Brno MotoGP trip - any advice ??

Hi All,
I'm planning a trip to the Brno round of MotoGP in august with a mate, had a brief look on google maps and seems to be ferry / tunnel > france > belgium > germany > Chezch Republic.

Has anyone done this ? any tips ? how long would it take ? where can we stay with secure bike parking on the way there and back ? how far can we realistically go on day one, day 2 etc ?? woudl we hit any autobahns ? if so, can we really go as fast as we want

we want to be at Brno for the saturday and the sunday and we'll be taking the beloved Gixer and a triumph Daytona.

1st trip abroad on the bike so keen to get any tips anyone has.

Thanks in advance.

[Luckypants]

We went that way last year. It's a bally long way!!! We took three days to get to Prague (one of them being getting from L'Pool to Dunkerque). Then Brno was about 4 hours riding from Prague. That was flogging ourselves to get to Prague mind, our last day was 14 hours on the road!

I would say allow at least three days to get there if going by motorway. The concrete Autobahns can destroy tyres though! There are unrestricted sections, especially in southern Germany, but don't think you can hold 120mph all the way, your concentration wont hold and it will end in tears.

for bike security, plan in advance and book a hotel. Even though we did this, our hotel in Prague which claimed to have a garage, turned out this was a public underground car park 500M away. (to be fair the attendant had a gun) Take a big chain and lock the bikes to something solid and each other.

Generally I would say set off early each day and ride steady with frequent breaks. If no accommodation booked, aim to stop by 3-4 pm to find somewhere to stay. At all costs do not try to find somewhere in the dark, we got caught out in Prague and lucked out with a friendly local showing us across the city in the dark - we would never have found the hotel otherwise.

EDIT: our trip thread here.. http://forums.sv650.org/showthread.php?t=111179

We are hoping to do assen this year.

[dyzio]

Google comes up with this route.
I'd say, you could do the riding in 2 days and arrive on the evening before the GP. Depending on crossing time I'd plan to do 500 miles on the 1st day, stop somewhere around Koblenz in Germany, and then do the rest on the second day. But 3 days seems a more sensible option.
I did a trip trough Germany, but i was going east (Amsterdam-Dortmund-Leipzig-Dresden), it was good fun . You'll hit the autobhan in Aachen and you'll stay on it till almost the entire Germany.
As LP says there are concrete bits of the motorway and from what I've heard, they are common in the West, south/west part of DE.
Yes they are unrestricted unless instructed otherwise (one popular sign is "when wet"). But don't think you'll be the fastest thing on them, stick to the right hand lane unless overtaking.
I wouldn't want to arrive in Brono on the MOtoGP weekend without some sort of accommodation booked.

[Luckypants]

Google maps is useful, but tends to send you along motorways. All well and good if the aim is to just get to your destination, but to me the point of a bike trip is to see the country you are visiting from a twisty road, not a motorway. IMHO you may as well take the car if blasting down the motorways, a lot less tiring and cheaper.

[dyzio]

Well, he could have a nice holiday in the Czech Republic , but yes, you're right.
You could make it into a longer holiday, with the "highlight" being the motoGP, and avoid motorways.
Whichever you decide, you'll have fun

You haven`t mentioned how long you`re giving yourselves to do this trip?

In honesty I think 500 miles on the first day is way too much.... thats a hell of a lot of mileage whether its cross country or autobhan. You`re going in August and the temp is gonna be hot hot hot!! You`d burn yourself out, prob deyhydrate and wouldn`t enjoy your hols. I think 300 miles per day is the max you should be looking at doing which if you set off early should leave you enough time at the end of the day to find a hotel. Seeing as it`s August you`re going you`d be best booking your hotels first I think as thats peak season and you don`t wanna end up in the position of spending a couple of hours looking for a room. We just found hotels online and looked for ones that said they had parking.

We did pick up the autobhan a few times but I seem to remember that we only hit an unrestricted one on a couple of occasions (I might be wrong) but the majority seemed to have speed restrictions in place. I also seem to remember that there`s some sort of a ticket that you have to buy if you`re using the autobhans? we weren`t aware of it and didn`t get one but in honesty we didn`t use the autobhan that much preferring to go cross country and site see.

Best of luck and enjoy your hols

I have done Prague several times by car and I always find that the Harwich > Hook v Holland overnight ferry very good.

From a cost point of view look at it as combining a hotel and ferry cost and it will seem reasonable value.

Plus Hook v Holland to Prague (in a car) is one days drive via autobahn (Southern loop via Frankfurt is quickest)

I would never attempt this on a Bike.

I dont have any great love for the roads and views of Central Germany so if it was part of a touring holiday I would probably take a few days and head south to the Black Forest. On to Lake Constance and across the Deutche Alpine Strasse to Salzberg then across Austria to Vienna and upto Brno from there. As I would not be in any hurry I would probably take the traditional route to the Black forest via NE France which by this route should put me in Brno circa day 5 From the crossing having seen some pretty amazing country side and some great cities.

Like Luckypants says if you want to get there fast go on four wheels... If you want to tour then take the time to see some stuff and enjoy some roads that will stay with you for years to come.

Day 0 Evening run to the Tunnel to get a late train stay in Calais Ferry Ibis

http://tinyurl.com/9m3qwk

Day 1 Early start take Motor way to Cambrais and onto the Meuse down to Neufchatel

http://tinyurl.com/9hnrme

Day 2 Nice roads Neufchatel to Colmar and thru the Black Forest to Lake Constance

http://tinyurl.com/8mhptb

Day 3 Deutche Alpine Strasse to Salzberg stunning roads!

http://tinyurl.com/9ocjc4

Day 4 Eastern Austrian Alps to Vienna.

http://tinyurl.com/9zzlex

Day 5 Last short leg to Brno just over 2 hours plus customs via Bratislava (motorway) or 3 hours cross country

http://tinyurl.com/9h3alk

Hi All,

these replies are great, i thank you all. I did see this as a total 6-7 day experience. I am wondering if my friend and i are biting off more than we can chew or just say sod it, lets do it.

I'll go through all these with my friend when he's back from snowboarding so we can make a decision to definately do it.

I've got the 2 weeks booked off work but don't think the wife and kids would apppreciate me gone for 2 weeks