Have you ever wanted to ride somewhere far away where it's hot and the roads are amazing? Perhaps the want to do it has been there, but you've not known how to, or had the confidence to do it without finding out more? If so, hopefully my experience will help you. Here's a look at how easy it is just to do with a little planning and then ride to biking nirvana.
I've just come returned from a 2,352 mile ride from London to Italy and back on my Suzuki GSX-R 750. It's something I've wanted to do for a few years now and thought it would be difficult on a sports-bike, but really, it's not, it's easy. You just have to have the right equipment, a bit of cash and a sense of adventure. You'll indubitably come back with a ton of great experiences that you can cherish forever.
The Trip
London to Tuscany, Italy. Ten days in total, two days there, two days back. Six days spent in Carrara as a base and then visiting Bologna, Pisa, Sarzana and the mountain roads inbetween. What sort of trip you do is up to you, i.e. you might want to ride non-stop along amazing roads, or use the bike as a good excuse to go see some friends and have some fun along the way and then go exploring when there for the twisties, which is what I did. I didn't go via all the scenic routes I could do, favouring speed to get there sooner and then go exploring at the destination, but you should think very carefully about what you really want to do, and what you think is realistic.
The Equipment
Being prepared is the most important part of making a success of any journey. Someone once told me about the Six-P's; Proper Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Sounds like a good foundation to start from, eh? With this in mind I was getting a little worried about how much luggage I would need to take and what sort of clothing/protective gear I would need. I needed casual clothes, a laptop, cameras to document everything and equipment for the journey itself. In the end I took too much with me, I was preparing for a holiday, not a long ride.
The weather will dictate what gear you need to take and how comfortable you'll be. Being comfortable will allow you to ride further, for longer, be safer and to enjoy more. After doing the research on what I'd experience on the way and down to Italy it was clear that I'd need COOL riding gear for the 30-40c weather I'd get in France and Italy.
Clothing
Textile or leathers? This is up to you, but I've always used leathers and have felt held back before in terms of keeping cool and walking around, so went for textile gear so I could be cool, strip off the jacket if I need to and be a bit more comfortable, whilst still being safe.
Alpinestars were the people for this trip, I've always had a good experience with their gear and being based in Northern Italy themselves, it seemed fair to assume their kit would be up to the task of getting me there and back! They also happen to have one of the best clothing websites out there, so after some pretty intense inspection of their gear online, I came up with a full outfit:
Alpinestars S-MX R Gore-tex boots
Alpinestars A-10 Air Pants (trousers)
Alpinestars T-Stunt Air textile jacket
Alpinestars 365 Gore-Tex gloves
Alpinestars Bionic Back Protector
Alpinestars Tech Chest Protector
Alpinestars Tech performance underwear/socks
Alpinestars RJ/RP 5 throw-over waterproofs (just in case)
It's all made to compliment each other as well. The boots are comfortable and easy to get on and off, the trousers just suck air right through but also take regular knee-sliders should you want and have a lot of armour in them. The gloves offer total protection, at the same level as their top track gloves, whilst being breathable and waterproof with the Gore-Tex fabric. The Stunt jacket is very easy to get gloves on and off, very comfortable, has a lot of pockets and zips to the trousers easily. It's got a removable liner as well for the colder part of the journey, which comes out easily to make the jacket totally vented for the hot parts, and works very well with the back protector which attaches to your body, not the jacket, which I prefer.
Seeing I was going the whole-hog, it seemed fair to try out the chest-protector as well, which the top racers are seen stuffing into their leathers before a race. This adds a real nice feeling of protection to the outfit. Then there's the Tech under-garments. This stuff is work its weight in gold, it made the journey so much more comfortable and kept me quite clean and refreshed. It's designed to keep the sweat away from your body, have it evaporate with the help of the textile jacket and and means you can just wear this as a simple layer under the trousers and jacket. It's hard to describe why it's so good, but it just keeps you feeling that much fresher. A definate recommendation.
I also took some of their throw-over waterproofs that didn't need for this trip, but used subsequently in the UK and were very easy to throw over whilst wearing all the gear. A quick pit-stop under a bridge and you've got them on after a minute.
Luggage
Bike's aren't known for their cargo capacity. They move the soul, not your belongings. That said, you need a good way to haul your travel gear and anything you need when you're at your destination, like casual clothes and a toothbrush. Carrying all your luggage on the bike as opposed to your body is the best way; it keeps you from tiring out quickly with rucksacks, overheating, allows you to get on and off the bike easily and is safer generally. Attaching luggage to a bike can be done with panniers if you have a touring bike, or if you have a sports, naked bike etc, you'll need something else.
The options for non-pannier style bikes are generally forms of soft luggage, i.e. a tail-pack, tank-bag or soft panniers. It's also possible to get hard-mounts for top-boxes. I've used most of the former and always ended up with scratched/scuffed fairings or spent lots of time trying to get things secured or undone, so this time I wanted something a bit better.
Ventura were the people to this time. I've heard great things about them from people who use their gear and felt it was time to try something different. Ventura make an array of luggage kits called the Bike-Pack System that are a mix between hard and soft luggage. They come specific for many models of bikes and have a simple metalic tubing chassis that you install onto the bike, and can then customise with various top fittings that you use to attach things to, or hold on to. They have a selection of bags that slot onto the chassis that you can put on and take off easily. They secure in place with simple plastic latches.
Ventura had a kit for my 2008 GSX-R 750, so after a twenty minute installation of the chassis I was then able to slot their Rally III bag onto the fixture. The bag holds up to 56 litres of luggage when expanded to its maximum size, which is a huge amount. The rucksack I use normally holds 35 litres. The kit was genius, as I was also able to use it to throw over the pair of Pirelli tyres I was going to use for the trip onto it and take to the local tyre changing shop without hassle. Bonus!
I used a tank-bag as well, but couldn't use my regular one as it was made, like most are for full metal fuel tanks. Many bikes nowadays like mine have a plastic front part covering the airbox which stops the bags sticking, so I had to rush out and try and buy a new one that was generic enough for the bike. Most strap-on ones are custom for the bike. I managed to find a small one though that had enough straps for me to use. It was smaller than I wanted, but would hold my wallet, passport, loose change, cameras and some other trip essentials, as well as the sat-nav unit in the clear pouch on its top-side. In the end this turned up to be a blessing as I was able to rest my head on it for parts of the trip which helped keep some varation in body position. Keeping in one position for long is a sure way to get cramp or tyre yourself out!
The Ventura luggage system was great, because the main bag fitting also had a ledge that jutted out behind the bike for another bag to go on to if you want, but I ended up using it to put the bike cover and security-chain on with the help of some bungies. You can turn this attachment around so it points in towards the bike as well to minimse the appearance.
I filled the Euro III Ventura bag completely full, with a laptop, big map book, casual clothes and my waterproofs as well as other things I wanted with me at my destination. The bag was bloody heavy. In retrospect it was too much, far too much. It compromised the handling of the bike, pitching it down to the rear, which made the front light, causing the bike to run wide in places and to invoke a less than confidence-inspiring feeling. I'll say it again later in the tips section, but it's worth stating now; - if I could give only one tip, it would be to pack your luggage, and then take half of it out. You just don't need as much as you think. Casual clothes can be worn more times than you would normally and you can wash stuff there, or even buy simple clothes locally very cheapily like underwear, shorts and t-shirts, then just dump it when you come home.
Navigation
The route is everything, so work out what you want to achieve with the trip and what you think is possible. For instance, do you want to visit various landmarks or do you just want to ride non-stop along the most amazing roads, or perhaps even just ride somewhere quickly and then go exploring from there as I did? Don't be over-ambitious, but do be adventurous! You can do a lot more miles in a day than you think, you just have to start early, keep hydrated, keep the weight off your body and stay cool/warm.
You'll need to plan your channel crossing, your nightly stop-over points and any border crossings. I went by ferry as I was booking late and found a return for about £45, and then went for the quick route and used the toll-roads in France and Italy, which aren't that expensive, but do add up, luckily you can just throw a credit-card at them, and then I booked a cheap hotel half way down France as my stop-over point. You can camp easily just about anywhere, but I wanted a little extra comfort and €35 a night isn't bad. The first day was longest at just under 600 miles. Then I bolted down to the French/Italy border on the second day which is the Mont Blanc tunnel. There's no passports to show here, you just buy a ticket for the tunnel as it's another toll-road. From this point on I was on the Italian Autostrada toll-road network and didn't pay until I reached Carrara, which was €30 and some 250 odd miles, so quite expensive. You don't have to use toll-roads, but they're a damn-sight quicker!
It's easiest to take a satellite-navigation device with you and use that most of the time, though do take a good map book as well as a back-up, should you have a problem with the sat-nav, or need to quickly see the difference between various routes. Sat-nav's have their limitations.
I took with me a Garmin Zumo 550 sat-nav, which is made for bikes, i.e. it's waterproof and can be used with gloves on. I hadn't used it before the trip or even a sat-nav at all, so I had to get to grips with it. It came with software that you could install on your laptop and use to plot the route, and then send to the Zumo to safe faffing around, though my experience wasn't wonderful as the sat-nav chose a completely different route to what I had planned on the laptop, and the software wasn't designed with a biker in mind who's looking for nice roads, i.e. it wasn't easy to say I want to use the motorway for this far, and then come off and find some twisties. Hopefully their newer products solve this problem and offer a genuine biker service.
The Zumo was easy enough to wire into the bike's battery, though it didn't come with any eyelets to simply bolt on, but luckily I could just wrap it around the video-camera battery mounts and tape them together. The Zumo also came with a load of "Ram" mounts, but unfortunately none of them fit a sports-bike, so I was forced to stick it in the power cradle and put that in the clear pouch on top of the tank-bag. It wasn't ideal, but I had organised this very late, so hopefully you will be more organised!
I had a love-hate relationship with the Garmin, with it often letting me down by taking me on odd roads, only to ask me to go back and go the way I came. Then it would keep going on about speed cameras in France and Italy, only for there to be none, and then most important of all, it failed to warn me of a road that was out, causing a problem (mentioned below!), but alas, it did find me the most amazing roads and without it I simply wouldn't have had the confidence to find these roads as I hate following traditional maps, especially if I'm on a "spirited" ride.
I'd love to use one of the newer Garmin devices as the 550 wasn't the latest, and give it a proper review around the UK as I don't think it's fair I review the 550 when it's an outgoing model. Sadly the newer model wasn't available at the time I was organising this trip.
Travel Extras
There's a few things you're well advised to take and some you're meant to take. How much you take is up to you, but here's the essentials:
French law says you need to have a high-viz jacket and spare bulbs for your lights with you. I bought the high-viz jacket at a crazy price of £16 but gave up with the bulbs and just bought a single bulb, working on the assumption that a French cop is not going to know what the right bulb is for my GSXR. I didn't need either really. Even when I stopped on the motorway to run back to get something that I'd lost, I forgot about the high-viz jacket and all was fine. I wouldn't bother taking them again personally, but make your own decision on that.
You'll also need an EHIC (European Health Insurance Card) to be able to make use of the state-run hospitals in Europe. This used to come as the E111 form, but it's now a simple laminated card you can keep in your wallet. Don't think about leaving without this. Check out the link at the bottom of this article.
European breakdown cover. Even if you have a brand-new bike, make sure you have breakdown cover. Things like bad punctures or accidents can ruin your trip unnecessarily. Many insurance policies come with a number of days of European cover included in them, but do read the small print as you may find the terms are quite unfavourable, such as your bike only being taken to the nearest garage (which might not be able to help you, or be ideal) as opposed to being taken to your destination or home, and some firms will want to collect your bike at their leisure and let you make your own way home. It's happened recently to someone I know. Also make sure you're covered for accident recovery, quite a few policies don't. I spent £100 with the RAC for a year's worth of fully comprehensive cover. Expensive, but a great piece of mind knowing they would take me all the way to my destination with my bike if I had a problem.
Documentation. You will need your passport (valid for the whole of your journey), your driving license (paper part plus card), insurance certificate and vehicle registration document (V5). It's also recommended to take photo-copies, stored else where on you in case you lose any of the originals. The Police may well want to see that you own the bike and have insurance. It's not so easy for them to prove this at the road-side for foreigners, so you want to make it as easy as possible for them so you can get away quickly.
Video
You're going to be seeing some wonderful things, and we all like memories. So besides taking a still camera for choice moments, why not record your trip as well? It's pretty easy nowadays, there's some very good pieces of equipment that makes it easy to mount a camera on the bike and just record where you go.
We worked with ActionCameras.co.uk, a West London based online retailer who supplied us with a system that allowed me to record the whole of the trip in a very high resolution, without concern for recording length or battery life as it plugged into the bike's battery. We took the POV 1.5 system, which is a £550 product, but they have all-in-one bullet-cam style ones that go from £100 and are fool-proof.
The camera has documented some great things on this trip, and in the past on other trips I've wanted something like this, so I can't recommend it enough. My only warning would be don't use it in the UK as there seems to be a growing trend of the Justice system getting hold of footage and using it to incriminate riders. Hopefully you won't be doing anything to get in trouble though!
Bike Preparation
Your bike needs to be in tip-top condition and ready for the shock of constant use over a series of days at high speeds. This is a big difference to riding to and from work where you have lots of things in place to help you if things go wrong, like phoning a friend, calling out a breakdown service, getting a puncture repaired, etc. You need to be able to reduce the chance of anything going wrong when on a trip like this as it'll be that much harder to resolve it if something does go tits-up.
Mechanics
Make sure your bike is fit for the entire length of your journey and some. If you can get a full-service done before hand, brilliant, if you can't, you should look to have fresh oil, that the brake fluid is clear and the lines free of bubbles, that your brake pads have enough life in them, that your chain has no tight spots and is not rusted, that you have a full pack of fuses, that all your hoses and wires are correctly routed and free of damage, things like this. The bike needs to stand up to a lot of miles in a short space of time. It'll have a couple of thousand extra miles on it or so and everything will be more worn, so be preapred for this.
Tyres
These deserve a special mention as they're so important. They need to keep you safe and last the distance. Not to mention needing to keep the handling consistent over the miles. Most tyres modern sports-bikes come with nowadays are okay for normal use, but a trip like this isn't normal. They're not designed for crunching serious miles. The stock tyres on my GSX-R 750 K8 only lasted a couple of thousand miles and went off quite badly well before that. They'd have been no good for this ride, with them squaring off, I'd not have felt comfortable on the twisty mountain roads.
Normally we'd fit a pair of super-sticky track-biased tyres after the OEM ones, but again, they'd be no good for a trip like this and be wasted. You wouldn't use the extra grip and they'd square off with all the distance in no time.
What's needed for a trip like this is a pair of dedicated sports-touring tyres. The name sports-touring conjures up some pretty horrible pictures in my head, I don't know about you. I imagine Pan-European owners with moustaches and smoking pipes using tyres like this, but not anymore, and definately not when the sports aspect of them is used. Todays sports-touring tyres will last a bloody long time and more importantly, stay consistent over that milage. This was very important for me, as I wanted to do big miles on the motorways, upright, and then get to Tuscany and enjoy the twisties. I didn't want square tyres by the time I got there.
Tyres are as much about personal choice as they are about the technology and suitability of the tyre, so for me, Pirelli was the way to go as their tyres work very well on nearly every bike I've owned. I've never been let down by a Pirelli tyre and this continued with the trip. Pirelli have recently released a new tyre called the Pirelli Angel ST's (sports-touring), which claim to have two souls, i.e. are safe and last the distance, but offer great sports performance as well, and after this trip, I agree completely. They managed to do 2350 miles in this trip, with 1800 of those on motorways at high-speed and they're still round, and offer great feedback. Way more than in all honesty that I was expecting. I was able to reach well into tripple digits for extended periods and get more than enough feedback when carving through the mountains to get my knee down if I'd wished. A genuinely stunning experience.
Protection
Big miles means there's a higher risk of something going wrong or something damaging your bike, so you might want to think about protecting the bike if you don't already. If you don't already have some, I'd strongly recommend a full set of crash-bungs. We use the brilliant R&G racing crash-bungs to protect our bike's metal-work as well as the fairings. It's easy to drop a fully-loaded bike at the petrol-station. I know, I did it. Without the crash-bungs I'd surely have broken a fairing or something, but as it was, there was zero damage to the bike, just a scuff to the crash-bung, and that was a lot of weight hitting the deck!
If you're worried about stone-chips, you've less to worry about abroad as in my experience, French and Italian roads are immaculately well kept and free of stones and other debris, unlike the UK where the roads are virtually a dumping ground at times. That said, you might think about a protective layering to your bike if you feel the need. Something like the Rhino Protect service we reviewed previously.
The Experience
There were a lot of unknowns in this trip for me, but I wanted an adventure and I like to be spontaneous when I can, so thought what the heck. I hope my experiences can help you with motivation and fine-tuning your inventory to make life easier.
I've done lots of 300 mile ride-outs in a day, trackdays, all of which are pretty exhausting, but nothing like the 600 miles a day I did on this trip. I also don't speak French or Italian, but made an effort to learn as much as I could before-hand, mainly to do with how to buy things and get directions. I've also never been to Italy and I rode alone. A little crazy? No, just a lot of me-time and a lot of fun!
I had a great time getting down to Italy, finding the French roads amazingly well kept, the fuel stations very well stocked and with helpful staff. The weather was fantastic and cruising at high speeds was very easy due to everyone else driving at what felt like a minimum speed on the motorways of 100mph. I'd heard some horror stories about the French hating anything with a British plate on it, so took a bike cover, but I didn't see any cause for concern, except the number of McDonalds in France.
I had an amusing moment going over the sky-roads of Genova in Italy, I stupidly looked down at my sat-nav for too long in traffic once and when I looked up, the car in front had slowed right down. I slammed on the brakes, did a stoppie (no easy thing with all the luggage on the back) and the front tyre kissed the cars bumper. I landed okay, apologised to the driver and made my speedy exit all embarrassed. Don't do that, please.
Once based in Italy, the heat took hold over the next few days. I wanted to explore the city I was in, but after an afternoon of riding around at 20mph in full gear, stopping to take photos, meaning I had to take the helmet and gloves off, I was parched, I was so hot I was losing all my fluids and found it unbearable, so had to resort to leaving the gear at home and riding in jeans, trainers and a t-shirt. It was just impossible to ride in 35-40c conditions otherwise. In my experience this took a huge amount of self-convincing as it's drummed into our heads in London to wear our gear, and I felt vulnerable at first, but you soon realise you're okay if you just ride slow and remain vigilant. It makes exploring a lot more fun and bearable. You don't see any of the locals riding in gear, and amazingly I didn't see a single accident anywhere.
Many roads in Tuscan cities are a bit dodgy as their natural resource in the area is granite and marble from the mountains, so this makes its way into the roads. The roads to be wary of look shiny due to the granite. I can't imagine what they're like in the rain, but in this incredible heat, I found myself spinning up the rear when pulling away under power. The white lines were very slippery as well, even in the baking sun. I don't know what they've done wrong there, but be careful. Regular tarmac roads are fine though.
I'd bolted down to Italy and wanted to explore the local roads, so I planned a couple of trips through the mountains separating the east and west coasts. I had difficulty getting the Garmin to take me on the motorway for some of it and through the twisties for the good bits, but once off the Autostrada the sat-nav came good and saw me through the quietest and most beautiful little towns that lead onto the mountain roads which wind left and right, up and down like a snake makes it way through the grass. Sheer bliss!
Coming back from Bologna though, the snake bit me and after 40 miles of me grinning like a Cheshire cat in my helmet, having a feeling that rivaled the best trackdays, I came around one blind corner to be greeted by no road. The road gave way to gravel and I had a split second to decide whether to try and surf it and risk going over a very steep drop, or try to stop, so I tried to stop, and couldn't, locking up the wheels and dropping the bike. Bummer. There was no warning, but what had happened is the road had collapsed and there was a huge hole going down hundreds of feet, so they'd blocked off the hole with concrete barriers and carved a section of the mountain out to drive round, which was the gravel.
The bike got away lightly, I had a broken front fairing, a bent crash bung and a bent rear brake lever. Without the R&G crash-bungs, the bike would indubitably have sustained much more damage and may not even have been ridable home, but as it was, I picked myself up, dusted myself off, swore like a trooper and rode home. After ten minutes I was riding as I was before and loving the roads, despite having a new view of the road where my front fairing used to be. You can't have it all I guess, but do be careful of blind corners is all I can take from that.
Riding around other roads was fab. I didn't see any Police, the drivers were great, moving out the way for you straight away and cheering you on. The Italians and French love bikes. You're made to feel like royalty. This was a great holiday!
The ride home was brilliant as well. I was very sad to leave Italy as I'd really bonded with it and was enthused with my new found exploration/adventure skills. I did plan on taking more time to ride home and ride the Alpine passes instead of going through the Mont Blanc tunnel like I did on the way, but due to a really stupid moment where I wound up the sat-nav cradle, leaving it on top of the swing-arm, only to come back to the bike and ride-off, forgetting about the cradle, I'd damaged the power cable and so the sat-nav was un-powered for the ride home, meaning I had to turn the unit off on the long stretches of road to save the battery power. This only worked on motorways, so doing the Alp passes was a no-go as I would surely have run out of power before I got out of them. I was gutted, but that's part of the adventure no doubt. If the cradle had fitted to the bike, I wouldn't have had a problem, but as I had to keep it loose, I ran this risk.
Costs
Your costs will be food, drink, channel crossing, hotels, fuel and toll-roads. Hopefully there will be no speeding fines in there. I sure didn't get any and I wasn't hanging around. I was expecting to spend about £300 on all of that, but spent £507. Most of the excess was on burning more fuel than I thought (luggage, plus constant high speed, not so good for fuel economy) and excessive use of the toll-roads to get to Italy and back. I had used a couple of websites to estimate the costs, but that wasn't using exactly the same route as the sat-nav. I expected some variance, but £200 is more than a little, but still, it was more than worth it in my books. You could probably halve that cost by not using toll roads and riding at a slower pace.
I used a credit-card for all payments for convenience (remember to tell your card supplier you're going away to help avoid any blocks on it) as it was easy to stick a card into the automated toll-road booth machines. I paid a conversion charge on each transaction obviously, so you may want to check which card is cheapest and perhaps think about paying for fuel and other items in cash.
Everything taken into account, this holiday was probably about the same price as flying out to a resort and staying in a hotel, except I had an infinitely better time and this experience will have me smiling at the memory a lot more often!
Top Tips
My experience was by far mostly positive, but there's always room for improvement, and so here's my top tips that could save you going through the silly things I did:
Pack your luggage, then take half of it out, you don't need it and it'll ruin the handling of the bike and make things more complicated than they need to be. Travel light.
Distribute the luggage across the front and back of the bike. Don't put it all on the back - ruins the handling and can make it unsafe. Lower down is better, so panniers might be a good choice.
Don't carry any luggage on your body, i.e. a rucksack, this will tyre you out quickly. Keep it all on the bike. Will keep you cool as well. There's a big difference between riding with a backpack for 50 miles and 500.
Take and keep lots of 5 and 10 euro notes for the self-service fuel pumps. They don't give change and are often your only chance of getting fuel.
Keep hydrated, this is the best way to keep energy & concentration levels up. Keep a bottle of water on the bike at all times. Eat small and often. Many French fuel stations have good snack pots.
Learn some basic phrases and numbers in the languages of the countries you're going to. Don't expect anyone to speak English. Learn numbers, basic navigation and how to buy things. Take small phrase books and a pocket dictionary if you can. Oxford do small ones.
Buy a quality and compact toolkit that undoes EVERYTHING on your bike. Take high-temp resistant ductape, cable ties and a good combi-knife like a swiss army knife. We've seen some nice Cruz tool kits before.
Ensure you can tighten the chain with your toolkit, i.e. undo the axel nut. This is very difficult to do with the standard Suzuki toolkit, especially in searing heat.
If you can't convert your speedo to KPH, learn what the main speed limits are in MPH. I.E 50kph is 30mph, 130kph is 88mph. Sat-nav may help here as most show current speed and are easily switchable to kph.
For summer riding, well ventilated gear is a must. Take simple waterproof throw-overs, but not heavy waterproof jackets, you will die in the heat. Gloves and jacket are the most important thing to keep you cool. Have a warm top you can put on under your jacket to keep you warm if it does cool down. It doesn't take much to be cold at 100mph on the motorway. I ended up needing something for the ride back from northern France.
Lube your chain every few fuel-stops. Tighten the chain once a day if doing big miles. It will keep you safe and ensure a smooth ride. Carry a small can of chain-lube for this purpose. Horror stories of chains snapping due to poor maintenance aren't what you want coming true.
Make sure your bike is up to the job; fresh oil, fresh tyres (that will last the whole trip), check the brake fluid, check your spare fuses. Check everything!
Make sure you have good break-down cover for the whole of your trip. The feeling of being stranded on a mountain with no help on the way may well reduce a grown man to tears.
Don't speed anywhere near your UK/France port, i.e. Calais. The Police there expect to catch Johnny Foreigner speeding on their lovely roads so you may well see radar speed traps.
Speak to your mobile phone company about roaming charges. I managed to get a couple of bolt-ons for calls and data so I could use my iPhone without worry. This turned out to be invaluable as the iPhone has a better map system at times than the sat-nav.
The Essentials
If you take nothing else, make sure you take these:
EHIC medical card
European breakdown cover
Puncture repair kit
Lots of €5 and €10 notes for automatic petrol pumps
Power adapters (£3 from maplins)
Language phrase books
Duck-tape & cable-ties
Quality toolkit for every part on your bike
A cold bottle of water at all times
Visor cleaning kit
Spare ear-plugs
Phone numbers for the UK embassy(s)
A camera!
Conclusion
I can't recommend going on a trip like this enough. I think it it brings out all the best qualities of biking such as the freedom, individuality and the naughtier side of biking as you try and get a wriggle on and enjoy the roads. It's also genuinely a very rewarding experience. Not least because you're out there on your own doing things you day dream about whilst bored at work, not quite sure what lays ahead and loving every minute of not being in the UK, monitored by a million cameras, Policed to the hilt and sitting in traffic.
The day before I started the trip, I had some butterflies in my stomach as I thought about the unknown, what could go wrong and the like, but then I get the same butterflies before a trackday and then once on the road, it all falls away and you have the most amazing time. Do something like this and do it soon before the weather fades away to winter. You don't have to be a massively experienced biker to do something like this, but I wouldn't recommend it to a novice. Try and speak to people who've done something similar to get some idea of what's involved and perhaps even get some route recommendations.
Now I've done this trip, I can't wait to do a load more. The travel bug has bitten me and I just want to get out and explore Europe. It's a fantastic place and next time I would take more time and use less motorways to see more of the real Europe. We're really lucky having such an amazing place right on our doorstep; all the different cultures, the different landscapes, the different roads and weather types. I rode in blistering heat, but I wouldn't mind doing one a little later in the year when it's a bit cooler as well. The heat did limit things a little, but it was all part of the adventure.
