Who has done motorcycling in a country where the road sides are opposite to what you are normally used to? Any advice or thoughts?
I've done it in cars a few times, but I'm scared to try it on a bike.
I know Cal Price has done this recently and hope he throws in his 2 cents (or pence).
:cheers:
I think Kerry is doing this as we speak
Never done this myself, but somehow I would think it would be easier on a bike. No centerline offset to deal with. That's the thing I've always hated about cars, being asymmetrical. It just ain't natural dadgummit.
-James
Yeah, I've done it a couple of times this year, one short trip into the Bruxelles area and my big trip to Praha.
My experience was that the "big" roads and even two-lane blacktops were a piece of cake all the time you were following signs from town to town etc.
I had to be ultra carefull coming off a slip road and then turning left, it would be right for most of you guys but the real problem was in towns particularly the really old places like Brugge, Gent (Belgium), Cheb and Prague (Cz)with lots of one-way streets and narrow town roads leading into huge squares also going into industrial estate suburban areas needed a lot of concentration. The worst thing for me was the tram lines in Belgium which are often two way but on one side of the road so that you could be on the correct side but be faced with an on-coming tram!!!!!
When I was leaving prague city centre I was so intent on following the directions given to me (Follow the tram lines to such and such a bridge) that I failed to notice that the tram lines gradually elevated and i was about two feet above the (cobbled) surface of the road riding on the small margin by the tram lines. I stopped, realised that if I tried to get off gently I would topple my well laden bike over and I also realised that I had to do something quickly, trams take no prisoners! so i gave it loads of revs, did an evil-kneivil onto the cobbles and stayed upright, about a quarter of a mile further on the lines dropped to road level again but there was no way I could know that at the time, scary moment!!
All in all my advice is simply do it and take care, try and avoid both cobblestones and tram lines if at all possible. Where are you thinking of going?
Scotland, more for the landscape than the haggis. I've always been interested in going, even before having a bike. The more I read about the place, the more I think it would be ideal for a week or 10 days on 2 wheels! I also hear there are already a lot of bikers there, so it would be easy to get advice along the way.
:cheers:
Scotland, very scenic, RedPhil a Scots (or is it Scottish) board member posted some great pictures of his tour a while back. I assume you would arrange a bike rental (we would say hire).
arcsecond makes a valid point about a bike being "central" I'm sure that is right.
If you make the leap it might be worth looking into Northern England as well.
I read an article on touring in Scotland a while back and it pointed out that many of the small independent gas stations had closed due to very cut-throat low margins so a bike with a decent tank range would be desirable.
With luck either RedPhil (Scotland) or sledge (NW England) might pick up on this and would be best placed to give up to date advice.