Im planning a tour of the UK, to do around April, and have a few questions, and possibly a favour to ask some of you.
Firstly, how far should i be planning to go in a day? The tour is more of seeing the country then riding my bike, and i’m planning on taking a month to do it, however i will be sticking to the smaller (more fun) roads. I also don’t tend to go at a particularly fast pace, even more so when on a fully loaded bike.
Secondly, id be using soft panniers, top box, and tank bag for this, what’s the chances of someone stealing my cloths (more valuable stuff would go in the top box)?
Thirdly, as the funding for this is coming out of my ‘new bike fund’ id like to keep costs to a minimum, and am staying mainly with relatives/friends. However there are a few areas im short of beds, visible from the map below, and i was wondering if anyone had a spare relative/friend/house in any of these areas? (notably Cornwall and the Scottish highlands).
Fourthly, having never done anything like this, or even lived alone for a real amount of time, i have no idea how much it would cost. how much would a days petrol, food, and possibly accommodation cost?
Finally, any other tips?
Map of where i’ll be going
Red points - places to go to
Blue points - roads to go to
Beds - free nights sleeping
Yes Boris, sounds like a quality idea! Wish I had the time for this…
Travelling alone is great as it forces you to meet new people and talk to them. Check into youth hostels if you can’t find a bed, or even get friendly with some of the people you meet and have them put you up for the night (only happens in some parts)
Try and take as little gear as possible but make sure you can stay warm and dry
If you have a top box it’s worth bringing that so you can lock stuff away in it when you leave the bike. When I went away I got one of those Pacsafe mesh bags that lock up, which is pretty handy for securing luggage, although it will only keep away the opportunist thieves.
When you have the whole day to ride you can cover some good mileage. Some places you might not want to ride too much and others you want to stop at etc… I personally don’t make too many plans as I’m rubbish at sticking to them but maybe you want to work to a schedule…
Bring spare bungees in case any of your luggage straps fail
No motorcycling visit to Scotland would be complete without a ride along this route - northbound would probably be best. And there’s a very cheap campsite here, no facilities though except a river, but the locals are friendly and scenery is stunning. Can’t go wrong at 20p a night, but bring a bottle of this to protect you from the wildlife that live on that same field :hehe:
Last year, myself and 6 others did a ride from Bromley where we live to John O’Groats. The plan was to take A roads (no m/ways) and to take in well known bike roads like Snake Pass etc. I’ll see if I can dig out the route we took and paperwork and send you a copy. We only went for 1 week so soft panniers and tank bags were fine and we stayed in Travel-lodges all the way. Some of the roads were outstanding although the weather wasn’t great with Inverness- John O’G particularly bad.
Despite that, we had a great time and will be doing a trip to Wales in May.
