St Tropez H-D Euro Festival, Day 2 (Friday)

Today was a busy day. Up early for a quick ride, then back to the hotel to collect my wife Jackie and to walk around St Tropez. The town still has some of it's previous glamour, but is very tired and many parts are in need to fixing up in order to justify the ridiculously high prices this place charges. Overall St Tropez has a good feel.

The boats in the port are stunning, but it seems odd that despite their multi-million price tags, everybody in the town was, for today at least, ignoring those boats and looking at the motorbikes instead. Speaking to the local traders, they all adore this bike festival, for it is very good for business. Many of the cafes, restaurants, bars and hotels are full so the influx of bikers is very good for business and a welcome boost to the local economy to kick-start the tourist season.

There are Harley-Davidsons everywhere. Standard bikes, tourers and many customs, some good and some not so good. In their own way, all H-D's are interesting as almost nobody keeps them as they rolled off the end of the production line. Just about everybody changes their H-D in some way or another, so almost all of these bikes are worth looking at.

The seafront in the port was full of bikes, making a morning walk very enjoyable. This afternoon a few of us went to the custom bike show in Grimaud - a local village with the show taking over the town square. The weather was good, so the show was very busy. I didn't enter my bike this year (it did well in the show 2 years ago, so it would have been a bit cheeky to enter it again), but I enjoyed looking at some of the new bikes.

Here are some photos of the day....





















Cool bikes with a stunning back drop





























Big bikes and even bigger boats!






















St Tropez Port, with its water facing cafes






















I am not sure about the colour, but note the right side drive




























Kilts for him and her




























Those bars cannot be comfortable




























The festival is very multi-national, with bikers attending from all over Europe




























Le Mans has to be one of the coolest back patches




























Geneva Chapter




























This guy travelled a long way!






















Nice paint job on a standard H-D bike























My red bike parked in the town square





























The Village of Grimaud, where the custom bike show was held























Some of the longer custom bikes at the show






























A very cool chain driven throttle to carb set-up
























Sleek looking bike























I didn't get the bands name, but they were good, but a little loud!






















Front ends at different rakes





























Whole lotta bikes
























Why would you take off the side stand on a road bike so you need to take a paddock stand with you?





























The owner must have thought one day "Lets a a new light to the back of the bike" and it just grew from there
























A young woman rode into the custom bike show on a "Chanel no. 5" bike. It looked good and smelled great!



























My friend Ian on his custom bike in the show






















This guy decided to rest, on his bike when it was in the custom show!




























A very narrow street in St Tropez




























Look closely - there is a dog in the buggy! It is 16 years old and blind, so its owner takes it for "walks" like this because otherwise it walks into things!























Some of the mega yachts in St Tropez