5 reasons you should take your bike on a European tour
Bored of the same old route? Explored every nook and cranny of your local and national roads? Well, it’s time to look a little further afield.
One of the perennial frustrations encountered by motorbike enthusiasts is finding new roads to explore. Sure, a Saturday blast on your favourite cross country B-road is the perfect tonic to a heavy week at work, but even that can get a bit tiresome after a while.
Perhaps it’s time to try some roads of a different kind.
Despite the impending Brexit, our European neighbours aren’t going anywhere and they’re lucky enough to have some of the best motorcycling roads in the world. That means a quick ferry trip is all that’s required in order to discover a whole new world of two-wheeled adventure, but if you’re unsure, we’ve got five reasons that will hopefully convince you otherwise.
1. It’s the adventure of a lifetime
Your local roads are close. They’re easy. They’re a bit of a cop-out, to be honest. By contrast, to enjoy the open road in Europe, you need to get off your backside and make it there in the first place.
That means an epic road trip and the chance to engage in spontaneous meetings with people you’d otherwise never meet during your life time.
If you’re a biker, you’re already an adventurer, so why not prove to the world what you’re made of?
2. You’ll have stories to tell forever
Brilliant, exciting and - sometimes - scary things happen on foreign roads with which you’re unfamiliar.
The friendly people you bump into during a routine maintenance stop in a village, or the impromptu party you inadvertently attend at a hotel one night - every waking moment will result in a story you’ll be able to tell for years to come.
Even breakdowns of the worst kind (they’ll happen) or near-misses will be exhilarating and intriguing enough to be table talk at every family gathering.
3. You can finally travel with mates
How many times have you and your mates dreamily considered the prospect of heading out onto the open road for a week with nothing but the thought of the tarmac ahead and next stopover on your mind?
Biking abroad gives you the perfect excuse to finally travel and spend seriously good time with your mates (and you’re guaranteed to get on like a house on fire).
4. You’ll learn an awful lot about your bike
If your two-wheeled friend spends most of her time in the garage with only occasional trips to your local mechanic for a service, you don’t really know her at all.
Once you leave your comfort zone and have no one to rely on but yourself and those around you, you’ll learn an awful lot about your bike. From fixing the odd puncture to spending hours on the saddle, you’ll learn to appreciate it like never before.
5. You get to see the in-between places
When you travel on holiday or for business, you get to see the airport and your destination - that’s it. Everything else is shielded behind the protective window of either a taxi or transfer coach. That’s not adventure, is it?
When you take to foreign roads on your bike, you get to see everywhere in-between, completely unfiltered. You’ll discover places few tourists visit and meet locals who will make you feel completely at home.
Have we convinced you to head out for a European adventure? We hope so. Maybe you’ve been on one already. If so, share your experiences in the comments section, below!
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