Lee:

I usually do a 4 to 6 week ride in Europe every year, starting out of Switzerland.

One thing I have learned over the past 10 years is that it is better to focus on "one region" per year, rather than being too ambitious about hitting a whole bunch of different countries. If you get too ambitious about covering ground, all you are going to see is the yellow stripe on the road and the gas stations at the side of the road, and they all look the same no matter where you go.

This year, I did a tour "around" the Balkan region. Literally around, because I didn't want the insurance headaches that come with going into most of the former Yugoslavian countries, so, I just circled them all. There's a post here that shows my route and has some comments.

I think that you got things correct when you wrote:

However, I think you might have made one math error - 5,000 miles total (which is longish, but certainly do-able in 6 weeks) does not equate to 2,500 miles out and 2,500 miles back. After you factor in wandering around, looking at interesting places, staying in the same place for a few days on several occasions and using that place as a base to do day trips from, I think that the furthest you should plan on getting from your home base is about 1,250 to 1,500 miles straight-line distance, maximum. This is particularly true because you ride like I do - staying off the motorways and sticking to the smaller roads. When following those kinds of routes, 100 miles on the odometer usually equals about 60 miles as the crow flies.

So, I suggest to you that you pick a 'region' - could be Northern Europe (Benelux, Germany, Poland, Switzerland, Northern France) - maybe even stretching east into Austria; could be the Iberian peninsula; could be Eastern Europe; could be South-Eastern Europe (like I just did) - but for goodness sake, don't try to cover the whole darn continent, you will just wear yourself (and your tires) out and not really see much of any place at all.

I've always preferred to plan my trips as 'circles'. This allows me to easily keep a perspective on how much time I have left vs. how far I have gone, plus, if I get really interested in what I see in the first half of the circle and wind up spending 80% of my time on the first half of the planned trip, I just abandon the second half of the circle (save it for next year) and head straight back home when my vacation time is up. You can see an example of that on the map I posted - I did the portion from Patra (Peloponnese) to Zurich airport in 36 hours.

Some additional thoughts, generic in nature:

- You mentioned that you like to have a day or two a week when you are not riding the bike. Me too. Never underestimate the benefit of sleeping in the same place 3 nights in a row - it is like a vacation within a vacation. It's possible to travel continually and stay in a different place each night for about 5 to 7 nights in a row, at which point you will get pissed off with the burden of packing things up each day (most especially if you are camping!). Plus, after 5 to 7 days of riding from city to city, you will want to 'not even see the friggin' motorcycle' for a day, which means staying 2 or 3 nights in one place.

- Also consider that you might find a place that has a lot of interesting stuff around it, and elect to stay in one place for 3 to 5 days and make day trips out and back in different directions. This is generally more relaxing than riding to a different town every day, no matter how much you enjoy riding the bike. It's also a heck of a lot less expensive... you get to know the place you are staying in, food and lodging costs drop, and you don't spend as much time in the saddle every day. The days suddenly become 25% longer, because you don't have to break camp in the morning, and set up again in the evening - you just 'come home' to whatever hotel or campsite you are staying at.

- Weather has a huge effect on how much you will enjoy the trip. On my tour this past September, the daytime high temperatures didn't drop below 30°C until I got off the ferry in Italy on October 1, and I never once took my rainsuit out of the bag. So, the time of year that you plan to do the riding should, in theory, significantly influence your choice of where to go.

Michael