Motorcycling Routes

[The Moose]

Every now and again, I'll have a spare day/weekend/week when I just want to jump on the bike and head off on a route somewhere at relatively short notice. Whilst this is of course nice to be able to do, I often run out of ideas of places to go as I don't know the areas well enough outside of my area.

It means that if I wanted to jump on the bike on a Saturday morning and spend the weekend in France, I don't know the best biking roads in the areas I want to cover.

I know there are sites such as bestbikingroads.com and similar, however it seems most people like to be hard on the gas, hard on the brakes into hairpin bends etc as opposed to open flowing roads with fast sweeping corners which is what I prefer and why I love places such as South Africa.

How do I find these roads at short notice?!?!

[daimatt]

I do the old google maps job.
Pick a destination and do a direction thing so you have a general route. Then zoom to a level that you can see the roads around the route the maps gave and look for the style you are after, a quick street view will show you if it's worth it and then you can shift the blue line to it and carry on adjusting the blue line until you reach your destination.

I hope that makes sense

[2seas]

No need to go far, just get yourself up to Scotland. I live in Inverness and the roads around here are brilliant. Great scenery and a good mix of twisty stuff and open sweepers.

Here's a link to a great interactive map which shows the 'best' roads in UK. Obviously it's a matter of debate but it's been a pretty good guide for me: http://www.bestbikingroads.com/motorcycle-roads/mo...

Red is is the best. Now have a look at the region around Inverness...

By the way the summer in Scotland has been amazing this year and it seems like it might stretch on a little longer so get yourself up here and catch the window before it closes!

[The Moose]

2seas said:

No need to go far, just get yourself up to Scotland. I live in Inverness and the roads around here are brilliant. Great scenery and a good mix of twisty stuff and open sweepers.

Here's a link to a great interactive map which shows the 'best' roads in UK. Obviously it's a matter of debate but it's been a pretty good guide for me: http://www.bestbikingroads.com/motorcycle-roads/mo...

Red is is the best. Now have a look at the region around Inverness...

By the way the summer in Scotland has been amazing this year and it seems like it might stretch on a little longer so get yourself up here and catch the window before it closes!

2 days of riding to get to Inverness for me! Could get towards the bottom of France for that for me!!

I would love to come and have a nosey, but fear I won't get there now until it's terrible weather!

[2seas]

The Moose said:

2seas said:

No need to go far, just get yourself up to Scotland. I live in Inverness and the roads around here are brilliant. Great scenery and a good mix of twisty stuff and open sweepers.

Here's a link to a great interactive map which shows the 'best' roads in UK. Obviously it's a matter of debate but it's been a pretty good guide for me: http://www.bestbikingroads.com/motorcycle-roads/mo...

Red is is the best. Now have a look at the region around Inverness...

By the way the summer in Scotland has been amazing this year and it seems like it might stretch on a little longer so get yourself up here and catch the window before it closes!

2 days of riding to get to Inverness for me! Could get towards the bottom of France for that for me!!

I would love to come and have a nosey, but fear I won't get there now until it's terrible weather!

Ah that's a shame, I guess you're in the South of England. Not sure what bike hire is like up here but with that and the separate cost of flying it might work out too expensive. Although you can get some bargain cheap flights upto Inverness from London so it may be worth a look...

To be honest, if it were a 50:50 I'd probably pick France/Spain too! UK is just handy as you have the luxury of breakdown cover, phone (google maps), currency etc already in place and don't have to faff about.

[The Moose]

2seas said:

The Moose said:

2seas said:

No need to go far, just get yourself up to Scotland. I live in Inverness and the roads around here are brilliant. Great scenery and a good mix of twisty stuff and open sweepers.

Here's a link to a great interactive map which shows the 'best' roads in UK. Obviously it's a matter of debate but it's been a pretty good guide for me: http://www.bestbikingroads.com/motorcycle-roads/mo...

Red is is the best. Now have a look at the region around Inverness...

By the way the summer in Scotland has been amazing this year and it seems like it might stretch on a little longer so get yourself up here and catch the window before it closes!

2 days of riding to get to Inverness for me! Could get towards the bottom of France for that for me!!

I would love to come and have a nosey, but fear I won't get there now until it's terrible weather!

Ah that's a shame, I guess you're in the South of England. Not sure what bike hire is like up here but with that and the separate cost of flying it might work out too expensive. Although you can get some bargain cheap flights upto Inverness from London so it may be worth a look...

To be honest, if it were a 50:50 I'd probably pick France/Spain too! UK is just handy as you have the luxury of breakdown cover, phone (google maps), currency etc already in place and don't have to faff about.

It seems that EasyJet will get me to Inverness for circa £45 return (cracking price!!). Circa same cost as getting to/from France on tunnel so they cancel each other out. It's the bike hire that puts the price up - £110 per day on average. For a couple of days it's not too bad I guess.

[2seas]

The Moose said:

2seas said:

The Moose said:

2seas said:

No need to go far, just get yourself up to Scotland. I live in Inverness and the roads around here are brilliant. Great scenery and a good mix of twisty stuff and open sweepers.

Here's a link to a great interactive map which shows the 'best' roads in UK. Obviously it's a matter of debate but it's been a pretty good guide for me: http://www.bestbikingroads.com/motorcycle-roads/mo...

Red is is the best. Now have a look at the region around Inverness...

By the way the summer in Scotland has been amazing this year and it seems like it might stretch on a little longer so get yourself up here and catch the window before it closes!

2 days of riding to get to Inverness for me! Could get towards the bottom of France for that for me!!

I would love to come and have a nosey, but fear I won't get there now until it's terrible weather!

Ah that's a shame, I guess you're in the South of England. Not sure what bike hire is like up here but with that and the separate cost of flying it might work out too expensive. Although you can get some bargain cheap flights upto Inverness from London so it may be worth a look...

To be honest, if it were a 50:50 I'd probably pick France/Spain too! UK is just handy as you have the luxury of breakdown cover, phone (google maps), currency etc already in place and don't have to faff about.

It seems that EasyJet will get me to Inverness for circa £45 return (cracking price!!). Circa same cost as getting to/from France on tunnel so they cancel each other out. It's the bike hire that puts the price up - £110 per day on average. For a couple of days it's not too bad I guess.

Well if you do come this way then you'll have a biking buddy! I brought my motorbike up the day before yesterday and I can't wait to hit the roads (figuratively, I hope).

[Battlecat]

I have a copy of this along with a Michelin atlas

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Best-Rides-Motorcycle-Atla...

They both have the good roads highlighted and generally been very happy to take a route in northern France based on these roads. With the use of a Euro sat nav for town centers and generally as a backup, the long weekends I've done have been based on routes planned from the Best Rides Atlas.