Category Archives: Trips and travels

Dilemma: Picos or Dolomites?

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It has become our annual tradition, we are once again planning a motorcycle trip for June this year. The concept remains the same: strap a tent on our bikes and off we go!

We had five destinations on our shortlist, of which Norway, Wales and Scotland have already been crossed off. That leaves us with the Picos and the Dolomites. We have roughly mapped out the routes for both trips, and now it’s time to make a decision.

Question: which trip would you choose and why?
And for those familiar with the area: are there any roads we absolutely shouldn’t miss?

Option one: Picos


I haven’t been to the Picos before, but I’ve heard enough good things about it to rank it high on our shortlist. The biggest disadvantage compared to the Dolomites is that it’s a bit further before we reach our destination. Although the journey is just as important as the destination of course.

On day 1, we’ll be ride quite a distance into France, just over 1,000 km on the highway.
On day 2 (blue), the winding roads begin just below San Sebastian.
On day 3 (green), we’ll enter the Picos.
On days 4 (yellow) and 5 (orange), we’ll ride loops through the Picos.
On day 6 (red), we’ll leave the Picos and head east.
On day 7 (purple), we’ll take a detour through the Bardenas Reales, cross the Pyrenees and end the day just across the French border.
On day 8, we’ll take the fastest route back home.

Check out the detailed routes.

Option two: Dolomites & Julian Alps


The Dolomites are etched in my memory as one of the highlights of my trip to the Alps in 2017. So I don’t mind heading back in that direction again, this time taking more time to explore. Maybe add some Julian Alps too? Why not!

On day 1, we’ll ride to Campitello di Fassa in the Dolomites.
Here we’ll stay for 4 nights and take loops on day 2 (blue), 3 (green), and 4 (yellow).
On day 5 (orange), we’ll head east.
On day 6 (red), we’ll say goodbye to the Dolomites and head into the Julian Alps. Our destination is Kranjska Gora.
We’ll stay here for 2 nights and take a loop on day 7 (purple).
Day 8: take the fastest route back home.

Check out the detailed routes.

Travel report: French Alps 2022

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We already planned to do a tour of the French Alps in 2020, but we had to cancel our plans due to the well-known virus. The routes were already mapped out, but before we could finally depart on our trip in June of this year, a reality check forced us to do some fine-tuning a few weeks earlier. Certain campsites were still closed, and some parts turned out to be too big of a detour for the limited time we had (a week).


When creating the routes we took the Route des Grandes Alpes as a base and added interesting passes, roads and gorges. Continue reading →

2000 km through Andalusia

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In 2018, Jan F went on a trip to the Sierra Nevada with Clubmot, a Belgian organizer of motorcycle trips and trainings, and he really liked it. When he suggested the idea of ​​starting our motorcycle season early and with a lot of miles on a new Clubmot trip to southern Spain, I was sold immediately. Our biker bud Shih as well. Vamos a Andalucia!

The formula

The formula for this trip was the same as the trip to the Sierra Nevada: Fly & ride. Clubmot books the flights and the hotel, and provides you with routes. Your bike travels there and back via truck transport. Nicely arranged.

We left early on Saturday March 19th (so that we could already start riding on Saturday afternoon) and Continue reading →

Five days in the Moselle, the report

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Planning a motorcycle holiday isn’t easy nowadays. In June we had to convert our trip to the Alps into a staycation. In September I had a week off work, but where would I go to?

The Covid-19 colour code carousel changed my plans for that week more than once. My first idea was to give our getaway to the Alps a second try, but the green zone of France quickly said ‘Adieu’. Next idea: Dolomites. I was already plotting out routes when that green zone turned to red. Arrivederci.

Germany still looked good, but what about preparing a trip on German roads? Not that obvious in my opinion, because of the lack of Google Streetview. Would I spend my time researching to see a green zone turn to red once more? I didn’t feel like doing that.

So I changed my plans. No more figuring out routes or looking for overnight stays myself, I was just gonna go for a last minute all-in package: a motorcycle hotel in a green zone, with gps-tracks in the deal.

That wasn’t simple either. The five days in the Harz mountains which I hoped for fizzled out when the green disappeared just a few days before my departure. So I booked five days in the Moselle with Horizon Motorreizen. Nothing but green over there, or at least when I visited.

Day 1: Off we go

The outward route is 277 kilometers long and starts near Aachen, which is 30 minutes from my home. I leave the highway after a few kilometers of full gas on the Triumph Tiger 900 (test report coming soon).

I’m crossing the Eifel to reach the Moselle valley and even though this is nothing but the ‘route to get there’, I’m having fun. There’s a wide variation of corners: slow, winding, sharp, pointed, fast, it’s all there.

The countryside changes from woods to sloping meadows and fields as far as the eye can see. Add a lot of climbing and descending to this and you can say Continue reading →

Off to the Alps

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Corona is forcing us to stay home, so what else can you do than finish those plans for when we can go ride again? Together with biker buddy Shih, I’m prepping a trip to the Alps. Based on the Route des Grandes Alpes we plotted a week’s trip, that currently looks like this:

(Click here to check it in detail on Google Maps)

On a Saturday – we’re hoping for June – we’ll take the highway from Belgium to just below Lake Geneva. The fun part starts on Sunday. The next Saturday around noon, we’ll say goodbye to the Alps, then ride up to Basel where we’ll spend the night, and ride back home on Sunday.

If you think we’re missing essential roads or you know great campings, good restaurants or must-see spots, drop a line in the comments below or reply to our Facebook post.

Report: Magic 12 Belgium Rally 2019

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I guess the Iron Butt Association (or IBA) doesn’t need a big introduction? Their most talked-about long-distance rally is the Iron Butt Rally in the States (11 days long!) but also elsewhere rallies are being organized regularly since you can find IBA’s in South Africa, India, Brazil and Australia and Germany. And it’s the latter who organized the Magic 12 Belgium Rally on a Saturday this September.

The format of a Magic 12 Rally: collect as many points as possible in a maximum of 12 hours by visiting predefined locations. The Germans wanted to do something exotic and decided to do a rally in Belgium. Even as an IBA rookie I thought: home match! On top of that BMW lent me a 1250 RT (my opinion about it at the bottom of this article), so 12 hours of riding shouldn’t be a big issue.

The preparation

Five days before the start, each participant received a file with all locations (77 in total) and the rallybook. In addition to some explanation about the rally, the rallybook contained more information about the locations.

It was impossible to visit all 77 locations in 12 hours, so you had to plan a route. A route that got you a high score preferably.

Every location had a certain amount of points (from 190 to 3,450 points) and a photo assignment. Because of course you had to prove that you had actually been on the claimed locations.

Usually the photo assignment was something like: take a picture of this building or that view, but there were also some special assignments. For example, to claim the 3,450 points location, you had to walk to a statue and take a photo. A 3.4 km walk to be precise!

Also an obligatory element in every picture: the rally flag (which you could print at home) with your starting number (which you only got the evening before the start).

In addition to the points per location, you could score extra points by collecting combos. A number of locations where grouped thematically, for example Statues, Beer and Borders. The more locations of a combo you visited, the higher your extra score.

Feeling a bit stressed when you hear you should plot a route with all that info? Grab a stress ball, ‘cause there’s more! Three days before departure we received the “minimum requirements” in our mailbox: six groups of 24 locations in total. Per group you had to visit at least one location of your choice. Again there was a theme: Flanders, Wallonia, Brussels, Dutch-speaking, French-speaking and German-speaking. Skipping one group would result in 5,000 penalty points. If you missed two, you were disqualified, or DNF (did not finish) in IBA jargon.

With all that info, I could start setting up a route. The Street Art combo drew my attention: this combo had the most locations but also the highest score. If I did all ten locations, I’d receive a bonus of 12,000 points.

So I loaded the locations into MyRouteApp: visiting all ten street art locations in 12 hours wouldn’t be Continue reading →

Tournée Pyrénée: ready, set …

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Finally! Tomorrow morning we’ll be heading for the Pyrenees. After the first draft, we’ve updated our routes, spending a bit more time on Spanish ground. I won’t be riding my own bike but a Moto Guzzi V85 TT. If you’d like to hop on virtually, I’ll try to post something every now and then on Instagram and/or Facebook.

Click here for a bigger version of the map.