tour riding technique

[czakal]

Hi everyone,
I'm planning a short range tour (London to Cotswolds), but I haven't really done much motorway riding before (though I commute on some faster roads, up to 50 mph). Are there some particular techniques to be aware of for riding on motorways? For example someone mentioned tucking your legs close to the tank and relaxing your arms to make it easier in the wind blast. Are there other useful tips like this?

Seb

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

Not bike related; food and fluids, appropriate clothing for weather (or easy access to it should it rain).

Brief stroll about after each fuel stop.
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[Itchy]

[Rtwo]

Stay off the motorway would me my top tip, use another route.

They're soul destroying on a bike

[weasley]

[doggone]

When you're mostly in the inside lane be very wary of cars diving across at last minute for an exit.
I often see small bikes (and cars) on motorways way too close behind a truck - perhaps slipstreaming - but seriously risky when you can't see what's a head of them. Keep a good distance and when vehicles cut in and take your space, just ease back some more.

[czakal]

I haven't planned it in detail. First I'll see where I can get the cheapest hotel stay in one of the towns around the Cotswolds, as I plan to be in the area a few days.

[diesel dog]

Put your postcode and destination into google maps, go to settings and hit the avoid motorway box.

I've recently been to Cotswolds and Brecons and on a clear day there's some breathtaking sights and fantastic roads. I hate motorways with a passion and will always find the long way round.

[Enduro Numpty]

Motorways have there uses - if you want to get to the good roads quickly but a pre-requisite is a bike that's capable of eating up the miles. Otherwise, if you want to enjoy your bike time avoid them.

[Itchy]

[Enduro Numpty]

[talkToTheHat]

Do you usually ride with your knees flapping in the wind and your arms rigid?

Keep a good 2 second or bigger gap even when the traffic bunches up ride smoothly, don't be afraid to give hand signals if you need to change lanes.

Plan fuel stops, you can't wait for the fuel light or reserve when it's 30+ miles between services unless you have a very frugal bike.

Try not to lurk in the blind spots of other vehicles.

Plan your route and have route cards taped to your screen/tankbag or use a satnav. Don't use a mobile phone app that flips out if you lose data signal (waze quit on me on the a38, not recommended, copilot or osmand work well). Or know exactly where you are going, at least as far as the next exit/services and have a plan b if you miss your exit/fuel stop.
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Bandit. does. everything.

[ocatoro]

going loose on the hands and using your knees properly is proper riding for any road as far as i'm concerned.

50mph is not a fast road..

london to the cotswolds is an hour? get off the motorway and enjoy the countryside...
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[mentalboy]

You didn't say which bit of London you are headed out from.
If you are near Heathrow end then it's only a short hop down the M4 and not worth farting around on country roads IF you only want to mess around in the Cotswolds.
And even if you're down at the Dartford Tunnel end (or I should say 'crossing' nowadays) I'd personally belt straight down the motorways - that said, pretty as they are, I personally wouldn't be headed to the Cotswolds for a bike tour!


My motorway tips...
With a 200+ miles range tank I tended to stop more often than just fill ups on the M-ways. An hour/hour and a quarter at a time keeps the circulation going in your butt. (Not such an issue in the twisty roads when your butt is moving about frequently)
Ear plugs are useful
Don't ride tired
Look out for the temporary yellow average speed cameras on roadworks, historically they were forward facing , nowadays they are quite often rear facing , and in some places like the M3 they do stretches of forward facing followed by stretches of rear facing , don't get caught out!
Some motorways do become car parks at certain times of day but you are not in a car and as a London rider you should know how to filter! ...watch out for other power rangers filtering at speed and idiot drivers who like to flip between lanes in slow moving traffic
Outside of the South-East motorways are still the quickest way to get from A to B.
If you aren't too confident try to move at the same speed as the bulk of the traffic, leave sufficient room for impatient faster drivers.

For a 'proper' bike tour including the Cotswolds I'd look at some of the B-roads north of the M4, I found some cracking ones in Bedfordshire a few weeks back purely by chance.
Get some waypoints that look interesting then post them up here and one or two of the local riders should be able to point you in the right direction of fun roads.
Most importantly of all...touring is supposed to be fun, so aim to find interesting places to stop - the UK is packed with all sorts of interesting nooks and crannies if you keep your eyes open.

[MCN]

50MPH on a bike on a motorway is akin to attempting suicide.
Even 60MPH is sloooow-ish.
Most traffic cruises around 70 and expects most traffic to be at the same speed. Rear end shunts are not uncommon as there are many 'unattentives' on our motorways.

Trucks 56/60MPH so you are within their striking range.
They take fcuking ages to pass eachother going 0.005MPH faster the cnuts. So it will be horrible mixing it up with them.

As advised, try if possible to avoid m/way. It's rank. Unless you can blast past the trash on a proper big bike like a boss.
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Disclaimer: The comments above may be predicted text and not necessarily the opinion of MCN.

[Ste]

London to Cotswolds is a two hour trip according to Google Maps. Your objective should be to do it in half the time, motorways are boring unless going as fast as possible with lots of filtering.

Assuming you have a full tank when you set off, you're not going to need to stop for petrol.

On Android you can tell Google Maps to avoid motorways, you can't do this using the desktop version of Google Maps.

[someotherguy]

[stinkwheel]

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

I agree that riding most motorways at 50 on a bike is not the best way to travel when it comes to getting past problems or being able to look up the road to see where the next one lies especially so when your visor is getting jet-washed by everything.

Having the choice to choose the best lane is the safest option. Being stuck to around the 50mph limit maybe fun for the few but stupid for most.
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The Harry Turner Project

[winz]

I avoid motorways at all costs. They're boring and you have to watch out for HGV's overtaking, wind blast, noisy helmet.

The Google Map function avoiding Motorways is a good shout. There must be a nice route from London to the Cotswolds without going along the M4.

I remember doing a journey from Bristol to Marlow and it was mainly a and b roads through Calne maybe...
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[pepperami]

[stinkwheel]

I swear I'm going to strap the action cam to the front of the enfield next time I ride it down a busy motorway, not exceeding 55mph so you can all see how not-at-all dangerous and relatively boring it is.

If I remember, I'll take it to next years Dragon and do you a fucking mind-numbingly tedious video (even if uploaded at 15x speed) of the M6 from Penrith to Warrington.
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“Rule one: Always stick around for one more drink. That's when things happen. That's when you find out everything you want to know.”
I did the 2010 Round Britain Rally on my 350 Bullet. 89 landmarks, 3 months, 9,500 miles.

[smegballs]

I drove to portugal and back, on the (free) motorways cruising at about 90kph or so, so about 55 mph.

Although the 250 would have gone faster, my mechanical sympathy wouldn't let me cane a little bike all day for days at a time. So 55 seemed a nice relaxed speed the big was happy to do.

Obviously french/spanish/portuguese roads have a pretty much empty motorways compared to us, but I didn't have any problem with the speed I was doing. Did get some epic filtering action on the autoroute outside Bordeaux that was closed due to roadworks tho.

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

[ScaredyCat]

Try this for planning a route https://www.twistyride.com/Motorcycle-Journey-Planner.html
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