The Bike

I have ridden and raced all sorts of motorcycles for most of my life, most of my bikes have been very focused on the job they had to do. e.g. road racing or trials. I have never ridden let alone owned a touring bike, but as I was planning to ride 5,000 miles in 10 days, a touring bike would be top of my list. My current bike is a BMW HP2, a great bike and really fun to ride, but would not be my 1st choice for touring with a very small fuel tank, very hard narrow seat, and it would be difficult to carry more luggage than a toothbrush. Most of the Japanese offerings are so soulless, so I chose a BMW touring bike, the R1200 RT



This bike while sharing the same twin cylinder engine block, is totally different to ride, its immediately comfortable, good mid range power from the engine, and the handling is typical of modern BMW's, very planted front end yet for such a big bike quite manoeuvrable if required.

Powerful front brakes with ABS inspire confidence when the road offers less than optimal grip. Suspension is adjustable from a handlebar button while you are riding, as is the large screen.

And a good size fuel tank and 55 mpg means I will only have to stop for juice every 275 miles.

Day 4: Brno MotoGP Race Day

My hotel is about 20 km south of Brno so its a short motorway ride to the track. On the way I join thousands of other bikes from Hungary, Slovenia, Bulgaria in a 100 mph charge to Brno. Arrive bright and early at the turn off to the track , I was OK until about 2 miles to go then total chaos, bikes, cars and coaches everywhere, but I get through OK to the car park, then a long walk to the track. Racing gets under way and its the 125 cc race that gets the crowd really going as they cheer on a heroic five way battle that includes the Hungarian Gabor Talmacsi and the local boy Lucas Pesek who fights his way onto the podium for 3rd place, the crowd goes totally bonkers.


Rossi had a very bad day on the Yamaha by his standards and struggled to finish seventh, his team mate Colin Edwards suffering a rare fall on lap two.

After the excitement of the days racing its always an anti climax as you dash to the bike park and fight with everyone else to get out, which thankfully didn't take too long.

Then back to the hotel just to pick up my bags and it was back on the road south to Slovakia, past Bratislava, then onto Vienna and my hotel in Graz, southern Austria a trip of about 250 miles.