Your Bucket List Motorcycle Adventure

Me and my wife where in Fuengirola Spain and did a 4 day tour during the eastern this year. Fantastic roads, good food. Highly recommended.
We did fly there and rented two Yamahas...nobody is perfect!

 

Hey Sandi T you are very welcome to ride here in the UK. Unfortunately you will have to resign yourself to the fact that you are likely to get wet and therefore plan for it. However wet or dry you will love the experience..

 

Live in Mississippi, the Trace is not that good of a ride, for a few miles near Nashville it is nice. But other wise boring and straight. Also a federal parkway, speed limit is 50mph. So much better riding near in Ga and NC

 

Hey Sandi. If you plan to ride PCH I hope you won't mind if I make a couple of suggestions for you to consider?

1. PCH is, in my limited experience, best ridden from north to south - that way you have the ocean views nearest to you and unobstructed by the gazillion (good American term) RVs and buses that will be on the road, too!

2. There is a stretch of the Northern California coast that's been dubbed "The Lost Coast" - I'm not sure whether or not the term has been officially adopted but it is (or was) highly appropriate. I was first told about it in the early eighties by a lady I met who was touring - solo - on a BMW and it was all and more she said it would be. Quiet, twisting roads - though with some poor maintenance areas; stunning coastal views - assuming you don't get the coastal fog - and historic, old settlements like Ferndale,Honeydew and Petrolia. Ferndale is a gem - lots of Victorian 'gingerbread' buildings (including the Victorian Inn) many of which are hotels or guest houses. It has become much more popular as a destination so, if you can, try to visit outside of the main season.

3. Likewise with Napa - assuming that's what you meant by Wine Country from SF? The sheer size and scale of wine production in California is quite astonishing and huge areas of the land are given over to viniculture. My most recent trip to the area was probably 3 or 4 years ago for an annual Velocette rally and it was easy to see the increase in traffic volumes from my previous visit some six or seven years before.

If you'll permit a recommended alternative? The town of Plymouth on Highway 49 in Amador County has probably a dozen or more wineries within a few miles radius. I cite Plymouth simply as an example. I've seen huge growth in the number of acres of vineyards in the wider area over the last 10 or 15 years and I think that there are now self guiding tours of some of the wine producing houses so it is, in a way, a burgeoning Napa Valley! It is busy and there is always a lot of tourist traffic on Highway49 for the gold rush history, but it is, IMHO, still less busy than the Napa region, probably prettier, and almost certainly less intensively hot than the Central Valley!

If you like fine art - preferably wildlife - and fine wine then this place is a MUST :-

http://www.charlesspinettawinery.com/

Original and limited edition wildlife prints of peerless quality; on site, high quality and custom framing by the gallery owners - who are lovely people - and some wonderful, high quality and unusual wines developed, produced and sold on site.

Although I wouldn't like to see the place swamped, The Spinetta winery is one of those places that should, perhaps, be on the bucket list of anyone with an interest in art, wine and history!

Start planning an autumn trip then you can take in the fall colo(u)rs, too.

Edit/addendum 1 - If possible, plan your visit to Plymouth to allow for breakfast or brunch/lunch at Marlene and Glen's Diner! It's easy to find as it's on Highway 49. Colloquially known as the 'Dead Fly Diner' it's a true, old fashioned diner offering great food, in good sized portions, with wonderful service in a really down to earth setting. It's always a 'must do' for me when I visit Paul but, be warned, it gets VERY busy, especially at weekends .... the sign of a good diner/restaurant, I guess.

Edit/addendum 2. Spain? Picos for me, personally but, if possible, add more than a few days to do a round trip tour and visit Burgos (birthplace of "El CID"); Segovia (fantastic Roman architecture); Avila (stunningly beautiful medieval walled city. Also famed for its 'role' in the Grant/Loren/Sinatra movie "The Pride and The Passion"); Salamanca - rather modernised and urbanised but the old part of the city is littered with beautiful, old buildings and the Plaza Mayor is as good as any you will see anywhere - providing it's not TOO crowded. If you can, I would return to the north coast via an extra stop in Braganca in Portugal - another old castle town.

I have ridden and driven this route twice and, perhaps, one of these days I'll waste a few hours of your time and tell you why it is so meaningful to me yet accessible to anyone.

 

I have 3 dream adventures. 1. Get to China by road. 2. Florida to Alaska. 3. Ride around the edge of Australia. No2 & 3 buy the bikes there and sell after the route to buy a ticket home.

 

Thanks, Wessa! I'm quite sure I would (will?!) love the experience of riding in the UK. As my husband always says (and I often do), "There's no bad weather, only inappropriate gear".

 

Thanks for the feedback, Barryscott! That is really good to know and helpful in planning. Are there particular areas of GA and NC that you'd recommend??

 

Hi Adie,
Thank you for your thoughtful and detailed recommendations! I lived in Oakland and worked in Berkeley a number of years ago and it has been a very long time since I've even visited northern CA unfortunately. I have heard, however, what you shared about PCH being backed up with, yes, a "gazillion" RV's, buses, and campers. Your suggestion to go from north to south is a very good one. I have been to Ferndale but, again, so long ago that I barely remember a thing about it other than those beautiful Victorian homes.

I was thinking more of Sonoma County than Napa when I referred to the wine country. Barring the exorbitant cost of living there, it's in my top three places I'd move to in the U.S. Maybe #1 if I could actually afford to live there. I had not thought of Amador County but that's a great idea. They make terrific wines. I don't know much about Lodi County but they make really wonderful wines there as well. My husband and I had talked about doing a northern CA trip in the fall so it's nice to see that we're on target for the best time of year.

Thank you also for your recommendations for Spain. I'll have to pull out the map we bought because I don't know the country well enough to really have a grasp of where places are. I got to spend a full week in Barcelona about 12 years ago when my (ex) husband had to go there for work. I loved it would go back in a heartbeat and plan to spend time in that city at the front or back end of a riding trip in Spain.

Thanks again for sharing your experiences, suggestions, and recommendations, Adie. I appreciate it! You have piqued my curiosity about why your Spain route is special for you.

 

Hi Andy,
Actually, about a year ago my husband and I were just about to commit to an Ireland motorcycle for this summer when he announced, "Maybe I ought to find out if my heritage is really Irish!" His whole life he has thought that his great grandparents and grandparents hailed from Ireland. So he did the whole ancestry.com online thing and couldn't reliably find the answers. So he did the DNA test. Turns out he's 2% Irish, 94% English, and 4% German! I told him that didn't mean we couldn't still go ride the perimeter of Ireland! I'm Swedish with a little Norwegian thrown in but I didn't list Sweden on my MC trip bucket list. We do still dream about doing a tour in Ireland and now you have me thinking we should check into Scotland too. I will keep in mind that May is the driest. Though I don't like to be cold, it does get quite cold in Arizona and times and more so in the northern part of the state so we have plenty of warm riding gear we can pile on.

So it sounds like you have a trip through Spain planned. That's great! When and where?? I'll look forward to reading about your travels.

 

Andy I’m sure both Dougie and yourself will love the Picos, I’ve been about 6-7 times and love the place.

I was thinking of going there this year in early October but it’s possibly a bit late now.
There’s always next year

 

I get it, but hope that Scarlett has officially got antique status & you have to be hoisted on her ...

Oh thought I had better check we are talking Scarlett the Speed Triple here yeah?

 

When you find the UK's driest part of the year, please let us know as just for once I'd like to be able to plan a barbeque or a bike ride more than an hour in advance!

 

a coastal road tour round the UK with the America and the Mrs on a rebel 500.....

 

I'll do that, Billy! Growing up in Minnesota, I found the same thing to be true about being able to plan. Of course, in the winter you didn't plan ANY outdoors activities (save perhaps ice fishing and snowmobiling). But the weather during spring, summer, and to some degree autumn, could turn on a dime. I worked two summers during college waitressing at a country club. Worked a 6-day week with Mondays off. Both summers it rained every darned Monday except for two. Partly why I love Arizona. It may be hot but you can pretty much plan activities without the weather interfering all the time! In fact, you start to take it for granted and can become quite annoyed if you actually get weather that foils your plans for the day.

 

Wow, your trip sounds fabulous, Andy! I'll have to look up the Aragon MotoGP course. Thanks for sending the links to the threads about Scotland and Ireland trips. I'm sure they will just whet my appetite to travel there even more. Have a great time in September with Dougie D and I'll look forward to photos from the road.

 

Thanks, Wessa! Well, the beauty of living in the 21st century is that great gear for all (or nearly all) riding conditions is available. No reason to miss out on beautiful places on the planet due to a little (little, right??) precipitation!

 

We’ve had a little precipitation around here recently

 

And the appropriate gear...

 

I always wanted to do a European Grand Tour, especially the Nordic countries and the Slovak regions. Take a good long time about it, spend very little time in cities but hit up the mountains, lakes and coasts...

From there, Canada and America, again with mountains, lakes and coasts being features...

Then NZ, Oz, Japan, Africa, South America... not to bothered about India, Russia, China or Indonesia regions at the present time.

 

I have been talking of doing this for the last two years. 3 and half years to retirement. My wife will still work so she will fly and meet me for different legs. I expect about 6 weeks as in no rush.
I am ordering a Rocket GT and will probably do the trip on that as it will be a conversation starter I expect.

 

I am actually about to do one of my bucket list trips. In about 10 weeks, me and 5 mates are going to northern Thailand hopefully taking in Chaing Mia, Chaing Ria, Pia and up to the golden triangle where Thailand, Burma and Laos all meet. This is famous big bike country in Asia, its been a while getting it arranged, but its getting close now.
Not done to many tours, i went back to biking at 50, so missed a lot of years i am now trying to make up for. So far managed southern Thai islands, France, Belgium, Luxemberg and a small part of Germany.
On the bucket list,,,
1) India, my friend done this and it looked fantastic.
2) deep south of the USA, right across to Survanna.
3) Boat down to the bottom of Spain, then right back taking in Pyrenees and Alpes, think i might manage this one next summer?