No, this isn’t a crafty plan to relieve you of your
pride-and-joy at the end of a tour, but a clever way of letting you maximise
the great times you have riding your motorcycle. Many of the tours
operated by Harley-Davidson authorised tour provider Tour1 go to
Harley-Davidson European rallies, and here is the odd thing, you ride your own
bike there, but the tours are one-way. Since starting these tours a few
years ago, they have been sold-out, so we asked Gary France, who runs Tour1,
about these one-way tours and why they are so popular.
What exactly is a one-way tour on your own bike?
The one-way tours all start in the UK and we ride across Europe to a
Harley-Davidson motorcycle rally. These are fully-guided tours that use
some of the best roads Europe has to offer. We take six days to ride to
the rally, then spend 3 days there enjoying the sights and sounds of that
rally. Our customers then fly back to the UK on the Sunday afternoon as
the rally ends and your bikes are bought back to the UK on a truck. You
get your bike back less than a week later.
Where do you run these tours to? In 2017, these
tours go to the rallies in St Tropez (May), to the main HOG European Rally (June) and European Bike Week at Faaker See (September).
Why do riders like one-way tours so much?
Riders love the ride to a rally, as they are full of anticipation for what is
ahead. The roads are terrific and generally they are heading south into
better weather. We stay in good quality three and four-star hotels and
the sense of adventure, riding in a group across Europe is exciting.
Riding back from a rally however is generally dull, often ridden on motorways,
heading back to worse weather and nearly always done in a rush.
Eliminating that slog of a ride home is a real benefit as it allows riders to
travel back comfortably, to be at home just a few hours later on Sunday
evening, refreshed and ready for work the next day.
How long do the tours take? Most of our tours
leave on a Saturday morning and last 9 days, so finish when people fly home on
the following Sunday. For most people, that means they take just 5 days
off work.
Do you ride a direct route to the rallies?
No. Direct routes are often not the most exciting, nor the most
scenic. Take our route to St Tropez for example. The direct route
from Calais is about 730 miles of boring riding, but our tour is 1,200 miles to
get there. We ride fantastic roads in Belgium and Luxembourg, then two of
the very best motorcycling roads in Germany, over parts of The Alps and
finally, through some amazing gorges in France on our route. We chose
roads because they are spectacular, not simply because they get you there.
How do the motorcycles get back to the UK?
There is a company called ‘We Move Bikes’ who transport Harley-Davidson
demonstrator bikes to events across Europe, for people to test-ride at the
rallies. They are an authorised logistics partner of Harley-Davidson, who
use specially designed trucks and cradles to move the bikes. We use those
same facilities to bring our customers bikes back to the UK. WMB are
highly professional and fully insured for moving Harley-Davidsons.
So, a one-way tour allows people to ride across Europe for
six days, on fantastic roads, stay in good quality hotels, then spend 3 days at
a Harley-Davidson rally, and then be back home on the Sunday night, ready for
work the next day. What’s not to love! www.tour1.co.uk
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