Circuit de Frotey-les-Vesoul

Moto-Club Haut-Saonois, founded in 1947 according to its own site, runs the track on the "Le Sabot" plateau at Frotey-les-Vesoul, above the town towards the airfield. The site covers roughly 8 hectares and splits into a meadow section with tables and a quarry section with berms, jumps and passing opportunities. The club points out that only 12 of around 600 French circuits are cleared to host international races and that this is one of them; motocross, sidecar cross and quad cross all run here. Facilities include showers and toilets, also accessible for people with reduced mobility, plus a wash bay that is free of charge outside winter whenever the circuit is open. mxcircuit.fr lists 8 metres of track width, limestone soil as the ground, opening on Saturday and Sunday from 10am to noon and from 1.30pm to 6pm, 7 euros per day and an FFM licence as mandatory; there is a children's track, and sidecars and pit bikes are allowed. For any other day you are asked to phone ahead. Limestone dries out hard, and hard ground produces short, sharp chop on the brakes instead of soft ruts. If the fork packs up on that and every single hit comes straight through to your hands: top of our cause list is low-speed compression at the front being too firm - open it a few clicks so the fork can still absorb the small braking bumps.