tour reports » Tour of the Ardennes

Tour of the Ardennes

18 - 25 May 24, I’m in a group of seven biker mates from the U.K and we have an annual biking trip, this year a tour of the Ardennes, Belgium.
It’s a smashing area to ride, with good roads and friendly locals, lots to see as well, and superb local beers.

The area probably most famous for the Battle of the Bulge in WW2, so there’s lots of museums and memorials, there’s tanks on display in most villages and strategic crossings which is wonderful to just happen upon.

The Ardennes is a pretty area, scattered with medieval villages, and castles La Roche-en-ArdenneWikipediahttps://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › La_Roche-en-Ardenne

Our group comprised three Ducati multistrada’s, one R1250Gs, two Triumph (800 and 1200) tigers, and my R1250rs.
We traveled to the continent by the excellent LeShuttle, which is just 35 mins and easy with bikes.
The roads are superb, few pot holes and lots of cafes which makes for a great trip, unfortunately the weather wasn’t great and we had several days with rain.
The Rs performed perfectly unlike my BMW Nav5, which didn’t work on arrival in France i believe due to a corrupted map file, fortunately I had a motorrad connected ride adapter, which works perfectly using a phone as a GPS.
We rode around 1600 miles, fuel price roughly same as U.K. around £20 per fill.
Overall no incidents apart from a rear tyre puncture on the Tiger1200 just as we approached our return to LeShuttle; unusually due to a large splinter of wood.
Overall a great destination from the U.K. which is reachable in a days ride. (we split it into two so it wasn’t all motorways)

Sounds like a good tour. Did you manage to pack all you needed for a week into that top box?

IMG_2713.jpeg - Bild entfernt (keine Rechte)No I have BMW panniers and a Bagster tank bag, this was a day trip, so kit left at the hotel. The tank is a King Tiger.

I got home a few days ago from my Euro trip. Was lucky with weather.

2,277 miles. Enjoyed a few sprints on the autobahn, but the country roads were more fun.

Including 3 nights in Bastogne. Enjoying breakfast in the cafe in your picture.

Through Netherlands, Germany, Belgium, Luxembourg. And back again.

Spa Francorchamps circuit. Dam Buster country.

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Nice reg

Our paths were close, we also went to the aircraft museum https://www.flugausstellung.de/ and the Concorde cafe, brilliant.