UK Bike tour 2014
 

I am planning to travel to the UK with my wife in 2014 from mid April to end of May. Our plan is to arrive in London get a bike and travel around Ireland and Wales and then spend a week in London on foot like the commoners. So the first lot of questions I would like to ask is
1. The contact of the reasonable bike hire company.
2. A type of bike suitable to tour around the UK. At this stage I am thinking a BMW 800 or something that size for 2up with panniers.
3. Type of accomodation that time of the year, the wife believes it may be cold for camping out.:freezing:
4. Places to see.
There will be other questions I'm sure but I want to start planning and paying things off before hand so it doesn't hurt the wallet later.

Any ?c? please add.

Thanks

Mark

Hi Mark,
I'll make a brief start with answers to your questions.
1. Don't know I'm afraid as never had a need for them.
2. Something like that would be fine.
3. Not camping unless you're hardy types, very very hardy types.
4. We need a few clues before we can answer this one so please let us know the sort of things you like to see.
For example, do you like castles, railway trips, history, gardens, museums, pubs, shopping (sorry about that one but apparently some do) ?

And just to help out a bit -
In London town common people also use buses and tubes, and upmarket common folk use black buses aka taxis.
Enjoy your trip.

The only bike hire company I have first-hand experience of is Raceways Motorcycle Rentals UK - We hire Honda Suzuki Yamaha Peugeot Harley Davidson Triumph bikes at the best prices!

A Bandit 650 will cost you £295 a week and an FJR 1300 £395.

I don't know how their costs compare to others but we used them in a semi-emergency situation when a mate's bike terminated itself just before a trip to the I.O.M. for the TT.

The bike was a (delivery mileage) Bandit S and everything went very smoothly.

Hi

• can't help with bike hire
• most 600cc+ bikes will be fine
• you will find camping cold at any time of year, there are excellent hostels with double/twin rooms far cheaper than hotels
• make sure you alot 7-10 days to tour Scotland (best biking roads in UK by a long way).

Andy

Not forgetting the rainfall; I truly hope that 2014 can have better weather than we had here in 2012.
Sure enough though, the Scottish roads are some of the best in the UK, on a non-rainy day. :innocent:

Where ever you go for this potential bike hire, please ask about insurance cover for riding in Ireland - it's a separate country unless you are referring to the north.

If you go out of this forum of route planning and look in, say, "Europe" and various other fora you will find a lot more about your range of questions.

Plans
 

Thanks all who have replied so far, we have changed plans and will now travel July to mid August and travel Ireland Wales and then through down Germany and fly out from Frankfurt, we have already been to Scotland although by car, in 2011 and loved it so thought we would go somewhere different. Will that time of the year be the peak season in the UK.

Kids will be off from school in the UK from late July until the start of September so that will be the peak / expensive holiday season.

Don't know much about hiring bikes in the UK but you may struggle to find a company that will let you leave it in Germany...

Met a Kiwi at the weekend who was spending several months touring the Europe - he said it was cheaper to buy then sell a bike rather than hire one.

Join the Adventure Bike Rider forum, there is a list of people who will let you put up a tent or sleep at their place for nothing.

Yes Im on there, like most of the questions

my main one would be joun the Youth hostle Assoc, about £10.00 a year I think loads of places to stay then some are doubble rooms some sharing

I live near Harwich (international port over to North Europe) & Boat train all the way over to berlin & on

There are great roads here in Ireland......the West coast is great, but weather can be hit and miss.

The only real bike hire company here is Celtic Rider but I believe they are expensive.

Donegal (Glenveagh National Park) is great, and head south from there....

I can help you with some GPS routes if you like.