Looks like Chip and Rob had their
Grand Canyon meeting while we Euro Triplers got together in Montlhéry.
Montlhéry is a smaller town just south of Paris (France). Nobody
wouldn’t
have known the place, if they
didn’t build a circuit on its territory in 1924. The track has this characteristic
steep banking. The concrete may not be in best shape anymore, but the circuit
is still solid enough to host
meetings like this ‘Coupe Moto Légende’. You could compare the atmosphere
to the that of the famous Brooklands circuit in Southern England, which
has
largely vanished. The Coupe
means veteran and classic bikes by the bunch, and every year one brand
is standing in the spotlights. For 2000 it was Yamaha, so there simply
had to be a
delegation of triples.
Friday evening, Kai en Markus
from Germany arrived at my place in Kontich near Antwerp, Belgium. We had
some dinner and by 10 pm Imco from Holland arrived. After a few Belgian
and German beers, we went for
a good sleep, 2 busy days laying ahead. 7 am we left and picked up Jan
Witte from Holland, who joined us at a few km from my place. 5 bikes, among
them
4 triples, were now heading
for Paris where we would meet our host, Pierre Leduc, who is living at
only 10 km from Montlhéry. On the highway to Brussels, i had to
slow down, Imco’s
triple wouldn’t get passed 5000
rpm, so we were forced to a maximum speed of 105 km/h. About halfway Imco’s
engine died, but after a few minutes we managed to get it running again,
putting the petcocks in the
prime position seemed to help. Despite our slight handicap we were just
in time to meet Pierre on exit Astérix of the A1 to Paris. Pierre
and his two sons,
guided us down the Paris périphérique.
If you thought you’ve seen some mad drivers, you ain’t seen nothing untill
you’ve cirkelled around the French Capital. Especially bikers are slip
sliding through the dense traffic,
lifting their feet of the pegs to greet us, as the hassled by.
We received a warm welcome at
the Leducs, and after a tasty lunch we hurried to the circuit to be able
to participate at the Yamaha parade. We arrived just in time, and together
with
hundreds of other Yammies, we
joined the track, luggage still on the bike. It feels rather funny to drive
the banking at a speed way to slow, makes you feel like falling over. The
crowd
seemed to enjoy these 3 laps
of Yamaha power. However, we only spotted two more triples, 2 750’s i believe.
When looking for the tents, Pierre
already set those up and reserved us some place just outside the track,
a Gilera four cilinder was warming up. Whow, the sound coming out of those
4
pipes, when that engine with
several degrees overlap is revved, is awesome !
Once properly installed and unpacked,
we had a better look around. The collection of bikes seemed to be endless.
Weather was just fine, and we enjoyed the demonstration runs, held in
several series. Not only Gileras
filled the autodrome with their great howling sound, just imagine a couple
of Mv Agusta three’s blasting by ! Other races featured Nortons (Inernational,
Manx), Matchless G50, Ducati’s,
Vincents,……
The inner part of the circuit
is filled with very nice clubstands, a jumble, and of course all bikes
raced on the track are on display. Bunches of the most expensive and famous
bikes were
to be found: Vincent Black Shadow
and Black Lightning, Mv Agusta, Laverda SFR, Honda CR 750 Daytona, you
name it, it was there. In one of the stands, some famous riders could be
seen: Jim Redman, Agostini and
Phil Read, from whom i managed to get an autograph (YES !).
Although some good food could
be found at the place, some better food awaited us ‘Chez Pierre’. Misses
Leduc prepared us a great French meal, which we enjoyed in Pierres garden.
On
our way from Montlhéry
to Pierres place, Imco’s bike got from bad to worse, only running on two
cylinders. So after this gastronomic dinner, we wheeled Imco’s 2D into
the tight but well
equipped garage. >From 10 pm
till midnight it was tooling time, everybody launched some ideas and tools:
Markus and Pierre made up a ‘new’ air filter, Kai checked the points, and
i
quick checked the carbs. The
points of cylinder no 1 seemed out of adjustment, and when we rejoined
our route to our tents at the circuit, Imco’s bike seemed to go just fine,
but still
lacking the higher revs on the
scale.
The night proved to be VERY NOISY.
Earplugs can stop the yelling of some drunk guys, but they can’t stop the
noise of an engine revved to the red zone just to keep the camp fire
burning…
After some hours sleep we awoke
under a grey sky, rain falling down. Pierre rejoined us around 9.30 and
we set out again to rejoin the track and have a look at the jumble within
the
circuits borders, and a second
look at the club section. We were able to take some more pictures (see
sites of Kai and Markus) of special bikes, like the Laverda V6 for instance.
And if
having a close look at a Vincent
Black Shadow doesn’t make you drool…There was some very nice French machinery
on display too: Peugeot, Terrot, Dollar, Monet et Goyon,…
Around 1pm Jan, Imco and i prepared
ourselves to leave. Kai and Markus would only leave on Monday morning.
Imco’ bike was still a bit of a question mark. We narrowed the problem
down to ignition trouble, maybe
due to one or more bad coils. Pierre accompagned us till the highway, but
before we got there, Imco’s bike stalled again in the middle of Paris.
Our French
brother checked the coil of
cylinder no 1 by holding the plug wire without cap at about 1 cm of the
fins, engine turning. An apparently strong spark jumped over, much better
than that
tiny sparkling jumping the plug
diodes with the cap on. So after a visit to a local store a fix was made
up at the spot, allowing the plug wire to be attached to the plug leaving
out het cap.
We were back on our way after
an hour or so, and after waving Pierre goodbye, we headed for another 350-400
km of French and Belgian highway. Alas, at about 100 km from the Belgian
border, the old faithful 2D
gave up completely. Some 20 km earlier, at another obligatory stop, we
already passed Imco’s luggage to a friendly Dutch truck driver. This time
it seemed we
had to leave his bike behind
at this hihgway rest area, at least if they let us. After some negotiating,
we obtained the permission to leave it near the petrol station. Having
the bike towed,
which normally we were obliged
to do, to a French workshop seemed like a foolish thing to do, almost certainly
running in to serious bills. We felt strange about leaving that triple,
but
we had no choice, and Imco continued
his journey on the pillion seat of Jan’s bike. Both bikes, and their three
passangers made it home safely, but for quite a while we had some serious
rain. Kai and Markus got home
safely on Monday. Three days later Imco recovered his bike, and got it
back to Holland in the back of a van. He’s still sorting things out. He
now has a
parts bike allowing him to experiment
with carburettors and coils.
This trip may not have had the
happy ending we wished for, but we had a great weekend, experiencing some
nice international comradery amongst us Eurotriplers. May the spirit be
there
at this years millenium triple
meeting in Felsberg Germany, 8th to 10th Sept. 2000. Maybe some other listers
can join us there."
Filip Van Mieghem
For pictures see also: http://www.marsabi.purespace.de/html/montlhery_2000.html or http://www.sievers.purespace.de/montlhery.htm