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ACU Forum - 31st October

The ACU held an Enduro Forum at Rugby on Saturday 30th October 2010. John Collins chaired the meeting alongside Trials and Enduro committee members Dave Willoghby, Alan Penny, John Lightfoot and committee secretary Mary Kerr. John welcomed everyone and thanked them for attending. 

The first item on the agenda was the British Enduro Championship. John Collins remarked that - despite the bad weather earlier in the year drenching Diss and causing the re-scheduling of the Melville - it had been a good series with 6 excellent events. The Vet Experts class had been a worthwhile experiment but it had divided opinion and the Vets would return to a sub division of the Clubman class. 

Dusty Martin anticipated the lack of riders present at the forum and took the precaution of eliciting some views via facebook in advance. Several riders expressed a desire for a single number they could be used all season. This coincided with the desire of the time keepers and standings co-ordinator to have a standard entry format. It was decided to develop a pre-season registration system for riders who intended to compete in the BEC as a whole. Vic Madeley asked that riders and scrutineers should be reminded of the number specifications and avoid the modern trend towards "can you guess what it is?" numbers. Several advantages to registration were considered but priority entry was dismissed because of the over-subscription to the Muntjac. 

The new Under 23 class had been a success and it was decided to look into the practicality of an Under 21 class in the Experts to encourage younger riders to move up. 

It was suggested that the time allowance should be dropped from an hour to 30 minutes to speed up the closing procedure but it was felt that this would be unfair on the clubmen who struggle to finish. When it was pointed out that in general it was the Experts that were last on the course it was decided to drop the Championship/Expert allowance to 30 minutes but to keep the hour allowance for the Clubman.

The team competition had another successful year and grew to 30 entries raising £600 for the ISDE but due to injuries several good teams struggled to find 3 riders so in 2011 the Team Competition will be for 2 man teams only.

In 2010 noise became an issue and silencers were marked. Riders affected by the 10 minutes rule preferred not to take it and stay on their minute so it has been dropped in favour of noise tests on slack checks.

The dates for the 2011 season were discuss. With the new Sprint series growing to 5 rounds and the ISDE in August it was a very tight calendar. There is a possible question mark over the Brechfa which may be affected by the construction of a windfarm in the area.

The contentious subject of dropping 2 days then came up. Mick Seward - despite a tough season - expressed the majority opinion that all rounds should count. Unfortunately with such a packed international calendar it has been decided that the 2 day rule would have to stand for 2011. As it is David Knight may have to miss 2 BEC rounds.

Glen and Suzy representing the Mercian Dirt Bike Club asked if the committee could expand the Hare and Hound section of the handbook in line with the expansion in Hare and Hounds. The growing popularity of online entry payments were discuss and John Pullman from the NEEC commented that out of 100 entries at the White horse only 2 were by cheque.

The subject of youth was then discuss. Sadly there was little evidence of it in the room apart from the REME team. The ACU has dropped the age from Youth XC to 12 but with MX going down to 6 years of age was it time to bring XC in line. There was a reluctance to allow young people to compete on a course where they weren't visible at all times. Charlie McKenzie said in Scotland they organised Motoduros for the youngsters on an extended MX track but there was a worry that exposing children's bodies to a pounding would store up problems later in life. The room divided along who was a grandfather lines 

The new twin shock championship was discuss. Some clubs already run events for classic bikes over 25 years old but this includes some monoshocks like the Honda Prolink and the Yamaha IT series. The committee felt that the simpler twin shock definition would be easier for organisers to police. More consideration would be needed on the noise levels which were higher in that golden age.

The sale of forestry land looked like a possible threat until it was discovered that there was very little interest due to the open access policy. A bigger threat is Phytophtora ramorum - a disease endemic the Japanese Larch.  It could become the arboreal equivalent of foot & mouth. There was some discussion of an incident where a riders marking a course on Forestry Commission land with permission was cautioned for not having insurance. The 144 cc anomaly was left for another year.

The ISDE was then discuss. Dusty Martin, Dave May Miller and Sam Davidson all expressed the general view that it was a pity there was no British team in Mexico but there were sound reasons. John Collins said that the committee had looked into a proposal to host the 2013 ISDE in the UK as part of the ACU centenary but the current cost of half a million pounds made the idea unrealistic. John felt that there was an argument that the Olympics of Enduro - like the other Olympics - should cease to be an annual event. With licence revenue diminishing the ISDE is taking an increasing percentage of the ACU funds. Dusty said the ISDE was like the top of a pyramid to which every rider that formed the base could look up and aspire to. The forum ended at 4.30pm on a positive note with a proposal to fix a date soon to plan the British challenge on the 2011 ISDE in Finland.