Diesel Bike Tour 2009

[Diesel Dave]

Yes I'm starting the topic early deliberately so everyone who wants to take part has a chance to build up those brownie points at home or work and get the timeslot set in your calendars.

Items to be agreed:

1) Timescale

2) Route


As a guideline, I would like to say it will be a camping run and mostly self suffecient so cooking gear may be required on occasion. We should break the day into 2 or 3 chunks of riding with a lunch stop and aim to be in a campsite for early evening. 3 days in the middle are intended to be for the Hamm Rally so we should aim to arrive on the Thursday afternoon/evening and depart mid morning on the Sunday.

Ok so open forum - all are welcome and I'll even extend the invite to any type of bike or scooter.

Thinking caps on.

Dave

[Dan J]

I'm interested. I'll definitely need the notice for brownie points as well!

Much as I'd like to do the Hamm rally, I'd reckon be happy with two days (say Friday and Saturday?) rather than three as it'd give more time for exploring elsewhere. Another option would be arrive late Thursday and head off first thing Sunday perhaps? You're the man organising though...

Few days either side could easily take in France, Luxembourg, Germany (and on to Hamm) then back through Belgium (edit... I guess the assumption is people can join/leave the tour at any point convenient to them?).

Maybe say 6 nights (night in each country plus three in Germany perhaps)? I reckon I could just about be allowed out to play for that long. Might be pushing it for any more though...

[sbrumby]

I am game, I think try to arrive at Hamm thursday night, depart Sunday morning. Its the ferry times that are more important as I need 1 day to get to Dover & a day back. I also find Dover Dunkerque a beter route as its easy to get out of.

[Fiddler]

Im interested provisionally. Not sure what the bike situation is going to be next year but a tour is a good target to aim for.

[Stuart]

We've always set off a little early for Hamm just incase of disasters along the way. Luckily we've had nothing serious happen to the bikes so far and have always made Hamm by Thursday. There was a good crowd there this year Thursday night and it is well worth getting there a little early. Easier to get to know the guys already there.

In our experience if you leave Hamm at Sunday lunch you can go south, clear the Autobahn in good time and head south into great biking country.

We make as little plans as possible and give ourselves either a week or two to get back. Usually a week these days. We particularly enjoyed the route home we took in o6.
http://www.dieselbike.net/roadhome06/roadhome06.htm
The Maginot Line was reccomended to us and rightly so. Some serious engineering buried down there, and most now functional at Fermont.

We found the French Micheline maps to be unreliable some of the time regarding campsites. Just a warning there

[Diesel Dave]

First stab at a route

http://tinyurl.com/al6r6m

The placepoints are just 150km apart, this way we can choose the first stopping point depending on when the ferry lands. Full days in the saddle should see 300km easy so use a midpoint waystop for lunch. From experience the more members of the group the slower things progress so the last to pack up in the morning determines the start of the riding day; those that didn't fill up yesterday will do today, punctures/pee stops/fag breaks all add up.

Comments critique etc welcome from either those wanting to join in or indeed anyone who knows the areas and can suggest better routes & stopping points.

[Darren]

Surely you'd want to dive into Luxenbourg to get some cheap fags???

[oldbmw]

I may have missed it, but what is your intended return route?

Cigars are cheap in Belgium, supermarkets sell wooden boxes of 50 cigarello's for about 12 euros.. ( what do I know, I dont smoke )

I am not sure if I will be going to Hamm this year, I might drop in on the way back from another trip, but my priority is to attend the 50 year of bonneville celebrations.

[Diesel Dave]

Ok chaps so the dates for Hamm have been published 10-13 Sept.

So I'm going to book the previous week off work and prob. the following week too as I'll be taking a lazy route back home.

Roll call for interested parties please.

Dave

[Dan J]

I can do a few days off either side but unfortunately the wife has other plans for the rest of my time off work for this year. It looks like you're planning on going for longer than that and if that's the case then I sadly won't be able to make it (though might brave heading to Hamm and meet you there).

It's certainly the plan in the next year or so to do a week long trip somewhere interesting on the bike but given the new baby and everything else I'll be teetering on divorce grounds if I push my luck too hard this year!

[Diesel Dave]

Chaps,

My sincere apologies but I've just been informed that there's no way on this planet I'm going to be allowed time off in September so unfortunately my tour is off the cards.

So it looks like it's back to a mad dash for the ferry after work and a quick blat up the motorway once again.

I was really hoping to be able to do more this year.

Regards
Dave

[bambertino]

hi guys
my mate john, and i (dave) are booked on the ferry dover calais on fri 11th coming back sunday afternoon, on a couple of harleys to find out abiut the diesel scene, look forward to meeting some of you
dave

[Stuart]

Nice One John We'll see you there