Riding our motorcycles is a ’seasonal thing’ for many of us. The bike goes in storage come end of Fall en stays on a charger until March or so. And what better to do in that ‘dark, bikeless period’ then to read and WRITE !?
Since I run a web hosting and design company as well, I figured why not use the skills, contacts and resources to offer cheap websites to bikers, and perhaps even motorbike clubs? Get your own blog and collect your news, ride stories, accessory preferences, travel plans and perhaps even a forum, and maintain it yourself.
All that will be offered for only $ 30 a year…… soon ! Of course you’ll have to learn to ‘manage’ the site a little, but the Wordpress software that we use will make that really easy. And, if you want or need more, you can hire our additional services of course.
Only in Summer we’ll be on the road……. like you will be !
One of the things I hate most is riding in the wet. I’ll do it when needed, but not with actual ‘pleasure’. So for all of you like-minded riders I have added a tiny little picture on the right, showing the overall rain activity in Europe, in miniature. Clock on it and you’ll be taken to the wonderful ‘Meteox site’ with LOTS more information on the weather all around Europe, and in multiple languages.
At least you’ll know whether to bring your rain suit along or not (mine’s always with me).
Did you already lose your pesky little Garmin screwdriver and are now stuck with your Zumo firmly mounted on your bike?
How many times have you cursed the finicky little thing, fumbling for the screw driver on your key chain and wondering why on earth Garmin didn’t make the top at least rotate so you do NOT have to turn your entire key chain to unscrew your Zumo security!!??
I found a solution (thanks to someone on the BMWST forum). Marco Boelis, who lives 12 km’s from my place, can provide you with a replacement screw, one that’s made of stainless steel and one you can turn in and out with YOUR FINGERS!
Throw away the stupid screw driver (unless you REALLY believe that pesky screw wil prevent your unit from being stolen) and order one of Marco’s screws! I’ve put up a special page about it here !
Due-South is our latest Motor Touring Partner, added just a week ago. Due-South is run by Joe Visser and is a South-African motorcycle touring company. Joe has pretty much the same ideas about what a good, but small motor company should be and do as we have! His company offers guided, road based motorcycle tours using BMW motorcycles (BMW R 1200 GS, BMW F 650 GS series) in and around Southern Africa.
Joe and I have agreed to act as each other’s booking and PR agents, thereby spreading our operations and contacts over two continents! Click on the logo to learn more about the Due-South Motorcycle Tours!
I finally pulled the trigger on a navigation system for the motorbike. 4 years ago I was looking at the Garmin 2610, the successor of the old Streetpilot system. At the time it was some 1700 Euros all inclusive. Yikes ! Too much for this ol’ boy!
I kept track of all the systems and prices over the years, while using my Compaq iPaq PDA with TomTom on it to get us from A to B. Worked pretty well in the car, but not at all on the bike. Then came the TomTom Rider. A lot cheaper than any Garmin and made specially for riders. But with it came a lot of bad press as well. So I held out. Even when Rider II appeared.
Although flawed in many ways, TomTom DID make garmin swallow and finally come up with a more friendly priced system of their own, the Garmin Zumo series.
Being able to reclaim the VAT now, the entire system (and installed by myself, see ‘Technical stuff’ on the right) now cost me some 615 Euros…… now THERE’S a difference eh?
Europe… here we come again !!!!!
Yup, we finally pulled the trigger on two things: a trailer to carry bikes on, and a Garmin Zumo 550. I don’t understand how I could have done without one for so many years! Had Satnavs in my cars for almost 10 years already, but on the bike I only used my PDA with TomTom software to get us out of trouble. Easier than 3 tons of paper maps of course. I’ll be posting a complete instruction on how to get the Zumo installed at some point (for my BMW friends), but here are some pictures of the EuropeRides Transport System:
You can’t really see it (yet) but the site has now been upgraded to the latest Wordpress version, 2.5.1, allowing me to have more ‘tricks’ and control yet again. I am also hard at work on my Normandy Touring Guide and the new Moto Touring Newz website is starting to take shape now as well. That’s sort of a pet project of mine.
Tomorrow (Saturday) we will ‘expand’ our little company with our own motortrailer, so we are more flexible in transporting our bike, and hence bring the car along too when needed!
This Sunday (weather permitting) we have the first of two ‘ex-students rides‘ with Riding School Schipper, touring through Noord-Holland with a number of ex-students. I’ll be doing the photo work… and riding along of course!
I have been checking the ’statistics’ of the ‘old’ EuropeRides.com site and noticed that a LOT of people seem to be searching (’Googling’) on topics such as Col de la Madeleine, Normandy, toll roads and others. Since the EuropeRides site is meant to show ‘only’ our commercial services, I decided to start a NEW website where I can put all sorts of information on. Information regarding motorcycle touring first and foremost, of course.
That new site is now in the making, but won’t be finished for quite some time. To enable at least some of the information to be useful to you THIS riding season, I decided to ‘open it’ anyway and let you take from it what you can.
The new website is called Moto Touring Newz and can be found here.
I will be working on it over the next weeks to add more content, and add a LOT more links in the DIRECTORY.
Hope it will fill a need somehow and to see you visit !
First in a small series, I am sure. I decided to build a new EuropeRides website, this time based on the popular Wordpress ‘weblog software’. It will hopefully make it a tad easier to add things to it. Mind you, the most important thing about EuropeRides is the RIDING, not the blogging! So there!
Please check back once in a while. I am working on porting the entire ‘old’ website to this new one, including all the pictures, ride tales etc. Don’t forget to check our ‘Travel Forum’ where you’ll find our trips, rides, pictures and other stuff!
Have fun on this new site!
François and Nina
