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SBmmy Miller atrIde the Miller trill.. bike. Semmy heel been working on the project with the ItBIilIn Hiro Company; now the effort is on the beck burner.
By Len Weed
Ask anybody who knows the difference between a clean and a balk to name the most successful
f£gure the£r sport has ever know and, odds are, the answer will be Sammy Miller. He dominated
an entire decade and more as both a rider and bike developer. His skills as a developer spearheaded the switch from four-stroke to two-stroke machinery in the late 60s. He also pioneered
36
most of the basic chassis concepu still
used by the sport today_
.
Born in the troubled city of Belfast
in Northern Ireland, Miller cleaned
up in Britiah trials in an era when
British trials wu biggn and better
than the European trials that evolved
into the world championship series.
He won the British championship for
11 straight years, from 1959 through
1969. It was during this decade, the
60s, t~t Europe began to take up the
British sport. Miller won the world
(then referred to as European) cham-
pionship in 1968 and 1970. That last
tide came at the age of 37. Since Miller,
every world champion has been in his
early or rnid-20s.
The name Miller is probably most
asaociated with the Bultaco factory.
Joining the Spanish finn late in 1964,
he participated in a 12-day development session that produced the 244cc
Sherpa which would soon, as they say,
revolutionize the sport.
Part of Miller's early success had
come from his ability to continually trim
as well as redesign his four·stroke ArieIs.
