Who's Scot an original?
By TMX Archives on 9th Dec 11
With entries closing this week for the Scottish Pre-65 Two-Day Trial, editor 'JD' treads carefully through machine eligibility...
And so, if you have read page 2 this week (of course you have!) you'll have spotted the latest news regarding the 2012 Scottish Pre-65 Two-Day Trial, which will take place on the Friday/Saturday, May 4/5. No prizes for guessing that, with entries closing today (Friday, December 9) and the event is already oversubscribed, it will very likely turn out to be heavily oversubscribed as the panic entries drop on the secretary's doormat late this week.
Needless to say, were I attempting to enter this event, mine would inevitably be the very last of the last envelopes to make it through the letterbox, even a virtual letterbox. Makes no difference be it snail-mail or electronic, habitual last minuters will still be last minute. At least the nail-biting wait... "Have I got an entry or have I not got an entry...?” will be kept to an absolute minimum as the provisional entry list will be selected by ballot the following day, Saturday, December 10.
It is provisional, not final, as with around 180-names selected, with the best will in the world some will inevitably drop-out and when they do, it obviously makes some lucky lad or lass waiting nervously on the reserve list, very happy indeed. It is, as ever, an ill-wind that doesn't blow someone some good!
However, having sorted the who's in and who's not to (almost) everyone's satisfaction the eye (and sometimes we think it must be a glass eye!) turns inevitably to that ongoing subject – machine eligibility.
Now, not being personally involved with this one as I don't actually own a Pre-65 mount (not a complete one anyway although I have got several old decomposing hulks lurking in dark corners of equally decomposing sheds that could one day emerge as runners) I feel I can speak freely on the subject without anyone pointing out a possible vested interest.
To start with, has any subject been subject to more words both spoken and written in the history of motorcycling than machine eligibility for Pre-65 events. And nothing anyone says or does will ever change this. In theory, every machine ought to be exactly as it left its factory, with an untouched original frame and ditto for every single component. In practise though very few machines ever remained so back in the day as riders, led by Sammy Miller, readily took the hacksaw to any piece of hardware that was not required to make the bike stop, go or steer.
This of course is the scrutineer's, or rule-maker's dilemma? Where do you draw the line? I don't envy anyone attempting to draw a line in the Pre-65 sand, especially those running the Pre-65 Scottish because everyone has such high expectations of the event, riders and spectators alike.
I don't pretend to be anything like an expert on the Scottish Pre-65 eligibility rules but I do know that they basically try and ensure that a machine's profile remains true to the original and that foreign components, Japanese carbs and modern forks for instance, are taboo. But, the engineers out there are mighty clever and 'original' British forks which were previously little more than crude pogo sticks allowing bikes to crash from rock to rock, both topping and bottoming spectacularly, now sport damping to rival the best that 2011 can offer. What can a scrutineer do to combat that?
Then there's the frames. Once again, we all know that a bare frame can look exactly like a 1965 original yet, manufactured last night from the latest high-grade, lightweight thin-wall steel it may weigh around half the original which was made from the tube equivalent of cast downspouts!
In the page 2 piece it states that machines manufactured with bolt-up sub-frames (let's just say BSA Bantams to name just one at random...) MUST retain this feature. I hear a collective wail of 'Rats' (choose your own, perhaps more colourful, term!) as some would-be Scottish Pre-65 riders see a total strip-down of their pride and joy approaching followed by a re-build of major components onto a more conventional mainframe to that which they have currently developed.
As I have said, Pre-65 machine eligibility is a minefield through which there is no known safe way. I enjoy the Pre-65 Scottish as much as any single event in the competition year, for a variety of reasons, the people mainly, mixed with the scenery and of course the bikes. The sheer variety of bikes is in direct contrast to the lack of variety in the Six Days.
But I don't envy the eligibility rule-makers one little bit. I can guarantee that several times each day in Scotland that I'll be button-holed by someone wanting me to point the finger at a rival because his bike is this or that or the other. And sometimes they even have a point, although strangely... they won't want to put their name to it!
Luckily, it's not for me to say what's right and what's wrong – by and large I think the rule-makers just about do enough to keep the development aces at bay. I don't think anyone has hidden a modern hydraulic disc brake inside a large aluminium (fake) drum yet – but I wouldn't bet against it...
