Ok main reason for this thread is that I've never been touring with the bike before. I know many have so thought a handy thread people can possibly bookmark at their leisure when they need info and to ask questions. I am hoping to go away in Sept for a week to 9 days. The plan at the moment is Me and a good mate as PH member Grumpy, to go to North Spain via Portsmouth to Santander Ferry. 24 hours on the ferry, Beers and food then we are there. Then have a great time around the surrounding areas. I digress. So a few things I have that I hope will be a great start to my tour already Tail pack and I have the extra Tent bag Tailbag Cargobag. 1200D Nylon. Black. 52L. - SW-MOTECH & BAGS-CONNECTION I bought this tent last week, Festival 2 Man Dome Tent - Clearance For £15.99 it's a idea tent for using on the bike. with the intention of using it then leaving it on the last night. I've just put it up. its only 2kg and very compact. i have it up in the garden at the moment and it is easy to put up. 5mins on my own. and enough room for all the luggage inside. the only thing I have done is fabsealed it. Also have cup, small single cup kettle. I have a compact sleeping bag, thermarest etc.. --- A few questions. I read don't over pack. how much would you take for 7-9 days over in Europe in Sept. expecting it to be HOT. I have Euro cover on my Blade and insurance. Does anyone take a spare visor if one brakes? other than a multi tool and what you may have tool wise with the bike, Do you take any other tools. I want a bum bag rather than using my tank bag. just to keep wallet, passport, cards etc... close at hand. Suggestions from experienced touring peps would be handy cheers
Consider taking spare , cheap eBay clutch n brake levers, just in case you drop it. If you break either it could ruin your trip!!!
If you have standard toolkit, most spares are easy to obtain in both France and Spain. Getting work done can take a while in August, early Sept as most seem to go away over this period.
Hi Remal, Just got back from tour myself, been over to the nurburgring for a few days with stops off in Bruges and Reims, we do it twice a year generally and have done for the last 5 years. The best luggage I can recommend is the Kriega kit, I know you've mentioned you already have a tail pack but this stuff will last you a lifetime and is fully scalable so some tips you take the smaller US10's and some you can bolt the us10's & US20's together giving you huge carrying capability. Buy some non slip rubber mat (maplins sell it cheap) and cut to shape so it fits under your seat/over your seat cowl to stop any abrasion in case something rubs at high speed. It'll really piss you off if you get somewhere and your bike has a new avoidable scratch believe me My second bit of advice is to go through your old tshirts, pants & socks drawer and pick out stuff that you don't mind throwing. What we do is use old gym t shirts for the riding days and equally older pants/socks, then at the end of each day you simply throw them or else it means repacking sweaty riding kit back in your luggage and also never dropping the weight. For 5 days / 4 nights you have to imagine your gonna need 5 extra tees, 5 extra pairs of socks etc etc By the time you start to head back on the last day you've dumped most of your kit so makes the final ride lighter, more fun and less hassle to pack. That's where the plus side of the Kriega comes in, I took 1 US10 and a US20 this time, so by the time we'd finished I ended up clearing out the smaller bag and actually packed it flat in the bigger one for the home trip. Then it's just a matter of fresh tee for each night, pair of shorts and flip flops I'll post a pic of my bike the morning I left and then on the way home somewhere in Luxembourg so you can see the missing bag. What ever happens enjoy the trip and watch out for any French police if you hit France....... Cost me 90 euros yesterday for slightly going over the limit.....just a tad here you go: Pic of a Kriega US20 with a US10 clipped on top Then just the US20 on its own after a couple of days of throwing stuff and packing the US10 away, In the 2nd pic my mates blade has got the Honda tail pack on it and its pretty good apart from the Zip broke and obviously the size is the size, so whether you throw stuff or not the bulk of the tailpack itself wont actually get any smaller...just floppier (if thats a word)
Many thanks for the handy info damodici I've bought cheap £3 tee's to use and throw and will take old tee's as well. So a good idea there. flip flops check. I was also going to take light weight north face soes/trainers I have. Or no need to take both? As for the french gendarme, having gone to Le mans a few times I know how they can be, never had a issue myself but know of a few people caught having to pay 750 euros for speeding. But as it 130km or 81 that should be enough for getting into spain which we are hoping to do after 2 days.
I took some Nike rifts too which are a lightweight trainer type thing so a good addition taking those north face trainers I reckon. Thanks for telling me about 750 euros.... I feel better already
well, they said 'in french' 176kph so 46 over. I strongly dissagreed as im pretty constant on the throttle and that would of been a bit of a hike up from what i was happy cruising at, problem was they rufused to speak english which is fair enough as i was in france but its a little hard to argue when your being bullied in to a fine, they basically took my license in to the car then made me follow them off the motorway to a cash point and draw the money (took what i had in my pockets) They were using only a hand held laser so wouldnt of been that accurate especially as i was coming down a slope after just over taking a lorry/car (cant remember exactly) just one of those things i guess, id better polish up on my french for next time as my mind went blank and the only words i could say were 'merci' (hardly fitting when handing over money) 'bonjour' (again i wasnt happy to see them) and 'merd' (a little more like it but didnt think theyd appreciate my sense of humour)
