Dick James and Jean Betes with friend, 1963
Lady Bikers – This Is Our Story
by Jean Bates
In 1964 I was stationed in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, where I worked at the Wycliffe Bible Translators’ new Print Shop, with all the wonderful equipment Dick James (the inventor of the Slinky Toy!) had donated to the Mission. He was teaching me how to run the press and other equipment, but he had to return to the States for a few months, and left his 350 Zundapp motorcycle with me while he was gone. Claudia had graduated from Tambo in 1963, but remained in Bolivia for one year, learning the printing trade in the Cochabamba Print Shop, and then working with another missionary in the Beni for 2 months.
I taught Claudia how to drive Dick’s Zundapp. It was very heavy, but she learned how to balance it, and could just barely put the kick stand into place when she stopped! My own motorcycle was a Honda 90, trail model—a light machine! There weren’t many cars in Cochabamba—there were more bicycles and motorbikes. It was very common to see ladies riding their bicycles to town, with their purses hanging from the handle bars, and rear-view mirrors. You even had to have a license plate for your bicycle.
Our annual NTM Mission conference was always held at the Tambo School right after the graduation exercises. Folks from Cochabamba (and Santa Cruz) generally took the public transportation busses to Tambo for the annual conference, which was an 8-hour ride over the Andes Mountains!
But Claudia said to me, “Let’s take the motorcycle – who wants to ride in the stuffy old bus?” That stopped me for a moment – but then I got to thinking it would really be fun! Claudia would be leaving soon to go to Bible College and this would be our last mother-daughter fling!
So we carefully planned our journey. The motorcycle had no carrying case except saddlebags for tools, so we strapped the case of a small portable typewriter onto the back luggage rack. In that we carried a light lunch, beverages, and a change of clothes. It all fit perfectly.
We knew it would be cold going through the Rain Forest, so we ordered two custom- made, white, fur-lined leather jackets from a local tailor. Typical to the Bolivian culture, he procrastinated almost too long – the jackets weren’t ready until two days before we left! We also carried a lap blanket with us.
We put our hair up in curlers, and covered our heads with white knit caps. (No helmet requirements in those days.) Donning our beautiful new coats, we left quite early in the morning.
(Harley Motorcycle Club Members can stop reading here! Typical “BIKERS” we were not!)
What fun! We decided that we would alternate drivers -- I would drive for one hour, and Claudia would drive for a half-hour. What a beautiful drive, when we got out of town! Cochabamba is nestled in a valley at 8,000 feet altitude. From there we drove up through the Andes Mountains, probably up to 10,000 ft., and then dropped back down to Tambo at 5,000 feet. For about 20 miles of this route, through the Rain Forest, they claim the sun never shines! The road construction crews finally gave up on paving this stretch of the Pan American Highway. It is always overcast, and almost always raining or drizzling. While driving through this stretch Claudia and I discovered a beautiful little pond that we had never noticed when traveling by bus. We pulled off the road and pushed the bike down the slope to the pond, which had some trees beside it. It was a perfect spot for a picnic lunch!
On our way again after eating, the road continued to worsen, until we were driving in one of two deep ruts in the center of the roadway. It was wet and cold and we were thankful for our warm jackets and hats. And of course the motorcycle had a nice windshield which kept most of the wind and rain off the driver’s face! I drove through the Rain Forest, and Claudia helped me tuck our lap robe across the front of the bike, covering my knees, to keep out the biting wind. Although it was tough driving in the mud and the rain, we were doing okay until a huge truck approached us. Though the road was wide enough for him to get out of the ruts and move to one side, he obviously was not a gentleman. He remained dead-center in the ruts, barreling toward us, until we realized he had no intention of moving over. I swung the bike to the right, into the slop, and we both got off and just stood there waiting for him to pass, and trying to keep the bike from falling flat into the slippery mud. In case anyone is wondering, that is much too close to an oncoming truck for comfort! His wheels threw out a huge splash of mud and water all over us! We were truly a mess.
But we were thankful he hadn’t hit us! And we are quite sure he would have squished us like road-kill and kept on going! Once we were back on pavement, past the Rain Forest, we found a spot to pull over and kind of catch our breath!
As we approached Tambo, Claudia directed us to a spot where we could stop. She was very familiar with the area as she and other kids had hiked all over. We stopped at the “First Bridge” (a destination landmark), which was about a mile from Tambo. The bridge was over a dry creek bed, but it was a place where could get off the road and freshen up. Using the water we had with us, we washed our faces. Then we changed into the spare clothes we had brought, removed our curlers, and combed our hair.
We felt truly refreshed! From that point on we drove very slowly the last mile into the school, arriving all prim and proper as if we had just gone around the block!
Nobody could believe that we had actually driven the bike all the way from Cochabamba! Everyone was quite impressed!
We were hungry, and believe me, we sure did sleep well that night!
It was a trip of a lifetime, and the return trip to Cochabamba was just as fun, though without the truck challenge in the Rain Forest!
by Jean Bates
In 1964 I was stationed in the city of Cochabamba, Bolivia, where I worked at the Wycliffe Bible Translators’ new Print Shop, with all the wonderful equipment Dick James (the inventor of the Slinky Toy!) had donated to the Mission. He was teaching me how to run the press and other equipment, but he had to return to the States for a few months, and left his 350 Zundapp motorcycle with me while he was gone. Claudia had graduated from Tambo in 1963, but remained in Bolivia for one year, learning the printing trade in the Cochabamba Print Shop, and then working with another missionary in the Beni for 2 months.
I taught Claudia how to drive Dick’s Zundapp. It was very heavy, but she learned how to balance it, and could just barely put the kick stand into place when she stopped! My own motorcycle was a Honda 90, trail model—a light machine! There weren’t many cars in Cochabamba—there were more bicycles and motorbikes. It was very common to see ladies riding their bicycles to town, with their purses hanging from the handle bars, and rear-view mirrors. You even had to have a license plate for your bicycle.
Our annual NTM Mission conference was always held at the Tambo School right after the graduation exercises. Folks from Cochabamba (and Santa Cruz) generally took the public transportation busses to Tambo for the annual conference, which was an 8-hour ride over the Andes Mountains!
But Claudia said to me, “Let’s take the motorcycle – who wants to ride in the stuffy old bus?” That stopped me for a moment – but then I got to thinking it would really be fun! Claudia would be leaving soon to go to Bible College and this would be our last mother-daughter fling!
So we carefully planned our journey. The motorcycle had no carrying case except saddlebags for tools, so we strapped the case of a small portable typewriter onto the back luggage rack. In that we carried a light lunch, beverages, and a change of clothes. It all fit perfectly.
We knew it would be cold going through the Rain Forest, so we ordered two custom- made, white, fur-lined leather jackets from a local tailor. Typical to the Bolivian culture, he procrastinated almost too long – the jackets weren’t ready until two days before we left! We also carried a lap blanket with us.
We put our hair up in curlers, and covered our heads with white knit caps. (No helmet requirements in those days.) Donning our beautiful new coats, we left quite early in the morning.
(Harley Motorcycle Club Members can stop reading here! Typical “BIKERS” we were not!)
What fun! We decided that we would alternate drivers -- I would drive for one hour, and Claudia would drive for a half-hour. What a beautiful drive, when we got out of town! Cochabamba is nestled in a valley at 8,000 feet altitude. From there we drove up through the Andes Mountains, probably up to 10,000 ft., and then dropped back down to Tambo at 5,000 feet. For about 20 miles of this route, through the Rain Forest, they claim the sun never shines! The road construction crews finally gave up on paving this stretch of the Pan American Highway. It is always overcast, and almost always raining or drizzling. While driving through this stretch Claudia and I discovered a beautiful little pond that we had never noticed when traveling by bus. We pulled off the road and pushed the bike down the slope to the pond, which had some trees beside it. It was a perfect spot for a picnic lunch!
On our way again after eating, the road continued to worsen, until we were driving in one of two deep ruts in the center of the roadway. It was wet and cold and we were thankful for our warm jackets and hats. And of course the motorcycle had a nice windshield which kept most of the wind and rain off the driver’s face! I drove through the Rain Forest, and Claudia helped me tuck our lap robe across the front of the bike, covering my knees, to keep out the biting wind. Although it was tough driving in the mud and the rain, we were doing okay until a huge truck approached us. Though the road was wide enough for him to get out of the ruts and move to one side, he obviously was not a gentleman. He remained dead-center in the ruts, barreling toward us, until we realized he had no intention of moving over. I swung the bike to the right, into the slop, and we both got off and just stood there waiting for him to pass, and trying to keep the bike from falling flat into the slippery mud. In case anyone is wondering, that is much too close to an oncoming truck for comfort! His wheels threw out a huge splash of mud and water all over us! We were truly a mess.
But we were thankful he hadn’t hit us! And we are quite sure he would have squished us like road-kill and kept on going! Once we were back on pavement, past the Rain Forest, we found a spot to pull over and kind of catch our breath!
As we approached Tambo, Claudia directed us to a spot where we could stop. She was very familiar with the area as she and other kids had hiked all over. We stopped at the “First Bridge” (a destination landmark), which was about a mile from Tambo. The bridge was over a dry creek bed, but it was a place where could get off the road and freshen up. Using the water we had with us, we washed our faces. Then we changed into the spare clothes we had brought, removed our curlers, and combed our hair.
We felt truly refreshed! From that point on we drove very slowly the last mile into the school, arriving all prim and proper as if we had just gone around the block!
Nobody could believe that we had actually driven the bike all the way from Cochabamba! Everyone was quite impressed!
We were hungry, and believe me, we sure did sleep well that night!
It was a trip of a lifetime, and the return trip to Cochabamba was just as fun, though without the truck challenge in the Rain Forest!
