Wyegate Trial 2005- No. 76 George Humphreys' viewpoint

The Wyegate started with an envelope dropping on the doormat. It contained what appeared to be messages from the planet ARG, but is what turned out to be a roadbook. As I had never been to the forest of Dean, it made me worry just a tad. Then Brian Lightfoot came to the rescue with I think the best tip for these things, just highlight the right turns red and the left turns green. Made it very easy to read and follow (though I still brought an OS map in case).

Bed and breakfast (which never arrived) was at the start which meant I could have a beer with Mike husband and others. By the end of the evening I had come to the conclusion the Wyegate may be the hardest thing I have done so far, that these people who ride the old British bikes around these trials are not "Not quite all there" but riders looking for more of a challenge, and that the bulk of the scenery was - well bulky. Lots of talk about a panty section, I think its panti-glas, (It is actually Pant-glas, roughly translated means Green Hollow. ed.) an old road was designed to give me nightmares.

A nice chill to the morning air as I wandered round getting scrutineered (yup the bikes there) and signed on, and I really needed you look younger on your acu license. Noticed Brians CRM parked up next to the pamp so went about finding Brian. borrowed some tape off Mike to stick on numbers as my masking tape had for some reason lost its tacky side. Found Brain who I was going to ride with and asked the starter if we could go off together, No problemo. 

Right out the car park, so far so good, and then promptly miss the first turn off, quick 180 and we are back on course. over the next few miles get the hang of the roadbook and having a speedo working on the pamp. Fingers are now dropping off as wore my normal gloves and the chill is actually quite cold. We stop at a junction to sort out where we are, Brian's GPS agrees roughly with the coordinates where we think we are on the road book. stick hands next to cylinder while stopped to bring life back into them.

Left over bridge and left into field said the book, right on follow signs towards first section, fall off going round 90'corner at 2 mph as front end tucks in, made everyone laugh. First couple of stages we both manage with the odd dab, then to a muddy stream that had bikes galore queuing, seems they weren't getting up the opposite bank which was getting slippy. Comes to our go drop into the stream,, nail it,, chop throttle ,, pootle round the rest of section. No finesse but it worked. Then we had a little speed bit up a muddy track which I rode like a tit and forgot to change up and get going.

Then came the first shock of the day, get down in that gully and ride up it - easy except someone put a rock in the way, and there is a photographer- noooo. oh well stand on pegs look proper, pootle up stream get to rock,, Nail it - wrong move boyo, bike goes skywards and come back down with a crunch on the sumpguard - five points. then try and get out of the gully, easier said than done, lack of breakfast indicates very low energy reserves, start drinking energy drink now. Brian gets over the step and gets stuck on the out (as has everyone we saw), I tell him he cleaned it though because the finish is in the river bed and he got his front axle passed the flags. Cant remember much about the next couple of sections so they can't have been that bad, think it was just wind in and around some trees.

Brian takes the lead for a while and suddenly points skyward, is it a steep hill coming? no its a pair of buzzards the forest seems to have loads, I saw another 3 during the ride.

After a fuel stop it was onward towards the panty section. Brian was going up really well until he got parallel with his wife, where he managed to stop. Me I just went for a paddle up the first bit of panty, not pretty but I got to the end of the first section only to find there were two bits of this panty adventure. You get loads for your money in the forest of dean.. 

It was good viewing though watching this section from the bottom while waiting your turn as lots of bikes did somersaults.

After this I think we seemed to do more off road lanes. Some of these were absolutely fantastic and worth the trip down there regardless of the trial. I could for the life of me tell you where they were and which ones you can and cant ride, but the route now seemed less on the roads. At one point on the route while Brian was leading I had the chance to get a brilliant view of the severn bridge I think just before passing by a tree which had another bloody big buzzard in it - I reckon it would have any rider that fell off there for brekky.

We passed by a castle (that was no Castle George! That was Tintern Abbey. ed.) where we saw Mrs Brian - more by luck than anything else. Road map reading was going reasonable until looking for a turn by a shop completely missed it. Backtrack pick up road into hills and lots of sections. muddy puddle section up and downy sections rocky and rooty sections, brilliant bit of single track connecting some of these sections. The sections in these woods were a nightmare for me. Managed to fall off on a simple looking climb which I made hard by going off piste, I was supposed to do a nice arc up and around this tree. the pamp had other ideas and just wonted to go up till gravity imposed its laws and I came tumbling back down. The observer did offer me another crack, but I had no energy. Next section it was a little root that was my undoing, a root polished by all those french polishers in front of me brought me and the pamp to a stop just before the top. Luckily it was no tumble back down as the observer bless his cotton socks grabbed my front wheel. I got off fell over and the poor observer got stuck under the bike.

Drink energy juice like its going out of fashion to try and get life back into me. We then I think make a cock up and go up a lovely track where we thought there was a section. I think it was the penultimate one. at the top of the lane check Brian's gps and we are where we think we are but I think we got there wrong. I don't think any of us fancied trying the other track so we just carried on to the last section at a place called bream cross.

The section had its sting in the tail. Simple round the tress up and down then back up and around, but as you come around you realise someone has planted these trees rather close together and the way I'm pointing I wont get through. stop turn and look at observer we both laugh at the same time. 

We pootle back to the finish at orepool say all the goodbyes and go home via jet wash. The forest of dean is heavy on the bike which has lots of different soil colours, using the jetwash is like an archaeology trip... 

List of bits to do to the bike not too bad , new number plate required, wheel bearings and that's about it. 

Learnt, a lot of Trials is confidence, when you feel like you can do it you have a good chance. Low tyre pressures a must, when tyre pressure low contact patch increases - most had tyres so flat they must have had contact patches the width of the tyre and around 6-8 inches long. Pin it and pray has its moments when it works though they were few on this trail. Others will often tell you after what you did wrong - it helps to listen. 

I really enjoyed this trial there were bits that were beyond me but that's part of the fun. 

Thanks to the West Glos & Dean Forest MCC who put on this event, the route map worked and the observers didn't laugh to much at me they laughed with me. Thanks Brian for wandering round with me.

Till the next one 

Worked out why I ache shoulder going blue so must have landed on that at one point.

(Bruises usually go away George. hopefully your memory of the day won't. And with 5 cleans and only 8 5's to your name that is a pretty good results, plus beating Brian by 10 may have helped! Ed.)