September 1985. With his Quasar repaired and now painted red, Neil Vass joined me for a return trip to the Bol d'Or, this time riding the machine himself. John Bruce kindly lent me his BSA 500 Coda FF, based on a BSA A50, and we had a much more leisurely ride down than I had the year before in the Quasar on my own.
The BSA started ailing somewhere in France and for much of the time could only manage 55-60mph. At that speed the Quasar was doing 90mpg!
This photo shows the two machines outside the house in Chaumont of the kind French couple who had put me up the previous February when I was en route to Algeria with Dave Taylor and The Imps and a load of Honda Big Red 250cc trikes......which is another whole story!
This photo appeared in my account of the '85 Bol FF trip in Motorcycle Sport. PNB
2020 Update: I only recently discovered from John Bruce that the BSA had cracked a piston – no wonder it was ailing!
Photo: © Paul Blezard