First trip in Germany, advice pls

[Rasher]

Avoid the B500 which is the most overrated road I know….limited now to 50 km/h

The B500 runs the entire length of the Black Forest and is not all 50kph, and even teh "famous" bit (the Black forest high road, or Schwarzwaldhochstraße) which is the bit from Baden to around 25 miles south is not all 50kph, some is 60 or 70 or more, or was last time I went through it a couple of years ago....

...But there are indeed many other nice roads in the area that do not have as much traffic, a many police, or stupidly low speed limits, brought about by lunatics in cars and on bikes crashing at 100+mph and damaging the precious trees (The authoraties will provide first aid assistance to the trees as a priority over a biker) so they thought is we change the speed limit from 100kp to 50 kph then all those morons that happily double the 100 kph limit will now obey it, or just do twice the 50kph limit and be back to where they started - and provide a nice little earner when nicked for doing so.

Nevertheless, it is nice to make an effort. We Brits have a terrible reputation for expecting others to speak English......

They have an advantage, they only have to learn English to be understood to some degree in every other european country, but we have to learn French, German and Italian for a tour of the Alps, the Spanish for our beach holidays.


As for this trip, so many places along the way you could spend an extra day or three to exlore.

A couple of Black Forest routes here;-

A loop around the Eifel

La Route Des Legends is a good way to get from Calais towards Germany (via Luxembourg is my recomendation)

And a loop of Luxembourg;

You could easily turn wappings 6 day outline into a three week exploration, I like to ride for a day or two to get somewhere then stay for 2-3 nights to explore, then move on to another "base", 10 days is enough to have a couple of these stops and not have to unpack / pack / check in / check out, and you get to ride a bit without all the luggage.

 

[Wapping]

, 10 days is enough to have a couple of these stops and not have to unpack / pack / check in / check out,

Whist everyone is different. There is a lot to be said for this approach.

 

[Wapping]

Avoid the B500 which is the most overrated road I know….limited now to 50 km/h

Whilst it’s now not quite so easy to hurtle down its entire length as we did in the 80’s, that is a touch unfair. Indeed, it’s possibly because it was used as a racetrack (with the usual consequences) that parts became restricted.

The road, like the Stelvio (and others) is iconic and ‘worth a look’ as a part of a broader visit to the Black Forest.

Possibly avoid weekends and it’s still perfectly possible to go along ‘At a speed appropriate to the conditions’ as I believe the expression (excuse) goes.

 

[Steve398]

What have you decided on OP?

The suggested routes look really good, particularly your 6 day foray which gives us a bit of free time to chill, and get over the hassle of the last few months and my wife’s condition.

So we’ll sort through this weekend and get things booked, courtesy of Blue Star Line ferries having finally given us a full refund on the Italy/Greece crossings, bless them, and Aviva (Nationwide travel insurance) refunding the lost hotel bookings on that trip as well.

Thank you to everyone for the information and suggestions.

 

[Wapping]

Enjoy, as they say.

Look forward to a trip report, should you feel so inclined.

 

[johnnyboy]

Re the B500 in The Black Forest, I have been there earlier in the year and had a good hoon up and down. There are speed cameras but tend to be forward facing. My only advice would be to avoid hooning at the weekend

 

[johnnyboy]

They have an advantage, they only have to learn English to be understood to some degree in every other european country, but we have to learn French, German and Italian for a tour of the Alps, the Spanish for our beach holholidays.

There's no need to be fluent in any of the languages. Just making an effort when ordering drinks/food and asking for directions is enough.

 

[Rasher]

Re the B500 in The Black Forest, I have been there earlier in the year and had a good hoon up and down. There are speed cameras but tend to be forward facing. My only advice would be to avoid hooning at the weekend

Indeed, just got back and it is pretty crap at legal limit, and even families on tour tend to be over the lmit in their tin boxes, they are so artificially low that it seems nobody respects them, having ridden it at pace many times I went fairly steady but saw a few bikes coming the other way at warp factor 9, on one 30 section (tight bit a couple of miles out of Baden just past the hairpin heading south I was slowing for a @40mph tight bend as a bike was exiting coming the other way hard on the gas and obviously paying no attention to the limits.

What was more noticeable was across part of the Eifel and the Black Forest is the lefty loony government has been lowering limits everywhere, on the 100kph national limit roads they lower it to 70kph for almost every junction, any tight bends have a 50kph zone on them, typically you are riding along at xx speed (xxx?) and then there is a change to 70kph, which then drop to 50kph (30mph) before a bend some of the steadiest Tossers would get round at in excess of 30mph and the average bod would easily take at 40+, with the knee down Marquez wannabe's on their susperbikes doubling the prescribed speed.

This gets bloody annoying very quickly as it is impossible to get into a nice flow, or even know what speed you are meant to be doing as it can change 4-5 times in a couple of miles on twisty roads, in the end I gave up, I just stopped using 5th and 6th, so shifting at 4-6k on the KTM would see me keeping the speed down to no more than 65-70 between bends and I figured an "affordable" fine if caught, it's at the point now where if you are not prepared to speed a little you may as well not leave home.

It also means you cannot use the speed limit to judge if you are entering a more risky area, as it is more like someone has come downthe road stopping every 500 metres, and then rolled a dice to decide how much to lower the speed limit for the next 500 meters.

Eifel was better than Black Forest, France was not too different to the last few years (although a lot of these lower limits in the Vosges) and Luxembourg was pretty decent generally.

 

[johnnyboy]

Indeed, just got back and it is pretty crap at legal limit, and even families on tour tend to be over the lmit in their tin boxes, they are so artificially low that it seems nobody respects them, having ridden it at pace many times I went fairly steady but saw a few bikes coming the other way at warp factor 9, on one 30 section (tight bit a couple of miles out of Baden just past the hairpin heading south I was slowing for a @40mph tight bend as a bike was exiting coming the other way hard on the gas and obviously paying no attention to the limits.

What was more noticeable was across part of the Eifel and the Black Forest is the lefty loony government has been lowering limits everywhere, on the 100kph national limit roads they lower it to 70kph for almost every junction, any tight bends have a 50kph zone on them, typically you are riding along at xx speed (xxx?) and then there is a change to 70kph, which then drop to 50kph (30mph) before a bend some of the steadiest Tossers would get round at in excess of 30mph and the average bod would easily take at 40+, with the knee down Marquez wannabe's on their susperbikes doubling the prescribed speed.

This gets bloody annoying very quickly as it is impossible to get into a nice flow, or even know what speed you are meant to be doing as it can change 4-5 times in a couple of miles on twisty roads, in the end I gave up, I just stopped using 5th and 6th, so shifting at 4-6k on the KTM would see me keeping the speed down to no more than 65-70 between bends and I figured an "affordable" fine if caught, it's at the point now where if you are not prepared to speed a little you may as well not leave home.

It also means you cannot use the speed limit to judge if you are entering a more risky area, as it is more like someone has come downthe road stopping every 500 metres, and then rolled a dice to decide how much to lower the speed limit for the next 500 meters.

Eifel was better than Black Forest, France was not too different to the last few years (although a lot of these lower limits in the Vosges) and Luxembourg was pretty decent generally.

I just rode like a lunatic, had fun and nobody was hurt. I've been home a couple of months and haven't received any welcome speeding cards......