First tour - help me plan!

[garthunkle]

After we finish uni, a mate and I plan to do a 2 or so week tour of Europe.

I'm getting a brand new Hornet 600. Will be doing my DAS at the end of May having done 3 or so months on a Varadero 125 and clocked up around 700 miles.

My mate who is doing an intensive DAS course in a couple of weeks plans to get a new Er-6n.

We're thinking of going from London to Italy via France, and back through Switzerland and Eastern Europe. This will give us a chance to go through the Alps which would be a great experience.

Firstly, do you think the distance is manageable in two weeks?

How would you change it and why?

Is there any advice you can give us, as it will be our first tour?
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CBT Passed: 26th Jan 08, Current Bike: Varadero 125

[Itchy]

Right a few hints

Switzerland (may have changed) you need to buy road tax on the border , it lasts till the end of the month so plan to get to swizerland a few days before the end of the month , it expires while you are in the country = hefty fine AND have to rebuy the road tax sticker.


Again as per usual do not over estimate the distance that you can do in a single day, Manchester -> Reims 482 miles , seems easy right? 70mph for 5 hours and you are there right? , wrong took me 6 hours just to get onto the M2 to dover , 90 minutes to cross to France, 2 hours getting lost in Calais and wandering towards Dunkirk , and a further 1 hour burning towards reims till I got hungry and lost in St Omar , then another 2.5 hours going to Reims.

THEN to top it off another 3 hours to find a hotel room.

Thus do NOT overestimate distances that you can do, and if you have a big day like I did in terms of miles , pre-book a hotel for your first night!.

But as said you'll have a hornet and you'll be even slower than me since you will have to stop to fill up every 100 miles my CBR at moderate speed gets 160 till I'm on fumes.

Bring a can of petrol , for psychological reasons , there were some panic moments when I was running at 1/4 a tank and would some how miss all the petrol stations in the area.

Be wary petrol I recall cost 1.30-1.62 Euro per litre , since the £ has dropped alot thats £1.20ish a litre.

Be wary of tolls its 1/2 for bikes in France 100% for bikes in Italy , they theoretically are cheap but they really add up BUT for time vs money they are worth it, part of the reason I took so long to get to Nice was I barely ever touched the autoroute (motorway).

bring 3 maps, I destroyed 2 on my way out there.

Take it easy you are a long way from home, although on the N202 I rode like a nutter, I look back and think it was kind of stupid , but just incase get your E111 card.

Keep the speed down in villages and accelerate after you exit them its where speed traps are, you are 30mph over the limit they take your bike you are faster , ok I am a hypocrite but I'm lucky yes I did maxx out the CBR in France, you may not be so lucky!.

Have a read of Maurice's tours

https://motocapers.com/

Austria is to be avoided , and 2 weeks might be enough it might not the problem with distance is all you do is ride and not see anything interesting , which defeats the point of touring you may as well go round the M25 a few times.

You also need to choose your route with care!.

If you go via the N5 into switzerland the approach is fantastic , but then you miss the small twisty bit around Belgarde and the Aix Le bains bit where I was chased by a cop, and the N85 , N202, if you go down to my route you miss the swiss passes , etc, you can't do them all.

bring a camera and report for us this is manditory!.

Oh and generally northern France is boring until you get near Dijon for the N74 which is hard to find, thus is may well be worth the tolls and half a day or boredom to sit on the autoroute. Its also quite cold in Northern France it seemed.

Champagne route is seriously boring straight as the eye can see, but you can max out your bike which is interesting for about 30 seconds, but watch out , there is a nasty surprise in the middle a hump back bit where I hit it at 'high' speed and suddenly heard the revs shoot right up , and thought ooh dear I'm going to die.
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Spain 2008France 2007Big one 2009 We all die. The goal isn't to live forever, the goal is to create something that will. In the end, your life will flash before your eyes. Make sure it is worth watching.

[garthunkle]

Wow Itchy, some fantastic advice there!

I'm pretty sure I will get a TomTom, will make life a lot easier. Especially as an inexperienced rider. Also I imagine that will help with petrol planning as it will have stations on the map.

Somebody told me about this route:

"For a two week tour I would take the channel tunnel, ride back roads thru France towards Besancon, then ride north along the Route des Grandes Alpes towards Evian on Lake Geneva. Then head across Switzerland and northern Italy to the Dolomites around Cortina d'Ampezzo (do yourself a favour and base yourself somewhere round here for a couple of days. Every road in the Dolomites is a winner). Then head to Ljubljana, across Hungary to central Slovakia, then head back via Czech republic (maybe southern Poland), Germany, Luxembourg and Belgium. The large section of this route between Besancon and Ljubljana is fantastic for biking, though I generally love biking thru all of rural France and Germany too."

What do you make of it?

What luggage would you recommend getting for the Hornet? Remember the new model has a stubby exhaust so there should be more options.

We are planning on staying in youth hostels, don't really want to bring camping gear.

Also, what else will I need to get for my bike? Is it worth getting the Honda windshield? Which Scottoiler should I get?

Roughly how much a day should I expect to pay a day in fuel costs for the Hornet?
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CBT Passed: 26th Jan 08, Current Bike: Varadero 125

[barnhatter]

I have done2 euro tours on my Hornet. It is surprisingly comfortable and tours well.The only problem is its tank range I try to fill up at 80 miles, begin looking at 70. On sundays look earlier, this does reduce the distance travelled.
I have Givi hard luggage the ones with the small opening. I campas it can be easy finding camp sites in europe. I take a tent and bed eating out and catching a coffee for breakfast.
My first trip was similar to yours I went via Germany through czech into austria, slovinia and into Italy then back through switzerland and france. My total milage was 2900 miles in 11 travelling days.
This was too much and got to be hard work.
I think 200-250miles on A/B type roads is plenty,more if using motorways though boring. Each mounting pass takes an extra hour so plan for that and you will find that with fuel stops etc you will average only 40 mph on a/b roads.
I use a normal scotoiler mounted under the l/h side panel and a small givi flyscreen.
If you want any more info email me

[dodger]

[Itchy]

[Shay HTFC]

[Itchy]

[Shay HTFC]

Bring GPS, but don't rely on it.

Like I said in another post, it totally ruins the principle of exploration. You want to get to know where you are travelling through and begin to be able to map place names and regions to the country. Working out your own route and finding out where you are when you are lost improves your own mental map of the world so much more!
And like Itchy says, it will direct you along the most efficient roads, not the decent, out of the way ones. On a motorcycle trip, the fun is not necessarily at your destination, but en route to your destination. Why ruin it by taking the efficient, but boring sat nav routes?
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Full Motorbike License - GS500E '95

[garthunkle]

Cheers for the advice Itchy and others.

On the GPS - I completely understand your point, a GPS if you say take me to this town, will take you via the most efficient route. Now what I was planning to do was get a TomTom Rider and then program in the route I want to take to get to that destination. So I can take the route I want but just make sure I don't get lost along the way.

Am I able to do that with the TomTom and how easy is it to change it, if I come across a fellow biker who recommends another route?

As an inexperienced rider on my first tour, I don't want to be constantly worrying if I am taking the right route and looking at the map, rather than concentrating on the road.


On Mileage - How many miles can I reasonably expect to do a day? I'm planning on not using any motorways etc.

[Itchy]

[benvanwell]

What I did was take lots of michelin maps, and a tomtom. Most evenings I decided roughly where I wanted to get to by the end of the next day. This destination was programmed into the satnav. I used the maps to plan a route, and also went wherever took my fancy, for 90% of the time. The last bit of every day I used the satnav to navigate to whatever accommodation I had planned/found.

I wouldn't like to rely on the satnav because it'd take away half the fun, but it was bloody useful for getting around cities and for finding petrol.

Oh and another thing - the one thing that caught me out badly. If you use the automatic pertrol pumps, with a uk card, what happens is that they ringfence 99Eur from your account (the maximum petrol it will dispense) and don't release the "change" until the transaction has been confirmed. This will often take 3-5 days....
I used them a lot over one weekend, until I tried to get some petrol on Monday evening and my card wasn't accepted. There was not enough money available although there should have been about 600Eur left. Luckily I managed to persuade an old French guy to come to my aid and use his card for me after I gave him cash.
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Currently Riding: Triumph Sprint ST 1050
Previous: GSF600s, GS500, BMW F45, CG125

[garthunkle]

ah right Itchy, I get you! I think when I got to the dealer I will see if they have one with and without a windshield so that I can see how much difference they make.


Wow benvanwell, Really surprised about that. Good thing you told me, will be paying at the till while I'm abroad and in Euros to avoid the card charges!
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CBT Passed: 26th Jan 08, Current Bike: Varadero 125

[Itchy]

[king kong]

Itchy,
Do they accept the Visa Debit card in France as opposed to a credit card?

It s over a month to my long weekend in France, and I don't want to overpack, so I have already been packing and repacking my gear.

[benvanwell]

My visa debit worked fine in the bank machines, but I couldn't use it for card transactions in, for example, a supermarket. I had taken a Euro card, so I didn't have to pay transaction or currency conversion fees every time I used it - I only tried to use my uk debit card when I had trouble after filling up several times one weekend (see above).
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Currently Riding: Triumph Sprint ST 1050
Previous: GSF600s, GS500, BMW F45, CG125