Europe bike tour 2011. HELP

[Kwaka14]

Hi there,

ia, Am heading around Southern Europe end of May for 2.5 weeks, leaving the Czech republic and heading south via Germany, Austria, Italy, Croatia, Serbia Greece Bosnia, Albania, Macedonia, Bulgaria and back up through Turkey, Slovakia etc - all in all will be 14 countries in the time away so hoping it all goes smoothly. Currently living in Prague and the neighbour rents bikes (have my own), so I'll check on some pricing for you later in the week. I'll also post a blog here when I'm done.

[mcguyver]

Keep the info coming everyone. After our recent awesome 3 week tour of NZ, the missus has granted permission for a 5 week tour of Europe in 2011.
Cant decide whether to ship or hire.
Will be taking in IOM and then across the channell for France Italy Switerland Asutria Germany and back to london.

Anyone have the dates for 20111 IOM TT. Would also be intereted in taking a couple of Gp's

Any info on camping or reasoabnbly cheap accom would be great as well.

[Bikernereid]

What are you interested in? Art, architecture etc. OWNER and I did 16 days round Europe and I think three weeks would have been better. I would hire if you are there for 3 weeks but it wont be cheap. If you are there at summer you can resell your bike easily.

I would definitely buy in the UK and then depending on what you are interested head to France (cheap payage roads), Norther Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Holland and then Belgium. If you want more detailed info etc just PM me. If you go during summer make sure you take warm and waterproof clothing as going through the Alps etc can be freezing!!

[Bikernereid]

If you time it right you could also catch MotoGP in Barcelona. We missed it by a couple of hours but watched the end in a petrol station with two Spanish cops!

[apes]

I've just moved over from the UK, there are some hire firms base in the South East of England which would be a good start point for touring across Europe with the channel tunnel nearby by. Although be aware the cost of hiring a bike like hear is not cheap your talking about £100 per day for a big touring bike. Personally I would consider buying a bike for the 3 weeks if you can find the funds, but at least with the hire route everything is included European break down recovery if required and insurance for all EU members, just be wary that the police have the power to seize your bike for speeding in France and will at least escort you to the cashpoint for the money for the fine if you don't have the cash on you, often about $2-300 but still good fun to be had riding in France.
Finally whatever you do plan where you are going to go before hand as France, Spain and Germany are fair size countries and the UK is about the same length as the North Island and while it doesn't take long to ride to Scotland, once you get off the motorways and start touring it will take a lot longer to get anywhere and petrol stations can be few and far between in rural Scotland, so if you don't quite need to fill up yet it is often best to fill up like in NZ. Hope this helps.

[Bikernereid]

If you are heading to Italy remember that everything and I mean everything is shut on the Lord's day (Sunday). We had an absolute mission trying to find change for a Euro50 note (Petrol pumps don't take this note only smaller ones) to buy petrol and seriously thought that we were going to have to push the bike towards our next stop. The Italian petrol stations will not be manned and credit cards didn't work. We eventually found someone who could give us a Euro5 note after I scrapped all the change I could find out of our pockets. God knows what we would have done if this guy hadn't have had the right note for us. Always make sure that you have small euro notes as living on the credit card doesn't always work!!

I would agree with the point above re the police and escorting you to a cash point, however if you are near the border and can out ride the police then go for it. Friends of mine stopped and gave the police the cash only to be told by the police that they were amazed they stopped as they were close to the border and the police couldn't do anything once they had crossed into another country!!

[Kwaka14]

Hi....
I am wanting to start planning a 2011 bike tour of Europe.......where the hell do i start?
do i hire a bike over there? Do i buy one over there and sell it after im done? Do i take one with me from here? Wanting to cover as much of Europe in 3 weeks as i can, maybe able to go for a bit longer.
Anyone ever done anything like this? Any help, ideas, hints, comments etc would be greatly appreciated

Did you get your dates sorted? If you want some company on a day or two (thats if this isn't already done and dusted) sing out, am in prague, but can get to Italy/France/Poland/Austria/Germany/Slovakia/- scrap that anywhere in middle europe for a day ride....

[george formby]

As an aside, i toured a number of countries using a TOM TOM rider sat nav. It had the best bike roads pre programmed. Great bit of kit & usually (not always) spot on with good bike routes. Food for thought.

[Clean_up]

Hey, yeah dates will be somewhere around the 5th of june to the 18th of july, total of 6 weeks, minus about 1 week for travel, leaves us with 5 weeks to ride.
Will be doing it 2 up, and as a rough plan, start in Barcelona, ride along the coast to italy, down the west coast of italy, over to the east coast, ferry to greece for a day or 2, back to italy, up the east coast, into switzerland, austria, france, germany, poland, lithuania, latvia - stay there for about 5 days as the fiancee is from there, then estonia, ferry to finland, round through the artic circle, down through sweden, denmark, netherlands, belgium, france, fly out from paris.
Phew........hopefully be able to do that in 5 weeks, covering 300km a day for sight seeing, or 8-9 hours on the bike for fast travel from A-to-B.
Any and all help greatly appreciated. Any suggestions on a bike hire company?
I ride a CB900 hornet now, and like the way it handles 2 up, really comfy to...was thinking either a triumph sprint ST if anyone in Europe hires them, or a CBF1000, or a BMW.

[rapid van cleef]

In case you go through scotland.....theres a biker cafe stop, called, The Green Welly. Google it. Surrounded by the best roads i have ever been on and not too far from isle of Sky, which was amazing too. that was like riding on the moon........the scenery that is....smooth flat roads and lotsa bends you can see through......i wanted to turn round and go back but i had to catch the ferry back to the mainland!

[zx7rlloyd]

Hi, I do Europe every year from the UK. Usaually taking the ferry to Bilbao, travelling South around Madrid and to Malaga (Costa Del Sol) then following the coast roads towards France. The Sierra Nevada and Pyranees roads are pretty damn fine. The second route takes in France, Holland, Germany, Belgium and Luxemburg. The French and Dutch police are the worst for speeding(If caught) tho saying that we covered 2000 miles and only saw one speed camera.

I wouldn`t buy as like others mentioned you don`t know the history plus you have to sell again, also you may have problems with insurance companies not wanting to cover you, being a non National and wanting to take the bike through foriegn countries.

I don`t recomend the UK for one reason..................SPEED CAMERA`s EVERYWHERE. We do Europe purely for this reason. No points on your licence from abroad just fines.

[Metastable]

A few things to consider.

If you are renting a bike and are worried about speed cameras, get a bike with Swiss plates. You won't get the tickets.... not unless things have changed, as they are not a part of the EU. Actually when I went in 2008 I had German tags on the rental car and I didn't have any issues not paying a parking ticket in Belgium (it was confusing anyway) and I think I should have been popped a few times by cameras in France and Italy, but I never saw anything come through.

I did 4500kms by car and 800 by motorcycle....which was a lot for 2 weeks.... but I think it's a bit nuts (no offense) doing your route entirely by motorcycle. Whatever floats your boat.... are you sure you will still have a wife after she's been on the back of a bike for that long?

Now just so you get an idea... a 300km day riding in the Pyrenees is A LOT OF RIDING!!! There is only so fast you can go on switchbacks. Maybe consider breaking up the trip and doing some nice riding bits like France, Italy and Switzerland by bike and the rest by car?

As for the riding, the Pyrenees are awesome. I stuck to the French side.... there is a ton of history to see there as well as great riding roads. The French are very motorcycle friendly as well and will often make room with their car for you to pass.... even if there isn't really isn't all that much room. It's like "He's on a bike = He's got priority" .... makes riding in N. America a PIA.... maybe that's why I usually only do trackdays... anyhoo.

We stayed at a great B&B. They are motorcycle friendly Brits... he use to race the crazy 750 2-stroke back in the day.

http://www.coupdecoeur.co.uk/ <- is the B&B you can surf their site and it shows stuff to do and places to go and roads to ride.

I'd strongly suggest making that home base for a few days and taking day trips from there. You can hit up the coastal roads, the mountains, Andorra, Barcelona, etc etc... I did 800kms of riding in 3 days 2 up and it was a riot. We did a lot of riding too.... and at a decent clip, but 0 motorway. The nice thing about having a home base is that it is more relaxing.... as opposed to packing stuff up every single night.

[Dave Milligan]

Get Routed are doing a shipment of bikes from Auckland and Christchurch to Felixstowe in England in March 2011 to arrive early May. Most people are going to the IoM TT - some camping to save money.

Package is either just bike shipping or IoM TT accommodation, TT ferry ticket & return bike shipping.

If you want to ask questions I will be on stand 205 (opposite the bar) at the Speedshow 24 & 25 July at ASB Showgrounds.

Kind regards
Dave Milligan

[woodybee]

Hdy Dude,

I went over to Europe (from Holland Through to Denmark and Sweden) from the UK were I am now residing, so you have a place to stay when you get to england its the middle and called Worcester, so you can rest your head at mine any time.

In relation to SAT navs, i Bought one from Garmen "ZUMO" especially for me recent trip and it was fantastic, has all the maps you could want so if you wnat I could order for you and if you make it the UK your first trip I can hand it over, also if you wnatto borrow self inflating blow up, or anything like that felel free, you could drop it back with me before you go. Fuck I would have got lsot without one, and why waste time stoppoing and looking at maps, the motorways are fun but fast and lots of exits.......so sat nav's the way to go, dont spend money on a blue tooth you cant hear the fucking thing anyway, I put mine away after a while. the mount comes with the pack I had it mounted on my handlebars, easy to see without shifting my head movement. The Sat Nav cost £220, does all the things ones do that are a lot mroe expensive....its fab.

I have contacts in Sweden and Denmark now, Denmark has the most wonderful bike group called the Jolly Rogers if you get that way look them up and mates of mine in Sweden up and down there will put you up to......Also got mates in Dusseldorf from the Satan Slaves, who I met at the 2007 Isle of Man, who will see you right..

Mate, Europe is wonderful, spread the maps out and see what youwant form the holiday and see what
So yeah ph me and I shall give you my landline.... and if you buy an international phone card for $5 we can chat whenever you want cheaply.

My skype address is you are on skype is jantimberlake44.Mate,

PM me and I will give you my home number here in the UK and can tell you all sorts of things, as you need to be equipped with first aid boxes, bulb kits fluroscents all that shyte, so just borrow mine

You can cover a lot of europe in a few weeks, but be realistic with your mileage as you want to enjoy the ride as well......its not all about pounding about the thousands of k's. Europe is dense and wonderful to get round on a bike.

Also a dude in my old motorbike has just come back form there, talk to him, i can hand his details to you, he lvies in Queenstown. hes okay even though he changed the name of the motorbike club I formed,,,,,,,,,,,grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr anyway feel freem to pm and chat about this mate...

Ciao for now

Woodybee

[tomasmac]

Keep the info coming everyone. After our recent awesome 3 week tour of NZ, the missus has granted permission for a 5 week tour of Europe in 2011.
Cant decide whether to ship or hire.
Will be taking in IOM and then across the channell for France Italy Switerland Asutria Germany and back to london.

Anyone have the dates for 20111 IOM TT. Would also be intereted in taking a couple of Gp's

Any info on camping or reasoabnbly cheap accom would be great as well.

Hi The dates for the IOM TT is 28th May till the 10th June2011 Why not go from the IOM(ferry) to belfast then tour Ireland and then get the ferry from Cork to France Respect Tomas