I was going to suggest that if you want to spend your week gaining riding experience take a trip to the north of England or even Scotland and back. But having seen the weather you are having even this might not be a good idea for an inexperienced rider, riding in poor conditions requires a lot more concentration than in good and an accident is much more likely, I would go with a previous suggestion and fly to Greece, hire a bike there and take to some small, quiet roads.
Alternatively why not actually go on holiday with your family for at least part of it and do the above?

This is probably the best answer, just go over to France and take a ride around and set no 'end of day' targets and just enjoy.


Quote;Thanks for all the responses - very helpful (well most of them ). Based on the feedback and some doubts I was having (which is why I posted initially) I have decided to do something more modest for my first tour. Haven't decided what to do yet but possibly a run over to northern France {quote}

So which responses were not helpful? Was it the ones that suggested you were a little ambitious in your proposed trip?

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'He who laughs last, was too slow to get the joke'
Never confuse the map with the journey.

Do it, let us know if you survive and when you're back, let us know how far you ACTUALLY got

If you do UK <-> Greece in 1 week, then you will almost certainly qualify for the IronButt hall of fame: www.ironbutt.com

If you would rather enjoy yourself, then spend time on little roads touring western europe and avoid the motorways! Can't get much better than France IMHO.

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TurboCharger + Francois (our BMW R1200gs) '07
www.riding2up.net, blog.riding2up.net

Assuming you do venture onto the continent (no reason not to) do remember about the Priority a Droit. It is NOT just in France, but in most of Europe as far as I can see. Certainly, you have to be careful in Germany with that rule in 30km and also in some 50km/h zones.

The other question we should ask is, do you already have experience driving a motor car, or have you just passed your driving test for the bike? If so, are you limited on power of the bike engine, etc. as you would be if you had just passed the test in Germany (unless you are older).

Experience driving a car certainly helps as you will have acquired some knowledge of Road Craft, etc.

Grey Beard

If you do venture over to northern France the only advice I would give would be to use a petrol station on "your" side of the road.
That way you'll be facing the right way to rejoin the road on the correct side.
Bon voyage.

A few days in Northern France without massive targets sounds a good idea. I reckon do it now, while you are still thinking conciously about your riding. If you get a lot more UK experience things will become "automatic", you'll have to fight the "automatic" instinct on your first trip abroad and force yourself to do things "backwards" i.e. pulling out on the correct side of the road, checking over your shoulder and in the mirrors.

For what it's worth, if you still fancy a ride across the channel, then I'd second the suggestions here about northern France.

Take the coast road south-west from Calais, Wissant, Boulogne, Etaples and so on. If you like beaches they're lots of them.
If you like quirky sights, somewhere along there (don't remember where) there's the remains of the channel tunnel that Napolean started to dig.
And endless little pensions to stay in.
Not normally crowded but I don't think I've ever been there in the school holidays, so wouldn't know about that time of year.

Also don't forget, the French police are pretty hot these days on speeding, and often the start of a speed limit is the sign giving the name of the village, not a number inside a red circle.

Or maybe the coast road NE to Ostend, Bruges and Gent. Bruges is one of the nicest towns in Europe and you get the best chips in the world there. And many would say the best as well.
And in my experience, if your French isn't much good like mine, the Belgians are more forgiving than the French towards English attempts at the language.

A little anecdote I'll always remember: looking for somewhere for lunch in a little French town, saw a pavement cafe and decided to do the French thing, ride my bike onto the pavement and park it right next to a vacant table.
But decided at the last minute there wasn't enough room between the two tables and went to park in the kerb.
Too late! The waiter had already seen my first intent and nipped over, and pulled a table right out of the way to leave plenty of room next to the table I first aimed for!

That sums up that France/Belgium region for me.
Much better than 25 laps of the M25, even if you stop off at Box Hill every lap....

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TTR250 - London to Cape Town

Thanks again for all the very helpful responses. Northern France sounds like a great place to aim for for my first trip abroad. Used to holiday a lot there with the Mrs in the early days.

To give some background on me I turned 50 earlier this year and have driven for over 30 years so I'd consider myself an experienced and safe driver. I have also cycled a fair bit in London and all over the south east as well as in France, Spain and Italy without an accident (although have witnessed a few) so, whilst I would not begin to compare a bicycle to a motor bike, I have had extensive experience of being a vulnerable road user and how to minimise the risk of an accident. I also did ride (motor) bikes when I was younger both off and on road but, as it was 30 years ago and I never took my test, I consider myself a novice. I have been thinking about getting a bike for a few years now but the thing that has persuaded me is that so many of my friends have got bikes, including the sensible ones, and I didn't want to miss out on the fun. I have also been persuaded by a friend of mine (also 50 this year, got his licence a couple of months ago) to go with him to do a 10 day ride in India on a Royal Enfield Bullet 350 in December with Charley Boorman to raise money for UNICEF which I am very excited about.

Greece and back in a week was probably not one of my best ideas but it is a trip I would love to do over a longer period of time when I have more miles under my belt.

In my opinion none. I'd done less than 1000 miles since passing my test when I first went away on a decent sized trip. To learn you need to clock up time on the bike, and Europe is as good a place as anywhere to do that.

In terms of wether or not you can do it or should do it I reckon you could do it, if you wanted to. I did Greece to the UK last year and it took 3 days (ish) - but at that point we we riding two up as I had passed the bike I was on to Helen, who went off into Turkey and Iran on it. We stopped for a night just north of Rome, then pushed on to south of Lyon, then rode from Lyon to Sheffield. The last leg I wouldn't recommend to anyone, experienced or otherwise! We were on the bike for about 25 hours.

You would have to be really pushing it in terms of hours in the saddle, it probably wouldn't be much fun and the petrol and ferries would cost more than a flight and a weeks bike rental. On the other hand it would be pretty intense and I quite like really long days, but I also like really strong coffee.

hey mates don't do that in the Greek tourism, we are in crisis...


im kidding...

Too many countries, too many nice places to see in a week...

I think you just choose the good decision...

Have a nice trip...

Thessaloniki is a 5 day trip without to much stress, We used the ferry back from Ignoumenista to Ancona, its an overnight crossing run by Superfast, excellent, thoroughly reccomend it, so we left Thessaloniki one morning, had lunch in the mountains and were in Ancona the following morning (not a stressful day), Italy can be very busy around that part though so even using the Autostrada (expensive) there seems to be many hours in the saddle to achieve big distances
It's doable but if your not used to it you will find it a bit of a marathon!

I have ridden from Newcastle to Venice (where you get the Ferry to Corfu then mainland Greece). The riding bit was two solid, very long days on a 1200GS which much of it at 80mph. The ferry took another 1.5 days.

In other words ... don't do it!