There’s nothing like a motorcycle tour with your mates to make you feel young again, but family and financial commitments can mean it stays a pipe dream – unless you know how to do it on a shoestring.
The first lesson is you can tour on anything. Ewan McGregor deserves credit for making motorcycle touring fashionable again, but his exploits were paid for by a fat cheque from BMW. No so Ted Simon, the inspiration for The Long Way Down. Simon spent four years travelling 126,000 km across 45 countries on a Triumph Tiger 100 500 cc motorcycle. He did it alone, with very little money and without the benefit of a support team. The lesson is, it doesn’t matter what or how far you ride – many a BMW1200GS rider has been passed on a mountain path by a local on a Honda Cub derivative and in 1980 two riders completed the gruelling Paris Dakar having ridden their Vespa scooters across 7 countries and 10,000km of brutal terrain. A two-day excursion into France is better than nothing; winter will be here again all too soon.
Motorcycle tour hire
If you don’t own a bike and decide to hire, there’s no shortage of companies ready to take your money. If you would prefer to avoid the cost, which ranges from less than £375 for a Honda NC700X to over £800 for a week’s hire of a superbike like the KTM RC 8R or Ducati 1199S Panigale, you can travel further afield to find cheaper prices.
At this time of the year, temperatures in Morocco hover between a pleasant 25 and 3o degrees, and, most importantly, the roads are near empty. Morocco offers the great roads, stunning scenery and predictable weather that make for the perfect motorcycle trip, but getting there usually involves a gruelling journey through France and Spain. Unless you hire when you get there.
It’s possible to fly to Marrakesh for around £25. A Honda XR250 Tornado will set you back £39 per day. If you stay away from the dunes, this plucky and lightweight bike is at home off road and can be specified with full knobbies for an optional extra. The film below was shot earlier this month in the Zagora desert riding XR250 bikes on standard dual purpose tyres.
XR250 hire bike in the Zagora desert Credit: snowdigitalmedia.com
Spending £60 a day gets you a brand new Husqvarna 701 enduro bike. Accommodation costs are reasonable, too. A good hotel with a swimming pool charges around £25 per night for a room that will sleep three adults. Check that your travel insurance covers bikes over 125cc. A single trip policy from the ETA covers any size motorcycle and offer great value for money (around £6 for a five day trip at the time of writing).
Following a ‘mini motorcycle tour’ approach, it’s possible to ride from Marrakesh, over the Atlas Mountains, through the Zagora desert before completing a loop back to the start in four days for less than £350 all in.
Self-fund your motorcycle tour: Buy. Tour. Sell.
The buy, tour, sell concept can be applied to a bike of any age, and we have customers who buy our single trip European breakdown cover for 14-plate tourers like the Kawasaki GTR1400 simply to tour and then pass on, but what if your budget doesn’t stretch that far? At this time of year there is still plenty of time left in the motorcycling ‘season’ to find the right bike, buy it, enjoy a European tour and then sell on.
The theory says if you choose carefully you should be able to sell the bike for the same amount you paid for it. If you’re clever, you can turn enough profit to pay for the trip. So intrigued were we by the idea that we tried it ourselves. Here’s what happened.
The VFR barely raised a sweat on the 1,000 trip
The Honda VFR800fi is a silky smooth and bullet-proof V4 with armchair levels of comfort. Crucially, Honda build quality is matched by flawless handling. The bike can feel like a handful in congested city centres, but this is a machine that excels on the open roads that the best motorcycle tour will include.
We found an exceptionally clean example on a T plate; an anniversary edition model with a mountain of paperwork and a genuine 11,000 miles. As you would expect, it ran like a Swiss watch. At £2,300 it was at the upper end of prices for early VFRs but the bike’s reputation for exceptional built quality and reliability ensures clean examples retain their value.
With a range of 180 miles from its 21 litre tank, 108 hp and a very smooth and linear delivery of power, the VFR is ideally suited to European touring, with a pillion and luggage having relatively little effect on its performance.
At 16 years of age, the bike isn’t considered pinup material, but it’s handsome nevertheless. A good tourer needs above all to handle the trip without breaking down far from home. Whatever bike you set off on this summer, make sure you buy a good European breakdown policy.
We took a boat to St Malo and rode the motorway to Bordeaux before following the Atlantic coast to Biarritz and on to Santander, where we hopped on board the return ferry to Portsmouth. On our return from the 1,000-mile trip, the bike was advertised on eBay and sold within two days for £2,500 – £200 more than we paid for it.
At this time of year there is still plenty of time left in the motorcycling season to find the right bike, buy it, enjoy a European tour and then sell on. If you choose carefully you should be able to sell the bike for the same amount you paid for it. If you’re canny, you can turn enough profit to pay for the trip.
Great value breakdown cover for your motorcycle tour in Europe
Euro breakdown cover from the ETA is available for motorbikes (and cars) up to 20 years old.
The cover includes motorcycle hire for up to 14 days (maximum £60 per day). If your bike cannot be repaired within 72 hours the ETA arranges for you, your pillion and your motorcycle to be repatriated to your home.
The policy covers travel to Austria, Belgium, Britain, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden, Norway, Switzerland, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Monaco, San Marino and the Vatican City.
Ferry routes
The cheapest and most popular option is to cross the channel by ferry or tunnel, but the route from Plymouth or Portsmouth to Bilbao or Santander is a civilised way to get straight to the incredible roads of northern Spain. Alternatively, you can put your bike on a train and start your motorcycle tour in Italy. A Dusseldorf to Verona Motorail train operates from July to August. Düsseldorf is less than four hours from Calais, or less than 3 hours from Hoek van Holland, Rotterdam or IJmuiden (serves by ferries from Harwich, Hull and Newcastle).
What do I need to take?
Whether you’ve got a full set of hard luggage, throw over bags or you are braving it with a sports bag bungeed to the passenger seat, pack smart – decide on what you think you need and then take only half that amount. At the first set of twisty roads, you will curse yourself if you have overloaded the bike.
Insurance
Don’t forget to sign up for a free European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) card at dh.gov.uk/travellers.
The EHIC card entitles you to free health care if needed and most travel insurance policies require that you have one. To get an instant quote for travel insurance that covers motorcycle touring.
John Trent
Great inspiration!