I can easily match TomTom's estimate of around 3.5 hours to the 'Ring from Amsterdam and that wasn't really pushing it. That includes re-fuelling as the roads compared to ours in the UK are brilliant. Should be a piece of cake on a 'busa.

Check the 'Ring timetable before you go as there's a lot of closed sessions just for manufacturers testing. The place is like a ghost town when there's nothing on so not really worth staying locally if you're just passing through. Cochem is about 30-40 minutes away over some great roads. I think I paid 22 euro a night for B&B in the youth hostel. The Hotel Sonneck is not far past Mullenbach and the disused Sudschliefe. It's cheap at about 35 euro's per night for B&B but it's in the middle of nowhere.

Sounds obvious but the 'Ring is huge compared to any other track and local knowledge is everything. For this reason, stick to the evening sessions and avoid the tourist weekends as there's a few locals with year tickets who will happily try to bait a UK registered sportsbike, just to prove a point. I saw a prime example of this last year where a young kid spun and stuffed his Golf GTi into the Armco, nearly wiping out a VFR800 that had just overtaken and he was trying to re-pass by outbraking him into Flugplatz.

Check the accident blackspots on the official website. If you're going at a respectable (not slow but not mad) pace, the sharp left hander before the sharp right exiting Adenauer Forst is the corner to watch out for. Just over the crest of the hill, there's huge run off area straight in front of you but the tree line means you can misjudge the entry and makes it look like you can get on the power earlier than you actually can .



BTW, Clarkson's claimed 09:59 lap time in a Jag diesel is bollocks so don't kill yourself trying to beat it. Also remember that if you have an accident and a running stopwatch is found, you'll automatically get the blame.

Like others said, there's some great roads just in Germany itself. Here's my rough plan for May/June 2008, all subject to change and I'm taking 16 days to do it. Starting from Ijmuiden, I'm heading to the HU meeting near Heidelberg then to Baden-Baden and through the Black Forest to Freudenstadt via the B500 which is supposed to be brilliant. From there, I'm heading to Lake Konstanz then the Alpine Road to Berchtesgaden. There's a private toll road running up to a place called Roßfeld, just off the road to Salzburg, which was recommended to me by someone on here and looks like sportsbike heaven on Google Earth. This is where it could all change but I want to go through Austria, maybe via the Großglockner road (if it's open) and into Italy and the Dolomites/Lake Garda, possibly Lake Como and Monza and back up over the Stelvio Pass (again, if it's open). I'll also be spending a couple of days in the Mosel Valley and a trip to the 'Ring on the way back home.