Touring Advice

[Adrian]

Hi everyone,

I am planning on going to North of Spain with the bike this summer. I'm visiting a friend in Leon and also wanted to see Barcelona. I did do a search and most of my questions are clear now, however I still need some advice.

The boat from Portsmouth to Santander is £370. Do you think it's better (cheaper) to go to Calais and cross France with the bike? I'm not planning on seeing France so it would have to be just a matter of getting it out of the way as quickly as possible. Also form your experience, how many hours am I looking at to get from Calais into lets say San Sebastian? I also know France isn't cheap to cross on motorways. Not sure if that is still the case...

I've got about 10 days and want to focus on Spain. I will be going on 600 btw.

Any advise much appreciated.
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DAS 18/06/09 Off The Kerb Motorcycle Training. Proud owner of a Honda CG125 & a Honda Hornet

[CaNsA]

Please fix the title.

Advise / Advice

I hate that word anyway, but the incorrect use drives me up the wall

Cheers

[Marmalade]

I prefer the ride, ferry using LD lines is a little cheaper and gets you to Le havre or Dieppe and go to Bordeaux and then hit the coast road for some amazing coastline.

Tolls i allow 10p per mile for and in that direction the tolls save huge amounts of time
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Nobby the Bastard: How yo tell the difference between the actual japanese and her just screaming because she's had live fish stuck up her arse? [url=https://www.nicks-shop.co.uk/bcf-goodies-15-c.aspGet BCF stickers and things here[/url] Reflective helmet stickers - Legal requirement in france - Clicky

[moppy]

I've paid £20 for the ferry from Dover to Calais. Surely it will be cheaper to go by bike?

[Walloper]

There's a website WWW.UKGSER.COM that has tons of info on touring if you can't find info in the Touring section at BCF.

You need Hi-Vis and triangles and stuff. the sites will list it all or check AA RAC etc.
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W-ireless A-rtificial L-ifeform L-imited to O-bservation P-eacekeeping and E-fficient R-epair

[Adrian]

Cheers guys
____________________
DAS 18/06/09 Off The Kerb Motorcycle Training. Proud owner of a Honda CG125 & a Honda Hornet

[jjdugen]

Even if you can get down to the bottom of France in a day, you still have the mountains to cross. You will be shattered.
France is not a cheap place to do anything in these days, even with the Euro losing some of its sting. Factor in the day or more it will take you to recover, or the hotel that you will have to crash in and the ferry to Santander suddenly seems pretty good value. You will also be putting a thousand miles each way on your bike, tyres and chains better be in good order! Factor in the fuel costs and it becomes a no brainer to use the ferry.
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The CBR900RR has been sold. Aprilia Falco worms its way into my heart.
Try Soi 23 on Amazon for a good read.... Self promotion? Moi?

[Peirre oBollox]

The ferry companies ain't stupid, the know how much it costs for an average bike to cross France to Spain (fuel, hotels etc) and price the ferries accordingly. So I'd hazard a guess that there's probably no more that £10 difference between taking the ferry to N.Spain or crossing the channel and ridng down. Plus it will take around 2 days each way to ride down and he's only got 10 days for the trip in total
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I accept no responsibility for swearing, drinking, motorcycle riding or your pregnant teenage daughter.

[Vincent]

You'll be much better off getting on a boat and it should work out considerably cheaper. Check out boats to Bilbao and ride from there
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Space Is Deep

[Walloper]

[Adrian]

Cheers for the advice. I think I will change the plan and tour France. If I get to Spain fine, if not than I'm not making a mission on getting there. I'll see how I feel as I go along. As everyone here says it's not cheap to ride through france...I bought the tickets to La Havre already so I gues it will have to be that route. Sort of regret it now, should of gone Portsmouth to Bilbao or Santander route and enjoyed Spain. Oh well...
____________________
DAS 18/06/09 Off The Kerb Motorcycle Training. Proud owner of a Honda CG125 & a Honda Hornet

[danando]

Given the choice I would still go by road rather than the ferry to Santander or Bilbao. I've gone from Calais to Vigo in Northwest Spain which is 1100-1200 miles each way about 10 times now mostly by car but twice by bike. I think you've compromised well by riding from Le Havre as you take off 2-3 riding time - I did that once, getting off the ferry at 7am and got to Bordeaux by just after midnight, granted it was hard work with alot of time taken stopping to look at my map and fuel stops but that was all done avoiding toll roads. I usually go by car now and get off the ferry at Calais at 2.30pm french time, get to Bordeaux or very close to it 12-1am but that is with using tolls all the way. Cost of tolls from Calais to bordeaux is made of of 3 main sections, first one being bolougne to a few miles north of Rouen approx 8euros(was between 7 and 17, cant remember), next is just south of Rouen to Tours, approx 30 euros then Tours to Bordeaux about 33 euros. Remember these are car prices, bikes work out at roughly 60 percent of this. Bordeaux to the spanish border is toll free straight dual carriageway. All the riding up to now will be quite boring especially on the toll road, when you get towards the border, assuming you are cutting the corner and crossing the border at Bayonne into Spain at Irun. As you approach the border there are many small cost tolls all chained together averaging 2-3 euros. I think they add up to about 12 euros. I found it quite irritating as you've just paid for one , then 10 minutes down the road you are stopping to pay again. If you are not in a hurry I would consider the free roads until you get over the border into Spain assuming you want to. After this it gets quite interesting with some decent twisty turny but fast roads. At this point I've done about 3 fifths of my journey. After about 100 miles of this, if you do head directly west the roads are quite twisty but if you were to head to Leon then you are heading slightly south and it flattens out into open plain. If I were you I would try a bit of both, ie toll and free roads as the toll roads are quite boring. I'll just add that the french car drivers are much more courteous than here towards bikers and will often move over to let you through when you come up behind them and every single biker will wave to you.
I can give you more info if you want, just pm me. Hope this helps.

[Peirre oBollox]

Even with the Uk - France ferry ticket the OP already has, he still has the option of using the land bridge https://ldlines.com/landbridge/landbridge.html to get to northern spain without riding down.
This will give him the oppotunity to ride the parts of BOTH France and Spain he wants to see without the long slog of riding all the way
As for Frence toll pricing check out https://www.autoroutes.fr/index.htm?lang=en this will give him the option of inputting a motorcycle as the mode of transport
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I accept no responsibility for swearing, drinking, motorcycle riding or your pregnant teenage daughter.

[Fowlersrs]

What sorta cost is this land bridge? I take it it's just an internal ferry route?!