Biking across Europe

[Mantzy]

My sister is moving to Prague hopefully in September from New Zealand and I've been thinking this is a great chance to do some touring. Just wondering if anyone has done any fairly long distance touring or not. What it'd be like on a ZX6R, which ferry company is good, when is the best time to go, what I should take with me and how long does it take to get across Europe (Multimap said it's about 600 miles or so - i'm guessing that's about a day and a morning).

Any help would be cool
R
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Current Bikes: 2010 Triumph Sprint ST 1050
Previous Bikes: 2002 Sachs XTC, 1999 Kawasaki ZX6R, 2004 GSX-R 600 K4, 2006 Yamaha XT660X

[McJamweasel]

Last year I did 1200 miles in a week on a ZX-6R, 2 up as well. Comfort was non-existant for Karen on the back, but I wasn't too bad. As long as you move around a bit you should be OK. The bike held up really well, most of the mileage was boring straight stuff, but even that didn't badly affect the 207RR's that were on there. Fuel economy was pretty good too.

Make sure your luggage is strapped down well and try and avoid a large tankbag if you can. They just get in the way of you tucking in a touch to avoid the motorway windblast.
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BCF: Be yourself, just don't be an arse.

[EuropeanNC30R...]

Only 600 miles to Prague? Sounds a bit on the low side.

I use www.viamichelin.com for European route planning.

I haven't heard of a bad ferry company, but generally you get what you pay for. SeaFrance is cheap and cheerful, popular with truckers. Brittany Ferries and P&0 are more expensive but the fittings tend to be of higher quality. Speed Ferries are supposed to be really cheap, although the quote I had off them was more expensive than P&O and SeaFrance

I think www.ferrysavers.com have a price comparison utility and can actually work out cheaper (using special deals) than the ferry companies own website.

[Mantzy]

Okay, it's closer to 815 miles actually if I factor in the journey from Ipswich to Dover. That's a good website. Can get a ferry in September for £25 return which aint bad at all and if I tally up fuel costs and add on the ferry it's £157.40 return by UK fuel costs. Not bad really. Saying that, Easyjet can get you there and back for £60.

Wouldn't be as much fun though would it?
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Current Bikes: 2010 Triumph Sprint ST 1050
Previous Bikes: 2002 Sachs XTC, 1999 Kawasaki ZX6R, 2004 GSX-R 600 K4, 2006 Yamaha XT660X

[EuropeanNC30R...]

Go for it, I'd ride it . An advantage of going it by bike is that you get a real perspective of how far away places are, as opposed to by plane.

I did 2200 miles in 8 days last year on my 91' VFR400, as we had a rest day we were averaging about 300 miles a day. (Could've done more but we were taking the twisty/scenic routes and avoiding motorways when possible). I reckon 600 miles should be fairly easy-going over a couple days on a zx6.

[natv4]

From Prague to Calais is 670 ish miles via the boring motorway.

I came back from there last year. Its a nice ride and do-able in one day if you are used to high mileage riding and don't want to enjoy the view (I managed 10 hours from Prague to Calais to catch my ferry).

I'd personnally stop somewhere in Germany and enjoy the trip if you have the time.

I find that ringing the ferry companies and playing them off against each other (seafrance said this much...etc) usually gives nice low quotes. Also book as far in advance as you can. I think I got return tickets a month apart for 50 quid last year. The deals I have seen this year seem best with P&O (posl.com) at around 60quid return. Though you will probably need to try and avoid peak times to travel.

Good luck, I may see you at the ferry port.
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Travelling around the world...a bit at a time. Where am I now? / Visit my BLOG
Bike: Blue Honda VFR800fi (*NEW*) Mileage: 22k Countries visited: GB/F/D/CZ/PL/E/I/B/A/HR/H/Rus/E/MA
West Europe...2004, East Europe...2005, Russia/France...2006, Morocco...2007