When I started to tour around Europe, I had the ideology of aimlessly wandering and as the sun goes down rocking up at a delightful hotel, that welcome you...

The reality was far different, with no room at the inn (due to a local festival, national holiday or simply as they thought we were going to cause havoc as we arrived on a motorbike), over-priced hovels and dirty, flea ridden rooms or simply not finding somewhere (sometime in rural France and Germany you cannot find a cafe open never mind a place to sleep), we now plan the trip before we go. This way we find lovely places to stay, in areas/towns/cities we want to visit and enjoy (at great rates) and thousands of miles later would not do it any other way now.

Twice in Germany we had a final destination and went through other countries to places en or a bit off route.

We used the Biker Friendly Accommodation on thebikerguide.com to stay in places we really wanted to stop at as they looked really Biker Friendly and interesting and also used booking.com to find places in specific towns/villages/areas. We then programe the whole lot into a bike sat nav when at home and on the day just go, knowing we have places to stay and a route planned.

Of course we close the sat nav and wander, but it is there to get you out of the copious amount of road work with no diversion signs, find the gorgeous place in the middle of nowhere you booked and can find you petrol and food if needed.

Its also worth pointing out that by doing this we know how much everything has cost and its always nice to see the rate card at the hotel for the room you paid €35 for is 3 times that if you had indeed 'rocked up!'

We plan trips sort of like this...

Find a final destination then plot the route using Google maps, riding 150- 200 to each destination. Ideally two/three days at a place, so you get to see something when there and have a day off the bike - or even so you can go somewhere on the bike without being loaded up. When we did one nighters we found it too much of -

'riding/getting there/taking stuff into accommodation/unpacking/shower/eat/drink/sleep/get up/pack' and again and again...

Personally we prefer accommodation on these long trips rather than campsites, plus its extra weight on the bike.

We use a sat nav to get us to places which takes a lot of stress off from when we used to do it by maps. Would not do any distance now without one, as you enjoy the ride so much better. Plus can program sat nav in the UK before you leave. 

Sat nav v maps

I used to like the idea of being spontaneous and also did not fancy using a sat nav however once you have tried to get a room somewhere to find you cannot get one as they are full due to a local festival, over priced (Italy circa 2001, 11 pm in a roadside motel style @ 175€ comes to mind) , you cannot find one (sounds strange I know but there are miles and miles of nothing in parts of Germany - well apart from excellent scenery) and to book into somewhere and find it awful, we now do as above - i.e. find a final destination and plan route around it. We use a combination of Biker Friendly accommodation on www.thebikerguide.co.uk and if there is nothing in the area we want we also look on booking.com.

We did a trip a couple of years ago with the final destination being Colditz Castle, which you can stay in. Went in July for 3 ish weeks with everything booked, set into sat nav and you know what - thank goodness as it rained everyday but one. We would set off with the next place in the sat nav - take off route when we wanted and arrive at destination stress free. We stayed at some great places, travelled fantastic roads and routes and would pass by others at the side of the road battling with a big wet soggy map to find their way.

I think once you have used a sat nav on a big trip which gets you to destinations easy, gets you out of a diversion and back on route, helps you navigate/find food and petrol, you wonder what you did before the United States military released the technology for GPS!

Bikesafe2016 is coming to Northamptonshire, a family road safety day with a difference. 

Organised by Bikesafe and Northamptonshire Highways, Bikesafe is a police led motorcycle initiative that is run by most forces throughout the UK.  And this year we are bringing it to Northamptonshire and the iconic Rockingham Circuit in Corby on Saturday July 16^th.

Not only bringing it to the county we are delighted to announce our charity partner will be The  Warwickshire and Northamptonshire Air Ambulance. They will be there on the day collecting with proceeds from the gate also going to this cause.

Northamptonshire Highways are passionate about supporting the service and, not only close to our hearts, but close to Lee Anderson, whose life was saved by air ambulance staff after a serious bike crash.

Lee can’t remember much about his life-saving helicopter journey from the A508 in Northamptonshire  to Coventry Hospital, but he does know that without the air ambulance’s help, he is unlikely to be alive.

He said: “What happened to me could happen to anyone. My wheel was faulty and I slid 40 metres into a telegraph post which broke a lot of my ribs and my collarbone in four places. I have thought a lot about it since it happened and the more I think about it the more I owe them. The last thing I remember is telling them that I couldn’t breathe. I found out later that my lungs had filled with blood. The air ambulance came with a doctor who gave me pain-killing drugs, used a scalpel to get into my ribs and pushed into my lungs to release the pressure and I was taken to Walsgrave University Hospital. The journey would have taken more than 30 minutes by ambulance – by air it took six. I think that, with the help of the doctor who was also transported to the roadside by air ambulance, it made all the difference.”

Mr Anderson, 48, was in a critical condition for 24 hours until he was moved to the cardio-thoracic ward for a week. He was fitted with a new metal collarbone and six weeks after the crash he was back to work.

He added: “I was saved by a team of people – not only the doctor and the pilot and paramedic, but also the people who shake collection tins on street corners, the fundraisers, which is why I think it is important to support air ambulance week. We need the pilot, the doctor the paramedic – the whole team to make it work, and that is expensive, but there’s no doubt that it saves lives. While one-off donations are great we are desperate for companies to choose the air ambulance as their charity of the year.”

Lee is urging people to visit the National Bikesafe Show and Track event at the Rockingham Circuit to support the air ambulance. The air ambulance receives no Government or National Lottery funding and needs to raise £1.7m each year just to keep flying and saving lives.

In August alone the specialist crew flew more than 80 times to save lives.

For more information about the air ambulance or to donate to the charity visit www.wnaa.co.uk or call 0845 130999.

The event runs from 10am until 5pm and parking is free.

Gates to the show open 10am. But to be first on the track he assessed rides start at 8am.

The police assessed ride and track experience can be booked at www.bikesafe.co.uk

The National BikeSafe Show & Track Experience @ Rockingham Motor Speedway, Mitchell Road, Corby, Northants. NN17 5AF

To register for information and updates please simply email [email protected]

For more details about the show see the event facebook page

Follow on Twitter @nnhighways @bikesafe

Northamptonshire Highways, the partnership between Northamptonshire County Council and KierWSP 

www.northamptonshire.gov.uk

www.kierwsp.co.uk

BikeSafe is a Police led motorcyclist advisory, assessment and referral scheme. www.bikesafe.co.uk

Michelin will take the short journey across home soil as it heads to the fifth round of the 2016 MotoGP™ World Championship which will be staged at the historic Le Mans circuit in France.

After four very different races this year, Michelin has used all the data gathered from those events, plus the recent one-day test at Jerez, to make a range of tyres which are ideally suited to the unique demands of Le Mans. The 4,185m long circuit is very much a stop-and-go track, with a lot of emphasis placed on late braking and hard acceleration out of the corners. The nine right-hand and five left-hand corner configuration is not particularly stressful on tyres, but with the extra demands of more right turns the MICHELIN Power Slicks for the rear will both feature an asymmetrical design with a harder right shoulder. These will be available in a soft (white identifying band) and medium (no band) compound, both of which are new versions that will be used for the first time this season. The front tyre allocation will feature all three compounds; soft (white band), medium (no band) and hard (yellow band), with the soft MICHELIN Power Slick featuring a new compound that is softer in manufacture to cope with the expected cooler conditions. The MICHELIN Power Rain tyres in soft (blue band) and hard (no band) will be available for use in wet conditions.

Round five of the MotoGP championship will be staged on the Bugatti circuit, which is a permanent race track located within Circuit des 24-Heures and is named after Ettore Bugatti, the famous automobile designer and manufacturer. The circuit uses a part of the legendary 24-Heures circuit, plus a separate purpose built section. Michelin has a rich history at Le Mans with many premier class motorcycle Grand Prix successes and 24 wins, including 18 consecutive victories, at the 24h of Le Mans car race since 1988.  The French Grand Prix is always a lively affair with a very partisan and passionate crowd in attendance, and this year’s race looks like being extremely busy with a sell-out crowd expected to pack the circuit.

Michelin and the rest of the MotoGP paddock will begin track action on Friday 6^th May with two free practice sessions, followed by another Free Practice on the Saturday morning. Qualifying will take place in the afternoon to decide grid positions for Sunday’s 28-lap race, which is scheduled to get underway at 14.00hrs local time (13.00hrs BST, 12.00hrsGMT/UST).

Nicolas Goubert – Deputy Director, Technical Director and Supervisor of the MotoGP Programme:

“The weather is often unsettled for Le Mans so you have to be ready for everything, from rain, overcast skies and chilly temperatures, to hot, bright sunshine. Le Mans is a circuit that is low on grip, so we don’t expect wear to be an issue. The chief difficulty is covering the wide spectrum of possible conditions.”

Piero Taramasso – Manager of the Two-Wheel Motorsport Group:

“This weekend is very important for us, as it is our home Grand Prix and one that we all want to do well at. There will be many guests from Michelin here to support us, as well as the backing of the French fans who all want to see us succeed, because Michelin is such an important name in France and one that its people are very proud of. We have a wide range of tyres available so hopefully we will be able to meet whatever conditions we encounter at the circuit and there is always a chance of rain at Le Mans at this time of year. Whatever the weather brings, we will be ready and doing all we can to make sure the race is as exciting as it can be and that the big crowd that is expected gets to see the best of Michelin.”

It was a full practice schedule at Le Mans for Aprilia, busy on the track developing the RS-GP which, introduced just before the season opener, demands additional efforts from the mechanics and riders that go beyond simply looking for the best lap times. In the first two sessions today, Alvaro Bautista and Stefan Bradl worked intensely on both testing the new materials that were introduced at Jerez (and partially tested after the race on Monday at Mugello) and on assessing some changes in the tyre options.

Aprilia Racing Team Gresini will focus their efforts on pure performance tomorrow after the usual analysis of today's activities, having all of the data collected at their fingertips to come up with a base configuration where setup is concerned.

ALVARO BAUTISTA
“This morning the problem was in coming out of the tight turns with the bike being rather twitchy. In the afternoon we tried to improve in this area, managing to shave a bit off our lap times, but in trying to find more stability we lost a little something in terms of handling. So we need to focus on these issues, trying to improve every time we go out”.

STEFAN BRADL
“Today we really had a lot of work to do, beginning with the last comparisons between the old and new frame we started at Jerez. This is a test that we did in both sessions. We decided to carry on with the new version, which provides some advantages going into turns. But there wasn't much time, so there are still a few things left to sort, especially in terms of the rear. Tomorrow we'll focus our efforts on improving coming out of turns as well, based on what we found today”.

From full beam headlights blinding us, to cyclists not playing by the rules, take the fun quiz to see what really grinds your gears and if you are what is known as a road rager.

Take the quiz below, created by Jennings Harley-Davidson, to find out! 

Brought to you by Jennings Motor Group