One some times gets the oppertunity to do something special and if it does come your way I suggest you do it such as I did this past September. Let me explain, I'm a trials rider and I've been one for quite some time, I ride AHRMA, NATC, STRA, ITSA vintage or modern it's all the same to me, on two wheels and feet on the pegs I'm in my element. So whats a trials riders dream? It's to ride where it all began in Britian, so when I got the chance to go and ride there I could not resist. Often times a trip like this would be impossible just due to the logistic's of it all, getting over there is the easy part, but transportation, lodgings, and a bike takes a bit of planning. Fortunatly for me I've got a great friend in England, his name is Bob Baker. I met Bob thru another pal Graham Foster, an Englishman who resides here, and thru casual conversation with Bob I mentioned that if ever I got the chance to ride over there I would do it. This was in 2004 at Mid Ohio and by November of that year Bob informed me that I had an entry in the 2005 Scottish pre65 2day trial. Since then I've been over there to ride 3 more times which brings us to my story. Bob calls and invites me to ride in the 2009 Manx Classic 2day trial and if I came over a wek earlier we could also do a 3 day trial in Northallerton in Yorkshire (originally where my people had come from centuries ago!) Now I'm just an auto mechanic and with this economy I had to make a choice, ride the trials I do in the states all year or go across the pond for two weeks of proper trials, it's a no-brainer. I hated not to compete until september but I had to make the sacrifice. I flew out of Birmingham, Alabama on friday night for the 12 hour flight changing in Atlanta and landing saturday Morning in Manchester England, Bob picks me up and off to the trials in Northallerton. Bob and I both ride BSA B40's 350cc's, the bike I ride belongs to Bob's mate Alan Worthington who graciously lends it to me whenever I need it. Riding the same machines also helps out by only carrying one set of spares and Bob knows B40's very well. Bill Pye is the man that organizes the trial and has for many years, he's also a long time Fantic dealer so there are still a great many Fantic's about at the trials. The trial is held at a farm and after 3days I'm well pleased to have won second place in the unit construction class. It's then back to the Baker ranch for 2 days of R and R and bike prep for the ferry crossing doesn't leave till thursday mid day. We leave thursday am and pick up Bob's mates Stuart Apple, a sidecar racer in his day on now returning to do the classic sidecar racing. ( they are not sidecars they are "outfits" I'm told) and Colin Shute. Three across the front seat of Bob's transit van and Colin in the back riding a bike stand, but the drive to Liverpool goes quickly as soon as the bench racing starts. As soon as we get to Liverpool Docks all is not well, the rain is normal but the 4 1/2 foot waves and the near hurricane force winds may cancel our sailing. After a 2 hour delay we are allowed to board on the sea catamaran an ex U.S. military ship the Manannan. I'm later told the nick name of the ship is the Vomit Comet. It's a fast boat in calm seas but with the 4 foot waves and fierce head wind the pilot opens the throtles and soon we are doing 30 knots across the rough seas heading for the Isle of Man. I soon succumbed to the ships nick name much to the delight of Bob and the lads and they torture me every once and a while by asking me if I'm ready for a pint. By the half way point of the voyage Colin joins me in my misery, revenge is sweet. When we land in Douglas the worst of the weather has passed and the sun is starting to peeek out so it off to the Ramsey Spints to meet up with more of the lads. It's all finished up by then but plans are made for the evening. Theres still time to take a lap of the TT course, 37.7 miles of narrow twisty roads, great fun I'm sure on a bike, not so great in a 4 wheel slide in a transit van! We book into the B and B in St. Johns Which is where the trials will start on saturday, it normally starts at the TT grandstand but with the weather the roadraces may be held over to saturday.Fridays a day off for us so we head down to Douglas to spectate at the races, some of the roads are blocked off but find ourselves at Crosby, which happens to have a pub with chairs and tables we can spectate at. Fully recovered from the sea crossing we have a wonderful day enjoying ourselves with racing bikes going by at 160mph just 3 feet away! That evening we have to sign on for the trials at the Hilton, get our number plates and route cards, I'm # 158 there's about 36 sections and a lap of 45 miles per day, thats 90 miles on a pre 65 bike with not much of a seat and tapped out in 4th gear at about 35-40 mph. This event is a road trial so the bikes have to be some what legal with a tag, MOT, and taxed, not much road work but to connect all the sections it is necessary. Saturday morning and it's all business at the St Johns car park, it's drizzling when we start to gear up. Riders start on your minute and Bob has the minute before me so we can ride together, we have 6 hours to complete each day. Off to the sections and the rain stops, we start riding typical English sections, no tight turns, just straight on but loose and slippery enough to slip up and dab. The day clears up and I see some of the most incredible scenery, you normally wouldn't get to these areas unless you were a farmer or a sheep. You do not carry a score card with you, it's all recorded by the observer with your bike number so you try to keep up with it in your head. We finish the day, both Bob and I have ridden well so we load our gear and head to the nearest pub. While we are hydrating ourselves the scoring people come in and start to compute the days results and about an hour later they finish them. Well I'm fairly well hydrated now and they announce the top 3 in each class, and when they say my name in 1st place I'm stunned, they don't know who I am until someone points me out, It's the American rider! I can't believe it. I borrow Colin's cell phone and call the USA. I buy the next round, the pressure is now on, theres still one more day to go. I finally fall asleep about a half an hour before the alarm goes off, I've been up all night running the day thru my head, lack off sleep has put me in a foul mood, and it's raining hard. We get some bacon sandwichs to go, but I can't eat mine. We stop at a store and I fire a Red Bull down and buy a $2.00 can of Coke. Todays start is from the place they start the TT and we gear up in a down pour. Yesterdays results are posted on the wall of the tech garage and I can't help but look at them, it appears that it's a tie for first place and 3rd place is just 2 points away! We take off from the TT grandstand and hurtle down Bray Hill to Quarter bridge at 30 mph, wet roads and trials tires! I ride well till mid day until I get caught in a stream bed and struggle to get out, I'm sure I've fived it. The next section is a long muddy hillclimb with a tree roots midway up, everyones having trouble getting up, 3rd gear and wide open is my plan and I fly up the hill only to dab twice at the very top cause I'm going 3 feet sideways for every foot I go up, at least I make it up. Things start to get better and I'm back to riding well, then disaster strikes. On a rocky uphill climb in an old quarry my front tire hits something and the bike stops dead, I however keep on going until my helmet whacks the front tire, I then topple over and land on a large rock, roll off that and into 2 1/2 feet of ice cold water. I later find the decompression lever bent and a throbbing pain in my thigh. I'm soaked to the skin, my boots are filled with water and I'm even colder than before and it dawns on me, I've lost the trial, I'm pissed. I ride the rest of the day resign to the fact that I've lost and I take chances in the sections I normally wouldn't. I'm now just glad to finish and my teeth are chattering, back to the van and dry clothes and the bacon sandwich I had not eaten. A hot shower improves my mood and off to the pub for a meal and a drink before the awards presentation several hours away.Time slips by and we almost are late and there only a few seats left at one table. At the table is Mick Grant, factory Kawasaki rider in the 70's and 80's and Eric Boocock Speedway rider, both who now ride classic trials. They start giving out the awards with Mick Grant as the presenter,theres 4 classes, twinshock premier and clubman and pre65 premier and clubman plus special awards such as best newcomer, best foreign rider etc and they go about forty deep in each class. It goes on for quite sometime and by the time my class, pre65 clubman has come around it's well into the evening. I've got a number in my head about what I think my score is but when comes by and my name isn't called I figure there must have been a scoring error or I missed a section and I'm way out of the running. So when they get to third place they announce that something special has happened and there's a three way tie for first place and they hand out 3rd place then 2nd place, then..... all the way from America, Mark Sturtevant I can't believe it, but some how make it up to the podium and Mick Grant hands me two large trophies. I'm standing there in a foreign country with an American Flag behind me holding the two trophies over my head and the crowd applauding and I can't be any more proud representing my country. I probably stay up there too long but I'm enjoying every second of it but eventually make it back to the table. I've got a sh-t eating grin that didn't go away for two weeks!
proud of buddy cont. I call back home to tell my wife then call my major sponsor of this adventure my 91 y/o Dad, when I tell him I can tell in his voice that he's so proud of me. He then tells me to go back to the celebration and have a pint for him.The rest of the night I rub shoulders with some of the big names in classic trials and people congratulate me and buy me a drink. At 3am we wobble back to the hotel and I fall into bed and fall asleep a contented man. And thats My Ride Of A Lifetime!
i'msurethatyouhavetypedupatrulywonderfulpostonanhonorableandnobleman,butmyeyesgoallcrazy-likefromtheoverwhelming-nay,stupifyinglylargeamountofunformattedtext.Icommendyouonyourfaith,allegianceandgeneralappreciationforafriend,buti'mnotreadingthat.
Some paragraphs would have been nice But that is an awesome story. Congrats and best of luck in the future
He's an old school trial rider that wanted to ride in europe. He got the chance and smoked their ass. His pops was happy, he got drunk with his riding hero's, and passed out. The End. Awesome story!
One some times gets the opportunity to do something special and if it does come your way I suggest you do it such as I did this past September. Let me explain, I'm a trials rider and I've been one for quite some time, I ride AHRMA, NATC, STRA, ITSA vintage or modern it's all the same to me, on two wheels and feet on the pegs I'm in my element. So whats a trials riders dream? It's to ride where it all began in Britian, so when I got the chance to go and ride there I could not resist. Often times a trip like this would be impossible just due to the logistic's of it all, getting over there is the easy part, but transportation, lodgings, and a bike takes a bit of planning. Fortunatly for me I've got a great friend in England, his name is Bob Baker. I met Bob thru another pal Graham Foster, an Englishman who resides here, and thru casual conversation with Bob I mentioned that if ever I got the chance to ride over there I would do it. This was in 2004 at Mid Ohio and by November of that year Bob informed me that I had an entry in the 2005 Scottish pre65 2 day trial. Since then I've been over there to ride 3 more times which brings us to my story. Bob calls and invites me to ride in the 2009 Manx Classic 2day trial and if I came over a week earlier we could also do a 3 day trial in Northallerton in Yorkshire (originally where my people had come from centuries ago!) Now I'm just an auto mechanic and with this economy I had to make a choice, ride the trials I do in the states all year or go across the pond for two weeks of proper trials, it's a no-brainer. I hated not to compete until september but I had to make the sacrifice. I flew out of Birmingham, Alabama on friday night for the 12 hour flight changing in Atlanta and landing saturday Morning in Manchester England, Bob picks me up and off to the trials in Northallerton. Bob and I both ride BSA B40's 350cc's, the bike I ride belongs to Bob's mate Alan Worthington who graciously lends it to me whenever I need it. Riding the same machines also helps out by only carrying one set of spares and Bob knows B40's very well. Bill Pye is the man that organizes the trial and has for many years, he's also a long time Fantic dealer so there are still a great many Fantic's about at the trials. The trial is held at a farm and after 3days I'm well pleased to have won second place in the unit construction class. It's then back to the Baker ranch for 2 days of R and R and bike prep for the ferry crossing doesn't leave till thursday mid day. We leave thursday am and pick up Bob's mates Stuart Apple, a sidecar racer in his day on now returning to do the classic sidecar racing. ( they are not sidecars they are "outfits" I'm told) and Colin Shute. Three across the front seat of Bob's transit van and Colin in the back riding a bike stand, but the drive to Liverpool goes quickly as soon as the bench racing starts. As soon as we get to Liverpool Docks all is not well, the rain is normal but the 4 1/2 foot waves and the near hurricane force winds may cancel our sailing. After a 2 hour delay we are allowed to board on the sea catamaran an ex U.S. military ship the Manannan. I'm later told the nick name of the ship is the Vomit Comet. It's a fast boat in calm seas but with the 4 foot waves and fierce head wind the pilot opens the throtles and soon we are doing 30 knots across the rough seas heading for the Isle of Man. I soon succumbed to the ships nick name much to the delight of Bob and the lads and they torture me every once and a while by asking me if I'm ready for a pint. By the half way point of the voyage Colin joins me in my misery, revenge is sweet. When we land in Douglas the worst of the weather has passed and the sun is starting to peeek out so it off to the Ramsey Spints to meet up with more of the lads. It's all finished up by then but plans are made for the evening. Theres still time to take a lap of the TT course, 37.7 miles of narrow twisty roads, great fun I'm sure on a bike, not so great in a 4 wheel slide in a transit van! We book into the B and B in St. Johns Which is where the trials will start on saturday, it normally starts at the TT grandstand but with the weather the roadraces may be held over to saturday. Fridays a day off for us so we head down to Douglas to spectate at the races, some of the roads are blocked off but find ourselves at Crosby, which happens to have a pub with chairs and tables we can spectate at. Fully recovered from the sea crossing we have a wonderful day enjoying ourselves with racing bikes going by at 160mph just 3 feet away! That evening we have to sign on for the trials at the Hilton, get our number plates and route cards, I'm # 158 there's about 36 sections and a lap of 45 miles per day, thats 90 miles on a pre 65 bike with not much of a seat and tapped out in 4th gear at about 35-40 mph. This event is a road trial so the bikes have to be some what legal with a tag, MOT, and taxed, not much road work but to connect all the sections it is necessary. Saturday morning and it's all business at the St Johns car park, it's drizzling when we start to gear up. Riders start on your minute and Bob has the minute before me so we can ride together, we have 6 hours to complete each day. Off to the sections and the rain stops, we start riding typical English sections, no tight turns, just straight on but loose and slippery enough to slip up and dab. The day clears up and I see some of the most incredible scenery, you normally wouldn't get to these areas unless you were a farmer or a sheep. You do not carry a score card with you, it's all recorded by the observer with your bike number so you try to keep up with it in your head. We finish the day, both Bob and I have ridden well so we load our gear and head to the nearest pub. While we are hydrating ourselves the scoring people come in and start to compute the days results and about an hour later they finish them. Well I'm fairly well hydrated now and they announce the top 3 in each class, and when they say my name in 1st place I'm stunned, they don't know who I am until someone points me out, It's the American rider! I can't believe it. I borrow Colin's cell phone and call the USA. I buy the next round, the pressure is now on, theres still one more day to go. I finally fall asleep about a half an hour before the alarm goes off, I've been up all night running the day thru my head, lack off sleep has put me in a foul mood, and it's raining hard. We get some bacon sandwichs to go, but I can't eat mine. We stop at a store and I fire a Red Bull down and buy a $2.00 can of Coke. Todays start is from the place they start the TT and we gear up in a down pour. Yesterdays results are posted on the wall of the tech garage and I can't help but look at them, it appears that it's a tie for first place and 3rd place is just 2 points away! We take off from the TT grandstand and hurtle down Bray Hill to Quarter bridge at 30 mph, wet roads and trials tires! I ride well till mid day until I get caught in a stream bed and struggle to get out, I'm sure I've fived it. The next section is a long muddy hillclimb with a tree roots midway up, everyones having trouble getting up, 3rd gear and wide open is my plan and I fly up the hill only to dab twice at the very top cause I'm going 3 feet sideways for every foot I go up, at least I make it up. Things start to get better and I'm back to riding well, then disaster strikes. On a rocky uphill climb in an old quarry my front tire hits something and the bike stops dead, I however keep on going until my helmet whacks the front tire, I then topple over and land on a large rock, roll off that and into 2 1/2 feet of ice cold water. I later find the decompression lever bent and a throbbing pain in my thigh. I'm soaked to the skin, my boots are filled with water and I'm even colder than before and it dawns on me, I've lost the trial, I'm pissed. I ride the rest of the day resign to the fact that I've lost and I take chances in the sections I normally wouldn't. I'm now just glad to finish and my teeth are chattering, back to the van and dry clothes and the bacon sandwich I had not eaten. A hot shower improves my mood and off to the pub for a meal and a drink before the awards presentation several hours away.Time slips by and we almost are late and there only a few seats left at one table. At the table is Mick Grant, factory Kawasaki rider in the 70's and 80's and Eric Boocock Speedway rider, both who now ride classic trials. They start giving out the awards with Mick Grant as the presenter,theres 4 classes, twinshock premier and clubman and pre65 premier and clubman plus special awards such as best newcomer, best foreign rider etc and they go about forty deep in each class. It goes on for quite sometime and by the time my class, pre65 clubman has come around it's well into the evening. I've got a number in my head about what I think my score is but when comes by and my name isn't called I figure there must have been a scoring error or I missed a section and I'm way out of the running. So when they get to third place they announce that something special has happened and there's a three way tie for first place and they hand out 3rd place then 2nd place, then..... all the way from America, Mark Sturtevant I can't believe it, but some how make it up to the podium and Mick Grant hands me two large trophies. I'm standing there in a foreign country with an American Flag behind me holding the two trophies over my head and the crowd applauding and I can't be any more proud representing my country. I probably stay up there too long but I'm enjoying every second of it but eventually make it back to the table. I've got a sh-t eating grin that didn't go away for two weeks!
Way to go! That story will only "get better" with the passage of time, the downing of drinks, and the size of the audience!
