I've still not got up in the loft to find more pics, maybe next weekend. A couple of other memories: Do you remember the crazy 'bull fighting'? They used to get a young cow and the pissed bikers would have to try and grab a ribbon off the bulls back or horns. We used to usually stay over on the Sunday night after most people had gone and one year they pulled down the fence at the side of the Mistral straight. We managed to get in about 2 laps before the French police threw us off. No drama, no fines, just a smile and a wave of the finger as they directed us back towards the campsites. One year we went down to the beach on the Sunday evening and then headed back to the campsite. As I rode towards the Brit triangle I met a french camper van coming the wrong way up the one way track. Down I went and damaged the footrest, back brake and points cover. I managed to rig up the pillion peg to get me home and covered the point cover with gaff tape, didn't bother with the back brake. Of course I never managed to get anything back from the blokes French insurance company.
We did that in '95 (I think! ) Amsterdam, then onto Assen for the WSB, Foggy won the World Championship, then we rode to Bologna overnight for a factory visit on the Monday! A few days in Italy, then the coast road to Ricard for the Bol! Then through France and home, all on the very thin seat on my 750 F1, I still remember the arse ache!!!!
I have no idea if the French for to be mistaken has anything to do with trumpeting. "Une trompe" in French is a trunk as in elephant or a tube (a bit medical that one - there are various "trompes" in the human body.
Actually "Prout" while I have my pedant's hat on. Double "O" in French doesn't really exist. To get the same sound they do "ou". And there is an "r" in there too.
One of the Team Bike crew in the early 80s was Zed Zawada, who was the adverts manager for Bike at the time. He also wrote articles for the magazine, road tests etc under the pseudonym R. P McMurphy. He now lives in Poland. Here is a video of him starting up his just-rebuilt 900SS bevel last year: 1975 Ducati 900ss starts first kick after restoration - YouTube
Steve, Mr R, Have you got a digi camera ? You could take photo's of the stuff you have then post it up ? Or when i next meet up i will take the pics on mine and post it up for you. Steve K Loving this thread
A bit off topic but I was at the concert the Police gave in the big top on Clapham Common, we stayed up all night to get tickets. I also remember they had Tommy Cooper doing the warm up (why?) He was so bad he got booed off the stage, this must have not been long before he died (in real life rather than on stage).
