your first experience

[Elle]

What was your first experience of riding beyond your country?
When & Where did you go and what was your ride?

For me it was to attend a Guzzi rally near Aachen, Germany circa 1985.
I rode a Benelli 250TS - my daily commuter bike, an under-estimated machine - a nice one is now worth thousands

[johnnyboxer]

1993 on a Honda VFR750 to Brittany and Mont st Michel

It was fantastic (thumbs)

[Redmurty]

France and loved it once I had gotten used to how bike friendly the locals were, and gotten used to the petrol pumps. I speak no French but never found that to be much of a big deal.

cheers Spud

[SteveR]

A trip to see a friend, female but not a girlfriend, in Bad Ems near Koblenz. Circa 1987/8...

Rode my Transalp 600 down and loved every minute on new roads and it gave me the Bug, and you ALL know that Bug???

I dunno if I can count a couple of trips to Westport in Co Mayo in 1976 and 1977? Yeah, go on, it felt foreign and great...! Riding an RD250 then...

[Brenhden]

Last year, France, Belgium, Holland. After the first roundabout (which I had to think very carefully about) the rest was awesome. I really should have put the ride report up by now

[Mike101]

For me is was the Euro Demo in Paris in 1994.

It was the 2nd week in June and very hot. I was on my GSX1100G with my G/F at the time on the back. Took the over night ferry form Portsmouth to Cherbourg...no cabins in those days so no sleep at all. It was the saem weekend as Les Mans so many race fans getting drunk all night long....arghhhhh!!!..we live and learn.

Arrived very tired indeed on a Friday morning., A group of about 10 of us set off for the camp site south of Paris...i didn't have a clue where i was going so i followed at the back.

Stopped at Caen for breakfast wheer i noticed that a meets soft luggage straps were being burnt by his exhaust and also about to be eaten by the chain. He didn't seem bothered so i left him to it but having lost a mate to luggage straps going into his chain at speed i made sure he rode behind me..i didn't want to see him crash.

We rode though endless small towns not really knowing where we were unilt we ended up in Chartres. In traffic by the big chathereral one of our team decided to show off and rev up his very nice 850 Le mans Guzi up. It repayed him by cutting out and making the rest of us sit tight for an hour while he fixed it....arse!

Arrived at the camp site at La Ferte Alais..think thats how it's spelt but we all called it farty alice. All was well apart from the loos...not good and you dare not pop into the woods next to them in the dark...bit of a minefield!

The do was on the next day in Paris...everybody set off...hundredsd and hundreds of us..it looked and sounded fab. Until we realised that the people infront were actually just going into the local town and not to paris....so many hundreds of bikes make a slow snake back to the motorway.

A nice ride to Paris nto having a clue where i was going and following the bikes on front saw us arrive at a park...to thsi day i stilll don't know where it was.

Then we set off through the streets of Paris ging where i knew not....it was very hot indeed. Stop start..stop start...this led to my clutch fulid boiling..so i had to stop and let it cool down while watching the bikes file past...not a bad way to spend time. Until i noticed that the bikes had stopped...oh bugger...i was in teh centre of Paris by the tower thingy without a map and not a friggin clue how to get back to the camp site.....and my friends...well they showed thier worth that day i can tell you....had all buggered off.

So set off again and was lucky enough to follow a trail of broken down bikes from the heat one junction at a time until i found a junction that i remembered led back to the camp site direction. Arrived back around 6pm very hot and tired.

Sunday set off for my brothers house as he lived to the east of Paris for lunch. All was well and set off from his for the 4 hour ride to Calais later that afternoon.

Got home on the Sunday night tired but feeling good. I left my 'mates' in the campsite to make thier own way home on the Sunday..the Guzi broke down again and was left in france for a month before it was recovered by van.

So what did i learn...well...never use the 'squat' toilets in France if you are wearing a one peice leather suit and can't aim very well. the poor chap it happened to did not bring many spare clothes..so he rode at the back of the group!

Well done if you made it this far....you did ask Elle.

Mike

[PaulinBont]

German 1985 to visit some Dutch friends I knew from my time being stationed over there.
Honda CX 500. Hook van Holland, over the afsluitdijk and into Germany. Along B roads avoiding the dreaded autobahnen-loved it!

[coyotedave]

Not quite sure of the year, So many have passed by. 1985/6, trip to Germany, Dam busters run with an old army friend. Stuttgart was as far south we got. Suzuki G850,Wetted my appetite for travel by bike and have been going abroad just about every year since.


Cheers Dave.

[bimota]

1989,

on a fzr1000 exup went to the south of france 5 of us to see the BOL DOR 24HR RACE AT THE PAUL RICARD CIRCUIT.

been abroad twicw a year every year since.

rob

[AndyB]

I cheated by buying a bike soon after I arrived in South Africa in 1980 then going through a few before coming home nearly 3 years later. I'd always planned to ride home but found out that having a stamp in my passport that said I was a permanent resident of South Africa would make me a bit unpopular and even if I got a replacement by saying I'd lost mine it would still say issued in SA. That government had a lot to answer for

Since then I've done too many trips into Europe to count and have got 4 planned for this year (thumbs)