TMX Says: Breath of fresh air in Highlands
By TMX Archives on 4th May 16
THE topic of conversation up at TMX Towers is as changeable as the weather and just as eclectic as the people who work here.
You'd probably be surprised to read that it's not uncommon for highbrow topics to be unleashed from time to time, although the majority of verbal exchanges are way more down to earth with dirty dirt bikes being a fairly regular theme.
Some time last week the subject of eating raw food – and the many benefits of doing so – was unleashed on us all which was actually pretty interesting stuff if I'm honest.
While the chance of me following such a diet is pretty damn slim – I can't ever imagine watching Adam Richman munch his way through a field of lettuce on an episode of Man V Food – I can definitely see the benefits.
Motorsports in their raw form can be much better than the overcooked and processed version, too, and over the weekend we had some cracking reminders of that very fact.
The sports of trials, motocross and enduro all started out as a battle between man, machine, other men and machines and the natural going – and that was good.
Over the years the premise has pretty much stayed the same although the playing fields have changed massively with more and more man-made obstacles added to each every sport.
Now I'm all for a little enhancement to nature's assets but I find that sometimes things are taken too far and the WTC and MXGP series in particular have occasionally gone bonkers with ‘indoor' obstacles negatively changing the outdoor, original versions of the sport.
That's why an event like the SSDT is such a breath of fresh air – it remains pretty much untouched and as such is an excellent reminder of how perfect trials is in its raw state.
But that's just my opinion of course – what do you guys think?
Would you rather watch Dougie and co try and stay feet-up through a rocky riverbed or see Toni Bou splat a six foot step made out of wooden railroad sleepers?
As the world's worst trials rider I'm probably not qualified to comment on the state of the WTC and its white rhino-esque decline of riders but having gone from triple digit entries in the 1980s to just over 20 in recent times then I think something has gone catastrophically wrong.
It's something the late, great Mart Lampkin had identified about two decades ago as Jack Burnicle pointed out in an appreciation to the 1975 world champ in the latest issue of Dirt Bike Rider...
‘Back then, Martin's passion for his chosen sport meant he harboured reservations about the direction it was taking.
"There was nothing wrong with what Malc and I did Jack,” he explained to me that day in Silsden.
"There were quite a few indoor trials at the end of the '70s where you could stop and balance. I couldn't, so I kept going forwards!
"These days, six can do the trick riding, six or eight think they can and the rest haven't a bloody chance. It isn't my place to say a sport isn't right when it's changing for so few people and I don't know the answer.
"But I'm ecstatically happy with what I'm trying to do.
I'm at Dougie's beck and call, devoting more time to this than I did when I was riding myself. "You see Dougie couldn't come here and practise this stuff on his own. That is how the sport has altered...”
