Derrick Edmondson:

“I first moved to the Honda trials project with Steve Saunders in 1986 before joining Eddy Lejuene in 1987. I still find it hard to believe that Steve did not win the world championship in 1986, he was definitely the best rider by far. The dynamics of the team changed in 1987 and Steve moved to Fantic and so I swopped over to be the mechanic/minder for Eddy. Both riders were a pleasure to work with and I was very disappointed when the trials team finished, but I very much respected the decision. I knew the four-stroke RTL Honda inside out; in a strange way they were ‘my’ machines as I had spent two years of my life working on them. The development 272cc was quite a special machine. The crankcases had started out as TLR ones but had been extensively machined to suit the new machine. HRC always listened to any ideas I had, which was always reassuring. The clutch was being used more and more in the trials world and I suggested that both Eddy and Steve needed a better clutch in their machines. HRC addressed this and a CR125 model clutch was machined to fit. John Jnr looked more at home on the drum-braked 250cc than on the 272cc disc-braked model. The power was very strange on this machine. In truth Eddy Lejeune had spoken in depth to me about it and he never really mastered it. John was a very promising young rider, and maybe it was too much for a sixteen-year-old but I just wanted to give someone the opportunity with the HRC machines. When John wanted to return the machines I fully understood the decision. I last rode the 272cc in the Scott Trial in the October 1988 before it was returned to the HRC base in Belgium; yes it was some machine!”