It's all in the SSDT water!
By John Dickinson on 11th May 07
This week T+MX editor JD ponders on the old saying The more things change, the more they stay the same
AS I am sitting sheltering in my car in Fort William, having dived for cover as the rain came hammering down as yet another squall hit the West End car park where the Scottish Six Days Trial is trying to complete the weigh-in on Sunday, I don't think I need to apologise for making the Scottish the subject of this week's column.
The Scottish, first run by the Edinburgh club back in 1911, is one of the great ‘constants' in motorcycle sport and, like the Isle of Man TT, which celebrates its centenary next month, the event just keeps on going, arguably against the odds.
I'd been reading the programme from the Pre-65 event and it contains a fascinating article penned by one of trials' all-time greats Hugh Viney, a legendary rider of AJS singles. The 2007 programme piece was itself a reprint of what Viney had written for the 1957 event – 50 years previously. It is a perfect example of the saying. "The more things change, the more they stay the same.”
To steal part of a paragraph, HM Viney says, "...it is customary to refer to...ancient heroes on perculiar mechanical devices, of incredible feats of endurance against awesome odds.
"It falls to me to disappoint my readers as my memories of the Scottish go back a bare ten years and the worst I can recall is that it rained a bit one year. I can produce no inspiring stories of triumph over mechanical disaster inasmuch as the worst job I have tackled during the trial was to adjust my rear chain. I can almost hear the snorts of derision echoing from ancient times – but there it is, the modern motorcycle is so reliable ...”
What! After all the stories we've all heard from our own heroes of the (not too distant) past regarding superhuman efforts of battling against torrential, never-ending monsoon-like rain, swollen rivers, bottomless bogs on bikes that weighed three tons and required more spannering than a Chinese moped, I can scarcely believe Mr Viney's words.
Was this article written in jest? Was it a tongue-in-cheek poke at his rivals in the 1957 event, making it look like riding the Scottish was a stroll in the park and that whatever the weather or mechanical problem it was as nothing to him?
Today has proved yet again the truly fickle nature of Highland weather – totally unpredictable with glorious sunshine one minute and a vicious, icy squall the next.
The bit about mechanical reliability must raise a few eyebrows as well, especially from riders who have suffered at the somewhat delicate nature of modern water-cooled two-stroke trials engines. There's nothing wrong with the motors as such, just that they don't take kindly to having their radiators filled with mud or their air-boxes filled with water.
But were the old British bikes really paragons of mechanical fortitude. Did they really go all week with little more than a tweak of the rear chain with an adjustable Whitworth spanner?
If so, it really does make one wonder why they disappeared, to be replaced by the obviously vastly inferior products from Spain, Italy and Japan.
I am of course now poking fun myself.
Viney sings the praises of the bikes of the 50s, I'm sure Sammy Miller will speak-up for the machines of the 1960s, Mick Andrews for the 1970s. Personally, I thought the air-cooled Yamaha TY250 of the 1980s was the ultimate in Scottish reliability. Not actually sure what the bike of choice would be in the 1990s but the Montesa 4RT has surely claimed the title in the mid 2000s.
The point of all this is of course to prove that indeed, the more things change the more they stay the same!
One thing really does stay the same and that is the desire of trials riders, whatever standard they ride to or even aspire to, to take part in the Scottish Six Days. Not even the obvious unsuitability of the modern trials bike to long-distance work has much effect.
The Edinburgh club accepts 275 entries – too many to be handled comfortably really – yet 2007 saw an amazing 450 riders hoping for a place. That's almost 200 riders doomed to disappointment. The years roll on but isn't it great that the desire – and the stories – remain constant and undiminished.
This year it's 100 years of the TT – roll on 100 years of the Scottish!