Travel pages

Working on Camping Moto in Bonlieu

Thursday, July 14, 1977
On Wednesday afternoon, I had arrived at Camping Moto and had put my tent near the edge of the forest. My neighbours were a French rider with a Yamaha RD125 and a Belgian couple on a Honda GoldWing with a Motolux sidecar.

Camping Moto

The camping had organised a trip to the moto-trails competition in Jeurre, fourty kilometer South of Bonlieu. Frits, who was supposed to be the tourguide, was ill so I had to be tourguide. I had no idea wat to do but Frits showed me the route on a map and off we went.....

My group consisted of myself on the little Honda, my neighbour on his Yamaha RD125 and two Belgian riders, one on a Honda CB500 and the other on a BSA 350 single. The ride to Jeurre was very nice, mostly on very narrow mountain roads.
After we arrived in the village of Jeurre, we first went to a small café for a coffee and then we asked where the moto-trails competition was.

The competition was a little disapointing although the scenery was beautiful. After watching the competition for a while we went back to the camping. A took the "tourist" route, past Clairvaux-les-Lacs and allthough it was my first time as a tourguide, everybody was happy with the trip.

In the evening, I worked in the kitchen with Herman and his son Peter. Together with Hermans wife Tini, they came from Amsterdam on their BMW with sidecar.

It was very busy on the camping with seventy-four guests and the bas was crowded this evening. Fortunately two more helpers arrived today, Jasper and Adriënne on their Honda CB500/4.

Friday, July 15, 1977
On Fridaymorning I had send a postcard home to my parents. In the evening, we organised a moto-trail competition on the camping. I was official referee.

Scanned picture from a Suzuki leaflet

There was a Belgian girl in the competition on a Suzuki 250cc off-road and after the official part of the competition, I could try it on the trail and liked it very much.It is a nice bike. The first price of the competition was won by one of the Belgian riders who was on my tour group to Jeurre on Wednesday, the one on the BSA 350cc. The first price was a bottle of wine and a Camping Moto T-shirt

After the competition it was very busy in the bar with a good atmosphere because everybody had fun during the competition.

Saturday, July 16, 1977
After breakfast at eight o'clock, I had to clean the bathrooms and toilets. Then I went to the kitchen to do the dishes and to help at the bar.

At one in the afternoon, I thought it was time to enjoy the nice mountainroads here, and got on my bike to ride to the Swiss border over the Col-de-la-Faucille. It was a very nice winding mountainroad and I loved riding here. Unfortunately the road surface was very bad but I can handle that. After a very pleasant afternoon ride, I had kitchen duty this evening but that is no problem. We have a lot of fun in the kitchen.

Tuesday, July 19, 1977
This morning, I stayed in my sleepingbag until ten o'clock. Mondaynight and Sundaynight, I was barkeeper until half past three in the morning.

On Sunday I wanted to join a tour but then I noticed my oil level was low so I stayed at the campsite.
Later, on Monday, Gerben (the owner of the camping) and I went shopping in his Toyota landcruiser and at one of the shops, I bought a two liter can of Castrol GTX.

Wednesday, July 20, 1977
This morning I had a little accident with my Honda CB125S. On a narrow mountainroad in a forrest, I saw the line of trees following the bend in the road. That was a mistake ! The bend in the road was much sharper then the bend in the row of trees so I was going to fast into the corner.

That should have been no problem but, just when I was wide into the corner, I saw a big logging truck coming from the opposite direction........
The only thing I could do was to steer my bike into the bushes. No problem until my frontwheel got stuck in the bushes and I could not control the bike anymore. My front fork was not in line anymore, my small fairing was broken and my handlebars were bend. My knee hurted but that was all damage I had.

Fortunately, the truckdriver who saw it happening just in front of his truck, had stopped and helped me to get the bike back on the road again. Slowly I drove back to the camping and with the help of Simon and Frits, we straightened the front fork with the help of a concrete pilar of the farmhouse.

At eleven o'clock in the evening, I was laying in my tent, listening to the rain.

Thursday, July 21, 1977
My Belgian neighbours went to St.Claude and the bought a new handlebar for me. It is a motorcross type handlebar and with a little help, I replaced the damaged handlebar with the new black motocross handlebar.

While I was working on the bike, my friend Fred Mulder arrived on his Honda CB500/4. He should have been a few days earlier so I was afraid he would not show up but there he was. He had a delay because one of his rear shocks broke when the pavement of a road in Belgium ended without warning and he had to get that fixed before he could come.

Friday, July 22, 1977
Today was not so good. After I went to St. Laurent to buy a fuse holder for Fred his Honda, we drove to the road where I crashed with my bike on wednesday, to recover the switch and the fog-light that were left in the bushes after my crash.
Back on the camping I was standing on the pegs and riding motocross style through the mud, when a piece of rock hit the oil drain plug of my Honda. The oil came pouring out so I could not ride my little Honda in this condition.

I urgently needed a new plug. Together with Fred on his CB500/4, I went to a bikeshop in Lons le Saunier. Fred uses his bike for 500cc standard class racing and when we went through the corners on the French mountain roads, the side of my shoes was touching the asphalt.......

The mechanic in the bikeshop was not very "tourist friendly". We had to wait patiently until he finished a full service on another bike before he wanted to talk to us. He had no CB125S oil drain plug in stock but, fortunately the plug of the valve adjustment mechanism of a CB175 twin was the right size.

After an exciting ride back to the campsite, we removed the remains of the old plug from the crankcase and fitted the new plug. It fits but I guess the thread in the crankcase is a bit damaged, because it is not 100% oil tight.

After the work on my bike, Fred let me try his Honda CB500/4. It is a very nice and fast bike and very comfortable for a bike prepared for the racetrack.

Saturday, July 23, 1977
We organised another moto-trail competition this Saturday. I tried it too and ended on the 16th place. After the competition, I tried the track again and now I made no mistakes.

In the afternoon, Fred and I went to a big camping nearby. On the notice board was a note of a Dutch church in Geneva in Switzerland;
Collège de Calvin, Auditoire de Calvin near the St.Pierre Cathedral in Geneva
On Sunday I wanted to go there.

We also went to Clairvaux to a greengrocer to buy some fresh fruit. We bought a lot of apples and oranges but then we realised we had no bag...... The other people in the shop had a lot of fun when they saw us storing the apples and oranges in all pockets of our motorcycle jackets. It is a good thing that we did not crash on our way back because that would have been a fruity mess.