arrive at my desk in a plastic box and the box looked the right size to fit under the B40 seat. It doesn’t take many minutes to find that it does fit but needs holding in place. A couple of ideas based on wedging it in place failed then, when I’d put some bands round the box to hold everything in place the answer was obvious. A short strip of alloy bar had a hole drilled and tapped in it, next it was a simple job to line it up with a hole in the seat to take an M6 button head Allen screw and the rubber bands now slip over the bar and hold the box in place. While I was smugly admiring my brilliance, the modified spanner, single tyre lever and long M10 Allan key just begged to be slipped in the rubber bands too as they’re too long to fit in the box.

In order to check that it was secure I did a couple of trials with all my ‘Scottish’ kit in place as I wanted to find out if they’d bounce off but, no, they’re quite secure under competition conditions. Pedantic? Possibly, but I prefer ‘focused.’