Europe 2025

[wheatonFJR]

How in hell will you pare all those photos down to two for the calendar submission?

Sure... give him an unsolvable problem. Lol

[raYzerman]

How in hell will you pare all those photos down to two complete calendar submissions?

FIFY

[SkooterG]

How in hell will you pare all those photos down to two for the calendar submission?

I have no idea. Seriously, it will cause me stress.

[SkooterG]

Insane! The whole trip. Agree, one day should get over there.

Next year! I got MudslideMiller onboard for the two weeks he gets a kitchen pass. I'll go for a month most likely. You can cuddle with me the other two weeks! Jorge - ecapefjrtist keeps teasing me, (or threatening me?) about joining.....

[SkooterG]

Skoot,
As an amateur photographer myself, I am in awe of your composition skills and ability to capture the essence of the area you are experiencing. You put the viewer there, along with you. Curious what equipment you used during this epic trip?

Thank you. As an amateur photographer myself I try take better photos than the average bear. Part of it is on many of these photos I would take 5-20 photos of the same scene varying the composition and then pick the best one(s) later. A time consuming pita process which I am getting better at.

You know, after the '22 trip and using my phone for photos I went searching for a good digital camera for future trips. Not a DSLR as they are too costly and bulky for this type of trip. The high quality point and shoot cameras I found that I liked were in the $1,200 - $1,700 range at the time. Holy crap! They had gone up. I was hoping for something in the $400-$700 range. My phone at the time, a Galaxy S21FE took pretty good photos. Since I wasn't finding the digital camera I was looking for I splurged and bought a Galaxy S23 Ultra - the top of the line Samsung phone at the time, for my '23 trip. So, that is what I am using. It is amazing what a top of the line phone camera can do these days.

Only two issues. In lower light (dusk) situations I have found other's iphones to be better. Otherwise I think my Galaxy is superior. Issue #2 is that all of a sudden for this year's trip I was having focus issues. On some photos I knew and kept screwing around until the focus worked. On others they looked good on the phone but once on a big computer screen I could see the focus was not spot on. Grrrr..... If I can't get it resolved I will upgrade my phone for the next trip.

[Panman]

How in hell will you pare all those photos down to two for the calendar submission?

Make his own calendar?

[SkooterG]

Maybe you mentioned this before and I missed it, but did you plan and ride these routes yourself or was it part of some package and you had someone with you as a guide? What were the lows you mentioned, that might be helpful information to know if anyone is planning to go.

Can we all just forfeit our entries for the calendar and do a 12 month Skooter calendar? I'd buy it under one condition, there are no photos of Skooter in them.

All planned myself as I always do. More pre-planning at home this trip than I usually do. I mean, I always have a general idea where I am going but in past trips have always figured it out on they fly. This trip I did more specific route planning, at least for the first half of the trip. And there were certain 'places' - like a pass I had read about, that I knew I wanted to see but didn't know the exact routing to get there. For the second half of the trip which was more unknown, route was determined the night before, or, the morning of. Or sometimes while I was riding! I always bring a 14" laptop specifically for this purpose. And also easier Googling of information.

The lows....... More of a situational type of thing.

I had two goals this trip. Don't drop my FJR and no performance awards. Fail on both counts!!! Though neither was that terrible nor the worst. Now, they make for good stories. Hold my beer..........

Weather: I got some hot weather. More than enough 94-100 degrees. I mean, I ride in hot weather here but it's not necessarily my favorite thing. But, in Europe there is more humidity than Arizona, and the biggie - speeds are lower. There is a lot more ventilation going on in my one-piece Stich suit at 50+mph than at the 25-35 mph you are riding a lot in Europe. Fortunately it wasn't all bad as there was plenty of 60s and 70s temps up in the mountains. I also got more rain this year. Not a LOT. But more daily afternoon storms. For example, you can see in the photo below. I took shelter under a tree for 25 minutes. When there was a short break I was able to ride down the mountain and take shelter under a gas station awning that was 10 minutes away. I still got wet as the rain was damn near horizontal for a while but at least I wasn't riding in it. In '22 I was in Europe for a month and it never rained once! Well, it did rain once, but that was overnight while I was sleeping!






Solitude. I am social kind of guy but I also have some introvert tendencies. I would much rather do a trip like this in Europe where you are going to all these cool places with someone else to experience it with than by myself. In '19 it was two months with g/f Kelley. In '21 it was 10 days on my own and then about two weeks with old form member Stefano from Milan as we toured Corsica and Sardinia together. In '22 it was two weeks with MudslideMiller, and then two weeks with g/f Susan. In '23 it was a month with g/f Susan. MudslideMiller can be a wuss and apparently my girlfriends can only take so much of my bullshit, so this year I was solo. I missed some regular human contact. I should have initiated more but my introvert side comes out and it is kind of weird to me to start up a conversation with other folks who are all in groups. On occasion someone would see my 'number plate' as they call them in Europe, or hear me speaking English, and would start talking to me. Then I would proceed to talk their ears off as it was the first human contact in days......

Now riding solo does have some advantages. I was able to finally get to Romania which is further away. I am on my own schedule doing what I want, when I want. And I was able to stop and take a lot more photos being on my own.

I didn't do enough down time. You just can't ride every day. Not in that environment. I was getting exhausted at times and there were actually a few days where I dreaded getting on the bike. That NEVER happens to me. Once on the bike and rolling all would be good, however. I mean I knew this already and planned, and took some downtime, but should have done more. I get caught up in wanting to see and explore as much as I can.

Kind of relating to the above, some of my pre-planned routing was not ideal. Not that you can figure that out ahead of time. When planning I looked for every squiggly road I could find. In 35 years of riding motorcycles not once have I ever thought there is such a thing as 'too twisty a road'. Well, this trip I found out there is. There were some days in the French Alps that I did 120-140 miles for the day and was completely exhausted at the end of the day. It was pretty much 1st and 2nd gear the WHOLE freaking day as the roads were 'never' straight. And add in they were single lane against a rock wall. So, you were *always* on high alert as to what was going to be coming around the never-ceasing corners! Fortunately, traffic is extremely light on these roads, but not non-existent. And thank goodness European drivers are much better than American driver's 95% of the time. Oh, and frequently on these roads in the middle of nowhere the pavement was not always ideal. So you are doing 1st and 2nd gear on thin roads where you can't see where you are going around the constant blind corners and it's bumpy as Hell. Not necessarily my happy place. But interesting........

Also on that non-ideal pre-planning........ Why the f*** can't a modern mapping app or program tell you it's freaking gravel road!!!! Or, perhaps there are resources that I am unaware of? So, getting routed down a gravel road and dropping my FJR was not one of my favorite days. Not to mention the 10 or so miles I did on a different gravel road a couple of hours before the cow encounter drop. Fortunately, that gravel road was not too bad, but still all 1st and 2nd gear, and I am glad I did it as it was incredibly scenic. But when planning this route at home it sure would have been nice to know it was freaking gravel!!!

I do things on the fly when riding Europe which many experienced travelers will tell you to do. I am usually stopping and using Booking.com to find my night's accommodations between 5:00pm and 7:30pm. Most 'on the fly' folks probably don't wait that late but I do for a couple reasons. This was not a big deal my first trips. But ever since Covid, tourism has been going off the charts in Europe. So finding last minute accommodations can be more difficult and is definitely more expensive than years past. Except for Eastern Europe. What a bargain Montenegro and Romania were.

Rushing. I hate being in a rush on a trip like this. They journey IS the destination. But, on a few occasions for various reason I was in a rush and not happy about it. And since Romania is so far (relatively), there were two days going and coming passing through boring Hungary that were long days on the Motorways - Euro version of our Interstates. I hate being on Motorways. Always avoid them.

Timing. I knew August is less than ideal to be in Europe. LOTS of Europeans are on their big yearly vacation in August. Roads in popular places are crowded and my last minute lodging gets harder to find and more expensive. Yup. Riding in a few popular places like the Dolomites in August sucked! Hot and terrible traffic - and I mean gridlock. Thank God I was on a Moto and could frequently 'filter or lane split' down the oncoming traffic lane when empty. Never again will you find me riding in Europe past the first few days in August unless I am going north to Norway/Sweden. You really need to go late summer up there due to weather. I used to think a trip during the entire month of July was ideal, but after this trip I have adjusted ideal to be mid-June to mid-July.

This is a newer FJR to me. I wish I could have rode it several thousand miles to get to know it better before shipping it over but that didn't happen. Fortunately no major problems, but I did have a recurring issue with the left-side 2 Brothers slip-on sliding off the header. Just a minor pita, but a pita nonetheless.

That is all I can think of now. Probably will remember more later. Realize however, this did not detract overall from my trip. I absolutely LOVE riding in Europe. No difference this year. And I learned a few things this trip that will make things better going forward. As I always do.

[SkooterG]

Forgot to post earlier. Here is the track of my trip provided by my Garmin InReach Mini 2.

And the link to it: https://spotwalla.com/trip/7b9d-174a660b-a18f/view







From this trip I learned I want to explore the Austrian countryside more and spend some more quality time in the Dolomites. Also, I would like to revisit the Pyrenees - the mountain range along the French/Spanish border. I was there during my '19 trip but want to go back and explore some more and also hit the Picos de Europa mountain range in Spain. I haven't been there. Yet.

[Dan Cooper]

For all my needling about your cow adventure, I have been following your trip daily.
What an awesome adventure and what awesome photos.
I'm officially jealous!! No joke.

Good luck sorting the photos, I couldn't narrow it down on just the ones you've shared already.

dan

[fontanaman]

How in hell will you pare all those photos down to two for the calendar submission?

Horse pucky. I want to buy a SkooterG calendar to help support the forum.

[Dan Cooper]

How in hell will you pare all those photos down to two for the calendar submission?

Horse pucky. I want to buy a SkooterG calendar to help support the forum.

I would vote for 5 calendars this year.
The usual assortment from all member submissions calendar except Skooter and Pants.
A SkooterG European adventure calendar.
A HPPants Canadian adventure calendar.
A BigJohnSD adventure calendar.
A fjrfarrier year end report calendar.
I'd buy one of each, and I don't like any of those guys for rubbing it in our face!! But I do like Julie!!
But I'm glad they did.

dan

[FastPappy]

Speechless.

[raYzerman]

Again, amazing! Now I'm gonna ask the big question..... the budget. What is the ballpark cost for a couple of weeks?

[wheatonFJR]

Again, amazing! Now I'm gonna ask the big question..... the budget. What is the ballpark cost for a couple of weeks?

He has no clue. He's a gigolo and gets his daily remittance on the nightstand.

[Auburn]

Great trip. Can't wait to talk to you in Baker City.

[gixxerjasen]

Also on that non-ideal pre-planning........ Why the f*** can't a modern mapping app or program tell you it's freaking gravel road!!!! Or, perhaps there are resources that I am unaware of?

If you can figure this out, there's a HUGE group of riders who would like this information. Mostly for reasons opposite of why you want the info!

Picking photos? Easy peasy. Assign each photo a number and then go here:

https://www.calculator.net/random-number-generator.html

[SkooterG]

Again, amazing! Now I'm gonna ask the big question..... the budget. What is the ballpark cost for a couple of weeks?

That is a good and valid question Ray. Jeez, how do I answer - so many options.

Ballpark? $5,000-$6,000 not including airfare. I think I am going high for safety there.

One could do an expensive guided tour like Edelweiss.

Let's say you are joining me and I will play your affectionate tour guide! No charge other than some cuddle time.

How long do you want to ride? My opinion? 5-7 days absolute minimum and not ideal. 10 riding days better. 14+ riding days best. But that is me. I'll try to get Mudslide Miller to offer is $.02 as he has done it a few different ways. Add 3 days for total trip for travel to Europe (2 days) and return (1 day).

Come out with me for 7-14 days of riding and I'll take you on a 'greatest hits' tour of the places I have been.

Figure daily expenses of lodging, meals, and gas should be no more than $300/day. Cheaper if doubling up on rooms. Lodging and meals can vary greatly if in tourist spot vs. country guesthouse.

Moto rental I am total swagging here, but $100-$200/day depending on company/unlimited miles or not, and type of bike you are renting and whether they are charging additional for sidebags/gps/tankbag. You would need to do your own research.

So, for shits and giggles, you are joining me for 10 days riding/13 days total trip. You would rent a moto from Milan/Venice/Munich/Stuttgart area. Or, rent one form KnopfTours where I keep my moto parked in Heidelberg, Germany.

10 days @ $300/day = $3,000 for expenses. Perhaps less, around $2,500.
10 days @ $150/day for moto rental(?) = $1,500.

So that is $4,000 for 10 days riding not including airfare and meals on those travel days. Plus I guess the one night of lodging on the day you arrive to Europe. I think that is fairly 'ballpark'.

I will say Knopf will make everything easy. Pick up at Frankfurt airport (for a cost), a room to stay at his property for a reasonable cost. Good place to get shit together and store luggage while on trip. Other moto rental companies may provide same/similar services without the room at their property?

Roundtrip airfare from Phoenix to Frankfurt over the last few years has varied from $800 - $1,400 partly depending on basic economy, or economy+ where you get one checked bag for free and assigned seat. (I always check a bag - moto gear ain't small.) Airfare to the other major cities I mentioned like Milan, Venice, and Munich should be similar.

If you are serious about going next year I would highly recommend a travel credit card. With the bonus they give you for joining and then using it, it will pay for most of your airfare for next year on *any* airline. I can provide more info on that if desired. I have had two of them. With the first, it paid for all but $200 of my $1,200 airfare on one trip iirc. And my current one I have enough points for $1,900 worth of airfare. This year I got lucky and used my elderly mother's American Airlines miles (she won't be traveling anymore) and only had to pay $150 for the flights. (It would have been completely free if I would have used my travel credit card points.)

Here is a quote from Mudslide Miller on a not too long ago email chain to someone thinking about doing a trip with us. I though he nailed it:

Just to add my .02, first of all NoName, going there at least once in your lifetime is a MUST. We have all ridden thousands and thousands of miles on motorcycles and my 2022 trip with Greg was at the very top of my all-time favorites. It put anything in the US to shame in comparison, which is saying a lot as we both know there is a ton of great riding in the US & Canada. Don’t think about it, definitely do it. You won’t regret it!!

BTW, on that trip Gary did 14 riding days/17 days total and I believe his estimate for total trip was $6,000 including airfare. He can correct/elaborate.

On my trip this year I paid more for meals than I would have liked and that is partly my fault for 'splurging' while on vacation. Lodging, while more expensive that in the past and more than I would have liked was really not terrible and cheaper than most of the US or Canada assuming you are not doing total budget motels here.

Montenegro and Romania in Eastern Europe were cheap! I was getting accommodations for the night for $37-$45! And meals weren't bad either unless I was in a tourist spot. But that is not where we will be. Switzerland and the Italian Dolomites are a motorcyclist's playground but they ain't cheap. In places like those I was paying $60-$138 per night. Most were in the $80-$110 range and many included breakfast.

So, while not cheap, I think Europe is still somewhat of a bargain compared to USA/Canada. Traveling to Nakusp, California, and even many places in North Carolina, Tennessee and whatnot were more expensive.

[bigjohnsd]

Ray - Buy this one and leave it there for the next guy -

2005 Yamaha FJR - https://www.knopftours.com/copy-of-larsen-vfr

Also you need to factor in Insurance - see here - https://www.knopftours.com/green-card

Skooter, do you buy insurance through/from him each year?

[bigjohnsd]

Skooter - Would a smaller/lighter bike be advantageous for these trips?

[SkooterG]

Adding to my 'lows'.......

I gained 8 lbs. But damn! I sure ate well doing it!!!!

Fuel prices in Europe are not ideal. Western Europe - Germany/Switzerland/France/Italy were about $8.40/gallon. Eastern Europe - Slovenia/Croatia/Montenegro/Romania were better at about $6.30/gallon. Which interestingly is the same price I saw at a gas station in the middle of nowhere northern California in June on my way to CFR!!!

Luckily, with a lot of the lower speeds in Europe, higher elevations, and riding twisties in the mountains I was frequently getting 47-52 mpg.