French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

Hey Guys

An adventure in the making !!!!!!!!!!!! feel free to provide or offer any useful practical real world advice ,,,,,,,,,

here is the story so far ,,,, I will be riding my BMW S1000RR 2018 Motorsport colours (pics in gallery & will post more pre & post trip)

For years now I have been wanting to do a tour on a motorcycle through France & enjoy the the South of France , I finally decided to do it & an opportunity came up to stay with an friend who has recently bought a house near Bezier came up so i decided to just "go for it" and have booked the Euro Tunnel for 6th August including all the hotels,,,,,

here is my itinerary / plan (all i did for planning was break up the journey into manageable days & made sure i did not ride anyy more than maximum 4/5 hours a day if possible , here is what i came up with ,,,,

Day 1-Calais to Saint-Arnoult
Day 2-Saint Arnoult to Blois
Day 3-Blois to Valli?res
Day 4-Valli?res to Rocamadour
Day 5-Rocamadour to Bezier


Return is same way back ish just different routes & Hotels over 4 days

My main objectives are to ride & enjoy & stay safe
Hopefully enjoy the ucongested French roads , use Garmin Nav V with avoidance of Highways , Toll Roads & unmarked roads , set to Curvy road in the settings.
Use the Nav V to route from Hotel to Hotel

Here is how i have my kit/luggage set up on the S1000RR

BMW Motorrad 30 litre tail pack
Kriega R35 back pack with Hydration bladder
Wunderlich Tank bag ?SPORTBAG
BMW Nav V Sat Nav , BikePennR sat nav mount (pics in Gallery) BAck up Nav is Iphone with Scenic app if needed & if i feel Garmin Nav V is choosing unfriendly/crappy motorcycle friendly roads/routes...................................
Will be taking Primus fuel bottle 1.5 litre reserve in my load out,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Im doing this trip solo & really looking forward to it as i have 2 weeks off for this trip..... this is my first go at motorcycle touring so be gentle with any newbie comments please......

thanks guys

be safe always ....................................................

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

route plan on Michelin map and look for roads with green line down the side

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

I use myrouteapp.com to create custom routes/waypoints then convert to gpx and upload to the garmin.

Its easy to just pick non motorway routes and find spots for lunch using trip advisor etc.

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

Hi Vengeance,

First bit of advice from a personal experience, change the back pack and get a small tank bag. You?re covering quite a few miles and the back pack will tire you mate. The 30 litre bag you have is more than enough for all your gear. You won?t need the fuel. When on tour these things get cracking mpg and there are shit loads of fuel stations.
Only other thing I?d change is coming down to Rocamadour. I?d head further east and come down the route Napoleon and cut back through the Gorge Du Verdon. It?s stunning. [emoji1305] alternatively you could always head home that way. Lol
Enjoy ya first tour man and believe me when I say this is only the start. [emoji1787] as it will be the first on many to come.
Skel


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Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

^^What they said^^
Travel as light as possible. Ditch the back pack. Take stuff you can wash and dry quick (synthetic lightweight walking gear is great, wash it, roll it in a towel and walk on it to dry it out). This will cut down on how much you need to take. If you are traveling on your own nobody will know you had that same t shirt on last night!
Everyone will have a different idea on which way you should go - dont get carried away and end up doing loads of miles to fit it all in.

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

we are going this sort of way again in september, would reccomend amboise rather than blois crossing the loire you can avoid town easily.
we do coast road toward bolougne then cut in land to hesdin then Abbeville and down to Vernon to cross the seine then to chatres its mostly d roads and is pretty traffic free.
south of the loire the d675/975 le blanc to bellac and then skirt limoge.
we are doing first night on loire second night in sarlat then to the pyrennees.
all good roads.
would loose the back pack - most of us use ventura tail packs - easy fit on the bm and plenty of room

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

Plus 1 on the backpack, you'll just knacker yourself out. Makes you like a kite when you lean forward. If you do use one, never do the zippers up at the top else you'll loose everything when you lean slightly forward and the air gets between the 2 zips and undoes. Always zip to the side.

When you fill the bike up with fuel, fill yourself up with water.

Always keep the Toll tickets and change in top section of tank bag.

I've done a tour of France, Italy, etc pretty much every year since 1983 and numbers have dwindled down to doing my first one on my own last year. Still loved it. You always meet people and you don't have to put up with the snoring!

Being that close to the Pyrenees, you should ride up the D618/N20 (cracking roads) and do some of the Col's all the way to Biarritz, then N10, A28 home. Cracking riding roads in the Pyrenees, only bested by the Massif Central.

Ventura Rack and Pack all the way. I've had my rack and bag since they first came over here in the 80's and it's still going strong. Just change the L brackets for each bike.

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

Sarlat is beautiful. French version of the Cotswolds. Two weeks, You'll have plenty of time.

Bagneres de Luchon smack in the middle of the Pyrenees is a fab town. Ski in winter, fun in summer. Always something going on. Hotel D'etigny end of the high st, bend to left and it's straight in front of you. Very biker friendly. Lovely place. With 2 weeks you'll be surprised how much you can see.

Every hotel you stay in, always ask for secure parking. They all have something even if it means the owner moves his/her car out of the garage. They're very amenable and always lock your bike up.

Remember the French love bikes and Bikers.... If you stray towards the Massif Central. Tournon Sur Rhone.... Best roads bar none. On a sunday, just follow the one of the thousand or so local bikers out of the town and they'll show you the roads round there.... stunning. Some of the best in the world.

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

+1 on avoiding a backpack. I like to have a backpack for personal stuff but I always strap it to the top of my tail bag.

+1 on not needing to carry fuel although if it's just a litre then it could be useful. I lugged a 5 litre tank to South Italy the first time we did Europe and didn't touch it once! The bike was so much better without it as well that I'd never bother again.

People say travel light and thats obviously good advice but on the other hand its also well worth taking things that make you comfortable if they dont add too much to the weight or space. Taking plenty of underwear and clean T shirts for instance is pretty easy.

Make sure you test ride your full setup for a day at least including all bags, Nav, and riding clothing including in the heat and late at night when it's surprisingly cold as you always find something to adjust and it's great to work out the important or silly things before you go.

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

fuel isn't too much of a problem now uk cards work in supermarket (unmanned) stations.
can of tyre weld or similar is great if the worst happens - plus can of chain lube (i use wurth dry).
might be worth a new back tyre before you go as they do wear quite a lot.
Agree with JamieMac on his points

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

Get a Halifax Clarity card (or other foreign use fee free card). Take a spare card - sometimes pay at pump stations reserve funds on your card and do not release them promptly after paying, resulting in your card be declined next time you try to fill up.
Do a trial run with your luggage well before you intend to set off. IME backpacks and tail bags tend to get in the way of each other.
Remember to drive on the wrong side of the road.

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

Ok got back in one piece after my first motorcycle tour in France

I can honestly say I had fantastic 2 week adventure riding through some stunning & varied regions of France.

Lessons learnt as follows ,

would put more time into planning the route as the way down was absolutely fantastic & awe inspiring once i got past the Loire but the way back was not as good as the way down,

Let the local French nutty drivers go & do not be tempted to race them its not worth it,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, did not happen a lot but defo encountered the odd prick on the roads here & there !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here are some pics of the bike & it performed flawlessly.

i would say 200 miles day on sports-bike avoiding motorways using back roads & D roads is enough just my personal opinion some may like big miles but i dont ,,,,,,,,,, i set out to enjoy the bile & France & ticked both boxes ,

now looking at Picos for next year & Spain, but just signed up for an Focused events Euro track day for 5 days in October.

Auvoir mes amis

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

Fantastic! You will love the Picos and Pyrennes.

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

we've stayed in Riano a few times very good location if a bit quiet. Potes looks nice - We've also stayed on the coast near Santander. - allow 3 days each way if your riding

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

Well done! It looks like you had a great time! I agree 200-250 miles a day on the back roads is enough on a sports bike.

Spain - Los Picos de Europa, mmmmm, only off I ever had on the heavily banded mountainous N-621 to the east of Picos, never again. I was tired and made a mistake tipping it into a left corner and left the road, completely trashed my bike.

60 km SW of the Picos is a terrific city Leon, especially the old town, tiny streets, lots of good atmosphere and fun. South of Leon is Salamanca, gorgeous city, so pleasant and friendly. Portugal is terrific riding country too.

If you head East for the Pyrenees, make sure you stay in Pamplona, great Tapas streets and then follow the N260/N240 from Jaca towards the Med coast, unbelievable smooth roads with small amounts of traffic the last section near the med is known as the road with 1000 bends, I knew someone who lived nearby there and would ride his bike at midnight in the summer to have the whole road to himself.

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

ohh dear, we are off to Sort N260 on Friday Morning!

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

As almost everyone else already said; don’t even think about the backpack. I’ve done it not that long ago and ended up posting that backpack back home with DHL about 900km into my trip.

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

Mate , im not asking for advice anymore i was posting my post trip experience & some pices lol , thanks

Re: French adventure & BMW S10000 RR touring trip ,, all good advice welcome (-:

Great trip! Agreed on the mileage; we are both used to long stints in the saddle and still only managed about 200 miles a day maximum through Europe for anything over a few days of riding. I'm hoping the GS will allow me to do some mega miles this winter.