Insipiration/advice sought for boy's first continental jaunt

[bolidemichael]

Thanks for your experiences, though and comments in advance.

I have a VFR1200F and am going to be collecting my twelve year old boy from Bad Honnef in Germany (south of Koln/Cologne) and going to Aups, Provence.

We'll be leaving on Thursday 30th June and the house is available from Saturday 2nd July. However, it's a casual arrangement and we needn't arrive on Saturday 2nd July. The property will be available to us until Thursday 7th July.

On Friday 8th July, I have booked accommodation for the preceding evening in addition to the day itself, so that we can experience a hill climb stage finish of the Tour de France.

We have eurotunnel flexi-pass tickets, so can return as late as Sunday 10th July.

So far, I have accrued for him -- zip up two piece Hein Gericke leathers (only back protection) and alpinestar gloves. He can wear my daytona boots which fit him well, we've been fitted (but yet to receive) for some auritech custom ear plugs. He has an arai with a Sena 20S Evo to pair with mine. I have also purchased some cycling underpants for him which are fitted with a sportful pad, for endurance comfort (is my as-of-yet-untested thinking). I'm also intending to purchase some overs for rain protection before I go, but haven't sorted that yet.

I also have purchase a motorcross body armour kit to wear under his jacket (it fits but not certain how comfortable it'll be) and have some dragging jeans for when we're riding around Provence.

For luggage, I'll give him a single pannier bag with clothes compressed into a vacuum back (zip locked and excess air expelled to save space). The intention is to send this out with him on the school coach (which is why he'll be in Germany) along with his helmet and then send dirty clothes back with said coach.

I wish to stick to D roads, in the main, with the idea that we can enjoy the roads and aren't sitting static getting numb bum on the motorway -- with the exception of the autobahn which he'd like to experience at high speed.

We also have the option of stopping in Geneva to see a friend, but it's either one long day from Bad Honnef, or two short days -- which doesn't seem to work.

Another option that I'm mulling over is whether to go 'clockwise' by entering the Swiss alps and into Italy then looping round and up into Provence. However, I don't want to be overly-ambitious and make it into an iron-butt-fest, when I really just would like him to experience some sights, sounds and culture from traversing the rich landscape of Europe on God's preferred mode of transport.

Also for routing, I'm planning to stick with the beeline, but haven't quite got my head around building GPX routes on Calimoto and exporting them to the beeline unit -- so any pointers in this direction would be welcome. The more I can get done before I go, the better.

Experiences from the hivemind of Biker Banter, welcome.

Edited by bolidemichael on Monday 13th June 22:23

[A993LAD]

Hi Michael

Sounds like an exciting trip.

I did a similar route a few years ago down to Lake Annecy and then across the border to do a few of the Alpine passes (Grimsel etc) and then back via Reims and across the chunnel.

I had tried plotting a route, but in the end it just seemed easier to use Google maps on my phone selecting no motorways or toll roads and it took me on some great D roads in France that were amazing.

One word of warning is that the roads are pretty empty and it's easy to end up making more progress than the local gendarmes find acceptable. tbh there aren't many cops on the backroads but if you get unlucky they don't hesitate to take your licence away on the spot (as my wife found out near Dijon!). We also received plenty of speeding tickets in the post for weeks afterwards courtesy of unmarked cameras hidden in bushes. Naturally we just ignored these, including the increasing number of reminders and debt collector threats

Have fun, it will be something for you and your son to remember for years to come!

[StonedRollin]

Signing in for this and looking forward to hearing how it goes no matter what you do.

Have had a look at your route from Bad Honnef to Aups and you have options!

Randomly off the top of my head............

1. Easy first day from leaving Bad Honnef and an overnight stop in Stuttgart at the Porsche and/or Merc museums. I've been to the Porsche one and it is ace.
2. Stop in Colmar (Alsace) or Basel if intending to do the trip in a single stop - both decent with enough to keep a boy interested foodwise! Although if you are planning on using D roads and not the peage i'm not sure doing this as a single stop is a viable option as that would be ironbutt stuff
3. Grenoble or Annecy worth a stop again depending on route

Just shout if you want any other thoughts.

[bolidemichael]

Brainwave! We can visit relatives near Briançon, which should make the journey into a long but comfortable two-dayer. On the third day, get up and ride to Aups.

[black-k1]

I'd recommend setting up a number of different routing options in something like MyRoutApp. It can often be quite easy to miss good roads you thought you were going to ride as both your sat. nav. and the local signs try to route you onto more main roads.

[bolidemichael]

I can build something in calimoto and somehow manage to export it to beeline (generally by whatsapping it to someone!).

[bolidemichael]

I've been updating the journey on my VFR thread.