www.wgdfmcc.org.uk

West Glos & Dean Forest
Motor Cycle Club

Celebrating 71 Years of Motor Cycling 1953 - 2024

Page Index: Video, Snippets, Rider's Say. Words by: ed. Pics: Rod Jones, Ben Falconer. Holly and Anth Moore

Undoubtedly the biggest Enduro in the UK ran on 25th and 26th of June, with 500 riders. For the second year Huw Watkins CofC'd it.

Anyway, here is where you will find all the info and results etc. Welsh Two Day Website. You will find the story behind why they had to revert to Welsh 3 Day Trial too.

Videos

Digger has a great video which does a good job of capturing the atmosphere. Of course, it would be cruel of me to help you get to the bit where one of our members gets it slightly wrong ... Stop twisting my arm! (12:10). And as we're talking about other members, there is Huw in the opening sequence and Robbie Breakwell and Simon Ellway (see Rider's Say for the full entourage) at 04:20 setting off with the job of course openers.

And just for fun, have a look at what the Welsh was like when I first went to watch. Dot Jones, a rider herself, took some film in 1973 and 74 and has converted it to digital. Great job Dot.

Snippets

LtoR: Gavin, Rod, Anth, Centre President Tony, BenF, Pete, Denver, MikeA, Vess. Pic: Rod (Ummm How?)

Rod was there and sent us proof he was witness to a miracle, 5 of the West Glos entry intact and clean on time at the end of day one - Is that a first? (and the pic is a blatant advert for the accommodation! www.bellcountryinn.co.uk.)

Did you spot that Mike Wells rode his Rally bike complete with Full fairing and navigation equipment - see the Before photo.

Ian Thompson prepared the brand spanking new Freeride 250 after running it in on the Wyegate but had to spend 3 hours to get it going before scrutineering. Read his write up below.

Pete Neale's clutch went awol on day 2 but ingenuity from Pete and Fred Adams' dad and Amory's TY80 he got back on the road to finish.

All clean and tidy like - MikeA, MikeW, Anth and BenF's bikes. Pic: BenF

Day One's Notables:

Newcomer Ian Thompson lost 11 mins on the Freeride. Local Mark Saunders pulled off a 4th in the Over 50s with Pete and Vess 21 and 22nd. In 0ver 40s MikeW was 35th, Denver 39th, Anth 41st and MikeA 53rd and BenF 71st, All clean on time incidentally. In Expert E2 Roger Holland pulled off 5th while his dad Richard managed 21st in Clubman E3.

I'm still scratching my head over this one. How do you change Hydraulic to TY80 lever? Pic: BenF

There are a number of our Wyegate riders rattling off good rides too, plus anyone I missed!

Day Two and Overall:

Despite choosing a 2 day for his 1st enduro Ian improved by only losing 6 mins on the road. Westbury-O-S man and sometime Trials rider Mark Saunders held out for 5th in Over50's. Leaving Vess to beat Pete, who lost about 45 mins rigging a clutch up. In the younger Over 40s Anth pulled his socks up to beat MikeW by only 4 seconds with Denver 21 seconds down. Comparative 'Slacker' Allen was nearly a minute adrift. BenF was clearly paid by Haines & Co. to not embarrass Anth's results using his 12 yr old version of Anth's new GasGas EC200 by adding a few extra mins! Roger Holland grabbed an 8th on Exp E2 and his dad Richard 21st in Club E3.

Take your choice, an ancient EC200 will get you round clean on time and so will the latest EC200 model. Available at... Kerching! Pic: BenF

Rider's Say

Ian says 'that bloody editor talked me into this, he said it would be a doddle compared to the SSDT, and I haven't even started yet!' Pic: BenF

Simon Ellway says: Don't forget us workers - The course openers were: Ben Bish, Chris Haines and Martin George were in the lead 1 hour group with Rob Breakwell and myself doing the 15-mins-in-front of the race group on Thursday. Huw has done a great job, the course was spot on. Then we did it all again Friday. (He didn't say whether that was pain or pleasure!)

Ian Thompson says: First - big thanks to the support crews (especially Amo, Drew, Gavin, George and Tony) for providing refuelling of both bike and rider, and to the WGDFMCC team for welcoming a newcomer into the fold. Big thanks as well to number 186, Ben and Tony for helping out when my bike conked out on the way to signing on - we now know how to rebuild a Keihin.

Finished it - not bad if I may say so, considering it was my first enduro at age approaching 5 decades and I did no training. I just don't want to look at the special test times. On the checks I lost 11 minutes on day 1 and 6 minutes on day 2. I got passed a lot on the wider tracks but not much on the technical ones - no surprises there. Riding for a finish I only binned it on day 1 (3 times) and stayed upright for the whole of day 2. No particular bit aches more than any other but a few blisters appeared on the hands and quite sore elsewhere. An amazing event in terms of both scale and £/smile and will probably be back next year.

Gavin's Office - Aerospace and Bristol fashion - And notice the fuelling mats Huw? Pic: Anth

Verdict on the Freeride: I think I was the only one riding one. (Entry list claimed 3 more. ed.) I'm sure there are better bikes for enduros like, erm, enduro bikes, but for something that will do LDTs nicely as well it takes some beating.

Chairman Vess at Crossgates Pic: Holly Moore

Denver at Xgates Pic: Holly

Mike Allen at Xgates Pic: Holly

Mike Wells at Xgates Pic: Holly

My Dad at Xgates by Holly.