We are often told by bikers we have the best job in the world, in the main we do as everyone else does, sit in front of a computer emailing or on the telephone doing our best to promote Spyder Club. However, there are also plenty of times during the year we get to ride, and ride some of Europe’s very best roads!
2012 has been another good year with 37 guests joining us on the small amount of trips we run. Why do our guests return? Because we take time to research the routes and provide a highly desirable fleet of motorcycles for them to swap between along the way. So, to whet your appetite for 2013, here are some of the best roads of 2012!
West of Scotland, July. As ever the trip started in Glasgow with guests arriving on Thursday this year as we added an additional days riding. The extra day saw us use roads north of our usual hotel near the Kyle of Lochalsh, some we had used before, others were new. The best of the day being the run from Achnasheen to a lovely hotel where we were made very welcome for coffee in Kinlochewe, the Kinlochewe Hotel, on the A832.
It’s not a long stretch of road but the surfaces is good and the scenery dramatic! It’s a quick section of tarmac too and as we all climbed from our bikes to head into the hotel, conversation was immediately drawn to the 9 miles we’d just covered! Of course the rest of the day was excellent but we can’t give all our secrets away!
Southern France, September. Then there was Provence, our second time riding in the region but this time we stayed there rather than heading into the Alps as we did before. It threw up so many great riding roads. After day one I would have been happy with motorways for the next three days, so good had the roads been, of course we didn’t and it just got better!
It’s not a long stretch of road but the surfaces is good and the scenery dramatic! It’s a quick section of tarmac too and as we all climbed from our bikes to head into the hotel, conversation was immediately drawn to the 9 miles we’d just covered! Of course the rest of the day was excellent but we can’t give all our secrets away!
Southern France, September. Then there was Provence, our second time riding in the region but this time we stayed there rather than heading into the Alps as we did before. It threw up so many great riding roads. After day one I would have been happy with motorways for the next three days, so good had the roads been, of course we didn’t and it just got better!
A cracking stretch of road that really is worth putting on your route if you’re heading to the south of France.
Southern Spain, March and November. And then there’s the old faithful! We are blessed with the roads in Andalucia as they offer a good rider a superb challenge and with car drivers who appreciate you rather than try to kill you! Plus surfaces that, when dry, are second to none! There are a number of exceptional roads we use, some we tell everyone about, other we keep for our guests, but one road has to be ridden.
The road from San Pedro to Ronda is 49 km’s of sweeping corner to sweeping corner and a super smooth surface. There are also some tight bends just to bring you back to reality if the pace creeps too high and once a few miles out of San Pedro, relatively traffic free. The experience is perfect, every time I ride it, at least 16 times now, I’m beaming from ear to ear, it’s two wheeled euphoria! It offers a biking challenge to savour and look forward to. We are back again in March and I can’t wait!
There are so many good roads we’ve ridden over the last 3 years we’ve been running the Spyder Club trips. The Alps offers so much, days out there should last for ever! Provence is stunning and a region we need to get to know better, we’ll be back in 2013 for sure, Scotland, on our doorstep, dramatic, stunning, beautiful and roads that take you through it all, challenging you along the way. Andalucia is now such a big part of Spyder Club with some members returning for their fourth tour in three years in March. The money from the European Union has been spent well!
We are looking forward to riding new roads in 2013 and we are already planning routes for 2014 and 15, that’s the joy of the Spyder Club fleet, they can be loaded into the back of a van and transported anywhere in Europe, all we need is an airport for guests to fly into and we can provide a perfect short break fly ride motorcycle tour on all of Europe’s best roads, in time!!