1267 km – 16h 11m

Pick up Gasgas, go to Judds on Sunday.

Genuine BMW – $340 from Motorad

• 25AH

The Beta clutch fix
1999 Owners Manual
1997 Parts Diagram
1996 Beta Techno Trials Test

Use 500ml of ATF for oil changes

Takumi Narita in 1994 on a Beta Techno – they might be a dinosaur… but they are capable of big things…

The beast at Hunterville

Ohakuri on a cold July day. Hannah had a couple of falls.

Looking back towards the pits

With the weekend off for Paul, I managed to convince him to join me, Hannah & Jane along to Round 1 of Manawatu Orion’s club champs held in the Pohangina Valley. Having never ridden a trials bike in his life asides for a brief ride once or twice around our bush block at Hunterville he wasn’t convinced this was the best use of his day off.

It rained most of the way there, but thankfully once we arrived it was short lived, this however made it rather slippery, with most of the sections based around large rocks or through a small creek bed. We were both planning to ride clubman lines, and thankfully, Merv offered to chaperone us around the course and offer a few pointers.  I couldn’t get the better of my nerves for most the day, so fudged my way through most of the sections, just happy with an attempt at some of the trickier obstacles, not really worried about how many points I was accumulating. Paul on the other hand picked it up really fast and was good competition for Merv George. A few occasions it looked like he was riding the old beta techno like a MX bike but it worked(mostly) and he managed to get through the sections with relative ease. We both really enjoyed the day, and I think now Paul actually ‘gets’ how riding a trials bike well, could make you a better rider all round. Needless to say I think we are both hooked. Hopefully we can make it to another round this year.

Results from the day – http://www.silver-bullet.co.nz/news.php?id=4784

The week started well, already working through the checklist of jobs needing to be done to the bikes before our ride on Sunday.  Its going to be different this week, the bikes will be serviced early and any work needing to be done will be finished well before the weekend. In true Hazel style up till midnight day before the ride still trying to put bikes back together and get loaded up. It all began at about 5pm, when we went to take my KTM for a quick blat to make sure that all was running well and it wouldn’t start, shit. Paul & I tried everything we could think of to get the bike going, carburetor, spark-plug, fuel, tipped the bike on its head… still no go. After many tedious hours and phone calls to friends & family for ideas, we were still unable to get my bloody bike started. After a quick pep talk from dad, we loaded the bike up anyway with the hope someone may be able to help us in the morning.  1am in bed all ready to go (1 bike working ,1 not so much), in 4hours, oh man.

Sunday morning, Jack and Sam were bundled in the truck, toast thrown at them and on our way to Pahiatua enduro.  The day started well, a little embarrassing for me, but well none the less as we managed to sort out the technical problem with my bike.  Desperate to get my KTM going, we asked Jason Davis over to see if he could shed some light on my problems. He listened to us, took a look at my bike, then without hesitation, pulled the air filter out, whipped the rag out of my airbox and said’ I think this may be your problem’. If  I could disappear on demand, this would be one of those times. None the less I now had a bike to ride, no children, and it wasn’t raining (yet) so I quickly regrouped and started looking forward to a great day.   31km track, 3 times round, sounded cool and it was. A bit of everything, farmland, muddy bogs, river sections, tight trials section (only just wide enough for barkbusters to scrape through), mx tracks and big hills. The first 2 loops went well, getting a bit lost to begin with across the farmland, but finding my way in the end. Last loop my lack of fitness was starting to show, making silly mistakes, just holding on became the priority.  The pits at the end of the day were a welcome sight, it felt great to actually finish a event, 1st time since our little boys came along, and 1st in class too! With only 2 in the over 200 2stroke INT class I only needed a finish to gain a placing, much unlike the hotly contended 50+ Vet class, 13 entrants with the first 7 finishers taking spots in the top 10 of the Intermediate class!

Can’t wait for round 2 down in Wellington, lets try be ready early for this one.

Results from the day – http://www.silver-bullet.co.nz/news.php?id=4778