First time tourer

[Lucifer]

Good morning everyone,

I have only just joined the forum to get as much information from you experienced guys on a tour that i'm planning to do in the near future.

So a little about me and my tour. I used to be an motorcycle instructor and have pretty much only ever ridden the big sports bikes zzz 1100cc, -1200cc, and 1400cc

right now I feel i'm done with the big sports and really looking at getting a Gold-wing or Pan European any comments on these bike would be gratefully received, 

So i'm trying to plan a trip through pretty much the whole of Europe. I will be starting from Dover and my first inital stop I hope would be Hamburg before trading up right the way through all of Scandinavia down to the baltic states via Finland and traversing through most of the rest of Europe I haven't been able to find a good route planner as yet but have tried plotting it out a little on google maps it looks like it should be approximately 12 - 15000 miles.

I should say that I'm 44 yrs old and there is a chance that I will be doing this tour with my son and daughter once they have their licence's.

Has anyone done a similar sort of tour ??? what was it like ? is there any places that should be avoided or defo visit ?

basically if anyone has any advise or even there own stories to share I would love to hear from you.

if anyone thinks it to far or a silly idea please say why ?

 

thanks for your time reading this everyone and I hope to hear from some of you soon  

[Fiddlesticks]

Hi, welcome along.

Hope you stick around and post some pictures and ride reviews, it sounds awesome.

[JRH]

@Lucifer have a look at MyRoute-App.

There is a free version or you can pay for add on options which can include a “satnav” option to run on your phone.

This covers UK and Europe. The plotted routs can then be down loaded to Garmin or Tom Tom if you want or you can use the myroute guide on your phone.

probably worth a look.

Dont forget to check any visa requirements days allowed in EU countries and of course insurance and breakdown / recovery services.

Edited Saturday at 09:32 by JRH

[Lucifer]

will take a look at that defo thanks 

 

[Steve_M]

9 hours ago, JRH said:

@Lucifer have a look at MyRoute-App.

There is a free version or you can pay for add on options which can include a “satnav” option to run on your phone.

This covers UK and Europe. The plotted routs can then be down loaded to Garmin or Tom Tom if you want or you can use the myroute guide on your phone.

probably worth a look.

Dont forget to check any visa requirements days allowed in EU countries and of course insurance and breakdown / recovery services.

I use MRA, downloading the routes to my Garmin XT. It works well but has a few little quirks - it’s well worth having a couple of trial runs of navigating before the actual tour.

 

 Goldwing: Possibly not relevant but…  I had (new) one on loan for a few hours and knew it wasn’t for me - too bulky and the suspension felt less refined than a bike of that price shoukd have. That said, that was a model from around 2012.
 

I had an ST1100 Pan and absolutely loved it. Enough luggage capacity for two, light on the move, surprisingly nimble and comfortable. I even took it up the Prescott Hill Climb course with my good lady as pillion - what a hoot! I would happily buy an ST1300 on the basis of feedback from people I know who have owned one.

Now I’m going to be a bit of a hypocrite. I really didn’t like my FJR1300: with hindsight I think the rear suspension needed attention. It always felt a bit soggy even on “firm” setting and the foot pegs would scrape the ground much too readily.. However, as a long distance tourer, it was very comfortable and the large electric screen gave excellent protection from the elements. It might be worth considering.

 

Edited Saturday at 18:52 by Steve_M

[JRH]

When you download from MRA to a SatNav device (Garmin or TomTom) you do need to check closely as the satnavs will use their own algorithm to join the waypoints which sometimes differs from the MRA route.

[Steve_M]

12 minutes ago, JRH said:

When you download from MRA to a SatNav device (Garmin or TomTom) you do need to check closely as the satnavs will use their own algorithm to join the waypoints which sometimes differs from the MRA route.

I’ve learnt to go completely overboard with the waypoints for exactly this reason. 

[bonio]

Get yourself a copy of "Uneasy Rider" by Mike Carter and read it. In it, he does a trip very like the one you're describing (except he includes Turkey too). One of the interesting things about the book is that you can feel his approach to the thing changing as the weeks go by: at the start it seems like he's trying to enjoy himself, and by the end he actually is. It's also really well written and quite a laugh - one of the better motorcycle diary book's I've ever attempted.

Anyway, his experience is likely to be a lot more useful to you than anything I could say.

[Lucifer]

thank you for all your replies guys much info to consider 

[bonio]

One more thing you might want to keep in mind early on - most of northern mainland Europe - the Netherlands, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, northern Poland, northern Germany and the Baltic states - is somewhat flat and makes for a slightly dull experience on the road. The main exception is Norway, which is supposed to be both absolutely amazing and wallet-crunchingly expensive.