Bandit Alley
GENERAL MOTORCYCLE FORUMS => GENERAL MOTORCYCLE => Topic started by: Red01 on September 18, 2006, 03:31:19 PM
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Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to Magny-Cours I go
... for the Bol d'Or!
WOW! What an experience. Lots of fun, but found out some interesting things about French culture...
For a small snapshot of the Bandits of Bol d'Or... Cliquez vous ici! (http://s68.photobucket.com/albums/i3/a4xnut/French%20bikes/Bandits%20of%20Bol%20D%20Or/)
There were just too many to take pics of all of them, so after a while I gave up and just chose ones that weren't stock. Also tried not to get many repeat pics of same mods or ones that were fugly.
For a few pics from the seas of bikes, there's the Bikes of Bol d'Or Album (http://s68.photobucket.com/albums/i3/a4xnut/French%20bikes/Bikes%20of%20Bol%20D%20Or/)
(I only saw one Harley all weekend - a stock looking Sportster.)
There's a museum at the track, while it's nothing like Barber's, it is dedicated to the efforts of one man, Guy Ligier, a local man famous for F1 cars and a few Elf motorcycles. That album is here. (http://s68.photobucket.com/albums/i3/a4xnut/French%20bikes/Magny-Cours%20Museum/?action=view¤t=Elf_Museum_030.jpg&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch1)
Pictures from the 24 hour race that is the finale of the Endurance Roadracing season called Bol d'Or (literal translation: Bowl of Gold)
Cliquez vous ici. (http://s68.photobucket.com/albums/i3/a4xnut/French%20bikes/Bol%20D%20Or%20Photos/)
I can hardly wait until next moth for the final round of WSB.
(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i3/a4xnut/French%20bikes/Bol%20D%20Or%20Photos/Bol_dOr_002.jpg)
Except this time I'll be wise enough to bring my own tiolet paper!
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What, no babe shots?...
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What, no babe shots?...
Yeah, really! :monkeymoon:
Cool pics, Paul. What do you mean about the french culture?
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PitterB4 wrote:
What, no babe shots?...
Yeah, really! :monkeymoon:
Cool pics, Paul. What do you mean about the french culture?
No babe shots because my wife looks at my photo albums and she gets a little upset when I take pictures of the hotties - and frankly, there weren't that many that were dressed that hot anyway... This was probably the hottest dressed female at the race - and was one of two Umbrella Girls there - the other one had a large chest, but was in a dress that wasn't very impressive - other than showing off her cleavage and my camera couldn't zoom that far.
(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i3/a4xnut/French%20bikes/Bol%20D%20Or%20Photos/Bol_dOr_028.jpg)
As for the culture...
1) People are not very considerate. They will stand right in front of you - even when there's >1,000 empty seats all around with the same view.
2) Men will relieve their bladders just about anywhere and nobody gives it a second look. This guy was pissin' in front of several security guards and they didn't care.
(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i3/a4xnut/French%20bikes/Bol%20D%20Or%20Photos/Bol_dOr_027.jpg)
It was commonplace to see guys just stop along a busy walkway and piss on a shrub. I even saw one guy just stop smack in the middle of a walkway and piss - right in front of one of the dining establishments. In an effort to keep guys from pissin' on the plants, the track had a few of these urinals around, but they rarely had any users.
(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i3/a4xnut/French%20bikes/Bol%20D%20Or%20Photos/Bol_dOr_089.jpg)
3) The facility had lots of restrooms, but almost all of them were unisex. They had a long tub-like urinal (which was rarely used due to the above), a couple of tub-like sinks and stalls with doors used by either sex. Tiolet paper in the stalls was gone by 11:00 AM (even then it was hard to find and usually wet - probably from piss) and as far as I could tell was never refilled all weekend.
4) They had signs as you enter that glass containers are forbidden. That's the extent of the enforcement though. Security never looked in anyone's bags or vehicles that had inside parking, so glass beer bottles were everywhere - and naturally, broken glass, too.
(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i3/a4xnut/French%20bikes/Bol%20D%20Or%20Photos/Bol_dOr_063.jpg)
5) Americans may be slobs at sporting events when it comes to litter, but the French are at least as bad - or worse. Considering this was a 3-day event from when the gates opened, part of this might be excused due to the track's lack of a good garbage pickup program as lots of the dumpsters were overflowing before dusk so you couldn't properly dispose of trash if you wanted to, but it was obvious most didn't even try.
6) The French love rev limiters! They seemed to get great joy in the camping areas by doing burnouts or spinning the tire in the dirt/mud or just plain revvin' the hell out of the motor and bouncing the motors off the rev limiters for LONG periods. All day and all night. I kept thinking, "poor motor" and "it's your bike, blow it up if you want to."
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6) The French love rev limiters! They seemed to get great joy in the camping areas by doing burnouts or spinning the tire in the dirt/mud or just plain revvin' the hell out of the motor and bouncing the motors off the rev limiters for LONG periods. All day and all night. I kept thinking, "poor motor" and "it's your bike, blow it up if you want to."
It's not only the French that love to do this. When I went to the Honda Super Cycle Weekend at Mid-Ohio, this is what I heard all night from the people in the camping area. They would bounce em off the rev limiter until you could see a flame coming from the exhaust.
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Oh, they can one up us on that one... when I get my videos uploaded, I'll show you... they turn flames out the exhaust into a competition!
Until then, you can get an idea from this still right before they literally "fired up" their bikes.
(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i3/a4xnut/French%20bikes/Bol%20D%20Or%20Photos/Bol_dOr_024.jpg)
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:shock: interesting
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awesome
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Here's the flames & noise video. I apologize in advance for the poor quality.
(http://i68.photobucket.com/albums/i3/a4xnut/French%20bikes/Bol%20D%20Or%20Videos/th_Bol_dOr_909_Noise_N_Fire.jpg) (http://s68.photobucket.com/albums/i3/a4xnut/French%20bikes/Bol%20D%20Or%20Videos/?action=view¤t=Bol_dOr_909_Noise_N_Fire.flv)
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I'm missing the point. Why would you want to do that? And they call us stupid.
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Beats me! I found it rather annoying and could hardly wait until it was over. It was the only part of the "pre-game show" I didn't enjoy though.