News, views and reviews
Not easy doing news in a quarterly magazine, but we try our best.
Incredibly as this is written there are only 12 short weeks to go until the 2020 Classic Dirt Bike Show.
Okay so there’s a thing called Christmas in the way, but for us in the dirt bike world the show at the Telford International Centre on February 15-16 (and which is again backed by Hagon Shocks) actually IS Christmas... and the similarities are clear.
For instance, ties and socks as presents are entrenched in Christmas folklore, while at Telford there will be ties – cable ties – and socks too… race socks for wearing under trials, enduro or MX boots – so ties and socks will be on the trade stands.
There will be lots more there too and as most Mxers are in down time and doing the rebuild thing, it's likely the bits and pieces you need for your bike as a final prep before the season could be picked up on the trade stands.
Trials riders are full on in the winter but perhaps you’ve entered the pre65 Scottish and are looking for a few tuning bits, or maybe the idea of enduro-ing is appealing and maybe a race-ready bike is your goal? A quick glance through the list of those traders already signed up tells us the trade halls will be packed with tasty bits and pieces. Naturally as more people confirm the list will grow.
The show is many things to many people. We’ve already touched on the bits available but there are the displays of restored bikes in the private entries to inspire us into action on the last stages of our own projects. You know those dark days when all the big work is done and the last little knockings of the fiddly bits need to be sorted. This is when the help and encouragement of those who’ve been there are really needed and just talking to other souls who’ve been through it and out the other side can help keep you on track or get you to the track. In part this is a major element of the gathering where like-minded souls can meet to discuss rebuild problems, or forgotten improvements – how many times have you overheard one enthusiast say to another “you want another half inch in the front pipe then a bigger main jet, makes the world of difference…” or something along those lines.
■ For more on Telford, see pages 8 and 10.