Would you like to escape to a place where the sun is shining, the gravel trails are sweeping, and the mountain passes are absolutely stunning?
We’re talking about the Trans Euro Trail in Spain, which has to be one of the best places for trail riding in Europe.
Our chief bike tester, Julian, recently took a trip down to the Iberian Peninsular to ride a loop of the route, and he rates it as among the most enjoyable riding he’s ever done.
You can read his full trip report in the latest issue of Adventure Bike Rider magazine, which is packed full of travel stories, bike reviews, UK routes to ride, and more. Get your copy today by clicking here.
The Trans Euro Trail (TET) is a network of over 60,000 miles of dirt roads across Europe, which gives riders the chance to explore some of the world’s finest trail riding and scenery while discovering the cultural diversity of the continent.
It’s an incredible resource for adventure bikers, made all the more remarkable by the fact that it’s powered by a team of volunteers and the routes are completely free.
If you like, you can download the GPX file for the UK TET and head out on an epic 3,300 mile journey across Britain right now.
It’s a brilliant route, but being Britain, it’s a muddy experience, especially at this time of year.
So, why not take the the trip over to Spain to ride some incredible trails?
Read on to discover more about the Spanish TET and how to ride it yourself.
Getting there
Julian and his three mates decided to ride a 1,100 mile section of the Spanish TET, starting and finishing in the city of Bilbao and riding over the mountains of the Picos de Europa, the forests lining the Bay of Biscay, and the dusty trails of the interior of the country.
Since the four chose to ride lightweight trail bikes (the TET is designed for trail bikes, although bigger adventure bikes are suitable as well in the right hands), two of them elected to drive a van down to Bilbao while the other two flew down to meet them.
It’s possible to take the ferry from Portsmouth to Santander in Northern Spain, but it’s expensive and takes 30 hours on average, so they decided that trucking the four bikes down in the van while the other two took a plane, with everyone sharing the costs, was the most cost and time effective.
The other option is to simply ride down there, but keep in mind that if you’ve got off-road tyres fitted (and you really should), they’ll be knackered by the time you get there, and you’ll likely need new tyres before you begin riding the TET.
The terrain you’ll be riding
Spain is well known for the variety of its landscapes, from soaring mountain peaks to lush woodlands, arid deserts, stunning coastlines, and rolling farmland.
Best of all, you can ride trails through every single one of these incredible landscapes.
The trails themselves vary, from gravel forestry roads to rocky uphill paths, dirt tracks skirting mountain sides and challenging downhill scrambles.
This is why we suggest taking a lightweight trail bikes: something like the KTM EXC 450 or a Honda CRF300L is ideal.
However, if you’re confident handling a bigger bike off-road, it’s absolutely doable, and Julian saw plenty of adventure bikes along the way.
The most important thing is to have proper off-road tyres, ones with at least a 50/50 bias towards off-road riding or better. We suggest getting the best ones you can afford, you’ll be glad you did.
Find out more about riding the TET through Spain
If you’ve read this and you’re excited to hit the trails in Spain, we suggest that you check out Julian’s complete trip report in the latest issue of ABR magazine first.
Not only will you be able to learn everything you need to know about riding the TET in Spain, you’ll also get other adventure biking travel stories from around the world, UK routes and green lanes that you can ride this weekend, and reviews of the latest motorcycles and gear.
Plus, there’s masterclasses to improve your skills, an interview with keen biker and The Walking Dead star Norman Reedus, and much more inspirational, entertaining, and informative adventure biking content to sink your teeth into.
Simply click here to get your copy of ABR issue 81 today for only £6.99 with free UK postage today.
