Sussing out the Scottish!
By TMX Archives on 13th May 11
For a variety of reasons the Scottish Six Days and Pre-65 Two Day Trials are the most important in the world.
WELL, that's the Scottish over for another year and for most people, not least the hard-working organisers, the 100th anniversary event was pretty much a success on all levels. What a huge task organising an event like the Six Days is can never be emphasised too much and, as someone who can barely organise my own lunch, I marvel at the SSDT organisation. Years of experience, plus some smart individual delegation, obviously makes it all look much easier than it actually is and congratulations are due once more to the Edinburgh club's committee plus all the individuals who make it all come together.
Going right back to the Pre-65 Two Day I personally think that Steve Saunders was a more than worthy winner. The 10 times British champ is now on the high side of 40 these days so has surely earned the right to join the old boys. I say this as I heard the usual rumblings about who should be eligible to ride the Pre-65 and who shouldn't. While I agree that the event is all about nostalgia and the good old days and I personally get great pleasure watching and talking to the likes of Peter Gaunt, Mick Wilkinson, Pete Salt, Julian Wigg and co, riders who have been there and done that several times over, surely room must be made for younger riders as the stalwarts won't be able to ride forever. Steve was definitely there to win the event, the competitive spirit never leaves someone of his talent and drive, but not actually to win at all costs. As Steve told me last year, he tried a fair amount of bikes before he bought that 350 Triumph twin, "I bought it because I enjoyed the challenge of riding it. If I just wanted to try to win the Scottish I'd have bought a trick Cub or a James but I just really enjoy riding the twin.
Which of course leads nicely on to machine eligibility for the event. Discussions on this topic are of course endless and ultimately there is no right or wrong solution. I suppose in a perfect world everyone would ride an absolutely bog-standard bike with no suspension, crap electrics, eight ply tyres and a minimum weight of 400lbs. In reality, the majority are riding 2011-built replicas that weigh less than a 2011 Ossa and cost twice as much. I'm not going to knock it, it is the way of the world and you can't stop progress, not even in the Pre-65 world. Or more accurately, especially in the Pre-65 world.
Julian Wigg tells me that he has just about come to the end of his run of 25 DOT chassis kits. "They're not light, believe me!” said Wiggy Sr, "they are made from original tubing from the DOT works in Manchester!” Julian is that rare character who gets all the jokes in first and was keen to trot out all the DOT meanings like, Devoid Of Traction, Don't Order Two and a new one on me, Dad's Old Toy!
The current crop of Bantams is a bit more of a mystery to me. I guess they have come about for several reasons. One is we must be reaching the end of the number of venerable Villiers engines that haven't been slotted into 2011 works replicas and the good old Billy Bantam motor is still readily available. Another reason is that older riders are seeking lighter and lighter machines and you can certainly build a light Bantam! The bigger problem would appear to be, hardly any of the ones I have seen are actually Pre-65...how do you check the originality of a model that didn't exist?
Moving on. Granted it was an exceptional year weatherwise, with only one day with any appreciable amount of rain, it was good to see that in the Six Days itself the vast majority of the modern machinery, which is not in any way built to put up with continuous high mileages, coped remarkably well and the majority reached the finish with no problems whatsoever. Even the untried Ossas, which were almost expected to experience a range of problems, came through the week well. Scottish rider Ian Shedden never carried a single spare nor put a spanner on his bike all week. Meanwhile, Ossa pilot Emma Bristow was one of the stars of the week, as in fact were all three girls which comprised Emma, Becky Cook and Katy Sunter. We have now gone well past the stage where the girls are ‘just' battling for the Ladies award, the girls are now riding the Scottish as equals and fighting their way up the overall result. The Scottish is a very physical event and I can't commend their efforts highly enough.
I can't decide if the huge number of Over 40 riders is a good thing or not so good. Almost half the entry were on the Over 40 list on Monday morning and while these riders are currently the life-blood of the event.. I don't think for a second that there should be an automatic ‘cull' of the Over 40s but by the same token the future of the event relies on attracting younger riders. Having said that, Stuart Blythe (now over 40) returned to the Scottish for the first time in 20 years and posted his best ever daily score. "Mind you, said Stu, "the difference between then and now is probably around 80 pints (less!) during the week - I think there's a lesson in there!”
