In my quest to do more miles this year, I’ve been looking to do some sort of fly-ride tour, so it was fortunate that I got back in touch with my old mate Dave when I did. He told me that he and a bunch of his friends were taking their annual knee down to the continent of Europe this year. Mind you, as Dave lives in England, it’s not that big a deal for him. After describing the route to me in detail as “basically, we’ll hit the channel tunnel in late June and then head for Northern Italy” I was sold and he’s such a good cove he didn’t once object when I invited myself along.

Given that I live in Canada, the first step for me was to locate a bike. Now, I don’t know anyone in the UK still that would be mental enough to lend me their bike for that length of time (or tarmac) and so I had to resort to locating a rental. Of course, with a car this is easy but finding a bike you can rent is less so. In fact, it took me at least an hour on Google to find anything that wasn’t a Harley Davidson. Ordinarily, I wouldn’t have too many qualms about renting a Hog, except that everyone else is riding R1’s and Aprilia RSV1000’s so I figured I need something with a little more oomph in the corners. This is where things got a little sticky.

It seems, whether by some sort of co-operative agreement or secret E.U. Statute, that you can’t rent anything that’s not a shaft drive and ride it into Europe. Knackers. No sport’s bike for me then. The best I could find was a VFR-800, which while no slouch isn’t quite the ride I had in mind. Still, at least it’s pretty comfortable. Luckily, I stumbled across one place just outside that London that rented a wider range of machines. Now, it was still limited to shaft drives, but they had an FJR1300 and my mind was made up. OK, it’s not the sportiest of machines but it’s pretty decent at gobbling the kilometers up and it can be made to work in the corners, though I doubt i’ll be getting my knee down with it. At least there’s plenty of room in the luggage though I dare say I will wind up being the mule for everyone else. I don’t mind as long as they let me borrow their bikes for a pass through the Alps…

Now the only problem I face is what to do with my luggage that I take?

Watch for a write up of the trip coming some time in early July.

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