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.
The first Tour1 road trip of the year is complete.
Our trip to get to St Tropez covered about 1,400 miles over six days of riding in France, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and we rode some fabulous roads set amongst glorious scenery. It was a spectacular journey to get to the French Riviera.
The three days at the rally in St Tropez were glorious. We were blessed with fantastic weather and the Harley-Davidson’s parked in front of the mega-yachts was a sight to see!
The area was crammed full of Harley owners and the rally site was busy. The Tour1 customers then flew home on the Sunday and our motorcycles were returned back to the UK by We Move Bikes during the following week. The St Tropez rally is one of my favourites and one that I look forward to every year.
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
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!
