5 days, two motorbikes, no clue
 

I have a week free in February, was going take my bicycle to Marrakech and ride off to the Atlas, mooch about and then ride back. I mentioned it to a mate and now we are hiring a couple of 250 trail bikes. Any suggestions of routes, how to map it, to get a gpx file? I imagine my bicycle Garmin will work...must check what maps it has...if it was just me, on my bicycle it would be easy! We, well actually me, don't want any technical riding but some off-road is fine. I expect it will be cod and the high atlas may be covered in snow, happy to ride up a pass and turn back if it gets dodgy.

Can I introduce you to Mr Scott, whose book will give you more than enough ideas ;-)

https://sahara-overland.com/

Looks good, I will order the new one for Xmas...in the meantime any pointers gratefully received.

a week in maroc is not enough!!!
I would go over the atlas to ouarzazte. then to tinghir then to tordra goerge . over the piste to msemrir down to boulmaine dades ,skoura /then back to marrakesh !

I don't doubt it's not enough but it's all I've got!
What sort of distance would the route you suggest be?

i would say thats about a weeks ride .... check the distance with google maps
allow about 3/5 hrs to do the piste
keith

Thanks, I will look into it, much appreciated

The M4 book will have a section on what to do in xx days and actually 5 full riding days is plenty when flying in and renting.
I would take N7 towards Tizi n Test then swing east at Ijoukak into the M4 book's J region (Sirwa).
Loads of great tracks + village fuel (ie: from general stores by the bottle) and a couple of gites.
Come down to Taliouine or Tazenakht and - depending on time – take a pass along or cross over Jebel Tawzart (south of Issil - region A in the book).
Then loop back via Tichka pass back to RAK. A great 5-day adv with some fun pistes. If ever a track looks too rough for you or your machine's abilities, just turn back. There is always somewhere else to go.

Be careful of making the common mistake of trying to pack too much into the time you have in Morocco.

None of the routes in M4 are technical - they are nearly all village access tracks – and by Feb hopefully the severe damage following last September's floods will have been repaired.

Or, if you want to do as most others do, follow Badou's suggestion which is also doable in 5 days but follows a lot of busy roads there and back. Note the Msemrir piste was only 20km last winter and being worked on - great ride but less than an hour.
In Morocco imo getting off the main N roads asap is much more satisfying, even if you're not looking for pistes.

You say .
The choice of 250s is limited in Mk so note that if they are Honda Tornados they may be 10+ years old and possibly clapped out.
Yam XT250 I have seen listed and newer afaik.
Him 410 also a good choice if not so experienced on motos.

The whole snow thing in the High Atlas winter is much over-rated. Very few cols exceed 3000m before quickly dropping, and roads and tracks soon re-open as they all lead to villages who need access.

You'll have a great trip.

That's great info, thanks! I've ordered the book so will.be able to plan from that.
We are looking to rent Yamaha 250xt from Marrakech Roues who seem legit, digging around and looking on here.

XT should be perfect - nice and light like an old Tornado but efi I think.

Got this as a vague plan will add the J3 route from the book to it as well.

https://ridewithgps.com/routes/49484466

Nice mapping software. I'm assuming it's still Feb departure for five days.

Your next step is to decide where to stop overnight. There's a famous saying, "Morocco is a cold country with a hot sun", and this is certainly true this time of year. Looking at the temperature predictions right now, Marrakech is showing daytime highs of 20+C and nighttime lows of around 8-10C, so lovely compared with northern Europe.

But the mountains are much lower temperatures, so at 2000m (Tizi n'Test) you are likely to see nighttime lows around freezing and midday highs of just 5C. So you might want to time your passage over the high passes for midday through to early afternoon.

Personally I wouldn't want to stop overnight at higher than about 1200m. Ouarzazate at 1150m is currently showing overnight temperatures around 4-6C, but with wall-to-wall sunshine during the day.

By the way, you are passing right by Finnt Oasis just before Ouarzazate, used for a lot of film locations including Gladiator and Game of Thrones.

We actually have 6 days now, if it ends up too cold we might just head south!!!

Just had a go at plotting a more adventurous route to Taliouine from Ijoukak.
Check out this route on Strava: https://strava.app.link/DyGwqOC0hQb — ijoukak to Taliouine

Plan to ride to Ijoukak day 1, day 2 Taliouine, Day 3 Amatzguime, Day. 4 Ouzazette, Day 5 Talouet

One quick question, we are looking to stay in Gites we find along the way, is motorbike security an issue? We won't have locks etc.