Winter Touring - The Advantages.......Are there any?

[Spike941]

Chatted to a couple of hardy souls on Sunday, waiting to board the ferry home from Santander. They’d been touring for four weeks and had apparently experienced awful weather for the entire trip bar five sunny days in southern Spain. I must admit to liking the notion of a winter European trip, (two weeks plus I guess) but on reflection.....why?
It would be cold, wet, limited daylight, mountain roads would more than likely be closed, as would most campsites. The guys had the nice GSA / Klim combination, well the one I spoke to did, and winter touring seemed to be their bag. Still reflecting and still wondering what the advantages might be. Enlighten me anyone? I’m not talking of a long weekend in February in mid Wales here, I’m talking your big annual foreign trip.

[Magnon]

Probably cheaper - ferries, hotels, if you can find one open. Pretty desperate, I would imagine, walking around any Spanish town in January trying to find somewhere to eat.

Having said that, a local to me camping weekend in December, in the snow, had the largest attendance of any event in France in 2017 with 3200 bikers turning up from all over France so there’s plenty of masochists out there!

[garyboy]

masochists .. yep


but I recon them from the spain area is drugs mules

[bowber]

For me and my wife we can only go early or late in the year due to the business my wife runs, it's main work is in summer so we've had 20 years of not being able to take advantage of good weather for holidays in the UK, so that leaves getting away to more reliable weather which means southern Europe. Doesn't always work out though and we don't usually bother in winter.

Steve

[AlanHolt]

It depends where you go, head towards the picos and it will be wet and miserable. Head towards Catalunya, and it will be somewhat different. Throughout December and January, we have had 2, maybe 3 days of rain. Temperatures have been around freezing at night, but into double figures most days. Yesterday, it was 17c and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Today should hit the low 20's centigrade. You can find places to eat and stay, but they may not be 5*, probably won't have english speaking staff, but they are there all year.

A couple of weeks back, me and a mate went to the Pyrenees, met Simon (Spanish Biker), and we did 500km in a day. You could count on one hand how many other bikers we saw that day. It was bliss, the roads were quiet, there were tables available at any cafe we stopped at. It was only 1.5c as we emerged from the freezing fog and entered Tremp, but it was manageable. I only had a base layer, combats, thin fleece jumper and my RST Adventure suit without the liners. My hands were a bit cold at times with just my 20 year old Hein Gericke All Season gloves, but thats what the one hour coffee and food stops are for, to help you thaw out.

[daveuprite]

Two weeks of riding a bike through Europe in mid-winter - what are the advantages?

Well it would be a fortnight's break from thrashing yourself with birch twigs while wearing a hair shirt I suppose.

[Brenhden]

It depends where you go, head towards the picos and it will be wet and miserable. Head towards Catalunya, and it will be somewhat different. Throughout December and January, we have had 2, maybe 3 days of rain. Temperatures have been around freezing at night, but into double figures most days. Yesterday, it was 17c and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. Today should hit the low 20's centigrade. You can find places to eat and stay, but they may not be 5*, probably won't have english speaking staff, but they are there all year.

A couple of weeks back, me and a mate went to the Pyrenees, met Simon (Spanish Biker), and we did 500km in a day. You could count on one hand how many other bikers we saw that day. It was bliss, the roads were quiet, there were tables available at any cafe we stopped at. It was only 1.5c as we emerged from the freezing fog and entered Tremp, but it was manageable. I only had a base layer, combats, thin fleece jumper and my RST Adventure suit without the liners. My hands were a bit cold at times with just my 20 year old Hein Gericke All Season gloves, but thats what the one hour coffee and food stops are for, to help you thaw out.

I can barely remember what 20C feels like

[captinktm]

Well here's my two penith, the weather here in Bulgaria in the winter is great most of the time with little rain. The snow starts in Jan and Feb but November and December are great. The only problem I find with winter adventures is the nights are so long. You have to stop at 4 and can't really get going until 8 the next day. That's a long time in a tent in the dark.

I did Morocco in jan I had to ride through some of the coldest conditions I have ever experience in Spain, and could n't get over the Atlas mountains until Marrakesh.

I think the best idea would have to be shipping the bike to some where warm and dry.

We ran winter tours in Turkey, Fethiye and some years it was toast other so much rain a boat would have been better.

I am off down to the Aegean coast later this month, Albania so we shall see. I guessing I may have to drive through snow to get there!!