Trials Australia Forums, the discussion boards for the Trials Australia website has reached a major milestone recently. The "Basket Cases" thread, originally started by Greg Harding on July 16th, 2009 has just passed 100,000 views. The TA forums set up in June 2003 by Keith Jobson to bring Australian Trials enthusiasts together, has received an average of 2000+ posts per year since 2009 and had 400+ active users posting in 2014 and has grown to include many regular international contributors.
We have taken this opportunity to highlight Basket Cases, which can be a bike reduced to parts needing a Basket home or can be a Bike being built from scratch with parts from other Bikes.
Greg Harding writes...
Firstly I would like to thank everyone who has contributed, certainly there has been help from friends old and new.
People often ask why I ride old bikes so I suppose I should share a little about myself and my Trials story, like most things I do it is a little backwards. Having always been fascinated with all things with wheels, Trials came much later in life with 40 being a major turning point and change in lifestyle. I decided to start riding Trials, joined a club, looked at classes and being 40, Greybeards, now Veterans was an obvious choice. No one told me that I needed to get accredited in lower grades until much later.
I really enjoyed the comradery and socialising around the fire the night before a Trial, listening to stories about the good old days which made me feel like I had missed out on so much. Being keen to learn, I listened to everyone and their tips for riding, maintenance and which bike to choose. It was obvious to me that filter maintenance was imperative, with air filters needing fairly infrequent cleaning in comparison to the long suffering Bullshit Filter!
There are a multitude of opinions on bikes, with most makes and models being loved and hated for many reasons so I decided to do my own testing. Since then my collection has grown and I have competed on quite a few different makes from Japan, Spain and Italy. Always up for a challenge and looking for something different, I decided to review my findings and realised that I had never ridden a Trial on a :montesa . Not that there weren't any in my shed as I had a 349 plastic tank model (not going)! Wading through opinions made me think they were Made Overweight, Not Too Easily Sold Again! So I decided to pull the pin on it after eight years without a single ride and sold it to a private collector, so my theory was wrong on at least one point. This left me with 247 and 172 Basket Cases along with the GREEN 172 that Donna rode at The Rusty Iron Rally. The new owner of the 349 gave us an excellent tour through his collection and reminisced about the good old days, telling me he had won the Queensland Series in the under 200 class on a 172. This sparked an idea to get my GREEN 172 out and ride a Trial on it, thanks Robert.
So with 10 years of experience and sifting through BS, I decided that my Montesa Trial should be more like it was back in the days I had missed and should have no modifications. Old style grips complete with 2 cent piece bar ends, no bashplate, original equipment toolbox with chrome lid, metal on metal dragging clutch, points ignition, anal carby and what I think are original shocks now mounted the right way up, along with drum brakes that work well until wet, thanks Graham. The only modern thing fitted was a lanyard kill-switch as it had to pass scrutineering right John? Tyres I hear you ask...I have tried riding on 40-year-old original fitment tyres on other bikes with limited success. Knowing they would have been better back in the day and not as good as modern tyres, I decided worn round knob, cracked Michelins would be a realistic substitute. So bike sorted!
Southern Queensland Trials Association [SQTA] is the club of choice for the 172’s first outing at Toonumbar Dam . An impressive club where everyone is welcome and everyone one gets a fair go with their easy going fun loving crew. Excellent for entry level riders right through to experts with classes for every riding ability and venues to die for!
Now to choose which class to ride when my research tells me all the grades were easier back when bikes were less advanced? SQTA have multiple divisions and the Honda z50 incident at Duleys Gooleys kind of promoted me out of Division 4 [Clubman plus] into Division 3 [C Grade] decided it for me didn't it Ian?
Toonumbar Dam has scenery reminiscent of Jurassic Park with water in most sections and plenty of moss covered terrain mainly under shade trees. All in all I was really happy with the little 157cc, 172 pound :montesa 172. It didn't miss a beat and riding in water over mossy rocks weaving between trees and logs earned it the nickname of KERMIT, thanks Shane.
So hopefully I have answered the 64 Thousand Dollar question as to why I ride old bikes and only answer with a smile.
Everyone is welcome to Post replies and join in the conversation on OUR thread Basket Cases!
Dungar Pilot
Click here to read more of this story on the Trials Australia Forums.