spain

[ocatoro]

spain is an alien nation to me being an italian welshman...

I keep seeing snippets on here and the roads look frankly incredible.

where is everyone's "go to" places, and "must visit" if touring northern spain... or wider even
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CBT - 17/09/12 * Theory - 23/10/12 * Mod1 - 05/03/13 * Mod2 - 25/03/13 * BOSH!
Current - None but shed project H100 (first bike )
Past - ER5, '93 ZZR600, '92 CB400 SF, ZZR600 (again), yellow Monster 620, Blackbird - black Monster 620ie - '96 ZZR600

[Tungtvann]

Not the plain, that's where the rain mainly falls.

[barrkel]

GI-682 - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2MhNxUEYtQ - this is probably my new favourite, though it has a lot more traffic than N-152
N-152 - my sig; it's a smaller part of the N-260, which also has lots of good bits. Road surface is a bit worse every year though.
C-26
LV-4241 - smaller road with no central lane marking in places (IIRC), but still a lot of fun.
D914 (France) - N-260 coast road from France to Spain is good but has loads of traffic. Not a bad way to enter Spain as an alternative to one of the high passes.

Those roads are great with slower speed corners. I personally prefer them because it means if I crash, I'll be going slower when I hit the side of the road. Although one side of the road is often a hillside / cliff.

There are lots of good faster roads too, but many need to be ridden at fairly serious speeds to be fun.

Best roads are generally east-west along southern side of Pyrenees, but the coast can be good too, like GI-682 above.

Andorra is not worth visiting unless you're interested in buying things with low taxes, or ticking it off on the list of tiny European countries. If so, Llivia is one to tick off too - Spanish enclave inside France.

Park yourself in Berga for a few days, unload the bikes, and use it as a base for exploring the western Spanish Pyrenees. I can recommend Berga Resort, you can rent a wooden cabin fairly cheaply if it's not high summer.

The roads on the French side are often not surfaced as well. It's also usually a lot colder in France.

If I were going back to Spain this year I'd probably park myself beside GI-682 for a few days and do it at least a dozen times. It's an amazing road.

As I mentioned, my preference is for low speed twisty roads. Others prefer high speed bends. There are roads for that too in the foothills, but obviously the penalties for getting caught are much higher, not to mention the consequences of a crash. I ripped up the edges of my tyre track-style a couple of times, but I generally backed off and kept it below 130kph.
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Bikes: S1000R, SH350; Exes: Vity 125, PS125, YBR125, ER6f, VFR800, Brutale 920, CB600F, SH300x4
Best road ever ridden: www.youtube.com/watch?v=s2MhNxUEYtQ

[spnorm]

I toured northern Spain and a bit of Portugal last year. It was my first trip and certainly won't be my last - great roads, food and scenery and pretty cheap too

https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php?347259-Northern-Spain-July-2013

[vanveenocr100...]

Excellent roads, lets face it we paid for them ?

[Ste]

N240 and then the N260 across northern Spain, west to east and you end up on a sunny beach.

[ocatoro]

is it worth the extra cash for the ferry to santander? would need probably extra 4 days (??) for travelling down and up france again for a "cheap" ferry, so i guess while fuel might be cheaper, the 2-4 extra hotels won't be
____________________
CBT - 17/09/12 * Theory - 23/10/12 * Mod1 - 05/03/13 * Mod2 - 25/03/13 * BOSH!
Current - None but shed project H100 (first bike )
Past - ER5, '93 ZZR600, '92 CB400 SF, ZZR600 (again), yellow Monster 620, Blackbird - black Monster 620ie - '96 ZZR600

[Itchy]

[ocatoro]

was just looking and seems it's about £300 return to santander from either portsmouth or plymouth (i'm in gloucester, so neither is particularly close)...

cheap ferry can be had to dunkirk for £20 return... so the 850 or so mile from dunkirk to santander is what's in question then... should be about £180 or so in fuel... and a couple of hotels maybe £40 twin room with a mate, extra foods and waters and tolls.... probably looking at exactly same cost. it's just scary to look at the outlay of £300 vs £20 for ferry
____________________
CBT - 17/09/12 * Theory - 23/10/12 * Mod1 - 05/03/13 * Mod2 - 25/03/13 * BOSH!
Current - None but shed project H100 (first bike )
Past - ER5, '93 ZZR600, '92 CB400 SF, ZZR600 (again), yellow Monster 620, Blackbird - black Monster 620ie - '96 ZZR600

[Itchy]

[barrkel]

[ocatoro]

[ocatoro]

[Enduro Numpty]

Most roads in the Spanish side of the Pyrenees are superb. The N260 and C28 are particularly noteworthy but there are dozens more. Just back from 3 weeks in Europe and the Spanish mountain roads were some of the best I've ever ridden.

Check out google maps - if it looks twisty then add it to your route - can't really go wrong.

[almostthere]

What you should do is get a cheap all inclusive holiday to Benidorm hire a bike out there and go inland to Gaudalest then try the roads to Tarbena and Castell de Castells could work out cheaper than riding all the way there and make sure you're back in Benidorm to watch Sticky Vicky every night what more could you want from a holiday?
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Beer, It's the reason I get up every afternoon
www.mfairco.uk

[BrownTrousers]

No experience of Spain myself but current months 'RIDE' magazine just landed on my doormat and has a huge supplement called 'Ride guide to Spain'. Looks pretty comprehensive if OP still interested.
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Ducati Multistrada 950 | Triumph Tiger 800 XR | Honda CBR500R | Yamaha YBR 125 Custom

[ocatoro]

[Gazz]

Just back from Northern Spain with the girlfriend and baby in the car. The roads around Andorra (and the Pyrenees in general) were amazing - real racetrack stuff; smooth as silk with loads of hairpin bends. Seen shitloads of bikes.

Really need to go back, on two wheels next time.

You can zoom in to Google Maps and get a street view to get an idea of what I am talking about.

Then had a couple of days in San Sebastian at the beach (surfer's beach) and a day in Santander to finish off the holiday.

Link:

https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?saddr=Perpignan,+France&daddr=42.5447203,1.706209+to:Andorra+la+Vella,+Andorra+to:Sort,+Spain+to:San+Sebasti%C3%A1n,+Spain+to:Santander,+Spain&hl=en&ie=UTF8&ll=42.342305,1.812744&spn=4.944724,10.821533&sll=42.342305,1.807251&sspn=1.236302,2.705383&geocode=FZNgiwId8SssACn9iP2ATm6wEjFP3fIgZTCDHA%3BFVAuiQId4QgaAClrqbaAgn2vEjHLu-d4S_KsQQ%3BFU2YiAIdrDgXACkL-yVKK_WlEjGAcpmRcJQACg%3BFVEkhwIdnj4RACkBxWkD3AWmEjEP2M_4zkhj8A%3BFT78lAId0cTh_ykV_mg7_q9RDTFJRoaUWcU-5A%3BFaIulwIdRN3F_ylx7muKrklJDTGWuoIWgNx80g&oq=sort&mra=dpe&mrsp=1&sz=9&via=1&t=m&z=7

[Peirre oBollox]