Possible trip to poland (then everywhere else)

[damz]

been wanting to do a tour for a while but been finding exuses not to do it and been putting it off for quite some time. well now my girlfriend is moving to poland to teach english for a year so no doubt il be visiting a few times. well now that i will have somewhere to stay for a while and a timeframe to go im getting into the idea of doing it more now.

Well to start off im in glasgow, best way to get from uk to europe is through dover to calais as far as im aware. This trip is about a days travel or so. My brother and father live in ramsgate, roughly 20 miles away so will have a pit stop there for a day or so and perhaps bring along my brother for a while as he bought a bmw rockster not too long ago and has yet to use it for anything other than commuting.

might go for a few runs around the area and see what there is about as since they moved there i havent been around that area at all.

anyway il try and head to dover probobly very very early, like 4 or 5 am and hopefully get to calais earlyish to get the most out of the day and hopefully get cheaper fares and less traffic.



now im not too sure where to go from here onwards, my final destination is Racibórz
https://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/3069899.jpg
looks a hell of a lot nicer than uk town centres for sure.

would like to give nurburg ring a bash, visit berlin and try and see a lot of the world war sites as i think they were awesome (yes i know lots of people died) then to raciborz. perhaps go south through the czech republic, austria southern germany then southern france then climb up through france back to calais and back to dover, visit family then back to glasgow.

heres a general idea of route

https://www.editurl.com/1g1




now my bike is a rvf 400, not exactly the comfiest bike known to man and doesnt exactly have oodles of power but hopefully it will be enough for the trip.

since my job is fairly flexible and im unsure if im going to be studying this year (waiting to see if i get accepted) so shouldnt be hard to find time off. when do you reckon is the best time to go? i know there winters are a lot worse than ours but when does it start? october time? november?


planning on using my one peice as its become rather more comfortable after breaking it in and pack a waterproof suit, like a jonny jacket incase it rains and waterproof gloves also means i wont need to buy new trousers as my current ones are needing replaced before going on a long trip (they reeeeeaaak very badly), my boots are fine for water. how much do you reckon i'l need to pack? i'l likely be using a rucksack with clothes in it (nothing hard as i dont want to have that against my back in an accident) and perhaps a tank bag, dont think side paniers would go too well on my bike. maybe one on the passengers seat and a can of petrol incase i run out.

at least speed limits will be easier as i can just remove the km/mph converter and read the speedo in km
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Current Bikes RVF400 - 94
Cars: RX7 FD, Eunos Roadster
Former Bikes: FZR 250R 89, ZX7R 98

[Phoenix]

Someone recently did a tour on an RVF and fitted panniers and a tailpack fine, personally as it sounds like you plan to cover a decent distance I would not take a big rucksack, it's likely to cause you back ache, much nicer to have it sitting on the pillion seat.

Not sure when the weather gets really bad, I hit fairly heavy snow in the Swiss mountains at the end of June.... in November most of the mountain passes will probably be either closed or in bad condition, most list the months where they close, but obviously that's a rough guide they can be shut whenever depending on conditions.