Euro trip - June

Booked some time off work 30th May - 11th June and planning to do a bike trip through Europe with my old man, brothers and a couple of mates.

There are 6 of us in total, I'm pretty sure Ill be taking the SV, My old man has a 'busa (though he has complained it makes his neck ache so he may chop it in before we go) Max has just ordered a new Street Triple, and Dan has a GSX-R750. both my brothers have bikes or bits of bikes sitting around and are planning to sort something 600 sports tourer ish.

The ferry is booked, Poole - Cherbourg, and I have a rough idea of a route I would like to do, Basically straight down through France, into Italy, through Switzerland, accross Germany to Holland.

We are planning to camp for the most part and keep it fairly flexible in terms of route. We want to have a few days 'off' as it were and dont want the riding to become a chore.

Dont mind doing a couple of long stints but dont really want to be doing much more than 4 hours a day.

Wednesday 30th - Ferry from Poole @ 07.30 arriving in Cherbourg at 10.00, pootle down to Le Man's stopping for lunch and set up camp around the Le Mans area

Saturday 2nd - I would like to make Milan for Saturday and spend a couple of days here, probably a hotel or apartment will be welcome by this point. Is this overly optimistic? i.e. to have an enjoyable ride through south of France, without doing marathon sessions or breakneck pace, and make Italy by Saturday afternoon?

Monday 4th - Head to Zurich

Wednesday 6th - Get to Nuermberg and spend a bit of time pootling round the ring.

Thursday 7th/Friday 8th- Travel through Germany.

Saturday 9th/Sunday 10th - Amsterdam baby

Sunday PM/Monday AM - Travel home

So, those of you that have done similair trips, what do you think? doable? over ambitious? any suggestions?
Cheers
Ben

[Luckypants]

Originally Posted by benji106

We are planning to camp for the most part and keep it fairly flexible in terms of route. We want to have a few days 'off' as it were and dont want the riding to become a chore.

Good plan.

Originally Posted by benji106

pootle down to Le Man's stopping for lunch and set up camp around the Le Mans area

It might be a little too far south of Le Mans but the municipal camp site at Chateaudun is very nice and cheap... http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=Ch%C...rance&t=h&z=17

Originally Posted by benji106

So, those of you that have done similair trips, what do you think? doable? over ambitious? any suggestions?
Cheers
Ben

Might be over ambitious on distances, especially if you want to only ride 4 hours on riding days. Even using motorways you will struggle to cover the distances and motorways defeat the object of going on the bike.

Originally Posted by Luckypants

Might be over ambitious on distances, especially if you want to only ride 4 hours on riding days. Even using motorways you will struggle to cover the distances and motorways defeat the object of going on the bike.

Cheers for the feedback.
4 hours isnt a hard and fast rule, just a number we came up with on the basis that doing much more than that on a daily basis would get a bit knackering, guess it will depend on the roads etc. not having done an extended bike trip before its a bit of an unknown for me, but imagine 6 hours a day for example would be hard to keep up, It is a holiday after all.

[Luckypants]

Exactly my point I was not insinuating you should ride for longer, I simply meant that you cannot do the distances you want to cover in 4 hours per day...

hmmm, may need a bit of a rethink then, I would really like to visit Italy as I have never been before, maybe skip Nuermberg and stick to West Germany on the way back.

[Luckypants]

If you want to go to Italy, IMHO bite the bullet and motorway down there in two mammoth stints, then enjoy the ride home...

4 hours a day won't allow you to see much IMO.

4 hours of riding in France on their brilliant roads will feel like 30 mins, they will fly by.

6hrs a day is comfortable, meaning you can do that every day. why does every thing have to be so far away? lol, meaning i need more holidays

[STRAMASHER]

Sounds like a lot of m/way bashing.

Head for the mountains!!!

Chuck Holland and Germany and fire about the French/Swiss/Italian Alps for longer. Thats where the mind blowing routes and views are.

Looks a great trip and you'll have a great time whichever route and itinerary you decide on. Should you decide to take a look at the area around the Nurburgring in the Eifel and the Mosel Valley, look us up and drop by and say hello. Always have a cuppa and home-made cakes on hand.
Happy to advise on local roads if you want, and things to see. If you decide to have a day's 'downtime' you could not do better than to spend it on Mosel, lovely little places like Cochem and Bernkastel, great beer (there's a microbrewery in our village), fantastic wine, river boat trips, and a whole host of activities should you want - karting, cycling, paragliding etc.
If you want a bit of comfort before heading back for the ferry, at campsite prices, we do B&B and self-catering for 15 euros pppn for forum members - see www.river-valley-guest-house.co.uk
Enjoy and hope to see you over here in the Mosel.