Quick Euro tour next week - have I forgotten anything?

The_Abyss

The_Abyss

The_Abyss

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Quick Euro tour next week - have I forgotten anything - UPDATED with review of the trip

We're taking the ferry over from Harwich on Wednesday night, arriving on Holland on Thursday morning. Coming back Sunday afternoon we are using a small Belgian town called St Vith (near Spa) as our base, with rides out into the mountains east and west on the Friday and Saturday. The ferry to hotel (and back) will be the longest ride of the trip - 200 miles via non-motorways.

I've fitted a larger double bubble screen to my Shiver, and the last service was over the winter with only 300 or so miles gone on since. Tyres are good, chain is freshly oiled (no scotoiler on this bike) and everything appears to be in tip top condition. My gear is in good nick too, although I still need to get some waterproof covers to go over my leathers, as there's a risk of a couple of sharp thunderstorms during the back end of next week.

Aside from some chain oil, passport, GoPro and a stack of Euros, is there anything else I should be considering? This will be my first venture into Europe over a few days, and I want to make sure I haven't forgotten anything.
 
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I'd also take a small can of WD40, some spare bulbs, small roll of electrical tape and possibly even one of those puncture repair canisters, oh and a map might be useful ;)
 
PU7E said:
I'd also take a small can of WD40, some spare bulbs, small roll of electrical tape and possibly even one of those puncture repair canisters, oh and a map might be useful ;)
Click to expand...

Thank you :)

There are just three of us, and one has a sat nav. But yes, I should have mentioned that we do have some print outs of routes plotted in Google maps, and a small Euro map would also be sensible too.
 
I'd also check over you tool kit see if anything is missing, sods law dictates that whatever you need at the side of a road, however trivial, will be missing.

What sort of luggage are you taking? I usually double wrap everything in a couple of bin bags as it usually rains at some point on a 10+ hour ride across a couple of continents.

Oh and one other thing most people forget to check is chain tension, I've lost count of the times I've had to go to a bike garage in the middle of who knows where because someone in the group forgot to check :p
 
We leave Wednesday night on the last Harwich ferry, to arrive in Holland early in the morning.

Chain tension is good, thank you. Based on what's been said I've added:

- small bottle of chain wax
- WD40
- tape
- zip ties (they were there, cheap, and seemed useful!)

I've a good, soft tail bag - it has it's own waterproof cover but I'll also be plastic bagging some of the content too. Getting excited now :)
 
So, a quick review of the trip. Thanks to everyone for the advice ahead of time - everything went very smoothly.

We left on Wednesday evening, catching the late Stena ferry out of Harwich over to the Hook of Holland. Although we ended up leaving 2 hours late the time was made up during the night. The ferry is actually very well equipped - decent enough food and drinks and good cabins two. There were three of us on the trip, and we all bunked up in a four person cabin. The crew were good, and were very helpful in making sure we secured the bikes properly even though we didn't expect a very rough crossing.

On arrival in Holland we started a very meandering route down to St Vith at the foot of Belgium. Time was on our side, as we had no plans that day other than to arrive safely, check in, eat and have a few Belgian beers. This is the route we took, stopping for lunch along the way: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/dir/H...eeea53!2m2!1d6.1273655!2d50.2788486!3e0?hl=en

The roads were ok, but if you go off the motorway you accept that you will be slow. 70 kph limits in most towns, with only 1 km gaps between the last town and the next. The weather was kind though, getting up to 26 C along the way. We made regular stops as we were in no rush, plus my Shiver had the smallest tank of the three of our bikes (Aprilia RSV4 and Honda Fireblade) at 15 litres so needed topping up a couple of times along the way.

The luggage was ok and I didn't really feel the extra weight. I was using a Kriega two piece tail bag which worked fine and would have been more than enough space if not for the need to carry around waterproof gear too, which we didn't end up using. As I brought back a few packets of cigarettes, I discarded dirty washing along the way (underwear and a couple of t-shirts) to make space.

St Vith is a nice little town, with a few restaurants and no more than three or four bars. There weren't too many other bikers around, but apparently in summer it gets pretty busy, and is of course packed around the time of the Spa grand prix.

The next day at Spa we discovered that the track was in use. Plenty of Porsches and Mercedes hammering around the track and, at Eau Rouge, these were the pick of the bunch. No restrictions on access to the track, no security, just wander in and watch.


We stayed until Sunday, getting the same ferry back but departing in the afternoon.

As well as visiting Spa and riding round the local roads in the forests and hills we also went over to Germany and explored the area around Monshau. The German roads are fantastic compared to Belgium - smooth tarmac and very well maintained. Some of the rides through the forests and down (and up!) the valleys were brilliant.

My GoPro gave me problems all week, often refusing to record a video for more than a few seconds. So upon returning I was very frustrated to find out that many of the times that it did work I had set up the camera view poorly. Still, I managed to get a few minutes of film that were appropriate to share (one of which was of course the only time I managed to lock up the bike briefly!)


The weather was mostly kind. It rained a few times, and also every night other than Saturday night. That meant that by midday the roads were dry and fine, but blasting through the forests often meant that the shaded areas were still damp, and in some cases had a good deal of standing water still there. That made for a couple of nervy moments...!

It was very tough trying to keep up with an RSV4 and a Fireblade at times, but we all rode well together and it made for a cracking few days, something we're looking to repeat in France at the end of the summer. All in all, a cracking few days. I learned a fair bit about the bike's limits and my own, and feel that I've come back a better, safer rider as a result too.

Roll on the next trip, but I'd rather be on a Multistrada or a Caponord for that one...!
 
Sorry - I forgot to mention. We stayed at a hotel right in the centre of St Vith - Hotel Pop Margraff: http://www.pip.be/en/hotel/

Nice place - good rooms, bar, pool and sauna. Good for the first beer back after a ride and then for a sauna or swim to get rid of the aches.
 
Awesome trip, I will be doing one soon if my bike comes back to me in one piece.

Oddly, the main thing I tell those that are thinking of riding over in Europe is the French motorways, actually most European motorways run faster than the UK ones normally. So expect to be cruising at around 80/90.
 
Hah! No, 120 kph is the limit in Belgium on the motorway. Too many 70 kph limits off that though, and they don't paint their speed cameras yellow. Plus, they're smaller than ours!
 
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