The Wrong Way Round (Tarka and Peter`s French Ural Adventure)

[Tarka]

Cheers again guys..I appreciate your appreciation,if you know what I mean!

Thursday 13th May 2010 continued.....

So...there we were..very pleased with ourselves and celebrating our arrival.
We`d already had a couple of intensive interrogations about the left handed sidecar ('Le panier a gauche'....or sometimes 'Le side a gauche')...the French guys were totally fascinated by this phenomena!!

Before I forget again,here is the odometer reading for today`s ride from Bouillon to Luttenbach pres Munster......

I`d enjoyed a couple of French conversations without difficulty due to the people being from Central France and also from Normandy,so clearly my French was still okay and it was only the Alsace accent that caught me out earlier.

Returning to Peter and my beer,I couldn`t help chuckling at the memory of a Monty Python-esque conversation that took place in the Hotel de La Poste in Bouillon and reminded Peter of it.

The very pleasant female receptionist had preferred us all to speak English rather than French.....and her English was good,but with a noticable almost 'Eastern European actress in a James Bond movie' type accent...or somewhat akin to the comedy French accents in the 'Allo 'Allo series.
Don`t get me wrong,she was lovely and very helpful,but you need to imagine her accent to get maximum pleasure from the incident.

We were filling in the guest forms and sorting out the registration with the hotel when she asked for Peter`s full name (I thought that rather odd,as she was looking at his passport at the time).

He said, "Peter........Peter Barker..... with a P''.

She said,"Peeterrr.....Peeterrr Parkerrr".

He said,"No........Barker.....with a B".

You guessed it.....she then said,inquisitively, "Beeterrr Parkerrr ???'

Laugh ? I nearly bought a round !!!

The tears were appearing when I was asked for my name.

I said,"Thomas".

She asked me,"Surname pleeez".

I replied,"Thomas".

Yup....along came a confused,"Thomasss Thomasss ?"

I choked back a guffaw and just managed a croaky,"No...my full name is Stephen Thomas".

Heh heh....these are the treasures of travel !!!

Wiping the tears of laughter away,we decided to check out the arrangements for the rally and to have a gander at the French Urasl and Dneprs.

Just next to the marquee was a Dnepr combo.
Dneprs aren`t actually Russian...but they are/were Soviet....as they come from the Ukraine.
Somehow Dneprs always seem to look a bit scruffy and unkempt next to Urals but they counter this by managing to look very rugged and 'hardcore' with it.
This one was no exception.

Note the wartime 'Blackout' shroud over the headlamp.

Dneprs are different in amost every way from Urals....Ural swingarms are mounted outside the frame while Dneprs mount inside....Dneprs have deep and round topped mudguards while Urals are a bit shallower (though there is a flat sided side valence on them) and flat topped...Ural petrol tanks mostly have the distinctive horizontal covered external seam...and then there are the mechanical differences...plus the differences in the sidecars (Urals have the lifting boot,while Dneprs make do with a tilting seatback.

Yet despite these many differences,there is a lot of interchangeability....in fact my 'Skaya' (650 Ural) has a Dnepr leading link front end which went straight on!

Anorak session over.....and here`s a really Hardcore with a capital H looking Dnepr just a bit further on...wowee,check this one out!!

It seems that wartime headlamp shrouds are all the rage in France at the moment......

Hmmm....do you think this tyre will pass an MOT ???????
Must be fun in the wet!!

Despite me being a full on Ural fan,this Dnepr was my favourite bike at the rally.

And this was definately THE BEST tank badge I`ve ever seen!!!!!!!!

Being right outside the marquee...and hungry...we went in.
I`ll skip the sack full of oysters thank you....much as I like seafood I couldn`t bring myself to even try one.
But when did you last have a knee high sack of fresh oysters available as hors d`heurves at a motorbike rally ??

The way the Amicale organised the mealtimes was very well disciplined.
A guy shouted for everyone to take seats at the various long tables and each table was called in turn and went to a military style 'dishing out' point.

Later,when every table had been served,you could go back as many times as you wanted for whatever was left.

Just like the Alsace regional accent (I can`t make myself refer to them as 'Alsatians' but that`s what they actually are....I just keep thinking of the dogs!) the main food style is very German biased.
Meat,meat and more meat...often rather fatty....sausages,sausages and more sausages...and tonight a quantity of Sauerkraut (pickled and finely chopped white cabbage).

As you may have heard,I`ve recently adopted what has been termed 'A rather liberal approach to vegetarianism' following over ten years of not eating meat...so I was happy to accept a plateload and try it all out.

There was rather a lot of fat but the evening was quite cold and the food seemed to suit the low temperatures. It reminded me of several Russian types of meals for their Winters actually.
The meal was very tasty and enjoyable....so was the second plateful!!!

Shame the beer wasn`t as tasty and enjoyable....it was basically a kind of gassy,fizzyish light lager with a sharpish edge to it.
Not to my liking really,and I`ve still got several unused beer vouchers with me at home.
I didn`t have much luck with the wine either as it`s a mostly white wine region which I don`t drink.
(The next night we stocked up with quality beers bought from a supermarket while out on the Urals)

Peter,meanwhile, is as vegetarian as he can possibly be unless there is no option to meat at all.
As it happened,the Amicale President informed him that there was a vegetarian option and he kindly went off to get a plateful for Peter.

This was it ....... heh heh.

Well,it is totally meat free,heh heh.

Uproarious yells,catcalls,whistles and table slapping heralded the opening of the evening`s entertainment !!!!!!!

The guy could mesmerise you with his skills...very catchy rhythm and foot tapping beat.....excellent stuff.

Other Amicalers were not to be outdone though.......

The evening blended into night and the tunes blended into each other.

We zig zagged our way back to our tents and fell asleep with heads full of unintelligible French/German sea shanty style songs and squeezebox melodies.

Tomorrow morning ...posted as leaving at 9.30am but 'maybe about 10.30' there was to be a massed Ural and Dnepr ride out with a lunch stop at 'Ghengis Khan`s Mongolian Yurt Buffet Restaurant'.

I could hardly wait to experience all that !!!!!!!!!!

(To be continued )

 

[MMC]

Bloody loving this! More! More!

Encore, Monsieur Tarka!

 

[gas boy]

I'm hooked on this tale - well done Tarka

And if you want a couple of those Tank Badges made up let me know

 

[chad]

a most pleasurable read tarka please continue good sir

 

[ghiribizzo]

We will need to sponsor you to go to the next one to get reports like this!

 

[Dusan]

Hail Trap'pist' Tarka

Keep it coming, it just gets better and better, well done Tarka

 

[NA1959]

Excellent report!

 

[Sniper1]

Excellent report!

+1 love the bikes

 

[ELIMINATOR]

Damn, where's the next episode.

 

[bubbles]

Up to date and waiting for the next gripping instalment, good to see you at the Wee-kend Tarka .

 

[Tarka]

Once more...thank you all for your kind comments.

Apologies for the few day`s wait until this next instalment,but I`ve been away for the weekend.

Friday 14th May 2010

Well then,I`m awake at 7am.....and feeling snug and warm in my sleeping bag.
I suffer terribly from uncomfortable overheating in warm temperatures,so me now being snug and warm is a sign of some coolness outside.
Cool wasn`t in it...I felt warmer at the last Dragon Rally!
In fact,the previous evening I`d felt a bit of a shiver even while inside the marquee full of people,and wearing a sweatshirt over a teeshirt with my jacket over that......part and parcel of being over 1,000 metres above sea level I suppose.
Anyway,I prefer this to blazing heat and sweaty discomfort,so got some clean clothes and my washbag and went off for a shower in the well equipped amenities block.

I must admit to it taking a bit of a leap of faith initially,and once the water was switched off I got dried and dressed in record time,but my morning shower was rather...erm...'invigorating'.....and I felt ready for whatever the day was going to bring us!

Peter wanted a morning wake up call when I was up and about,so I roused him from his slumber (that word not to be confused with 'aroused' ) and had a look at some of bikes which had arrived while we were revelling in the marquee last night.

The first one I saw was really something special.
It was made by a company called Zeus and the bike was named the 'Side Bike'.

The rider/driver/pilot was almost semi reclined and I wondered what sort of engine it had to allow that space....I imagined maybe a 1000cc vee twin.
Nope.....the rider opened the top of the sidecar 'boot' to reveal a storage area above a transverse mounted 2000cc car engine!!!
Both the 'bike' and the 'sidecar' wheels were driven and it had some serious tyres and brakes on it!

Even the front end was something special.
Wow,what a piece of kit this machine was!

The next bike I examined was a relatively stock Ural 750.
Apart from a rather weirdly mounted spare wheel....below the sidecar!
Clearly this one never went offroad.....or had the sort of speedbumps my road has,heh heh.
But what made it stand out was the rather unusual application of some airbrush artwork to the sidecar body.
Each to their own of course and maybe best summed up by when Glambabe saw my photos and she said that she didn`t know of anyone who`d admit to liking Johnny Cash...never mind liking him enough to go painting a picture of him on their bike!
It was done well though.

Next was a fairly new green 750 Ural that appeared to have every optional accessory possible fitted to it.
The owner was a guy from just outside Paris who I could converse with very easily....he worked in National Grid type electrical installations and also with electrical glass making factories. I`m an industrial electrician certified to work with 11,000 volt switchgear yet some of his experiences and descriptions of the kit made for harrowing listening,gulp!
Nice guy and quite a nice bike.

In fact,the more bikes I looked at,the more it seemed that the French riders went for accessories and customising in quite a big way......although no two UK based Urals are the same due to owner modifications,ours seem to smack more of practical mods...whereas the French certainly liked the visual add ons.
The next one along reinforced this opinion.

A bit too much 'baby blue' for me but a well sorted touring machine,nontheless.

It actually made my 'posh' Dee look quite mundane !!

Talking of Dee,I though for a moment that I`d walked back round to my tent when I saw the next Ural.
It was a Continental sided two tone in the same colours as Dee.
The two tone ones are a bit of a limited edition and there doesn`t seem to be many in Dee`s maroon/cream,so it was a nice surprise to see this one.
The owner had added some chrome trim between the two colours and what I thought to be smart whitewall tyres but the 'whitewalls' were in fact rather nasty add-on external 'skins'.
When the guy saw Dee he came over like a long lost brother and constantly insisted that we rode together in the rideout and parked together whenever we stopped....it made some good photos later on but Peter and I couldn`t quite understand his fascination...apart from the ever present curiosity about the 'wrong way round' sidecar of course!

I felt like sit down and breakfast by now.
But talking of sitting down,how about this for a comfy seat ?

And talking of breakfast.....I was again extra glad of my recent 'liberal approach to vegetarianism'.
Yes,folks,here is a typical Alsace Region breakfast.
Sorry,I still can`t say 'Alsation Breakfast !!

I could cope with the croissants,coffee,cheese and even the sliced ham.
But I just couldn`t manage the pate and the salamis...high quality as they were,my system just couldn`t deal with them for breakfast.
Naturally Peter`s option was the above minus all meat,heh,heh.

Being a French early morning rideout we had an hour or two before setting out...so I`m just off to make a coffee before continuing with the tale.

(More to follow soon)

 

[Hairnet600]

ambassador your report is spoiling us

your descriptions make a trip t'shops interesting

moar moar!

 

[Tarka]

Right...coffee beside me,here we go again.

Friday 14th May 2010 continued.

Fully breakfasted (new word for you ),it was time to kit up and meet in the compound behind the marquee for the rideout.
'Rideouts'...even the name of them...are normally anathema to me,conjuring up images of saddos too insecure to just go out alone on their bikes and see where they end up.... but a being in a convoy of Urals wasn`t something to miss out on.
Don`t forget that the rideout would lead to 'Ghengis Khan`s Mongolian Yurt Buffet Restaurant' and that was too much of a lure even for me!!

Furthermore,we had been block booked to visit the Schlumpf Motor Museum in Mulhouse that afternoon,and that really did sound worth a visit.

Naturally,being a French early morning rideout,at the crack of about half ten in the morning it was time to get rolling.
The massed rumbles and roars of assorted home made exhausts and stock sytems with 'bafflectomies' (another new word for you) raised the anticipation and excitement levels as we negotiated the campsite tracks to the meet up point.

I suffered a momentary bout of singed retinas again but quickly donned my tinted goggles and normal service resumed.

From here we were all guided to a lane that lead from the site towards Luttenbach,for us all to 'formate',as it were.
It certainly made for quite a sight...and an impressive sound...and several elderly house residents came out onto their balconies to watch us.
The Amicale ride leader walked over and shouted a request for twenty coffees and twelve cups of tea,plus a few biscuits,heh heh.

All in formation,it was time to get 'wagons rolling'.

But not for long.
There was then a massed fill up at the supermarket petrol station in Luttenbach.
Peter appeared to have ignored my pre-holiday guesstimate of allowing 100 Euro a day for petrol and accommodation and was now stressing a bit about whether or not the pump or the kiosk attendant would accept his bank card.
Being the good old bean that I am I leant him a 100 Euro note and his eyes lit up....I`m not sure at my act of kindness or the knowledge of having to withdraw even more than that to both pay me back and also have ready use cash for himself.
And naturally,being a French early morning rideout,it was time for the smokers to indulge and for conversation about 'Le panier a gauche' and 'Le side a gauche' and how on earth Peter and I coped with such an unusual arrangement.
Even some car driving supermarket shoppers skidded to a halt to gawp at my and Peter`s machines from outer space,and to interrogate us.
All this while my new two toned,chrome trimmed,whitewalled friend was alongside gurning maniacally.

Enfin,as they say in France,we were all refuelled and released from interrogation....and time to get 'wagons rolling'.
But not for long.
After about 20km of very twisty and enjoyable forested mountain roads we came to a halt at a layby.
Whilst riding along,I`d noticed a helmeted head amongst the group weaving about and changing line in the most spectacular manner....I thought the Amicale had a hotshot Ural stunter amongst their numbers but it turned out to be a guy on an MZ solo bike taking totally different lines to the combos!

And naturally,being a French early morning rideout,it was time for the smokers to indulge and for conversation about 'Le panier a gauche' and 'Le side a gauche' and how on earth Peter and I coped with such an unusual arrangement.
No..I didn`t accidentally repost that paragraph...it was the theme EVERY time we stopped anywhere....and constantly at the campsite!

All this while my new two toned,chrome trimmed,whitewalled friend was alongside gurning maniacally.....you can see his combo alongside Dee in the background in the next photo.

And again...only in France....a bottle of Pastis appeared too.
As if the previous night`s pickling wasn`t enough for most of them.
Peter and I politely declined....which lead to further interrogations about why we weren`t indulging....my gawd,we were certainly talk of the wash house this weekend!
I went for a walk amongst the bikes.......something lurked in the shadows.
It was new and quite tasty looking desert sand coloured 750 Ural with a couple of effective stripes breaking up the single colour.

Maybe I`ve got a thing for desert schemes but after my favourite Dnepr shown earlier this was my second fave bike.
Very nice.

Another nice combo was this Ural Retro...a combo version of the Retro solo model with 16" wheels and plunger style rear suspension,and lovely black and white pinstriped finish.
It looked a bit toylike due to its low stance though.
Also,the telescopic front end would make for a less than ideal combo unless you were just pottering gently...it reminded me of how different my Skaya was originally,being a 'Roustabout' model with teles until I fitted the Dnepr leading link front end to her.

Enfin,encore....as they say in France,it was time to get 'wagons rolling'.
But not for long.
About another 20 km along it was time to stop...allegedly for the seperated elements of the group to reform.....
But,yes you`ve guessed it....being a French early morning rideout,it was time for the smokers to indulge and for conversation about 'Le panier a gauche' and 'Le side a gauche' and how on earth Peter and I coped with such an unusual arrangement.
And yes....all this while my new two toned,chrome trimmed,whitewalled friend was alongside gurning maniacally.
Only this time he went into hyperspace and insisted on us both risking life and limb by dodging the passing cars and lorries in order to arrange our two 'mirror image' Urals for some photos.
I must admit that it made for some pretty good pictures though.

His sidecar 'monkey' stayed aboard throughout....later on I discovered he was infirm and the green military Dnepr was carrying his wheelchair along with us on a trailer. Nice one,mes amis.

This was my favourite 'mirror image' photo.

I`ll save you all from yet another 'Enfin.....blah blah..' but we finally made it to Chez Ghengis Khan.

The front had some large Mongolian type statues and fancy carvings...but in all honestly it was hardly 'authentic'....or even 'convincing'.
Perhaps being alongside a busy road on the edge of a retail park had something to do with it....
As Peter observed,in true Gallic fashion,in order to park we were given a wonderful view of the rear of the place with all the dumpsters and the construction work going on with some new 'yurts'....in actual fact the 'yurts' were round concrete sections like upended pipes cut vertically and attached to the building in order to create curved alcove type eating areas inside.
It was 11 Euro for eat as much as you like excellent food....there was even mid table griddles to cook your own meat/vegetables/seafood....drinks were charged extra.
It was hot and busy inside so I had far too much to eat then went outside with a bottle of water and decided to clean Dee from the morning`s wet and dirty road spray and get some peace and quiet.
I wanted to take a photo of the front of the building but there was too many people milling about and a constant flow of cars and coaches....so sadly I`ve missed out on that one for you!

Anyway....an hour and a half or so later,it was time for,yup,wagons to 'get rolling'.
They rolled quite a bit quicker and for quite a bit further than earlier this time.
In fact,we rolled all the way into Mulhouse and after dicing with the scary and take-no-prisoners trams that shared the road with other traffic we arrived at the Motor Museum.

The museum consists of several massive buildings and has its own website if you wish to study it.
There is a strong Bugatti history element to it and I`ve always like the early Bugatti open cockpit race cars.

The reception foyer alone is worth the visit !
It reminded me of the ancient black and white 'Metropolis' movie.
It was also difficult to get a good perspective to photograph it......

Lifesize replica cars for two or three story height.

After that you walk down a covered and darkened aisle,with black and white car based film clips playing on several large screens.... and then pass a glass case the size of the front of my house full of all the old metal car marque radiator mounted figurines...all numbered and labelled and absolutely fascinating.
I forgot to photograph them because being a Bugatti admirer I was somewhat excitedly distracted by something nearby.......

Wow,imagine being wealthy enough to own that beauty!!
Imagine being wealthy enough to afford the fuel bills !!!!

This huge wall poster shows how they hand formed the gorgeous swoopy bodywork.

I said I liked the early Bugatti race cars and here is the quintessential one...

And talking of early race cars,this madass Swiss one had a SEVEN POINT TWO LITRE engine !!!!!!!!!!
Look at the tyres...the brakes...that drive chain !!!

I lost track of the rest of the group and got mixed up with a few guided factory tours on time delayed access to various areas...much confusion and chaos ensued,so I ended up outside the building by mistake.
I`m glad I did,as I found this exquisite example in the car park.
I`ve forgotten what it was but just look at it.....drool,slobber.

Note the cool as a cool thing matching trailer and the golf clubs on the rear rack!!!

Glambabe loves Triumph Stags....her dream is to own an immaculate one...as long as it is a deep and shiny red one....and as if by magic there was a European Owners Club gathering of Triumph Stags outside another part of the museum!
I`ve posted these next two pics for for her.

We eventually all met up again and faced the manic trams and rush hour traffic through Mulhouse.
The route back to camp was more of a regular road route .... suited me as beer time was fast approaching.

Not the highest 'kilometerage' day of the week....yet we were out for nearly ten hours!

Now you know why beer time was fast approaching.
And based on the previous night,I`d stocked up with a quality selection on the way back to the camp site......

(To be continued.......)

 

[Tarka]

Friday 14th May 2010 (continued)

Sorry...not many photos in this smallish bit.

The beer flowed very well after the long day out...not a great deal of riding but the time spent in the Motor Museum plus the effects of too many plates full of Ghengis Khan`s monosodium glutamate laced morsels had given rise to a fair old thirst.

Talking of thirst,on my morning`s checkover of Dee she`d barely used any oil in the run down from Bouillon, so she seemed to be benefitting from the trip.
Nothing else was amiss....she was proving to be a great touring tool.

The previous night I`d been given some 'Top Secret' information about a Friday happening by one of the Amicale members who was a Ural dealer near Clermont Ferrand (that town is the home of Michelin tyres) and I was sworn to secrecy....but naturally told Peter as soon as I heard it.

We were going to be joined by Birgit and Harri from Ural Austria aboard the new prototype Ural Wolf combo.
I`d last seen Birgit when I was on the Ural Pilgrimage over two years ago so it would nice to have a chat again......and although I`d never actually met Harri we had been in a couple of email conversations,and added to what Birgit had said of him I was keen to meet him.
They were riding to us from an event in Germany and were due late evening.

A bit of info for non Urallers.........
European destined Urals are made in the Ural IMZ Irbit factory to pre purchased orders and then transported to the Linz based Ural Austria who are the European distributers.
These then send them on to the relevent dealers.
They stock spares and service items too.
They also develop and fine tune certain prototypes and lead them into a production and sales situation.
As well as the very limited paintwork specials over the years they have co-operated with the factory over the Ural solos and some combos such as the recent Ural cross and the Ural Wolf combo we were about to see.

This Wolf combo is a rather low and basic combo made from the Wolf custom style solo and a number of Retro models items added to a low and screenless sidecar.
It didn`t look much good for big distances in bad weather but all Urals are blank canvases and you could always add weather protection to it.
One thing I really liked was the rear disc brake...the rear is the most used brake on a combo and I would welcome that on mine.

It also had an ever so cool registration !!

Rider`s eye view....the inset LED idiot lamps were neat.

That beer must have flowed better than I thought as there are no photos later than these ones of the Wolf.
The Amicale provided the evening meal again which was another superb and very tasty meat fest.

We met and chatted with Birgit and Harri and although I generally avoid speaking English while abroad,theirs is excellent and they are happy to speak it.......and I have to admit that it was a nice change from struggling with the local Alsace accents.
Harri has the most amazingly dry sense of humour and I really enjoyed his company....possibly fortunately as Peter had decided to eat in the campsite restaurant in order to get something veggie and then he found the roaring log fire too much to resist,so added to him getting an early night,I didn`t see too much of him.

Another enjoyable and sociable evening merged into fuzziness.
The one man band was in full firing order and the squeezeboxes were in full swing.

Tomorrow was scheduled to be another rideout to some kind of restaurant at or near an airfield followed by a 'degustation'.
Despite how it reads,a 'Degustation' is a wine tasting and this was to be at a vineyard.

I`d heard enough tales about how a 'taste' is generally at least half a glass.
Multiply that by the quantity of wines available to taste and also by the number of bikes on the run...and realise that it may well be a recipe for disaster.
Certainly the tales reinforced that suspicion so Peter and I had decided to opt out of Saturday`s plan.

Tomorrow we would have a bit of a chillout and then go and visit Colmar which by all accounts was a very picturesque and 'olde worlde' type city.


(To be continued yet again)

 

[ghiribizzo]

Again... Superb!!

 

[Ogmios]

sitting here reading this - munching a sarny and sipping a coffee - makes the best of all lunch time interludes.

 

[Tarka]

Saturday May 15th 2010

Today we visit Colmar.

Another waking up and feeling warm and snug in my sleeping bag led to once more making that 'leap of faith' in the shower prior to emerging fully awake and energised for the day ahead.
In fact,it was rather like the old railway poster with the cartoon man,arms outstetched,declaring 'Skegness is So Bracing' !
(For foreign readers,Skegness is on the extreme East Coast of Britain and gets a rather 'fresh' wind directly off the North Sea).
I gave Peter his morning wake up call,then ambled off to the marquee.

Breakfast was looking like a repeat of yesterday without sampling the salami,but I found a jar of honey so had a ham batch followed by a couple of croissants with butter and honey on them....delicious!

I was joined by Birgit and Harri and the previous night`s amusing and bizarre conversation continued.......basically Harri had spun a tale about a special microchip planted on all the Urals they sell.
If anything unusual happens,the microchip causes an indicator lamp to flash on a huge map in the Ural Austria office.
On asking Harri what in the weird world of Uralling constituted an 'unusual occurrance',he said it would be a group of Urals managing to travel more than 50km without any of them stopping!!
Or if a group of them al started up with no problems!
And this guy sells the things,heh heh.
You can imagine how the alcohol fuelled microchip discussion developed and went off at tangents the night before....alarms at national borders,a remote controlled ignition immobiliser if non OEM parts are used,panic alarms if camo painted Gear Up models are washed or polished...etc etc !
After this mornings giggles and continuation,Birgit could take no more and left us to it for a while until Harri had to go and get changed ready for the Amicale rideout.

I was on my third coffee when Peter joined me for his breakfast and rejoiced in the discovery that what appeared to be a large paint tub actually contained fruit portions.
He and I decided to watch the Amicale riders gathering for their rideout and then we would make our own way to Colmar for a leisurely 'After All,We Are on Holiday' day out.

A throaty rumble heralded the first Ural starting up.
This was a relatively stock 750 Gear Up model with some fruity sounding exhausts.
I liked the neat little sidebags on this one.
Something strange was going on with the kickstart though.....it looks like the starter motor had been fitted in a hurry with the kickstarter pushed back to allow for fitting,and now trapped behind it.
I didn`t notice at the time so couldn`t ask about it.

The one next to this continued the theme of accessories and modifications.
Not to be outdone by the several towbar equipped bikes,this one had a winch on the sidecar nose!

Here`s Jean Louc (or Jean Loup...something like that) who had been very friendly and hospitable with Peter and I on the first night...he spoke quite good English and certainly liked his wine and beer!
He was riding a 650 Ural the same age as my 650 Skaya but his was very temperamental...indeed he had spent the previous day`s rideout in a car because he claimed that his bike wouldn`t start.
We felt it was more case of not being fit to ride because of the previous night`s rather conspicuous comsumption!
I ribbed him mercilessly about a Ural`s perceived unreliability being a reflection of the lack of love and devotion bestowed upon it....and hence the owner`s unworthiness,heh heh.

Various shouts,horn toots and much arm waving signalled the time to move out to the 'mustering point' as was done yesterday.
The rideout leader was aboard the hardcore green Dnepr,towing my two tone mirror image chrome trimmed faux whitewall tyred friend`s wheel chair in the trailer again.

It was actually quite exciting to see and hear all the combos (and token solo) as they came out of the campsite one by one and then took up position in a big line ready for the proper start to the ride.

SideBike hove into view....it was weird to look at a sidecar outfit while hearing a quite powerful car exhaust go past you.

That nice looking desert sand 750 with the effective twin pinstripes again.

The Amicale`s resident comedian had donned a very fetishy looking green waterproof coat....and on seeing me with my camera launched into a 'flasher' routine....dashing about and flinging his coat open in front of various onlookers while shouting 'Regardez...pee pee' !!

A very serious French interrogater about 'Le Panier a Gauche' who Peter and I referred to as Mr Intense looked on rather bemused by all this.
He and his partner were actually a very nice couple but it was all very serious to him.

That 'pervy' theme continued with a rather unusual Dnepr sidecar 'monkey'.

The guy said she was the perfect wife.
I thought he meant that because she didn`t speak,it meant that she never gave him any grief about anything.
Ah well,they seem a happy couple.....

The home made modifications continued.....this one was a seemingly pointless airbox removal mod with twin totally exposed air filters.

Further along was a Ural with possibly the most home engineering work on it.
It had a large home made rear luggage rack and a pannier system allowing BMW panniers and topbox to be fitted...with a rider`s backrest and still give rack space behind the topbox.

The sidecar didn`t escape modification either.
I liked the URAL name worked into the sidecar 'bullbar' and thought the small lamps were neat.

Ahah....here is Birgit riding the Wolf combo prototype with Harri in the sidecar.
You may be able to see from this photo how I feel it isn`t perhaps the best long distance tourer or all weather machine.
However,it is quite an eyecatcher and is very neat and compact.

That nice looking desert sand 750 with the effective twin pinstripes again.

The ground shook and the air rippled in protest at the sonc assault from all those mostly open pipes..then with a massed roar somewhat similar to the start of a speedway race they were all in motion together.
I tried to photograph them as they passed.

Snarl.....

Roar....

Purrr...

Toot ... toot .... as the happy couple blatted past.

Not the MZ solo mounted guy whose head I saw bobbing and weaving about in the midst of the combos yesterday....but the only Ural solo at the event.

Blatt...blatt....

Beep...beep...

And then they were gone......but we could hear them for quite a while yet.

After all the excitement and exhaust fumes it was time for another coffee before Peter and I bimbled into Colmar.

(more to follow soon)

 

[bubbles]

 

[Ash]

+1

 

[David Nimrod]

Totally fantastic! ...there was never anything this good in 'Outlook'.