TMX SAYS: Awesome Alexz & TMX milestone

Wiggy warmed up by taking the Restricted class win at the fifth round of the DTRA Flat Track series at Ammanford Valley in South Wales before heading to Seymours Arena for Sunday's Supertrial where he finished as a very close runner-up to six-time British champ James Dabill. 

 

As far as off-road motorcycling goes the two disciplines couldn't be any more different with one offering full-throttle 80+ mph thrills and the other is way more static although arguably way more skilful.

 

This kind of all-rounder approach harks back to the old days when riders like Charles ‘Charlie' Charleston could ride in a trial, wooden board race, grass track, scramble and hill climb all in the same weekend, on the same bike, after riding it to and from each event while chuffing on an endless supply of Woodbines. 

 

And at the end of it all, good old Charlie still had enough change from his entry fees for a night out at the cinema and a bag of chips with his Doris come Sunday night...

 

Despite what my kids might try and tell you I'm not old enough to have been around in those days of yore although I used to pore over anything mosickle related that my local library had to offer while I was a kid and get so transfixed it was like I became one with the pages – kinda like Morten Harket did in that A-ha video although thankfully there were no angry spanner-wielding sidecar drivers running riot through the pages of the books I visited.

 

As well as my almost daily trips to the local library I used to top my off-road reading up with a weekly fix of TMX that was launched just under two years after my arrival into the outside world. I can't remember exactly when I learned to read or became a fan of ‘the red ' un' but it didn't really matter as my old man had kept every issue up in the loft – in fact they're still up there doing a grand old job of insulating the ‘rents' abode – so I was able to revisit the lot when I figured out that reading lark.

In the 38 and a bit years since day zero the unrepentant – and at times scurvy – crew have continued to steer the good ship TMX in more or less the right direction and at a rate of 51 papers per year we're zooming towards our 2000th issue which is due to hit shelves on December 3. 

 

That also means we'll be able to party like it's 1999 on November 26 and celebrate a Space Odyssey on Dec 10.

Seriously though we're planning something very special to celebrate this milestone and we'll be counting down through the decades as we get nearer to the big date. 

 

The lengthy process of curating the prime cuts from five decades has already begun and for an off-road nut like myself has been an absolute pleasure. I'm fairly sure you'll enjoy the end result as it's fairly mind blowing just how far TMX – and off-road motorcycling as a whole – has progressed over the years...