2017 European Motorcycle Tour Ride Plan

Here's the ride plan for the first two weeks of the tour....

Week1:
Heidelberg, Germany to Cevennes and Ardeche area in France
Millau
Mende
Vals Les Bains
Bagnols Sur Ceze

Highlights:
Gorges of Tarn and Ardeche rivers, Millau viaduct, Ste Enimie, Peyre, la Couvertoirade, Balazuc, plateau of Causses Mejean, Canyon of Dourbie, cheese caves of Roquefort, Cevennes ridge road, Sautadet Falls, Mount Aigoual

Week 2:

Perigord and Quercy Area

Perogueux

Sarlat

St Cere

Cahors

Albi

Highlights:
Valleys of Dordogne and Vezere rivers, Beynac, Domme and Rocamadour, caves of Lascaux and Pech Merle, Sarlat market

2017 European Motorcycle Tour

In less than one week I will be in Heidelberg, Germany preparing my BMW motorcycle for another tour in Europe. I've been riding that bike for more than five years, venturing as far as the Republic of Georgia, Estonia, Norway, Scotland and Spain, and completing multiple rides in France and Switzerland.

I've been able to ride over Alpine passes and to the coast of the Mediterranean. I've crossed the English Chanel and had the bike on an overnight ferry to Stockholm, Sweden from Tallinn, Estonia.

This year's ride is important to me because I may bring the bike home to the U.S., or sell in on in Germany after the ride.

I keep the bike at Knopf's Tours in Heidelberg, Germany and will arrive September 5 to check it out and load it up for my ride. I have return tickets on September 28, giving me 22 days to tour.

Knopf provides bike storage and a B&B service for me, and also provides all the other services a touring motorcyclist may need. In the past I have had Stefan arrange for maintenance service and transportation to Frankfurt Airport.

It's also been a great place to meet other riders as they start or end their trips. Stefan can also provide bike rentals and tour arrangements.

I have been able to leave a lot of motorcycle gear at Knopf's too, including riding clothes, tools and camping gear and spare parts.

For all of this, I pay only $300 per year. I also buy motorcycle liability insurance through Stefan when I actually ride, and he sells me road breakdown insurance too.

Last year, they asked me for a letter from my Physician stating it was OK for me to ride, this to show to the insurance company......I guess that was a clue that at age 68, I am now getting to the point where motorcycling becomes more than just an adventure?

If it is really likely that this is my last Euro-Moto-Adventure then let's make it a good one to remember!

Europe 2013 London, UK to Budapest, Hungary

I did it.

Packed up the bike and flew with it to London.

Rode across London to Ilford

Lots of fun with cousins and family

Rode out to Dover in two days

Ferry to Calais

Started the ride on the Continent

A complete report of the ride is available on the Crazy Guy on a Bike website here: https://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=1&doc_id=12792&v=nW

Packed and Ready (?)

With the bike reassembled and my gear reduced to essentials, I am getting ready to leave fo Europe next week (May 28,2012).

I will fly over to London Heathrow Airport on British Airways, as they seem to have the best international bicycle policy. The bike will travel, partially disassembled, in a cloth bag, along with the empty panniers, and a lot of foam pipe insulation wrapped about the frame to protect it. It is a big, heavy package, and I will worry until I see it arrive safely. All my remaining gear will have to go into another huge piece of checked luggage,  and this will then fold up with the bike bag into small packages to travel with me.

Once at Heathrow, I will put it back together and ride it through central London and on to Ilford, near to where my UK family live.

I plan to stay in London a few days to meet with my cousins and their families. I'll use some of the time to get the final gear selection done, and take a short shakedown ride.

When the time is right I will ride out of London, and head for France, crossing the Channel to start the ride proper.

Tuning up the Bike

I bought my bike from a dealer in Florida, off the floor.  It is a large frame, size 58cm. It has always been just a little too large for me, but I have tried to make it work by customizing it with a shorter stem on the handlebars and smaller crank arms. Unfortunately, none of this fixes the problem of the stand over height, which means if I stop and put my feet on the ground the top bar presses me in the crotch. Since I have grown rather fond of my attachments, I wanted to remedy this situation.

I like the rest of the bike, a Surly Long Haul Trucker, but I don't want to buy another one in my size (56cm), so I chose to replace the frame with the correct size.

I ordered the frame online for $430 delivered, and started the process of stripping everything off the "old" bike". Meanwhile, I took the new frame to a bike shop here in NY to have a new headset installed, since this is beyond my capabilities and requires some specialized and expensive tools and preparation. Everything else on the bike will carry over from the original bike, including the bottom bracket, which was the hardest item to remove. I only had to buy one special tool.

The Donor Frame - Too Big!

The headset will be upgraded slightly, but the bike shop will need to keep the bike over the weekend until the part arrives. In the meantime, I have bags of parts all over the bedroom. I am a little worried about how everything goes back together, especially the derailleurs and getting the brakes adjusted, but the rest looks easy.

Once the old frame was stripped, I photographed it and put it up for sale online, using the CGOAB (Crazy Guy On A Bike) website and it sold in 12 hours for $380, so sizing down will not be too expensive. The frame is off via UPS to a new owner in New Hampshire. The net cost of the frame was $50, shipping the old one out was $40 and headset parts and labor will be about $100, so a total cost to me of under $200. 

New Frame - Pretty Blue

One observation is just how light the steel frame is alone, maybe 5 lbs - which is heavy in this world of carbon fiber race frames, but this is a touring bike, designed to carry a heavy load of gear for long distances without collapsing.

Preparations and Logistics

The Bike

I have a bike, with all the stuff for long distance, unsupported touring. it is a 2010 Surly Long Haul Trucker, black with Tubus racks and Ortlieb bags. I have a dynamo on the front wheel to generate electricity to power lights and to charge my phone.
 
The Gear

I have camping gear: a tent, sleeping bag, air mattress, pillow and cookware

I have a ton of electronics:

• Cameras - still and video - nice and heavy
• Smartphones for talking and email. Also good for everything in the world of who, what , where and how.
• iPad for reading books, web surfing, email, navigation
• GPS - more navigation

The bike weighs a lot, 39+ pounds without the bags and gear. With the gear I am afraid to weigh it. It is too heavy. This will not be fun to climb hills. I customized the bike a lower front gear, and added shorter crank arms to take some of the strain off my 64 year old knees.

Logistics and Route

I will fly over to Europe, probably to London, UK with the bike in a box as baggage on the airline, unpack and ride to London to visit with my relatives for a few days.

The plan then is to head south, cross the channel (how?) and ride to Paris, after a bit of time in Belgium and Luxemburg.

After Paris, it South and then East across France, Switzerland and then into Italy, crossing the Alps at Saint Gottard Pass.

Next, Italy and then Slovenia, and into Croatia.

Depending on how things are going I will then decide on my next destination. Possible routes include heading farther south to Greece, or East into Hungary and Romania and to the Black Sea. Another possibility is to head north to Slovakia, Czech Republic and Poland, before heading back east to the UK for a flight home. 

Route Planning for Europe

Europe: A lot of political countries, but all in all not so large an area when compared with North America or Asia....Traveling from country to country in Europe is akin to state to state travel in the U.S. - one big difference being the changes in language and customs.

In planning a ride in Europe I want to prepare a list of places, people and special sights and events to see.

Some planning points for me:

• I have relatives in the UK, and have made some friends in Eastern Europe. 
• I want to see Paris, France
• I really enjoyed my motorcycle visit to Provence
• I loved the friendly people of Italy
• Switzerland was beautiful but expensive
• I like the Alps, but I am afraid of my mountain climbing skills on a bike
• There are EuroVelo Routes that traverse the continent N-S and E-W, with maps, trails and points of interest
• I would like to say I bicycled across Europe
• I have a lot of time and enough resources to take an extended trip
• I have camping gear (tent, sleeping bag), but I would rather stay in pensions if available
• I have cooking gear, but forget that, I want to eat great food every day and not cook much
• I like Formula 1 car racing and MotoGP motorcycle racing - wouldn't mind seeing a race 
• I want to go to Positano, Italy - because I like to say Positano.

That's enough background - on to actual planning next....