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The world according to bikers…

Speed has a different flavour for them. Adrenaline runs differently through their veins. Danger knows them by name. The biker’s version of Francorchamps is a bit like Brazil’s version of football—full of colour, full of passion and totally over the top.
And this weekend, leather will have a different smell. You’ll be able to flair the memory of decades of races. Bikers will forever be able to boast that they were the first to challenge the colossus of Francorchamps. The first ever race was a motorcycle race. It was 1921 and the circuit was 15 km 820 m long. And to leave nothing to chance, a Belgian on a Belgian bike sped off with the win—Kicken on a Gillet. Showstopping bike races have always been a hit here, appealing to everyone and feeding off the countless stories in the history of our national circuit. Before the Second World War, some of our local folk even became specialists in the field. At the Ziant ironworks (now the Relais de Pommard Hotel) they would ballast the fairings to improve roadholding. Across the way, at the Garage André, bikes that had suffered on our merciless circuit would be given a new life. Motorbikers have never trembled before the Ogre of the Ardennes. Many and spectacular have been the accidents, like the biker who lost control of his machine in the Raidillon and broke the telephone line that connected the marshal post to the track computer. The wire was six metres off the ground. The only safety measures then were bales of straw to prevent the worst. As many as 4,000 would be lined up along the old circuit. In the 60s, René Bovy, the former circuit secretary, remembers how he had to bring the bales in from Luxembourg because there was a severe shortage in Belgium. Unfortunately, more than three-quarters of the precious bales disappeared overnight. Stop by Francorchamps—there’s always something going on. And it’s to give you a chance to immerse yourself in the exciting world of vintage motorcycles that we are running our Bikers’ Classics this weekend.