EXPECTATIONS EXPECTATIONS

Crazy Henri

Working at the Toronto Motorcycle Supershow in the new year of 2023 provided an unexpected surprise for me. It was early one morning before the show opened to the public as I was briskly walking to and from the show office when something caught my eye. It was a familiar yellow Sonic sticker on the side of the fuel tank of a black and red motorcycle. I stopped to read the blurb accompanying the bike when a flood of memories came rushing back.

My brothers and I were there in 1975 at the Niagara Gorge to witness a Bultaco Sherpa T prepared at my parents’ bike shop, Sonic Motorcycles, travel across the Niagara River on the Whirlpool Aero Car cable wire crossing the Niagara River from Canada to the US, and now I’m staring at the bike that made the trip – 48 years later.

The stunt was engineered by ‘Crazy’ Henri (that’s what my dad called him). Henri Rechatin was a career stuntman and tightrope performer from France who had made a name for himself by holding the world endurance record of 213 hours on a tightrope. In 1967 Henri made several proposals of stunts he wanted to perform at the Niagara

Falls to celebrate Canada’s centennial year that were all turned down by the Niagara Parks Commission.

Determined and undaunted, Henri returned to Canada in 1975, this time in secrecy. Henri travelled with his wife Janyck, also an acrobatic performer, and friend Franck Lucas, who was the 1967 French National MX 500 cc Champion and the Bultaco importer of France. With a stunt plan in place it was Franck who contacted my dad at Sonic Motorcycles selling the Bultaco brand at the time. Knowing my dad’s playful side, I’m sure it didn’t take too much convincing for him to agree that Sonic would provide the bike and the facility to prepare it.

My brothers and I vowed not tell anyone at school about the bike preparations even though we had no idea what Crazy Henri’s plan was. As a race shop of all genres of motorcycle competition and as kids working and hanging out at Sonic we were always exposed to interesting people; Henri was no exception. I remember he never sat in a chair or on a stool on all four legs, instead he would balance on the back two chair legs with ease as long as it took to eat his sandwich.

In the lead-up to the stunt our curiosity built as we saw the changes to the bike each day after school. It was fitted with metal brackets above and below the bike for the hanging platform below and the balance pipe above. Then the tires were removed from the rims and replaced with a split rubber hose. Our dad, Henri and his crew revealed nothing to my brothers and I for fear of word leaking out and the stunt shut down again. Finally, the day came. We knew something big was going to happen when dad and mom woke us up at 3 a.m. to get in the car to go for the hour-and-a-half drive to Niagara Falls. What my brothers and I witnessed next after we arrived was beyond our imagination as young teenagers.

It was a cool morning and the sun was just beginning to rise revealing the Bultaco Sherpa T already balancing on the cable car wire. The Aero Car cable from cliff-edge to cliff-edge is approximately 540 metres long, suspended almost 61 metres high above the whirlpool. Janyck was sitting on a platform far beneath the bike, Franck was on the bike at the controls and Henri climbed up onto the metal frame over top of the bike to stand on a pipe with one foot in front of the other, holding a long balancing bar.

Then the press arrived. Several cars pulled into the parking area and soon the observation wall was packed with onlookers and cameras. Henri and his crew had launched. Henri stood balancing himself and the bike on the pipe above the bike, Franck drove the bike slowly as smoke puffed out of the exhaust, and Janyck climbed under the platform below to dangle on a strap by her neck! Acting as the keel on a sailboat or ballast I thought Janyck had the most important job. It was a death-defying feat.

At the half-way point Janyck decided to hang by her foot! I was transfixed on her. I remember thinking, why they don’t go a little quicker to get to the end? As they approached the US side, the cable was at an incline up to the loading and disembarking station for the car. The bike was unable to climb up the incline. Henri climbed down off the top and stood at the front of the bike then he walked up the cable with his balance bar leaving Franck and Janyck stranded behind. Arriving on the US side Henri was soon seen returning to the bike with a rope, which he tied off to the bike and the three were pulled to the station.

Harvey Bruce is the current owner of the bike displayed at the bike show. Thank you for the memories, Harvey! IM