A bike for all seasons
By TMX Archives on 26th Nov 08
JD looks into the Scorpa T-Ride model and what it could achieve... IN these credit crunching days of economic gloom, fiscal strangulation and any other monetary cliche currently being flogged to death by the tabloids and the telly that you would like to apply, I have wondered, should the ‘bad times' continue for longer than any of us would like – if we will see a return, or at least a semi-return, to the days of the ‘all-round' off-road sportsman mounted on his Bike For All Seasons! That would be a rider who uses a single machine which, with one or two quick and obvious mods, could be used for more than one sporting discipline.
I started pondering this one while at the recent Dirt Bike Show when Scorpa importer Nigel Birkett told me that he was (pleasantly) surprised at the interest shown in the French factory's oddball T-Ride model, a bike that doesn't particularly fit into any of today's hard and fast categories. For those that don't know, the T-Ride is something of a mongrel, basically a trials bike but fitted with a decent tank and seat. Nothing too unusual in that, virtually all the trials manufacturers offer something similar but where the T-Ride differs is that much more substantial long-travel suspension is fitted both front and rear. So it isn't a trials bike any more. But what is the T-Ride all about? You can argue that by trying to be all things to all men it ends up no good for anything! But is it?
Back in the mists of time, before the days of specialisation, it was commonplace for a rider to own and use just one machine. Impossible as this may sound to our younger readers, riders would ride trials, scrambles and even road race just one machine, which was probably used for going to work on as well. It was one of the reasons that the competition ‘seasons' came about – scrambles or motocross in summer and trials in winter.
In the 21st century of course everything is specialised and then specialised again. Trials bikes are of no use whatsoever except as trials bikes, motocross and road racing machines likewise. Even genuine Trail bikes aren't a lot of use for anything apart from tarmac and, err, trails.
Which brings us back to the interesting T-Ride. I have ridden one for a day, mainly on public roads I admit, but also taking in several genuine trails including some going that would have fitted into a genuine enduro. The bike was amazing and 100-odd miles was no problem for either rider or bike. And with its basic trials geometry, which makes it far more wieldy than a trail/ enduro model, there is no reason to suppose that it would not take to some gentle-ish trials sections.
So, what we have seen reinvented here is what could become a bike for all seasons.
But in reality it's not quite as simple as that I'm afraid. For such bikes to become truly popular again would require a complete re-think on all types of event. Trials would have to become much less severe although there is certainly plenty of scope here to utilise Easy or Trail sections. There is certainly room for an increase in traditional or long-distance trials. And by long distance I mean around 100 miles rather than three miles, which many riders now class as a long lap!
Motocross would be much harder to pull off. Fact is, the modern, custom-built MX track is no place for anything other than a specialist modern MX machine. For our much less aggressive bike we would have to see a return once again to traditional, grassy, agricultural tracks, along the lines of those used by the Pre-65 guys – with a restriction on tyres, probably no more aggressive than trials or genuine trail rubber.
Hare and Hounds and Enduro? Much easier to stage and as less severe courses would be necessary it ought to open up a lot more ground to sporting use. Supermoto? A set of wheels and you are away. Better still, insist that the wheels and tyres remain standard.
There really is a lot of mileage in the Bike-For-All-Seasons once you start looking at it. The whole point is to keep off-road sport ever-more affordable and attainable during times when obviously some riders would be finding it harder and harder to justify their specialist bike.
Is it going to happen? Very likely not! Turning back the clock is not something very high on our collective agendas. And kids brought-up on mega motorhomes, power-washers, generators, 52-inch tellies, Nintendo Wii's and four new bikes a year aren't going to take naturally to riding their workaday mount 50-miles to an event on Sunday...
It was just a thought!