Trip to the Spanish and French Pyrenees in August
 

Looking for advise from anyone that has ridden the Spanish and French Pyrenees. We are traveling to Spain in August and looking for information on must do roads and must see sites. We are coming from the U.S. and have 6 days to see as much as we can. We will be arriving in Bilbao and renting From IMTBike. Any information would be helpful. We have a route planned in Basecamp but don't want to miss anything. Thanks for any info you can share.

Bilbao has a highway bypass that's quite horrible to navigate, be prepared to have a confusing time trying to read the satnav to successfully escape the city, lol ... almost all Spanish towns and cities share a common one-way system so if you get lost you have to go around the block to correct your course.

The AP8 and AP68 highways have tolls.

The temperature in Bilbao will be much warmer than up in the mountains, use layers wisely.

Anywhere you go will be interesting, and you can do your own pace, but the best IMO is to grab a 125 trail bike and go on the old donkey trails, eat where the locals go, and stay in the cheapest hostels you can find.

Don't expect to find MacDonalds or chain hotels when you're inland.

the n260a in spain will keep you bend swinging , travel across to the east then over the mountains to france and return via pau

Yes - a great route!

Here's a blog post on a trip around the Pyrenees (on 4 wheels) - I'm surprised to find that it was 10 years ago!

IMT Bike is a professional organization, I have done business with them before and you should have no difficulties with your rental, but:

Do confirm ahead of time with them that their insurance policy covers riding in Andorra. Andorra is kind of an outlier country that is often not included in insurance policies that otherwise cover all of the western European countries.

Michael

Pyreneer or Picos?
 

Both these routes are from the book:

Great Motorcycle Tours of Europe
by
Colette Coleman
https://www.amazon.com/Great-Motorcy.../dp/1848663897

It is well worth buying as a guide to Europa

a) Pyrenees
b) NW Spain including Picos De Europa

a) 6 days is short but possible for this trip. Instead of looking things to add to do not miss anything, you should reduce to what you really want to see.
Use D117/D918/D618 in France and N260 in Spain.
Check the schedule for Tour de France

b) Starting from Bilbao. This is a nice alternative. Also here, 6 days i a little short. Cut a bit.

August is good due to the weather and that the passes are open. But has the disadvantage that it is vacation period.
Traffic could be intense.

I do not think that you have to worry over exact route. Whatever route you take, you will have a nice trip.