Category Archives: Czechoslovakia

Merry Xmas 2013 and a Happy New Year for all of our readers and supporters

24 Tuesday Dec 2013

Posted by in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Enduro, England, Europe, Gelände Sport, Germany, International Six Day Trial, International Six Days Enduro, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Isle of Man, Italy, Media, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Photography, Places, Poland, Regolarità, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, USA, Wales, Welsh Borders

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Image - Happy Xmas 2013 and a prosperous New Year #116 JH Arnott 496cc BSA Großglockner ISDT 1939 (Image courtesy TECHNISCHEN MUSEUM WIEN)

Image – Happy Xmas 2013 and a prosperous New Year #116 JH Arnott 496cc BSA Großglockner ISDT 1939 (Image courtesy TECHNISCHEN MUSEUM WIEN)

Thanking our many many visitors in 2013 and especially those getting in contact to share their own personal and family memories of the ISDT and the riders. We stil lhave lots more to rediscover and save for the event and are reliant on your support. Coming soon will be a bumper posting of images of the ISDT in Wales recovered from back issues of Das Motorrad recently acquired for the web archive.

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Internationally Famous: Royal Enfield at the ISDT 1948 – 1953

20 Friday Dec 2013

Posted by in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Enduro, Europe, Gelände Sport, International Six Day Trial, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Italy, Magazine, Manufacturers, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Photography, Regolarità, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux, Wales

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“The story of the Royal Enfield in the International Six Days Trial 1948, 1949,1950, 1951, 1952, 1953” is the title of a palm of a hand sized original publication produced by Royal Enfield in 1953 that recently fell into our hands and is of such great interest we reproduce it here. Royal Enfield, who could boast not only great bikes but a factory team that contained some of the sports greatest factory riders of the time including Vic and Johnny Brittain as well as Jack Stocker show how their successful domination of the results sheet at the ISDT meant the commute to work was going to be a lot more successful on a Royal Enfield than it might be on a lesser qualified motor cycle.

image - Royal Enfield booklet front cover (Speedtracktales Collection)

image – Royal Enfield booklet front cover (Speedtracktales Collection)

The World’s Toughest Motor-Cycle Event

photo - the victorious ROYAL ENFIELD 1953 team: Johnny Brittain (Trophy) [LWP 424], Don Evans (Vase A) [LWP 423], and Jack Stocker (Trophy) [LWP 422], all mounted on 500 twins - ISDT 1953 (Speedtracktales collection)

photo – the victorious ROYAL ENFIELD 1953 team: Johnny Brittain (Trophy) [LWP 424], Don Evans (Vase A) [LWP 423], and Jack Stocker (Trophy) [LWP 422], all mounted on 500 twins – ISDT 1953 (Speedtracktales collection)

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Welcome to the Speedtracktales Library and Shop

16 Monday Dec 2013

Posted by in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Enduro, England, Europe, Gelände Sport, Germany, International Six Day Trial, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Isle of Man, Italy, Magazine, Manufacturers, Media, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Regolarità, Scrambling, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Trials, UK, USA, Wales, Welsh Borders

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When I restarted Taff’s site, all I had to begin with was a website copied to a harddisk drive that I had been able to download in its entirety from his old server. Since then I have been greatly helped by Taff and his friends like ‘STB’ and Brian Catt. Between gifts , loans and acquisitions I have been able to get back to the original hard copy material and started to scan to archive these materials so as to enable people to access and view this material at what ever time and place suits their convenience. Below is an image of some of the material I now control that may be one of the most intact archives of the Event even considering the FIM and National Federations material.

The Speedtracktales Collection 2013

The Speedtracktales Collection 2013

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ISDT 1959: by letter of appointment

08 Tuesday Oct 2013

Posted by in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Enduro, Europe, Gelände Sport, International Six Day Trial, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Photography, Regolarità, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux, Wales

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We have been provided with a scanned copy of Colin Moran’s appointment letter to the ACU’s British Trophy Team for the ISDT 1959 held in Czechoslovakia.

Image - scanned copy of Colin Moram's appointment letter to the British Trophy team ISDT 1959 (Colin Moram collection)

Image – scanned copy of Colin Moram’s appointment letter to the British Trophy team ISDT 1959 (Colin Moram collection)

also appearing in tonights swag are these images from the various ISDT

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ISDT 1953: Final Results

28 Saturday Sep 2013

Posted by in Czechoslovakia, Enduro, Europe, Gelände Sport, International Six Day Trial, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Media, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Regolarità, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux

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The FIM retains a significant collection of ISDT materials the most important of which is the official result set. It is an unavoidable reality that with only 1 original if something were to happen the results may be lost and this has happened to the results of the 1953 and 1954 ISDT.

To British ISDT Historians this is something of a dilemma as 1953 saw the last year the International Trophy was retained by the British Team which even today remains the nation who has held the trophy on the most occasions. In the absence of official results we were offered by our Euro contributor a scanned article from the Austrian edition of Motorrad magazine that provided the final results for every entrant and so as a service to our readers we enclose these results as an image and downloadable pdf to provide opportunity to analyse the results for this important year.

Image - scanned tables of distribution of medals awarded by manufacturer, manufacturing nation and nation of rider ISDT 1953

Image – scanned tables of distribution of medals awarded by manufacturer, manufacturing nation and nation of rider ISDT 1953

You can view a pdf of the list of each riders daily and end performance here

ISDT 1972: the full and final official results and Clerk of the Course’s Report

21 Saturday Sep 2013

Posted by in Czechoslovakia, Enduro, Europe, Gelände Sport, International Six Day Trial, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Media, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Regolarità, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux

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Whilst we are still struggling to pull together a full report on the proceedings of this event now over 40 years ago I am as ever grateful to STB and the FIM for providing me with a scanned copy of the official results of the event held by the FIM

Image of scanned cover page of official results for ISDT 1972

Image of scanned cover page of official results for ISDT 1972

Summary of performance of entrants to the ISDT 1972

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Auction News: 1955 ISDT Royal Enfield Meteor Trials Sidecar of Brian Nash goes to Auction June 2013

31 Friday May 2013

Posted by in Czechoslovakia, Enduro, England, Europe, Gelände Sport, International Six Day Trial, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Places, Regolarità, restoration, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux, UK

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Delighted by the regular email from Bonham’s announcing their next classic bike Auction in Oxford on 15 June 1913 in association with the VMCC Banbury Run. I was pleased to see Brian Nash’s almost works 1953 Royal Enfield 700c Meteor Trials Outfit ridden in the 1955 ISDT in Czechoslovakia is available to a caring home.

Photo - 1953 Royal Enfield 700cc Meteor Trials Combination Brian Nash rode in the ISDT 1955

Photo – 1953 Royal Enfield 700cc Meteor Trials Combination Brian Nash rode in the ISDT 1955

More information is available on this speedtracktale page alas we do not appear to have any original images of it in action, or much on the 1955 ISDT for that matter s oif anybody can help out please do.

Apologies for the brevity of posts recently its a busy time of the year at Speedtracktales Towers at the moment with the annual peak of the cycle and enduro calendar causing me much distraction.

 

Speedtracktales V2.0: 1 year old April 2013

06 Saturday Apr 2013

Posted by in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Enduro, England, Europe, Gelände Sport, Germany, International Six Day Trial, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Isle of Man, Italy, Manufacturers, Media, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Places, Poland, Regolarità, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK, Wales

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Map of Speedtracktales V2.0 readership for first year

Map of Speedtracktales V2.0 readership for first year

It was over a year ago whilst searching for some ISDT specific archive photo’s I was given a number of photos I had no need for. Such things are not items you can simply fling and I looked for a home to donate them to. I was pointed to Speedtracktales but on arriving found the site had gone, unknown to me the originator had come to the end of his ability to sustain the costs with maintaining the url and servers for a labour of love. Luckily some persons had sidled it away onto a free site where the contents could be seen. Eventually finding Taff Issacs who was the originator he had no way to edit further and my photos were not of much use. After a bit of correspondence I agreed to set up a new website and rehouse the collection so that it could be easily accessed by persons wishing to research the historic years of the International Six Says Trial before it changed its name to International Six Days Enduro in 1981.

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Reginald and Denise Wagger – ISDT regulars 1949-53

20 Wednesday Feb 2013

Posted by in Austria, Czechoslovakia, Enduro, Europe, Gelände Sport, International Six Day Trial, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Media, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Photography, Places, Regolarità, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux, UK, Wales

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There is little doubt that the ISDT is far far, in its reality of a motorcycle event, more than a picnic with a club motorcycle run thrown in for good measure. It has proven serious training for Britain and Germany’s Regular Army. The event did not earn the nickname in the 1930’s of Motorcycling’s Olympics without good reason, it broke bikes and men. It has always been hard and expensive to compete. But for all the great works riders with full factory support the event has maintained a healthy number of keen sporting motorcyclists willing to pay the price of taking part in such an arduous event on man and machine.

A few weeks ago we had a post from a reader who saw his parents photo on our 1952 event page. They were racing their outfit and were regular competitors. After an offer of a selection of family photos from the event I was pleased in this mornings e-mails to get a note and a link to download a treasure trove of an archive of photos from not only the ISDT but also the Welsh Two Day and many of the still classic long distance trials from the time. I will feature some of these in future blogs, especially those of the Welsh Two Day but for now I am happy to share the photos of Reg who rode both as a solo and then on a sidecar which for a few years was passengered by his wife Denise.

Photo - ISDT 1949

Photo – Reg Wagger on his BSA Bantam 125cc [KPX 970] ISDT 1949 (Images STT Archive / Geoff Wagger)

We do not yet have a results sheet for the 1949 event but Geoff, his son, tells us he thinks he won a Gold Medal.

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ISDT 1953: British Team rides to win the Trophy Again… but was it by the skin of their teeth?

02 Saturday Feb 2013

Posted by in Czechoslovakia, Enduro, Europe, Gelände Sport, International Six Day Trial, Internationale Sechs Tagefahrt, ISDT, Manufacturers, Media, Motorcycling, Motorsport, Places, Regolarità, Sei Giorni Motociclistica Internazionale, Six Jours Internationaux, UK

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The British Team won the Trophy in  ISDT 1953 in Czechoslovakia and by now followers of the sport are aware of the following drought. We almost snatched victory in ISDT 1954 at the home rematch in Wales where victory was handed back to Czechoslovakia only by a Jury decision. In the subsequent years Britain has hardly lacked riders of the calibre required to pick up a basket full of gold medals. But the question is asked  ‘why has it fallen short of winning the trophy?’ The problem lay in the British origin of the event as a testing ground for the reliability of the kind of bikes the average British man could walk into a Motorcycle dealer and the British Manufacturers loved it. They got good results it helped their global dominance and they threw a lot of resource at the event to ensure their bikes were adequately prepared and had the right riders to win Trophy’s and Medals.

Photo - ISDT 1953 (photo from Speedtracktales Archive)

photo of riders during the night stage of the ISDT 1953 (photo from Speedtracktales Archive)

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