Here's a few.. My mate Neil by the fire View attachment 10452 Wally in France with my battle scared Pantah View attachment 10453 Ducati Team pit, pre 916 era! View attachment 10454
I can't add comments to the other pictures, only the first few? But the lower ones show my old Pantah and my mates SL at Bandol. It's chucked its alternator off on the road back to Ricard and seized, sending him down the road. The bike got chucked it the back of one of the British teams vans(Try doing that now!) and bought back to the UK, Wally had a painful flight back from Marseille.
No Ducati content here (although I did have an 860GT at the time) but this is 4/7ths of the Cardiff UB (United Bikers MC) mission to the Bol in '84. Bikes present were my Kawa 750GT Despatch Donkey, Ned's very well sorted T140, Louse's Sporty, Gabbo's Super Glide and Phil (silent death-wish)'s FT500. The only mechanical problem was with the Honda .... someone nicked the reg-rec on-site at Ricard! No crashes, either ..... nearest thing I can remember was the GT getting into a classic high speed weave on the twisty autoroute down from Clermont Ferand. My pillion Charlie's face would appear in the mirrors fleetingly on each handlebar giration, going from his usual pissed/impassive expression to one of mild concern ... luckily never got as far as abject terror. Considering none of us had ever driven abroad before, I was the only one with anything as useful as O-level French and everyone else's idea of navigation was "We'll follow you, you're a courier" thing's went amazingly smoothly. Saw some racing, as well.
Amazingly, nearly 29 years later, Charlie (in the blue shirt) looks almost exactly the same! The rest of us have either lost or cut our hair but have retained our youthful figure and vigour. And attitude, I'm happy to say.
Anyone remember the Sanders & Lewis kettle? I reckon it the most meaningful looking kit bike ever, notwithstanding the use of a 3 in 1 spanny. I wouldn't say I'd swap the SS for one but ........ And speaking of the DOGB, has anyone seen Spaggy recently?
Only went to the Bol once, back in '82. A mate of mine had been proddy racing a 900 Honda for a couple of years had got to know a guy called Dave Mills who apart from running a local Honda dealership and sponsoring a couple of local racers - Simon Buckmaster and Martin Dellow (who remains a friend to this day) he also ran the Team Bike endurance effort with riders Howard Lees, Dave Chisman and I think possibly Fred Hugget? Anyway we went down and watched them until as I recall they crashed out or blew up. One of my lasting memories was the pre race lunchtime entertainment of a stripped TZ750 wheelying non stop up and down the start finish straight, this was of particular interest as my mate had just aquired a similar bike for his next seasons racing. Needless to say as soon as we got home, out came the beast, on went a French number plate we had come across and off we went for a blast round the M25 :smile:. Happy carefree days.
Howard Lees and Dave Chisman used to attend the Ducati owners' meetings in Chiswick regularly in the late 70s early 80s period, although they didn't have Ducatis. We shared a van occasionally. Sad loss.
Excellent! Could you give Spaggy my very best ....... he'll know me as Grunt (the courier with the paralysed arm from Cardiff, just in case he's done as much damage to his brain as the rest of us!)? There was also a very nice couple who lived in Bath whose names I've completely forgotten and John thingy who edited Desmo and lived in Bradford on Avon. I expect you know all of them. Maybe you could look me up if you fancy a wander round South Wales? Cheers Grunt
Well yes, Howard Lees was a champion blagger, shall we say. Didn't want to speak ill of the dead. Howard once asked me if he could ride my bike in the TT F2 (600cc) race. I pointed out it was actually a 750, and he responded, "Well don't tell anybody." Needless to say he rode somebody else's bike - I have no idea what was in the engine!
I've only just come across this thread and it is ferkin brilliant. More please ... even though it does remind me a little of this :wink:
We took a day trip out to St Tropez while we were at the Bol in 1990, found some amazing roads. There had been a massive forest fire, and you can see in this pic all the trees are black as coal. We're somewhere near Cavaliere here. The other two took off like scalded cats once we got among the trees, but my brother was gracious enough to hang back and keep me and the mighty MZ company. View attachment 10760
