riding in spain

hi,

im off on a trip to spain next week with the new wheels, i have never riden or even driven in spain. has anyone here ridden or driven over there? do they have fixed speed cameras? or unmarked police cars? what else can i expect? apart from being on the wrong side of the road. anything i should watch out for?

also i am travelling on a ferry for the first time with a vechile, will i be loading it on to the ferry, or will i have to pass my pride and joy to someone else? will i have access to it while im on the ferry? or will i have to take all my luggage bags off and carry them with me?

just take the valuables off the bike (ie money passport etc, and anything you may need) when its on the ferry, as you wont have accses to it, you ride your bike on the ferry, then it gets strapped down (i think most companys do the straping down now, to make sure its done properly) they place a large pad over your seat and ratchet it down. leave all your luggage on the bike

[Mr Speirs]

As far as the road are concerned. There are speed cameras but very very few. Not sure about unmarked police cars but then again the likely hood of seeing one is slim.
The reason? I once drove a 2 hour journey on one of the main motorways into Alicante a major city and saw exactly 12 cars. This was also from 7-9am on a friday. It was deserted.

get caught doing wrong ,you'll get fined on the spot no money bike will be taken off you. make sure you have at least 70 euros on you.the Spanish police are very strict were the law is concerned.
my sister and her hubby live out there in Alicante

[BillyC]

Ensure your insurance documents contain an internationally worded Bail Bond. Spanish police put you in prison first, and ask questions later.

Generally the driving experience is perfectly pleasant, but be ready to put up with the typical spanish drivers - every road is a race track.

The surfaces aren't great, particularly in the south and off the motorways and main roads, expect ripples, holes, lumps and uneven cambers.

Most of all, enjoy!

cheers, one question, what is the bail bond?

according to this website

http://driving.drive-alive.co.uk/driving-in-spain.htm

a bail bond is not required

'Bail Bond: a guarantee to be lodged with the police in the event of an accident or major traffic violation - no longer a legal requirement for Spain and most insurance companies have stopped issuing them.'

[STRAMASHER]

Would not worry about these type of things. You'll probably not see a cop outwith the big towns and cities and the last thing most of them can be bothered doing is wasting their time trying to talk to a gringo. Its a fecking adventure!

Can understand being nervous................





....cos you don't yet realise how Spain is the best biking place in Europe.





Loads of good advice and stories in the "Euro" part of this org.

Originally Posted by johnnyuk

get caught doing wrong ,you'll get fined on the spot no money bike will be taken off you. make sure you have at least 70 euros on you.the Spanish police are very strict were the law is concerned.
my sister and her hubby live out there in Alicante

Yeah, definately right, the spanish police can be mega harsh. They're really trying to reduce the number of deaths on their roads just now so there are a lot more speed traps going up (although often there are signs in the area to warn you). Also the punishments are now harsher, as they only adopted the "points" system that we have a year or so ago. So the Spanish drivers are losing their "reputation" a little bit at least which has to be a good thing! I would still say to take extra care though because they are still generally crazier than us brits and the police are a tad less reasonable too in terms of speeding.

I've only ever driven there, not ridden there, but generally it was a good experience with great quality roads compared to the ones we have here. The only strange point was getting stopped by the armed guard going into the Basque country who wanted to confiscate our GPS...we later found out that they had "word" that something ETA related was being planned and were testing all the GPS etc etc for data! Ah well, at least we weren't being pulled out our car unlike a few guys in front of us lol! The "stupid tourist" thing obviously did the job!

Laura

can anyone recomend some good roads that are worth a ride on from bilboa to malaga?

[STRAMASHER]

Try the Picos D'Europa west of Bilbao and Santander.

Ronda to Marbella is a must. Watch out for cops on this one as it is very famous/popular with the bikes. Seen some folk getting done a few years ago. But,so good they do bike launches on it.

Thats some journey down to there.