So far this year the Versys 1000 mounted team at DragonMotoTours have completed
five of their planned ten motorcycle tours, two in the UK and three in
Europe. Here is a summary of the action
in their own words.
On all of our tours we’ve had a great variety of bikes,
people, weather and roads although the over-riding factor has been everyone’s
enjoyment of motorcycling and sharing the experience with other like-minded
people.
The UK tours have seen us spending three days in Mid Wales
in early May and four days at the end of May riding through Northumberland. We’ve toured Mid Wales on a couple of
occasions and some of our clients this year have been with us before, they
clearly enjoy the roads that this part of the UK has to offer!
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| Brecon Beacons |
Northumberland was new on our programme this year and we
were blessed with excellent weather for our two main ride-out days.
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| Deserted Northumberland Roads |
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| Taking tea - all part of the fun
We had
a number of experienced tourers with us and yet none of them had ridden through
Kielder and were blown away with the open road which flows through the largest
forest and alongside the largest artificial lake in the UK. On the Sunday we visited Lindisfarne crossing
the narrow causeway which is governed by the tides before heading into the
lower reaches of the Scottish Borders riding by the White Adder Reservoir
stopping for lunch and coffees along the way.
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For our first tour into Europe, we went to Northern France
for four days. We had a “first” on this
tour with no pillions. Including Jan
(from DragonMoto), we had five lady riders and 45% of the clients had never
ridden abroad before making this particular tour ideal to show them what Europe
has to offer. Many motorcyclists ride
through Northern France on the autoroute to destinations further afield, but
they are missing out on wonderful open roads, very little traffic and great
places to visit such as the Caverne du Dragon, the old race circuit at Reims
and the stunning chateau at Pierrefonds.
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| The old track at Reims |
In early July we ran a six day tour to one of our favourite
regions for motorcycling – the French and Swiss Jura mountains. Another “first” on this tour – all male
riders and no pillions. Over 50% of the
guys with us had not ridden abroad and we had a wide variety of bikes too -
even had a 30 year old Honda “Nighthawk”. The great thing about the Jura is
that it has such a fantastic mix of roads, tight twisties, wide open hairpins,
mountains, valleys, lakes – the area is just stunning and we ‘re back there
next year as we love it so much!
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| Typical old Harz village |
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| The Jura mountains
Most recently we’ve been on a ten day tour through the Harz
Mountains in Germany and the Northern Vosges in eastern France. Unbelievable weather with temps rising to 30⁰
at times! This was a destination tour
where we stayed for 3 nights in the Harz and 3 nights in the Vosges with some
transition days in between. In Germany
we had ride-outs through the Western and the Eastern Harz, two contrasting
areas with meadowland and low lying hills in the West and mountains in the
East, along all of our routes we encountered scenic villages and towns
interspersed with great riding roads.
Staying
in the Northern Vosges, we were able to ride the roads over the Col Du Donon,
with 11km of endless flowing bends rising to the highest point in this
region. We visited Dabo which is home to
a wonderful little chapel which has 360⁰ views over the region.
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| In the Vosges |
Coming up we have tours of South Wales, France & Italy
(which is a repeat of the tour we did in 2012), ten days through Wales, Ireland
and Scotland, a tour of the Eifel region in Germany and a 3 day tour of North
Wales in October….. Plenty to keep us busy and to entice riders to join us!
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| Fairytale Chateau |
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