The New Generation.

South Somerset Motocross Club 2011 Championship

As you will know by now we hopefully have sorted our fixture list for 2011. We have moved our opening event from the 6th March forward to 27th February; this is to allow you to go to the Maxxis at little silver on the 6th. There will be a change to the expected Grandslam date because of the Motocross of Nations and Redbull Elite Youth Cup moving their dates. The Grandslam may possibly be held on the 2nd October now, this means we will have to move our opening Autumn series date to a later date. We don’t want to move it earlier as we want to give any riders that are moving up the opportunity to run in the whole of that series and still do the Grandslam if eligible. We also intend to run a non championship event in September, date and venue to be confirmed.
We have based our dates and venues on what you have requested. This will allow you to ride with other clubs, enter the Youth GP and do a national series, who ever they are affiliated to. We have tried our utmost to not clash with other events but this is impossible to do all the time, so here’s hoping it suits and good luck racing.

A little track info,
Phoenix Moto Parc Whiteway Barton. Since we first ran there at the beginning of last year, after the major changes that were carried out, Barry has listened to all the feed back about the track layout and we now believe has made changes that make it flow much better. He will still be making some more changes over the winter months to hopefully get it spot on for what most riders want. This includes adding approx 20 seconds to each lap.
Wrangaton. A new track for us this year near Plymouth. It has been around for some years, old school, hope to have a write up in our track section soon.
Enmore. This year the track will be run backwards, the AMCA have already tried it this way and the riders feedback has been positive. Hopefully this will get over those horrible breaking bumps down telegraph hill.
Rockhampton. Yes another new track for South Somerset, yes it is used by Corsham and it’s a track that you’ve said you want to go to. They will also be carrying out some changes this winter to their track.
Littlehempston. South Somerset haven’t been there for a number of years and it will be a lot different from the last time we were there. The start is in another field not up that steep hill and again they intend to make some major changes to it over the winter.
Little Silver. Back again after several year’s absence, we’re running there a month before the Phoenix Premier Championship (Remedies Bars) and later on the BSMA finals.
Pontrilas. The Ty Kellett event we held there last year was so good we decided to go back. This track may be in Hereford but is surprisingly closer than you think, its quicker to get there than Landrake from the Taunton M5 junction. This is another track that is having some major changes being carried out with the start straight moving into another field and hopefully the water sprinkling system sorted out, it was a little dusty there last time.
Morleigh. This is a really good and I do mean really good old school track, shame it was very poorly attended by our members last year, but it is very well worth riding just ask someone who’s rode it.

Transponders

We have been looking at different transponder systems for the past year, including the new Gen 2 radio frequency identification (RFID) systems and software. After weighing up all the, pro’s and con’s we could not get away from the fact that the Mylaps system offered the best overall long term deal for us and our members, even though the initial costs appear high. We did not want club members to buy into a system that could only be used at South Somerset and no other clubs or organisations.
The my laps system (transponder) is used by all AMCA clubs, a large portion of ACU clubs including all the south west region, the Redbull Pro National and Elite Youth Cup, the BSMA Nationals, BYMX, British Masters, Phoenix Tools Premier Championship, Western beach race, the list goes on and is still growing.
It has become increasing difficult to get members to carry out tasks for the club. One of those which is very time consuming and that needs an understanding and knowledge is point’s secretary, we concluded that we needed a system that could manage our championship and be less of a burden to the point’s secretary and lap scorers.
The mylaps system will allow us to use less lap scorers, update race results on race day, identify riders when their numbers cannot be read, keep champion results up to date throughout the year as well as give you your lap times. (See mylaps.com for what else it does for you).
You will be able to hire a transponder for the day at our meetings but for long term best value you are advised to buy your own. If you’ve already looked for a second hand one you will have realised that they do keep a good residual value, so if you were to resale them later on you shouldn’t lose too much money on them if at all. You can share one between two riders if they are not in races that precede each other.
We have also noted that Mylaps have been using the flex transponder in the USA and Australia since 2009. This might be a better way forward on affordability for a lot of riders but is not available in this country as of yet. You basically pay an annual charge to use one which would be a lot cheaper than hiring one at each event, copy and paste link to address bar to find out more.

If you think this would be a good idea for you tell mylaps and the MCF

Where can I get a Transponder?
If you don’t want to pay in full but over a period of time look at the MCF offer, yes it is dearer than buying it outright as they have to buy them in at full price from mylaps and add their costs. They will soon have an order form on their website.

If you want to buy one outright try, 

 How should you look after your Transponder, a few tips.

Q1) If a transponder is fully charged, kept in its holder to go "asleep" and then used for one day, should it need recharging if you put it back into sleep mode until the following weekend? It’s a question that a few lads have been asking as they have found that it has gone to red even though should be asleep??
A1) Transponders indeed go into sleep mode in the cradle. Sleep mode however does not mean it is switched off entirely. The battery consumption is 80% lower than outside the cradle. You are advised to fully charge the transponder and let it fully uncharge before recharging it again for the next event. Just as with your mobile phone, that prolongs the life time of the battery.

Q2) Is it better to let it just run down each week or should it just be topped up all the time?
A2) See answer above. So let it run down each week for optimal life time.

Q3) If a rider feels that his is not working correctly how do we go about getting it checked
A3) You could send it to Mylaps directly so they can check if it is covered under warranty. However, I would first double check if the transponder is indeed not working properly. So check the LED after a full charge, see if it is picked up by the decoder, check the signal strength and number of hits in Orbits, see if the transponder is mounted correctly, etcetera.

Q4) A few people have units that are a couple of years old (or more) which have not been used or charged for a long time. Is it possible for these to be re-conditioned or are they now useless?
A4) Not charging the transponder can indeed affect the battery, especially with old type transponders. Therefore mylaps put in their manuals to charge it at least every 3 months. Not doing this voids the three year warranty.

Q5) I have an old transponder that does not work or needs a battery, how can I get it repaired?
A5) Try these first, they might save you a lot of money as mylaps don’t replace batteries.

or Mylaps, they do a trade in scheme.
If you treat the transponder well the expected lifetime is 8-10 years. A couple of years ago mylaps performed a test on MyLaps.com. They found out over 90% of the transponders sold before 1999 were still being used on MyLaps.

If you have any questions or proposals regarding South Somerset, we are always ready to listen, we can’t promise anything but if you don’t ask you’ll never know.

Anyone wishing to join South Somerset for 2011, if you could do so ASAP as we have a lot of information to upload on MCF’s and our data base. This will help us to help you.

We will also be running a Clerke of the Course evening and we our looking for help in running the AMB timing. If anyone fancies either of the above our both please ring the club phone 07769215933. We hope to run these courses early Feb so if you are interested please let us know soon.
  
Good luck and happy racing for 2011.