Sporting world
Castleside Trials Club
We’ve been in the north for the Kia Twinshock series, West Midlands for a hill climb and Scotland for the Scottish Grand National. Where’ve you been?
There’s a bit of personal involvement in this event as the Castleside Trials Club is ‘my’ club... and if I’d not ridden this one there would have been raised eyebrows from the committee. The Kia series is a popular one for people of my age group and tends to feature the bikes we rode in the Seventies in sections which reflect that time. I suppose it’s rather like the pre65 trials scene was for those who rode in the Fifties and Sixties. So, traditional Seventies trials bikes on a course I for one have been riding on since those days. Unlike the smaller courses forced on organisers by the spread of the urban sprawl and the motorway infrastructure, this particular course at Lambshield near Edmundbyers has survived and is pretty much as it has been for long before I rode on it. Approximately 11 miles round, it is typical North East Centre terrain of moorland and rocky streams, with the occasional hill climb thrown in for good measure. One thing not quite traditional at this event was the weather… it was brilliant sunshine and almost warm for March… those of us familiar with the area were impressed with the way the Kia lads had fetched the fine weather as normally it is ‘less fine’. As well as traditional bikes and sections the traditional way of marking is in favour here – that of ‘maintain forward motion’. This is a much more sensible method for trials than the super trick ‘X-treme’ arena influenced marking. Think we’re off the mark? Have a look at the full entry lists of trials using such marking.