NEOTT MotoTrials

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NeottNews Monthly Newsletter

Issue #6 : April 2018
Email feedback, articles and ideas to neottnews@fastmail.com

Next Trials Event - Sunday April 15, 2018 @ Camp Gruber

- Group ride, 10 AM riders meeting
- Fees: $20 for Members, $25 for Non-Members , $10
- Spectators are always free but please sign the waiver at the sign-in table.
- 2018 Membership Fees remain the same at $40\year - membership form is here

Kevin Kight is the April trials master.
Rider Profile - Charlie Mallow
I bought my first motorcycle at age 22. I started with small street bikes.  I had a buddy that kept talking about what a trials rider could do and that got me interested in trials.  Well that and Mick Andrews.

I purchased my first trials bike at age 28, a 1974 Yamaha TY-250.  I rode my first trials at Bixby, OK at a NEOTT event.  I thought I was ready and pretty good...found out real quick that I wasn't.

After that I went home and practiced for about three months.  I tried a second competition and entered as a novice class rider.  I practiced for hours every day trying to get better.  I remember watching Mike McCabe and Kirk Mayfield ride and I wanted to be that good.

It me took about four years of practicing and riding competitions to make the master class.  I had a lot of success in the mid 80's and early 90's.  I won three Senior National Titles 1985 (SR-35), 1989 (SR-40) and 1991 (SR-40).  I can credit most of my success to the support I had from NEOTT, practicing with Mike McCabe, Butch Cribbett, Greg Ruoff and endless hours of practice.  Without that I don't think I would have done very well.

There for a time I was riding an event almost every weekend.  At the time there were four clubs between Oklahoma, Missouri, Kansas and Texas ... Fun Times!

Due to a neck injury, surgery and old age I can't ride very well any more, but I have a lot of friends, so many good memories and stories to tell.

Last Event - The Dam Gate Trial @ Grand Lake

  The air was crisp, the sky was gray and the rocks were prime for traction during the Annual Dam Gate Trial March 18th in Disney Oklahoma.  17 riders from 4 different states linked up with NASA satellites to calculate the triple digit scores for the unique event.  In a sport where the low score usually wins, the idea was reversed.  Riders attempted to gobble up as many points as possible traversing a series of “numbered gate” sections.  Trials Master Todd Duesterhaus and Co-Trials Master Penni Taylor carefully laid out 8 challenging but cleanable sections.  The threat of rain had all of the riders focused on the business at hand. 

 

 Kansas rider Jason Rexraot, aboard the Vertigo, was the top rider with 455 points.   Rexroat was 8 points ahead of Arkansas rider Gary Vernon. Rexroat etched his name on the coveted Gate Trial Traveling Trophy.   Although there is only one award given to the top rider, Todd D. was the top intermediate rider with 412 points, Justin Davis was the top Senior Am rider, also with 412 points.  Drake Tribblehorn was the lone Amateur rider tallying 284 points.   Marion Cassidy was the top Novice with 312 points.

 

  The event was capped off with a post ride pizza party organized by NEOTT President Kevin Kight.  Barbara Kight delivered the food to the hungry riders.

Jason Rexroat from AVTA club was the high point winner of the 2018 edition of the Dam Gate Trial.  Yeah he was pretty happy about it.
Overall Results:    
1  Jason Rexroat       Exp 455
2  Gary Vernon         Exp 447
3  Jason Shackelford   Exp 442
4  Chris Shellenberger Exp 437
5  Todd Duesterhaus    Int 412
6  Justin Davis        Sra 412
7  Rick Rexroat        Sra 392
8  Eldon Malone        Int 385
9  Todd Phillips       Int 383
10 Matt Hildebrand     Int 378
11 Kevin Kight         Sra 376
12 Danny Patron        Int 365
13 David Pettigrew     Sra 335
14 Marion Cassidy      Nov 312
15 Bill Kleeman        Nov 292
16 Drake Tribblehorn   Ama 284
17 Penny Taylor        Nov 264


Trials Masters: Todd Duesterhaus - Penni Taylor

Pizza Masters: Kevin and Barbara Kight


All the scores and year-to-date standings are on the web here.  

Lots of great action pictures of the Gate Trials taken by Jon Stoodley

Nationals!  NATC Trials

The Nationals are coming The Nationals are coming and several NEOTT members will be competing in one or both of these events.  You can track the results on the MotoTrials.com web page.


- Rounds #1 and #2, hosted by NMTA, on April 21 and 22 in Roswell, NM - event website is here


- Rounds #3 and #4, hosted by RMTA, on April 28 and 29 in Texas Creek, CO - event website is here


As a warning, we'll likely see some over analysis of the results in the May issue of NeottNews :-)


** Remember rounds 7 & 8 will be at Keenan's near Uniontown, AR on June 16 & 17.  The crew is having work days every Saturday through June 9th starting at 10 am.  See the Winters Trials Central USA Facebook page for details.

Trip Report - Cramsey heads East

I had an opportunity to string together four weekends of trials riding while visiting family in Virginia so took advantage of it.  I could write a book on everything that happened but I won't  - you're welcome :-)

In summary:

Georgia: The Trackrock Campgrounds and Cabins are about 8 miles east of Blairsville, GA.  Trackrock is a privately-owned horse ranch whose owner happens to ride trials and he has one event a year on the property.  Great location in the Blue Ridge Mountains and at about 2200 feet elevation.  The weather was great and prompted over 80 riders to come out and play.  The venue was great with nine long sections where most of the sections required 3 judges.  Seven of the nine sections went into the rocky creek that also had a good bit of water running in it.   I saw one guy drown his bike out and I came close to doing the same in the same spot.  I was very glad I brought my boot dryers to dry them them out overnight.  Notable riders in attendance were Ray Peters and Curt Comer Jr (the 1981 NATC National Champ).  I'd put this in my all-time top-five events and would go there again without hesitation.
One of the many steep slippery hillside sections in Florida with Spanish moss hanging from the trees.  If you were to venture off-line and go into the weeds you likely were coming out a bloody mess - that stuff was tough.

Florida:  I had a few free days before the event so first visited the Don "Big Daddy" Garlits Drag Racing Museum which was very cool.   Then headed South a little bit and went to Croom Motorcycle Area which is in a 2600 acre riding area in a Florida State Forest.  It is a great place for camping and riding.  Terrain wise it is very sandy and very similar to App Bay.  The biggest surprise was the number of Canadians there - they were training \ testing for a GNCC event and the Alligator Enduro the next two weekends.  So 3-days of play riding at Croom got me nice and tired going back to Ocala, FL and HardRockMx riding area for the trials event (a few years ago the NATC had a National there).  The property is an old limestone quarry.  Florida is the USA #1 flattest state in the union so if you want a hill climb you have to dig a hole in the quarry like they do in Douglass, KS (btw, Kansas is only the #7 flattest state.  NeottNews is educational too!).  There were around 45 riders at this event and we rode eight mostly long and tough sections and just to make sure we got enough riding in the FTA runs FOUR loops with a 4 1/2 hour time limit.  It was a tough event and I wasn't quite ready for all the steep slippery ups with little to no run at them.  

Interesting to note that the FTA riding season is from October through April - after April it is too sweltering hot to ride and a lot of the club regulars are snow birds and head back North.  It was 70 degrees when I left Florida pretty tired and with sore knees from all the squatting trying to get up all those steep hills and headed to Virginia.
No pics of the Virginia riding area but snapped this moto street art in Fredericksburg, VA
Virginia:  The next day I was driving in 30 degree temps and snow headed to my brother's house.  By the weekend the weather had cleared up nicely and the local CVOTC club was having their first event of the season and holding it as a gate trial.  Very nice riding area on private property and they had all the boxes checked for cambers, logs, creeks and hills.  For whatever reason I was just having one of those days and I didn't ride well so I had to vow a redemption ride on my next trip East.  Good group to ride with and I look forward to riding with them again.   Real Old Timers might appreciate this story: one older gentleman, Jim Ellis, comes up to me and says he started riding trials when he was stationed at McConnell AFB in Wichita and he was trying to recall some names so I say something like oh so you know Randy and David Black?  Yeah he remembers them as kids and starts talking about riding with Bill Grapevine and the Past Masters events.  Well that was way way before my time so I couldn't help him much with that.  Two days later 4-6" of snow was coming to Virginia so I skedaddled to Trials Training Center a few days early (sorry Mom!!!).
Sam Fastle with the spot in the ledge class.
Tennessee:  Arriving on Weds late afternoon and after driving 3,500 miles the first person I see at TTC is Ron Lee (who lives 1.5 miles from me in Owasso).  Ron, and his shiny new bikes, were there for the Trials Training Days weekend as a guest instructor and it seemed appropriate that the 2012 El Diablo Creek Ride Challenge winner was teaching creek riding.  At TTC the STRA still had 18 sections set up from their previous 2-day event so I spent Thursday and Friday playing around on their sections and doing some trail riding.  There were 150 riders signed up for the Saturday and Sunday Training Days classes from total newbies to Expert Level riders.  For me it is mostly about breaking bad habits that have developed over time and getting back to the basic fundamentals and maybe, just maybe the old dog can learn one or two more things along the way.  I can say I got great personalized instruction from all the various instructors that will result in improved riding.   Newbie or experienced rider you can learn something new at Trials Training Days and I highly recommend it.
Classifieds

Looking for a bike? Of course you are - here are some quick links for trials bikes on Craigslist in these nearby cities:
Already have a trials bike sitting in the garage and maybe it has some dust on it?  Clean it up, bring it out, ride and rediscover the fun times when riding trials.

Coming Up in the May 2018 Issue:

- Mike McCabe tells us about his first SSDT experience

- Shake down and break down of the April Event at Gruber

- Rider Profile - Eldon Malone

- Inside scoop from the loop at the NM and CO Nationals

- If anyone wants to write up a short story or a tall tale send it to neottnews@fastmail.com and we'll get it added.