Bike Tour Companies

Looking to take the bike over to Europe later in the year; 4 - 6 day trip, take in a Superbike Race or if needbe a MotoGP, but most of all to have a week away. Do most of you organise your trips by yourself or go with tour companies. I was looking to go with a tour company, so that it is all sorted for me. Plenty of info on the net, but are there any firms that are recommended or vice versa?

Any experiences or recommendations welcome

Cheers

Stu
Touring novice ;D

Heard nothing bad from No Limits and their abroad trips like Almeria.

http://www.nolimitstrackdays.com/acatalog/AlmeriaTrackdays.html

Stu,

It depends what you want and how flexible you are with dates but for the first few trips abroad I went with a tour company and then started doing the trips on my own or organising them for a few friends. Once you know what you are doing setting up a trip is very easy. I normally do around 4 weekend trips and a couple of longer ones during the year. I aim to get the bike abroad once a month from May to October. I do have to suffer taking my wife on two or three of them which means taking the1200VFR instead of the BMW but that's small price to pay.

I would recommend Bike Normandy which is based in Normandy (funnily enough) but run by an English couple, John and Jen Eggleton who I've been with a dozen times. They are a really friendly and run short weekend trips as well as longer tours. Everything is taken care of for you, the trips are always on stunning roads and the hotels are well chosen character hotels not large chain ones. The roads on their WSB Magny Cours trip in early October are so good I've done that trip 3 times and will probably do it again this year.

Another good company is MCI run by Alistair and Fiona McFarlane. They run tours for larger groups so can be a little less friendly but still well organised and good value.

Organising a simple weekend away, for me based in Essex, is simple and cheap. I can leave home late Friday night and stay in a cheap hotel in Calais or early Saturday and head off into Normandy or Brittany before returning home on Sunday night. Easy to extend by a day or two if you want to travel further but I don't get paid if I don't work so shorter weekends work better for me. For longer trips I try and stick to less than 200 mile days and pick interesting roads rather than do 300-400 mile motorway days. I usually book the first hotel and decide which country/area I want to explore then find somewhere local when I've had enough riding for that day. The old Satnav really helps for that but once you know which chain hotels you like it's quite easy. Reading the tour company web sites can give a good idea of the areas to cover and which towns are likely to be interesting.

My favourite short trips are WSB or Moto GP in Assen, the North West 200, Magny Cours WSB or anywhere within about a couple of hundred miles from Calais. When it comes to longer trips you are spoiled for choice. The Alps are stunning as is the Route Napoleon in the south of France. The B500 in Germany takes some beating as do the roads round the Mosel area but German food is an acquired taste. Taking a ferry down to Santander in Spain sounds expensive but is saves several boring days getting there and back and Spain has good roads with cheap hotels/food/beer. I’ve taken the ferry down and rode back up through France on the scenic routes but next time I’ll take the ferry both ways and just spend a week playing in Spain.

Google Maps is an ideal way to wander around Europe (or further) looking at trip options.


Allan

Using a tour company is more expensive, So I always do it myself depends if you want to be in a group or not and there is no deviation from the proscribed route.

Look at the WSB calendar for the dates then look at ferry crossings.

Use Google maps to work out your route, if you have a satnav and you really should! There are applications available for Garmin and Tomtom that you can build routes up in and then load into your sat nav. its best to load them up in 1 day chunks, so you don't overwhelm the satnavs’ route engine.

here is a link to tyre route planning softwhere for both tomtom and garmin although i think garmin do their own software http://www.tyretotravel.com/

I always do my own thang when it comes to Touring, although I have been on one organised tour and soon realised that its not for me.


What WSB/GP round do you want to go too?

yup go by yourself
done WSB last 2 years in spain and italy and will only be going moto gp after monza
got a big trip planned for catalunya this year

Hello folks,

thank you very much for all the advice and comprehensive info. I may, as you recommend try a tour company for my first trip, then start to plan for going on my own.

I am used to driving in Europe, I worked in Berlin and then near Soest while in the Army, but that was in the late 80's/early 90's. But I haven't ridden in Europe.

Sat Nav is on the way, missus gave me £200 toward one, so just to add a few quid and go shopping.

Re MotoGP/WSB, guys at work went to Catalunya, really liked it, but that may be one to plan for, may try Magny Cours in October or Nurburgring in September

Do you use the Tunnel, rather than ferry? Any dramas? We drove to Ypres via the tunnel recently and the bikers we spoke to, swore by it

Again, many thanks

Stu

yeah chunnel is great , Im just pissed off with france now and motorways , so a spanish port for me now

Yep tunnel everytime, ive used it over 60 times for bike trips. Never had a problem apart from a couple of years back when there was a fire in the tunnel. I was in France and Eurotunnel gave me a ticket for a Sea France Ferry crossing.
One of my friends dropped her bike on the ramp into the train, Eurotunnel paid for a complete repair job at a main dealer (£1600 mainly panel damage).


If your riding down from oop north I would leave a day early and stay overnight at Folkstone, there is a premier inn 2 miles from the tunnel.


Good Hotels around the Nurburgring but my Fav is this one http://www.hotel-wilhelmshoehe.de/ run by Jackie (english). Fantastic place, not too expensive, garage for locking up the bike and bike washing facilities on site. 20 mins from the ring on great roads. ;D

+1 for bike normandy, did a short break last sept and would highly recommend to anyone! ;D
As for doing a euro tour get some good mates together, get on the net for accommodation and get on the chunnel the ferry is to slow and they dropped my mates bike( thought there was gonna be a murder)


Did 2.5 thousand austria & back last year, going back to germany the black forest & the B500 this year( i loved the german food and the beer was the best ive ever had!)
European roads no potholes, mostly biker friendly (watch out for the dutch :'( ), just make sure you've got a decent set of road tyres as soft track ones wont even get you out of france(mich 2CTs).