Val de Vienne circuit

Le Vigeant-Val de vienne motorcircuit.
Between Poitiers and Confolens
in the flat centre of France.

Considered a very technical circuit
and probably built with car racing in mind,
it is similar in size to Oulton Park

The main straight(the pits straight)
is 500 meters.
There are a plethora of continuous radius
and double apex bends.

The back straight is 300 meters long.
The track surface is excellent with very few bumps.
Exit views are very limited on many of the bends
and good track knowledge is vital.

The fast guys lap at around 1minute 40 secs.

Anns best time here on a stock FZR400 is 2minutes 24 secs.

By way of comparison,

none of our friends,
CBR 600 mounted
could better 2 minutes 36 secs!

The best trackdays are organised by TEAM 18
-the Pompiers(fire brigade)
-18 is the emergency tel no -like 999 in the UK;
They run a very successful
endurance road race team
and are all bike mad.

The days are seen as a legitimate way
of letting road riders test their machines
in safe,controlled , conditions.

Heres a piccie of me on Ann,s FZR400

Quick but soooo cramped

I had backache for a week!

All sorts turn up
-kids on 125 screamers,
pukka racers,
even seen a guy on a boxer BMW
with panniers attached!
He was no slouch either!

Riding kit is optional
-from full leathers to jeans and trainers!
As long as you are insured
and the bike has all the legal documents
-your safety is YOUR responsibility
(Typical French pragmatism)

5 sessions of 25minutes are the norm.
Same as UK trackdays except for the cost-80euros(£50)

There are some seriously quick French riders!
Probably because they have grown up with bikes,
riding mopeds from 14 years old,
riding skills seem high.

I cant remember ever seeing an accident
stopping play during one of the sessions

Le Vigeant also hosts some interesting events.
In July there is a charity day hosted by the Ferrari Owners Club
-200 Ferraris and other exotic cars
-quite a sight;

The best weekend is the “trofeo Rosso”
-an exclusively Italian bike only gathering

-19th and 20TH July
All day track sessions enable fans to see classic Italian machines
(road and race)
being used as they were intended.
I hope to attend again this year
If I do

-I,ll show you some photos,later.

(Bit pressed with the housebuilding work

-keep watching )

Bye for now:P

French pedalcar championship

The fish looked very fast….

The boot was somewhat  lacking

in the aerodynamics department

(not helped by a big toe

poking through the front )

Noddy was,

well,

just Noddy

The Peter Pan crocodile looked mean

The frog

The dainty bumblebee

The pirate parrot

All could be contenders.

Le Mans style running start

AND THEYRE OFF…..

3 gruelling hours,

with pitsops to change pilots.

take on refreshments(or ice creams)

or running repairs

fine tuning the suspension

(meanwhile the band played on!)

A technical,

twisty course

(about 2 minutes for the faster teams)

As expected,

the fish flew

the boot belted

the Captain America hotrod was hot

BUT

with 2 fit pirates,

riding aggressively

the Parrot began slicing through………

The fish boys were up to the challenge.

Stripping off their flippers and snorkels

to reveal racing Lycra,

You could just see they meant business

lapping the field easily

And of course they won by a nautical mile

Euro exotica

A visual feast for you;(Serge in particular!)

(courtesy of a Trofeo Rosso past

-cant remember which year,sorry)

“Laverda ,sir?

How about a V6?“

“Too Big?

how about one like Dad,s?

“Want more cylinders?

Will 8 in a Vee be okay?”

Choice of Voxan

black,

red,

silver

VERY NICE!

Heres a trio of lightweight Italians.

COR.

Aint that Magni a beauty?

More Guzzis?

OK then

heres a few specials

Or how about 150 Guzzis on the move?

What a sweet sound !

Bye for now

new love affair

“PARP,PARP”

Just like Mr Toad in the wind in the Willows

I was happy with my Two wheelers

THEN I WAS SWEPT OFF MY FEET……..

A new love had arrived!

Not 2 wheels but 2 tracks……..

here she is …….

A Case/Ferbec mini digger.

Shes powered by a 3 cylinder Perkins diesel,

carries  her substantial 3 tons with grace

comes with 3 buckets and all the hydraulics

to power a pecker or post borer-WOW!

Apparantly a 9 year old,

used to operating a Playstation,

could master the controls

in a matter of minutes.

For a geriatric like me,

however,

it seems an impossible task

-digging proficiency is a long way off.

Why have I bought one?

Well, weve bought a 4 acre field

and are going to build ourselves a new house.

Installation of a 25 metre square septic tank,

foundations and a 100 metre long drive

(not to mention a swimming pool)

means a substantial saving if you can do it yourself.

To complete the job-

a Ford 4 wheel drive tractor-a 6 cylinder 8210

and an 8 ton trailer.

Ive bought a 2 metre “topper” to cut the grass as well.

Perhaps I should call myself

FARMER Peterbeta biker

OH AARRHH

Thanks Again

A big thanks to all you bloggers out there.

3000 of you have viewed the PeterBetaBiker blog

since its inception in March

-about 300 views per week  currently;

AMAZING!

A very busy weekend  bikewise.

Floodlit motocross at Cussac on Saturday night.

Up at the crack of dawn on Sunday morning

we rode up to the Val de Vienne circuit

for the annual Italian bike festival-the Trofeo Rosso;

Ive got some pictures of great looking bikes

-so many that I,ll post them seperately,

in generic order-Ducati,Guzzi,Laverda etc;

Back for a quick bite,

then off to the French Pedal car championship at Chalus.

What a larf!

perfect weather,great action

AND

being  France,

like the Trofeo,

No admission or parking charges.

Bol 76-a vintage year

Staffordshire to Le mans for the Bol d,or
2up,on a Honda 400 Four-hard work!
I did it two years running-76 and 77;
Seemed like a good idea at the time!
In 76 I rode with Roger Harvey as my pillion.
Roger was the guitarist,
I was the singer,
in a Funky band called Blue Moon.

We travelled with my pal Trevor Lyons
and his wife Vanessa
-they rode a Honda 550 four.

We got to le Mans at Lunchtime on Saturday lunchtime,
the race starting mid afternoon.

A pop festival sized crowd of 200,000 plus
watched the start and then basically
spent the rest of the 24 hour race getting bladdered.

The only time they regrouped
was to invade the the track
on the last lap on Sunday afternoon

(a bit like my nephew who paid £40
to watch the British motogp on a giant tv
in the bar at Donington!
Never saw the actual race!)

“the 76 goldwings are in out early thisyear… “
Trevors sister in law is a Tomkinson.
Her dad is half of Mead and Tomkinson.
They were campaigning the radical “Nessie” at the Bol.

A laverda engined(later Kawasaki Z1 equipped) hybrid,
with hub steering,
parallelogram rear supension,
underslung petrol tank
-it was a mobile test bed for ideas.

(check out the boots!)
More importantly “nessies” presence at le mans,
got us pit passes for the weekend!
(friends in high places-what!)

The Honda team of Phil Read and Tony Rutter were in the next garage;

Spare engines in crates,
luxury accomodation for the riders
-M and T team cooked on a 2 burner camping stove
and slept in a sleeping bag on a pile of tyres!
We stayed in the pits till the early hours then crashed out.
Sunday morning dawned cold and damp.

Back in the pits,
Nessie was out-mechanical failure;
In fact there werent many teams still circulating.
Rain during the night took its toll.
I dont remember the winners
-no doubt a French crew on a big Kawasaki

-it usually panned out that way.

just look at that skinny tyre-a TT100?
One team broke down/crashed(I cant remember which)
just outside the pits
and the rules stated that the rider,
unaided,
must complete the lap and return to the pits.

Imagine pushing your bike all the way round the course
after riding for about 12hours!
It takes a certain kind of rider to ride endurance races.
Great atmosphere,great racing
the boldor at Le mans was a biking institution.
After its move to Paul Ricard
and then the crappy Magny Cours circuit
-the bol dor has never been the same for many people.
Trevor went to the bol at magny Cours ,
a couple of years ago
and was very disappointed.
Aggressive crowd behaviour,
a poor circuit
and characterless racing
-sounds Familiar?

Your Majesty

Yamaha TY250 Majesty,circa 1984;

MAJESTY - the subject,an acronym, a mix of the producers names

-Mick Andrews/John E Shirt:/ TY-Geddit?

John Shirt,the Gas Gas importer based in Buxton

was originally the Yamaha trials importer.

Shirty was a good Trials rider

(and of course his son John Shirt Junior-a great triallist himself)

John senior developed the Majesty

with the help of trials legend Mick Andrews.

Totally reliable,

and a steady  ride for clubmen

the TY250 was a favourite for many years.

To extend its popularity,

prior to the introduction of the monoshock TY ,

the pair modified the original TY

and sold Majesty kits

to customise a standard TY.

So easy to ride and so reliable ,

I did several enduros on a standard TY250

fitted witha modified Bultaco motocross seat

for added comfort on road sections.

The torquey,low geared motor and very light weight

paid dividends in muddy going,

often getting through boggy sections

while the modified motocrossers were diggging huge holes for themselves.

I remember doing the first Tarenig Enduro in mid Wales.

Very early in the year,

there was still snow on the tops of the hills.

Incredibly muddy and steep

I was doing alright-slow but steady;

The meeting was abandoned

as a blizzzard on the tops stopped play;

Several bikes were abandoned

and  a  few near fatal hypotherrmia  cases

made it a near run thing.

I think after that the event was held later in the year.

Heres a picture of me

leaving a very muddy section

at a winter road trial in Shropshire.

Check out the “chemical oversuit and NCB wellies!

Trials riding ,of course,requires perfect balance…………..

Dingo racing

Take a Long steep hill,

Place a few straw bales against the armco

as a token safety measure ,

Then let loonies loose in a glorified soapbox

to belt down said hill into town centre

DINGO RACING ‘French style.

Run over a 1km course in EYJEAUX(near Limoges)

the rules are simple-

Any vehicle of 3 wheels or more,

Must have brakes

Crash helmet obligatory.

2 pushers allowed at start.

The pilots get 3 runs

After the last Dingo finishes its run,

the entry is dragged back up to the top of the hill,

behind a tractor(YES-that man is sitting in a bath!)

and the whole thing starts again.

During the lunch break

the crowd was treated to a stunt display

by local kids on 50cc scooters.

Amazing how they learn in the first place!

Next week is the “Championnat de France ” for pedal cars in Chalus.

I,ll try to get some pics for you!

22nd to 27th July sees the Cognac Blues Festival

-Joan Baez and Status Quo topping the bill.

AND

20th July sees the Trofeo Rosso return to Val de Vienne!

Its all happening down here…..

Urgent-Trackday calender

HI y,all!

I just found a comprehensive list

of dates,prices and organisers

for French trackdays 2008 .

Its the club Vikings site.

moto-club-les-vikings.over-blog.com

Days are listed under each circuit.

Organizing clubs and prices are given,

with email addresses available

at the foot of the list.

C,mon

Theres still plenty of time!

Scorching French Motocross!

This is the converse of my April report

on a freezing day out

at the motocross track.

It was a scorcher!

30 degrees centigrade in the shade!

Great track at Brigeuil ,near St Junien.

very sandy and dusty;

Solos(all capacities)

and sidecars.

The track needed  watering all day long.

Some of the fastest and closest racing

was in the 80cc class for kids

-talk about NO FEAR!

6 euros entry fee-good value.

Some great sights

-check out the redhaired female? competitor

Not all french ladies are dainty.