UK Bike Forum / UK Bike Forum / Touring

Suggestions Welcom - Need a new bike

briansp — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 10:12:47 GMT

Hi,

Currently riding an 03 plate faired Bandit but looking at doubling my commute to 75 miles each way. Any suggestions on a bigger bike? Pre reqs are:

bigger screen

tank range of up to 200 (dont fancy getting nervous for the last 10 miles each day)

enough poke to be interesting but unlikely to go swinging about B roads unless diverted

not as wide as a bus so i can filter - road becomes a car park near destination

thoughts welcome.

cheers

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Back soon!

Black Dog — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 16:00:37 GMT

Just to let you guys know I am off tomorrow for a couple of weeks of R&R in France. Hoping for some sun after all this flippin' rain and wind. Unfortunately, not on the bike - this is the annual "chill out in a field, drink lots of wine, eat bread and cheese and barbecues, read lots of books and do nothing" fest.

Keep it shiny side up, guys. Write lots of interesting posts for me to read when I get back. Ems - pictures!

Cheers all

Interesting fact

Mazz — Mon, 08 Oct 2007 16:03:07 GMT

I found out the other day what the word 'Pillion' actually derives from

Apartently it comes from the word 'Paell' which is Irish for a piece of rug that would sit behind a saddle on a horse so a passenger or 'Paellion' would comfortable... well as comfortable as you can be on a horse.... and the same could be said for some back seats on bikes too!

So there you go.

Pyrenees Motorcycle Tours

Oliwoof — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 13:53:52 GMT

Planning a trip to the French Pyrenees and looking for somewhere friendly to stay? We offer B&B, Touring package and self catering in the Hautes-Pyrenees. Our B&B is a recently renovated farmhouse in a village location with mountain views. Each of our very comfortable bedrooms has en-suite facilities. Breakfast is eaten in our newly fitted kitchen or when the weather permits outside. For bikers we have secure parking, clothes drying room, bike wash area and workshop facilities.

For more information and photos please have a look at our website - www.pyreneesmotorcycletours.com

Cheers Phil

Denmark here I come

Black Dog — Mon, 17 Aug 2009 19:23:40 GMT

Finally, finally, my boss has come back from her holiday and approved mine which I requested two weeks ago.

Some of you know the story already, but briefly - my wife has been quite ill this year and our plans for a tour of France on the Pan have had to be shelved until next year at least. She must have seen my sad face and my little wobbly lip, because she suggested that I went off by myself for a few days (best thing I ever did, marrying that one - no other woman I have ever known would have suggested that). That coincided with an invitation from a crazy biker she knows in Denmark for me to go there and stay on his club's bikes-only campsite and have a tour of the country with a local. So a decision was made, and now I have my Eurotunnel booked and I'm starting to comile a list of things to do and stuff to take.

It will be my first time biking on the other side of the Channel, so I'm ever-so-slightly apprehensive, but full of good thoughts as well. I'll be going in mid-September, so the weather will be iffy, but I can't pass this chance up. I will be writing it up on my blog with lots of pictures, I hope, so if anyone's interested you can follow it there.

First question - leathers and rain suit, or all-weather textile?

touring n Assen WSB in 2009

northpoint — Thu, 05 Feb 2009 12:52:47 GMT

Is it me, or is everyone fed up of recession, gloom etc?

I'm a biking journo, freelancing for insidebikes web mag, occasionally do bike reviews on ukbike.com too.

I am thinking of going to Assen WSB to watch BMW 1000 in action, make a feature out of it possibly... hooking up with BMW owners who might get to see their brand winning at top level, for the first time in 30, 40 years?

I am probably goin with MCi tours, they have package deal, dover-calais ferry, gronignen b n b room, race ticket, 400 quid all in...

anyone else saying sod it, let's go somewhere on the bike this summer?

northpoint al

Where not to Tour!

rebelman — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 12:21:29 GMT

Hi folks, just got back from Sri-Lanka and the Maldives. What beutiful places both of them. Would I like to tour Sri Lanka? Well we arrived fairly early in the morning and got a taxi to our hotel some hour and a half away. Never seen so many motorbikes holding so many people on them at once!

I am sure the only rules to driving there are if it's in front of you get past it anyway you can (Includes going tottally on the wrong side of the road at anytime) and the other one is once you have past whatever it was then forget about it even if it's still next to your back wheeel cos its now their job to avoid you. Absolute madness. Two adults and the two children all on one strugling little 125 or worse a moped of dubious make. Tuc-tucs, a sort of 3 wheeled lambreta with a cover over it carrying as many people as you can put inside carvind up anythiong in their way, I am told it's worse in India but somehow I really can't imagine it!

Still good to have been and glad to have survived. Don't think it's one of those places I would put on my list to tour around!

TRACKDAY/VS MotoGp

RACECAMP — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 16:37:05 GMT

You want to watch the First official Motogp test in januar? then take out your own bike at the Sepang Circuit for 5 days ?

Full package, Plane, shipping from UK, hotel, meals, etc

Go to www.racecamp.no for contact

Ideas please!

Black Dog — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 17:26:35 GMT

I hope I've done the right thing here ...

Regular readers will know that I have enjoyed the Ducati hugely, and have hooned about on it for the last year, shredding the tyres and having a whale of a time. It was going to be a 'keeper' (aren't they all when you first get them?). But ...

Mrs Dog and I spent a couple of weeks in France in September, and every campsite we stopped at there seemed to be some Brit bikers on their way through to somewhere. Strangely, we always seemed to have a beer with them at some point (I wonder how that happened?) and the wives were always telling Mrs Dog how great it was, touring Europe on the back seat of a bike.

So, on the long drive back to the ferry, we got into a conversation. She had always resisted my pleading to take the bike next time, but this time she showed an interest - as in "could we do it on the Ducati?" Well, knock me down with a feather! Once we stated getting into detail about what we could bring, and where it could all possibly go - the shoe problem, mainly - it became clear that the good old Duke wasn't in the running. Fine for a solo trip with a tail pack and rucksack, but for two people, one of whom needs a Pickfords van for her personal effects when staying away for a weekend, it wasn't going to work. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen on a touring bike. End of. I guess she must be worth it, because the Duke went on eBay when we got back, sold for a decent price, and now I am on the hunt for a proper touring motorbicycle.

Anyone help me out with a bit of advice here? My requirements (in no particular order of importance after the first) are:

* pillion comfort (Mrs Dog has a bad back - the Duke was the only bike she has ever been comfy on)
* fixed luggage capacity
* can cruise at 90-100 for long periods
* handling
* quality and reliability
* style

I have more or less settled on a Honda Pan European as the best compromise for my needs. Not terribly exciting, but hugely competent. The ST1100 is within my price range, and even an early or ex-police ST1300 if I'm lucky. I've read all the reviews I can find (thanks for those magazines RoadHoover - much appreciated) and it seems the best so far.

But you guys are bound to know better! Any ideas, folks?

UKBike.com are looking for blog writers!

tom@ukbike.com — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 11:08:35 GMT

Hi everyone, I'm Tom from the UKBike.com team.

We are looking to launch our new blog soon, which will highlight the latest bike reviews, news and video items, information on UK bike events, and updates from UKBike.com.

Our blog is also a platform for quality writing. We're looking for bike riders who can regularly turn their stories, thoughts, bike reviews, and most of all their passion for motorbikes into words.

UKBike.com is the UK's leading motorbike reviews site - in August alone we had 90,000 individual visitors. Today there are 4,401 bike reviews in our archive, and we'd really like to bring the qualities of these reviews to our new blog.

If you're interested in writing for UKBike.com, then please drop me an e-mail at tom@ukbike.com or leave a private message through this site. Look forward to hearing from you!

Cheers

Tom @ UKBike.com

touring abroad need route

shaven ninja — Thu, 23 Nov 2006 09:17:22 GMT

Hi new to this, started back to biking two years ago, tried harley now happy with ninja but want to go abroad next spring have heard people mention lake como, thinking about a week or so and do you have to have hotels with garage, where do you find them, any help is wellcome, many thanks.