EuropeRides.com - your free motor travel consultant
We've been helping motorcycle riders (but also other visitors) TOUR EUROPE ever since 2005. But yours truly has been traveling Europe and the US for ever, starting at the age of three back in 1955. Haven't stopped since, although I LOVE to take the speed and hassle down a little now.This informational website is all about our services, our travels, and our love for motorcycles. 'US' means myself and Nina my lovely and supportive wife. You'll get to know us through this site... and you can also find me on many other places on the Internet.
Be our guest and start browsing!
Our various travels
The Netherlands
Riding through France
The D-Day Beaches
The Italian Dolomites
The United States
Umbria and Tuscany
Blogging news and stuff
Below you'll find the latest of my blog posts, news items and interesting links. Yes, I am usually more active on Facebook these days than on my own blog, but still... I try to keep up.
If you're new to EuropeRides, you may want to browse the blog further down and read some of the history. I have changed the site regularly, even lost it once to hackers, and just recently re-started it again.
You can also just browse the extensive MENU above of course and pick subjects to your liking !
And before you leave, be sure to also check my daily update eMagazine EuropeRides MotorMag with all the latest news on motorcycling, motorsport and the occasional car news
New Touring Partner Added!
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…
MORE new toys for us…..
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…
EuropeRides gets new equipment
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…
Site upgrade
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…
More activities imminent
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…
The First Message!
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…