One of my favourite Harley-Davidson rallies is the European Festival, held in St Tropez and Grimaud each year. Getting some early season riding on great roads riding across Europe is a terrific way to kick-start the years longer rides.
Tour1 are running a one-way tour from the UK to the rally and the highlights of the tour include: Stay at a Chateaux – riding terrific roads in the Black Forest – Alps mountains – Mountain pass roads – Mont Blanc – Combe Laval – Verdon Gorge – St Tropez.
Saturday 2nd May 2015 to Sunday 10th May 2015, 8 nights
Prices. £1,685 per rider in his/her own room, or £2,075 for a rider and pillion sharing a room. For two riders sharing a room the price is £1,350 each.
Prices include all accommodation, plus transporting your bike back to the UK.
Countries we will be visiting on the way: France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland.
A few weeks ago, I hinted that I would be making an announcement about something motorcycle related. It sparked quite a lot of guesses about what it might be about.
Well, the waiting is over, as today I launch my new motorcycle touring business.
Called Tour1, the main points of what we are doing are…..
We devise and lead motorcycle tours from the UK to Harley-Davidson European rallies.
These are one-way tours and we ship your motorcycle back to the UK. We do this in partnership with “We Move Bikes”, the UK’s leading motorcycle shipper.
Due to the tours being one-way only, you can ride across Europe, attend a great motorcycle rally and get back home, all in one week.
We find great roads to ride, avoid motorways and have a preference for back roads.
Many of our routes are planned to ride over the Alps mountains.
In 2014, we are riding to three main Harley-Davidson rallies....
We are going to the HOG Euro Festival, in St Tropez, France (May 2014)
Plus, the main Harley-Davidson European Rally in Biograd, Croatia (June 2014)
And the big one, European Bike Week, in Faaker See, Austria (September 2014)
We have also organised a four day tour around parts of northern France
I will personally lead each of the tours.
The routes are planned, the hotels are booked and the anticipation levels are rising!
For more information, see our new website at www.tour1.co.uk
Now is the time of year that most bikers in the northern hemisphere don’t like. The warm days of summer have passed, the grey and rain of autumn have made their unwelcome appearance. Getting out on our motorcycles just isn’t as much fun as it was in the summer. As a biker living in London, England, as yet another riding season draws to a close, it’s all pretty depressing to me.
There is only one thing for it – head south to the sun. For most people in Europe, you have to go a pretty long way south before the temperatures begin to climb, but in the US, that isn’t the case if you live in the more southerly states.
Take Texas for example. Motorcycle rallies are over for most of us, but not so in Galveston, Texas. The ‘Lone Star Rally’ runs from 1st until 4th November this year. Located on the Gulf of Mexico near Houston, Galveston is on the same latitude as... the Sahara Desert. The average daily high for Galveston on 1st November is 75F / 24C with the record high being 82F / 28C, and thats plenty warm enough for most of us.
Photo courtesy of Galveston.com
Claimed by the organisers to be the largest four-day rally in North America, this year’s event features concerts, a custom bike show, hundreds of vendors and even an appearance from Charlie Hunnam who plays ‘Jax’ in the TV series ‘Sons of Anarchy’.
Not able to attend this November, I am determined to go to the rally one year.
Here is the “official teaser video” from the rally organisers website....
If you do manage a autumn get away to the sun somewhere, have fun and post something about it!
I was looking on the Harley-Davidson HOG website and found a cool picture of yours truly riding my Amelia bike in St Tropez.....
Also, in an e-mail HOG sent out to it's members, there is a video form the recent rally in St Tropez and somewhere near the beginning, is Amelia parked up in the marina....
Many of you know a new custom bike has been built for me recently. I have posted a few pictures of the progress of the bike as it developed and of some of the details of the bike, but it is now time to reveal the completed motorcycle.
Called Amelia, the bike is based upon what old school choppers used to look like, with long forks and high bars. The bike looks amazing with its stunning engraving and paintwork. Here is the bike as it was rolled for the first time, ready for its first ride....
I didn’t post any pictures at the time as I didn’t want to give away the overall shape, but here is the bike a few weeks ago in its full mock-up form. Pictured by the bike is Charlie Stockwell, of Warrs Harley-Davidson, who built the bike. He did an amazing job and full marks must go to him for creating a wonderful motorcycle. Some of the parts were made by Charlie....
Due to its unusual form, Charlie and I wanted to ride the bike as a mock up before it was painted in order to check out the handling. We needn’t have worried as Dave Batchelar of P&D Custom Bikes did a terrific job of modifying the frame. The bike rode like a dream and took the bends with ease. Yes, I know the bike looks odd and yes, that is tape holding on the temporary instrument panel, as yes, the seat isn’t covered yet....
Here is the bike being assembled after painting and engraving. The engine had stage 4 modifications to give it much more power....
The engraving and paint is simply incredible. Here are a few of the details of the front end....
A view looking up at the front brake pedal, reservoir and engine....
The paint was done by Keith of Classic Cycle Works and I have to say he did a fantastic job. The paint scheme just leaps out at you, with big metal flake, pinstriping and glorious colours....
The engraving just makes the whole bike gleam in a riot of chiselled metal. It is difficult to remember that this engraving was all cut by hand with a hammer and chisel. Remarkable!....
Here are a few shots from last weeks custom bike show at the HOG Rally in Grimaud in the south of France. Amelia was awarded second place in the Custom Bike category....
A few more shots from last weekend in St Tropez....
Wherever I parked the bike in St Tropez, it seemed to get quite a lot of people looking at it....
Finally, a couple of pictures of the guy that owns the bike. Most of the time, he has a big grin on his face....
Along with a few friends, Ian, Paul, Preben and Andy, I went riding to Cannes and then back to St Tropez. From the back of a bike, Ian used his phone to capture a short video of me riding Amelia.... its not a great quality video, but you will get the idea.... oh, and the sound of the bike is wonderful......
It is fair to say, I am deligyhted and very happy with the new bike. In just a few weeks time, I am going to ride it to Portugal on a 2,000 mile round trip. I can’t wait!
Thanks to everyone that helped to create such a fantastic motorcycle!
I am a little behind in my blogging, so the HOG event written about here actually took place last weekend.
Having arrived in Biograd in Croatia, Ian and myself found the apartments we had rented (sat nav is a great thing in a foreign country) and went to explore the rally site. This was a free rally set right on the waterfront in the tourist town and it proved to be a tremendous location, with everything within walking distance. This proved to be an huge benefit, with the trader area, two stages, expos, restaurants, bars and exhibits all strung along the sea front. The roads were all closed to all vehicles except motorbikes with ample parking for all. Brilliant!
The only slight drawback was in Biograd, there was just one petrol station which had long lines every time we went passed it. This was however a small price to pay.
Some general shots of the rally....
The only thing not being held in Biograd itself was the custom bike show, which was about 20 miles away in the bigger city of Zadar. It was very difficult to find and as a consequence, not very well attended. Some shots from the ride to get there....
Nearby was what looked like roman ruins and a cool church with an impressive tower....
The Leading Ladies in Zadar....
Some of the bikes at the custom bike show....
And the bike awarded best in show was from Slovenia....
On one of the days in Croatia, we jumped on a ferry and took a 20 minute ride to one of the many island just offshore. We rode the length of the island before taking a different ferry back to the mainland....
Back near the rally site, I spotted this graffiti. I have no idea what it says, but someone reading this might know....
Finally a few pictures from the Saturday night festivities. My local H-D dealer in London, Warrs, held a party for the Chelsea and Fulham Chapter members that had ridden all the way to Croatia....
Overall, the rally was a tremendous success, with many people saying it was one of the best they had ever been to. Initially I had wondered whether Croatia would be a good location and I was wrong – it was a great place for a H-D rally. There were so many riders from all over Europe attending including the more eastern European countries and this was a great chance to see how the east lives, especially in the motorcycle community.
Knowing that I had to be in Spain in just two days time, there wasn’t time to ride the Leading Ladies back to London, so I used a company called We Move Bikes to ship my bike back for me. They take all of the H-D demonstrator bikes to all of the Europeans festivals and rallies and also ship customer bikes. If you are short of time or just simply don’t want to ride in both directions to a far-flung rally, they are very good. The Leading Ladies will therefore be delivered back to my home after I return from Spain.
The annual European HOG Rally is proving to be extremely successful and enjoyable. One of the first things I did when I arrived back home in London was to book a hotel for next year’s rally, in Cascais in Portugal.
