We are working on the website so thanks for being patient.  Anyway, I am one of those “keep busy” types that has to keep moving. I get tired like everyone else but it’s taken a lot of long days to get here and have the privilege to fill this place with cool machines and amazing projects. This one is for me.

I used to race MTB DH quite a bit and still love to go as fast as I can which probably isn’t what I should be doing casually so it’s done sparingly. I have something else that has captured my attention and that is motorcycle trials. Slow and steady though it seems exciting when riding a challenging section of terrain.

A few years ago I ran into a race promoter buddy from my early MTB days in California who now lives not far from me and owned a vintage OSSA Mick Andrews Replica trials motorcycle from 1972.  It was almost perfectly stock (as in unchanged from original) and with very low miles and we made a deal.

Motorcycle trials was originally a reliability event done on very early motorcycles over typical dirt roads/paths but in bad weather. As motorcycles improved the objective became to ride a severe path for a measured distance while counting the errors made such as putting your foot down or going out of bounds and crashing.  I did bicycle trials for a while but I wasn’t very good.

These days, they have several different routes through each judged section (of which there are several) with beginners swerving at low speed between the obstacles and experts going directly over them. ( I assume you have googled motorcycle trials, if not please do so)  and you probably notice the skill levels vary greatly.

I rode the OSSA for a year and my skills improved. I wanted to know what made a trials bike good and I figured vintage class would be great fun and build basic skills.  The  machines were old and modifications were allowed with the exception of things like linkage suspension, water cooled engines and disc brakes that are drastic improvements.  I learned a lot from the fantastic Spanish OSSA motorcycle but can’t stand the sound of those beautiful polished engine cases being bashed against rocks. I know Mick would curse me for typing these words but I need to bash around on something completely guilt free.

I decided to build my new trials bike from the ground up. Since I am somewhat new to participation I decided to start with something simple.  I made the gas tank. It was obvious to me that I had made a Suzuki gas tank and the next step was to acquire a Suzuki motorcycle which I did locally. It had been ridden pretty hard, stripped of parts and left for dead.

Since I had my own ideas on how the bike should perform (though I know little) weren’t based on brand loyalty I was looking at this with an open mind. It’s a 1980 Suzuki DS 185. It’s got a narrow, lightweight motor with good power and are quite common so inexpensive to repair.  I thought it would take a month or two.  Stay tuned.