Another look-back …. Following yesterday’s post, and the feelings of withdrawal symptoms, a few folk commented on the scenery being part of the attraction of the SSDT, but there’s more to it than that. The riders become an intrinsic and physical part of the scenery itself and by the end of the week they’ll have the scrapes, scratches and bruises to prove it. They have to feel their way around every inch, foot and yard of the 450 mile six day route with rocks, roots and river flows trying to toss them off at every opportunity.
The event can trace its roots back to the first reliability trial in 1909 making this one of the UK’s longest running motor sports events and quite possibly the oldest motor cycle trial in the world.
Partly due to the popularity of the SSDT, the Edinburgh & District Motor Cycle Club organising team were asked to create an event based in Lochaber which would comprise a round of the 1992 FIM World Trials Championship. Sponsored by BP, the event itself was a success but it failed to excite the Scots because along with the FIM came a whole new set of rules, limitations, course requirements and other demands. Yes, it was spectacular and extremely difficult in places, but the SSDT it was not!
Don’t get the idea the SSDT is/was a softer option than a World Trial. The two don’t compare. The SSDT is as much an endurance event as a skills based competition but it hasn’t lost its amateur heart. Competitors will still help each other out while the spectators root for everyone regardless of skill level. The atmosphere is quite unique and thoroughly engrossing.
I remember chatting with a kindly old lad from Texas (that’s the Trumpland one, not the pop group) and I quoted him in my newspaper reports. He had visited just about every round of the FIM World series at least once but he made a point of visiting the SSDT every year! Besides the competition, it was the scenery, the camaraderie of the fans and the kindness and hospitality of the local folk that brought him back year after year. What an advert for Scotland, in fact the only thing he didn’t like was a haggis supper. I think it was the ‘deep fried in batter’ approach that bamboozled him.
These photos are from my first reports on the 1982 event.
