The YAMAHA PITMANS, Phillip Haydon Reliability Trial, Round 1 of the S.A. Reliability Trials Championship, 3 May 08
Well, the results are in, but before I get to them, I think I need to let most of you know more about the South Australia version of motorcycle reliability trials. Motorcycling South Australia (MSA) describe the sport as follow; “Reliability trials are like a car rally on a motorcycle. Riders take on tough competitive sections, linked by easy transport sections and timed to the second. Solos and Sidecars ride for over 6 hours, sometimes in the dark. The main aim is just to finish. All spare parts and tools have to be carried from the start“.
Pic 1, As in the Sesame St. song, “one of these things doesn’t belong here, can you tell which one”?
As you can see in the above pic, the majority of the competitors ride late model enduro bikes fitted out with multiple high powered headlights (up to 200 watt output in many cases).
I was entered in Class “M”, which is for machines 20 year + old, (I think the “M” stands for masochist). My bike was an essentially stock 1976 XT500C. The main deviations from stock specification were; gearing lowered to 15/48, home made exhaust system (I didn’t want to damage my stock exhaust), home made alloy sump guard, Barkbuster handguards, 1978 XS1100 headlamp (55/100w), modified SR500 12v electrical system, tacho removed and replaced with a LCD clock, and the “piece-de-resistance” a set of late 70’s Barum enduro tyres that I took from the wheels of my old 1978 Husky which were last used in about 1980.
The event was advertised as a 6 hour event, comprising 3 x 80km laps, “traversing made roads (dirt and bitumen), 2-wheeled tracks and natural terrain on private property”. However, at the riders briefing, it was announced that the event would actually be 7½ hours in length when the 10 minute allowances for each fuel stop and a 6 minute “rest break” at the end of each lap was added in. With riders starting at 1 minute intervals from 1pm, my starting number of 45 had me leaving the main control at 1:45pm and due to finish at 9:15pm, this had the last rider away just after 3pm and due in after 10:30pm, hence the big headlights.
A lap of the course comprised 12 sections, with the transport section ranging from 3 to 18km in length and the paddock (competitive) sections ranging from 2 to 5km. The transport sections are timed to the minute, with a loss of 60 points per minute late. The paddock sections are timed to the second, with a loss of 1 point per second taken to complete the section. The average speed required for the event was 40kph, which is easy to maintain on the transport sections but not so easy on the special stages.
Pic 2, at the start.
Things started well, with me stalling the bike 100m from the start when I slowed down to turn out of the paddock onto the road. I had my first fall in the second competitive section, a slow speed loose of the front end while trying to turn around a tree. This was the first of many (I gave up counting after about 12) slow speed get-offs, most due to loosing the front end in tight turn around trees or clipping loose stones in the same type of turns. By the end of the first lap I had come to the conclusion that an XT500 was too big, heavy and slow steering to try and ride quickly in most of the tight and twist paddock sections, but was a blast to ride on the transport sections and also in the final paddock section, which was 2km down a fairly narrow gully, pictured below.
Pic 3, paddock section 11.
I made it to the end of lap one still smiling and on schedule. I was not quite half way through lap 2 when the sun disappeared behind the hills, and riding became a whole new experience, with this being my fist time riding off-road during the night. Even with a 100w halogen headlight which threw more than enough light to ride at 80 to 90kph on the transport sections, riding the paddock sections was not easy. Even after slowing down and riding most of the paddock sections in 1st and 2nd gear, I continued to fall off more often than I would have liked too. Again I made it to the end of the lap on schedule, and still with a smile on the dial, even though I was in a bit of pain, having bent my left foot back under the footpeg when I hit a stump (or rock, I didn’t see it) in one of the paddock sections.
I set off on lap 3, with the sole intention of finishing, and that was it. As I was pretty well knackered, the slow speed falls in the paddock section become more frequent, in part because I was having difficulty changing gears with my sore foot and bent gear lever, and often found myself in the wrong gear for the situation. In the paddock sections I was slowing/stopping and waving passed up to 6 riders who had started after me (during the daylight I was generally quick enough to stay ahead of the rider who started a minute behind me). In fact many of my crashes during the night were due to me moving “off line” to let following riders passed without holding them up. Just before 9:15pm I rode into the finish, still on schedule, and still with a smile, did I mention about being a masochist before.
Pic 4, in the light of day.
In the light of the morning, the XT pulled up quite well. A bit muddy, but the only damage being a broken front mudguard, a bent gear lever and a partially flattered/crushed exhaust pipe.
Me, well I don’t know how many muscles there are in the human body, but I do know that they are all aching! The left foot is nicely bruised as is my right calf where the kickstart lever got me after my foot slipped off of it while trying to start the bike (after stalling it in a muddy creek bed).
The other half’s comment as I struggled to move the morning after were along the lines of; “Have you got it out of your system now? Hopefully you now realise that you are too old and unfit to be riding these kind of events.”
In answer to this, I have just sent in my entry for the Rnd 2 of the series, the Mike Connors 8Hr, which is being run on May 24. The pain should have faded by then (I hope).
I almost forgot the results;
Believe it or not I am currently leading the Championship!
Well in Class M, I am, as I had the best time out of the two of us in the class who finished the event (there were 3 entries in Class M). Overall, I was 89th with a loss of 11106.49 points (the outright winner, Leigh Bently, riding a Yamaha WR250F dropped 6568.34 points). Of the 121 entries, there were 91 finishers, so it was not an easy event when you consider that 25% of the entries didn’t finish.
CJ
