Soldato
Right, bit of a question for you lot - euro trips. Say you have a few planned over this summer and the next few years, just you going so no bird or pillion passenger to cater for - would you camp or stay in hotels?
My primary reason for choosing camping is cost, if you base camping costs at £15 a night (which is on the high side for a lot of European campsites) and hotel costs at £40 a night minimum, it works out £100 cheaper to camp for a 5 day trip, and £200 cheaper to camp 8 nights out of 10 on a 10 day/night trip vs hotels every day (I probably wouldn't camp all the time if the weather was bad so allowing for a couple of days staying in a hotel).
Overall costs excluding food/drink/touristy stuff, including petrol, eurotunnel and accommodation is:
4 nights camping £200
4 nights hotel £300
8 nights camping & 2 nights hotel £450
10 nights hotel £650
Reason I'm thinking about this is that at the MCN show on the small Kriega stand, they had an 899/959/1199 with a US40 combo (US20 and 2x US10's) on the rear seat, which fitted just fine. Now if I'm taking camping kit, that's a full US30's worth just there, with the extra 2x US20's for other normal stuff, plus a tank bag. Obviosuly if I wasn't taking camping kit that would reduce my luggage needs by 30l, so a US40 combo would be perfect. Doing that opens up a lot of other bikes that may not have the 200+ mile tank range, but do have tiny rear seats not suited for a US30 (they're BIG when fully packed!).
There's the initial cost of camping but that's £150 in total for a tent and decent sleeping bag, and that would pay for itself in less than 2 trips.
I'm planning on doing a lot of trips to europe on the bike this summer and the next, Moselle valley in the summer, a 1 night quick jaunt into France in May, and a bigger trip in August or September. Then next year, 2 or 3 trips again - probably a ferry down to Santander, up through spain and the Pyrenees, and back up via the Alps along with an Alps/Dolomites trip. And of course there's the North Cost 500. I have 25 days holiday a year and only use 5 or so for other stuff so have 4 weeks to use on bike trips to Europe
If I'm staying in hotels then I wouldn't need the luggage space and this means I can look at other bikes as a 2nd weekend/touring bike, basically anything with some wind protection and that's comfy enough for a few hours on the motorway, like a Tuono V4, or monster 1200, or even stuff like a panigale 899
as opposed the multistrada/superduke GT/sporty tourers I'm looking at now. Oooh, superduke 1290...ahhh
Thoughts?
My primary reason for choosing camping is cost, if you base camping costs at £15 a night (which is on the high side for a lot of European campsites) and hotel costs at £40 a night minimum, it works out £100 cheaper to camp for a 5 day trip, and £200 cheaper to camp 8 nights out of 10 on a 10 day/night trip vs hotels every day (I probably wouldn't camp all the time if the weather was bad so allowing for a couple of days staying in a hotel).
Overall costs excluding food/drink/touristy stuff, including petrol, eurotunnel and accommodation is:
4 nights camping £200
4 nights hotel £300
8 nights camping & 2 nights hotel £450
10 nights hotel £650
Reason I'm thinking about this is that at the MCN show on the small Kriega stand, they had an 899/959/1199 with a US40 combo (US20 and 2x US10's) on the rear seat, which fitted just fine. Now if I'm taking camping kit, that's a full US30's worth just there, with the extra 2x US20's for other normal stuff, plus a tank bag. Obviosuly if I wasn't taking camping kit that would reduce my luggage needs by 30l, so a US40 combo would be perfect. Doing that opens up a lot of other bikes that may not have the 200+ mile tank range, but do have tiny rear seats not suited for a US30 (they're BIG when fully packed!).
There's the initial cost of camping but that's £150 in total for a tent and decent sleeping bag, and that would pay for itself in less than 2 trips.
I'm planning on doing a lot of trips to europe on the bike this summer and the next, Moselle valley in the summer, a 1 night quick jaunt into France in May, and a bigger trip in August or September. Then next year, 2 or 3 trips again - probably a ferry down to Santander, up through spain and the Pyrenees, and back up via the Alps along with an Alps/Dolomites trip. And of course there's the North Cost 500. I have 25 days holiday a year and only use 5 or so for other stuff so have 4 weeks to use on bike trips to Europe
If I'm staying in hotels then I wouldn't need the luggage space and this means I can look at other bikes as a 2nd weekend/touring bike, basically anything with some wind protection and that's comfy enough for a few hours on the motorway, like a Tuono V4, or monster 1200, or even stuff like a panigale 899
as opposed the multistrada/superduke GT/sporty tourers I'm looking at now. Oooh, superduke 1290...ahhh Thoughts?
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. My Speed Triple has a tiny pillion seat and it fits fine. You only need space for the US30 as the others hang off it. My US30 will have my tent + sleeping bag in it, so not stuffed.
