Motorcycles in the Tour de France

[OfficerImpersonator]

No - I haven't gotten an early start on my New Year's celebrations - I was just doing some independent research and came across the following, which I thought I'd share with the group.

Let me preface with my story of how the Tour de France relates to my BMW motorcycling. I think the Tour de France is the most amazing sporting event in the world. Forgetting the doping allegations for a moment (like baseball and football are immune from "performance enhancing drugs"!), who among us could ride a bicycle for 1200 miles, over 7000' mountain passes, in the 100 degree heat of summer, 80-150 miles a day? It's a simply amazing race, and it's usually televised live. For me, the best part of watching the race is a rather thorough look at what rural Europe looks like. No strip malls, no eight lane highways - just narrow twisting roads in an alpine or country-side setting, with quaint little villages, stunning mountain scenery, beautiful green fields, etc.. Perfect motorcycle country, right?

One of the side-shows of the race is watching the race marshalls, official race photographers, water-bottle delivery folks, etc. racing around the bicycles on motorcycles. It's a death-defying display of motorcycle riding. Imagine riding two-up on the twistiest roads on the planet. Now imagine your passenger has a 10 pound camera, and they are standing up on the footpegs, swiveling around taking photos of the riders in front, alongside, and behind the motorcycle. Simply insane. Then there are the course marshalls, whose job it is to clear the course of the insane and usually drunk fans who line the course. How these obviously inebriated fans don't get arms amputated by motorcycles is beyond me. How you can ride a motorcycle at 40 mph through a crowd of people and presume they will get out of your way at the last second is beyond me.

Anyway, watching the motorcycles zoom around last year's race re-kindled my interest in motorcycling, and was the catalyst for me eventually acquiring a 14 year old K75S two months ago. I thought I'd do a little Google research to discover what brand of bikes were used in the Tour de France. The bikes are so plastered with decals I could never discern the make. The first link returned by Google is to a story on a "motorbiker.org" web page. It talks about how motorcycles are used in the Tour de France, and mentions that "all the motorcycles seen in the race are donated to the Tour by Kawasaki". Fair enough.

Except check the photo at the bottom of the page. I think there might be some manufacturers represented in the little motorcycle parade at the front of the peloton that ain't Kawasakis!

http://www.motorbiker.org/blogs.nsf/dx/07112005112049MWECYK.htm

 

[hexst]

The official bikes are Kawi's the rest are team and photo bikes or local police organizations.

 

[manicmechanic]

I've been involved in helping out with the Ironman Triathalon's the past 5 years. Kinda fun, riding in the left lane, being waved through traffic signals and intersections, and improving your slow-riding techniques. We carry officials or media folks for the bicycle portion, and sometimes even for the marathon. This past year I did Lake Placid right after the National, and also Madison.

The promoters are not looking for Beemers only, but bikes that are quiet and can handle the event. I've carried an average-sized woman official, a couple "healthy"-sized video-camera guys and their large cameras. Try maintaining a fast walking speed with the cameraman trying to lean off the side to get a good shot of the athlete on the bike, or doing the marathon after the 2.4 mile swim and 112 mile ride. You're not going very fast. Toss in direction changes and traffic avoidance, along with watching out for the spectators. The really hard part comes at the end of the day, when you realize that now you have to obey all the traffic laws and ride on the correct side of the road again.

It's really a lot of fun, but it's also a long day. Google up Ford Ironman to see if there are any events in your area. Check it out. If it means anything, you might even show up on ESPN or VS!

 

[BUBBAZANETTI]

we were using K75s in the Boston Marathon as late as 2004 (last year i worked it). when we were setting things up and doing test runs they would just leave the bikes idling for what seemed hours (but at leas a half hour). indestructable, stable and quiet bikes.

 

[aerialfilm1]

FWIW there is a company in North Philly, Bensalem to be exact, that has several K bikes for the sole purpose of camera platforms. These bikes are kitted out for rider and camera op, plus microwave video link. That alone is not the coolest thing. This company has designed and built special shipping crates for the bikes. They are aluminum skeleton frames with tie downs and pallet and other lifting points specific for the size of the bike. They just roll the bikes in and throw them in the belly of a plane and off they go. I've seen these same bikes around the world at the olympics and stuff. It's nice to be in Australia or Greece and see a bike with PA plates wizzin by.

The reason for having the bike's logos and stuff plastered with decals is often not by accident. The IOC for example forbids any kind of branded advertising on Olympic grounds at the venue. Big or small, intentional or not. I think the TDF is the same. For example in Sydney the Goodyear blimp spent weeks changing it's decals to read G'Day / Good Luck. Still in the same company colors and font, but IOC let it fly and provide camera coverage. That was a pretty big job to do but it was worth it from GY's point. It probably holds true for the bikes too. Bottom line is no event will intentionaly give away valuable world wide television exposure without compensation.

Here's Total RF's site if you wanna look see...


http://www.totalrf.com/gear_item.htm?id=106&catid=29&catname=Ground Vehicles

 

[bmwdean]

<img border=1 src=http://motos.home.att.net/backwards.jpg>

http://motos.home.att.net/iazmotos.htm

<img border=1 src=http://motos.home.att.net/video.jpg>

 

[ian408]

Look around your local area. There are probably a few triathalon or other
races looking for motorcycles.

It's a lot of fun to work these events but I will caution you, your slow speed
riding skills have to be very good. Especially if you will be carrying a race
official or camera operator. Very often, your passengers will not be familiar
with motorcycles and will twist and turn unexpectedly

On the other hand, sometimes you get to try your higher speed skill
and that can be pretty fun

 

[aerialfilm1]

Very often, your passengers will not be familiar
with motorcycles and will twist and turn unexpectedly

Well said. I'm a camera op and even though I ride too, my job is through the lens. Everything else goes out the window for me once on air. I need a good pilot or driver to put me in postion for the shot, but they are always the ones in control of safety. If anyone tries to be a camera bike driver, you need to establish that you as the driver are the final descision maker. Don't let the camera op bully you into doing something your'e not comfortable with. We'll try, trust me