Page 13 - Shining On Newsletter - Autumn 2022

palatable and accompanied by the entrecote steak that both Barry and I enjoyed, the evening passed
quickly.

Day 4 - Beaune to Chatel
We reviewed our planned route prior to
departure from Beaune and Alan
decided to enjoy a day solo and use
the autoroute instead of ride with the
group. Beaune to Chatel involved
arriving at the Swiss border north of
Lake Geneva and using the northern
Swiss autoroute (requiring a vignette)
to slip around the east side down to
Chatel. Barry led the charge to the
border where we had planned to buy
said vignette for those without one, but
soon realised we were at a different
border to the one intended (right
country, thank goodness) so no shops etc were around to provide the required documentation.
We proceeded on past a few opportunities such as (unseen by our leader) tourist information offices, and
found a biker chick retail station (well I noticed) that also provided cold drinks. Suitably refreshed and
documented, we dropped down to the Lake Geneva highway and arrived about an hour later in Chatel,
where a warm welcome and cold beer were provided. Food that evening was a delicious meal prepared
by Francine, Ilze, Cally and Lu with Pete B hovering over the BBQ playing with fire. Apologies to anyone
I didn’t mention involved in arduous kitchen duties, but thanks anyhow.
Day 5/6 - In and around Chatel
With two clear days to spend how we liked in Chatel, the first day was a lazy day walking along the river
down to the local restaurant - that had just stopped serving food. Feeling sorry for us, they produced a
delicious spread of cold meats, bread and pickles to be washed down by cold drink. With such a healthy
start to the Chatel phase, we decided to attack the chalet bar and drink copious amounts of alcohol that
evening and test our recovery powers the following day.

Only some of us made the following day’s ride and
it gave us time to push some suspicious-looking
loose wiring into Peter Read’s RT, which was very
evident when you approached it from the rhs.
Peter was completely taken in by the ruse and was
extremely distressed when we started pulling at
the wires (knowing they weren’t attached to
anything). His proclamation - that he knew every
inch of the bike and somebody had been
tampering!! - only served to add to the joke as we
attempted to keep a straight face and look
genuinely concerned. Once he realised that we
were standing off and watching with great
amusement, did he see the funny side and calm
down. We all need to be on our guard from now
on!
We only had one real bike trauma I’m aware of.
Robert was riding a recently acquired Honda that clearly had not seen much TLC from it’s previous
owner nor the intermediary dealer. On the ride to Chatel, he stated he was hanging back to allow for
extra braking distances due to a softish front brake. He also was concerned that the bike was
overheating somewhat. All these woes were music to the club vultures gathering with advice, tales of

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