During the dark and damp months, planning, scheming and dreaming of where we will be going when spring arrives is an excellent way to spend our time.
Back in the middle of 2022, we examined the costs of motorcycle touring in different parts of Europe, comparing the cost of travelling by ferries or trains when aiming at France, Germany (Harz National Park) or Spain (Picos).
We invented an imaginary 10-day motorcycle tour and worked out how much the travelling would cost us for each day riding at the chosen destination.
One thing we didn’t factor in back then was the cost of any speeding fines.
Whereas I’m certain none of us start out with the intention of speeding – perhaps that should be we don’t intend to get caught speeding – it could be an added consideration when deciding where your 2024 Motorcycling Tour will take you.
Default Spain
Like so many others, our default overseas destination was nearly always Spain. The Picos, N260, and the roads around Navia on Spain’s north coast are excellent, and many happy miles have been spent exploring them.
Yet the ferry across the Bay of Biscay to get to Spain is time that I could spend riding if I picked somewhere closer.
I’ve often thought about riding through France and Andora to get to Spain and subsequently catching the ferry home. That would give me an extra two or three days of riding and avoid one round of queuing to get on and off the ferry.
Every time I mention this, I get some long looks from those who have done it. Their reticence to do it again should perhaps be a clear enough message, but I know I will do it one day, even if I have to listen to them saying “told you so” all the way back.
The prices will have changed, and thankfully, petrol is now cheaper than it was in 2022, but the logic holds. You can read the full article here … Trains, Ferries and the Cost of Touring Europe.
France is Cheapest
Unsurprisingly, choosing northern France as the destination and getting there by the Chunnel gives the best travel cost per day, as you spend zero days getting there. Motorways to Kent, 40 minutes on the Chunnel, and you have arrived in northern France.
But it is a tilted calculation. If you live in Aberdeen, Ashford in Kent is a long way, and would northern France be your chosen destination? There are some good roads, but other destinations have more invigorating riding to offer.
Germany
Touring Germany or the Netherlands starts with sleeping my way across the Channel. Take the overnight ferry from either Hull or Harwich to the Hoek of Holland, and by midday the following day, I’ve cleared the urban sprawl, and I’m on the Dutch and German backroads heading for the first night stop somewhere around Paderborn.
As the ferries leave the UK late in the evening, it is a freebie-bonus day. An evening ride after work to either of the ports for the overnight sailing to the Netherlands and the tour begins when I ride off the boat the next morning.
What’s Wrong With the UK?
Absolutely nothing, and I’ll be heading to both Wales and Scotland again in 2024.
The Cairngorms need revisiting, as does the best (IMHO) 100-mile contiguous road in the UK, which runs from Dunoon to Oban.
I’ve also never made it to John O’Groats as I normally avoid the NC500 and all of the tourists (yes, I appreciate the irony of that statement) by turning inland and heading cross country towards Scotland’s western coast shortly after Inverness.
There has to be a way of avoiding the camper vans and still ticking John O’Groats off my bucket list … I’ll add that to the list of Touring Destinations for 2024.
Speeding Fines
It would be inconsiderate to choose a destination with the sole intention of abusing the speed limits. Nonetheless, exuberance can be a natural by-product of warm weather, a sparse population, and curvaceous roads covered in grippy tarmac.
I’ve not checked the truth of the statement, but the last time I was in Germany, many of the riders from the surrounding countries listed Germany as their favourite destination because it had some of the lowest speeding fines in Europe.
Only time will tell how the expansion of the dual speed limits – one for cars and a slower limit for motorcycles – will dampen the enthusiasm for visiting Germany. Norway, where a small indiscretion can cost you a substantial chunk of change, remains popular.
World Records
Some European countries operate systems where the size of the fine is linked to your daily salary. Called “day fines”, they first calculate your daily disposable income (typically half your daily take-home pay) and then multiply it by the number of “days” attached to the offence.
The more a rider (or driver) is over the speed limit, the greater the number of days applied to the fine. A small infraction over the speed limit might cost you 10 days. Get serious about breaking the limit, and you might get a 100-day multiplier.
Just ask Anders Wiklöf, who in 2023 was fined €121,000 (£105,220) for driving at 82km/h in a 50km/h zone.
But it is a Swedish driver caught in Switzerland – where they also operate a day fine system – who holds the current world record for a speeding fine.
Back in 2010, having been caught driving at 137 km/h in an 80 km/h zone in a village near St. Gallen, the Swede was assessed as having a disposable income of 3,600 Swiss francs per day (£3,375) and given a 300-day multiplier for the offence.
That’s a £1,012,500 fine.
Perhaps that is why I’ve always planned routes around Switzerland rather than through it.
Speed Cameras
Living in the UK, it feels like there are speed cameras everywhere, but of the top 30 European countries, the UK comes 5th behind Italy, Andora, Turkey and top-of-the-table Belgium for the highest density of speed cameras per 100 square miles (10×10 mile block).
Andora might complain about being so high on the list as it only has 31-speed cameras in total, but those cameras are crammed into a country that covers just 181 square miles.
At the other end of the scale, Denmark, Slovakia, and Ireland are the places almost devoid of speed cameras.
According to the data, those hospitable people, the Irish, have only nine cameras in the whole of the 27,000 square miles that make up the Emerald Isle. Outstanding work; please do keep it up.
All of which has me thinking that I might be looking in the wrong direction when it comes to choosing where to go in 2024. Riding to Wales and then continuing west is an inviting prospect.
Clarity
My thanks to the superb humans at Speed Camera Database (SCDB.info) for the statistics on speed cameras. The camera counts were correct at the time of publication.
If you have never come across SCDB.info before, they compile the speed camera data used by many navigation apps and GPS manufacturers.
They are also the authors of the excellent CamSam phone app – called BlitzerPro in some countries – which costs just 5 Euros. A worthwhile investment if you’re planning an invigorating summer in 2024.
