Offroad from north to south Portugal
- Thread starter Timolgra
- Start date
Cockney
Registered user
Your advice appreciated
Hi
Myself and 3 others have booked the ferry to Santander and plan to ride from North to South Portgual, with as much offroad as is possible. The ride back (due to time - we only have 10 days total inc ferry crossing there/back) will be on the road.
I have some questions, which I hope you can help us with:
1) Navigation
I have a Garmin Zumo 550 and a few people kindly gave me some routes, one of which is 5000 waypoints which I have split into 14 sub-500 waypoint routes as the Zumo only supports 500 WPs.
My concern is that the Zumo will not display the trails, just arrows. Is it going to be good enough?
What did you use and how successful was it? Any recommendations appreciated.
Which route did you take?
2) Tyres
The terrain in your photos looked predominantly like gravel tracks with a little bit of water. What type of tyres would you recommend? I've heard mixed reports about TKCs on the road and have no stories re offroad. Also been told about Heidenraus.
3) Fuel
Are there plenty of fuel stops? As you probably know, the KTMs have small tanks (150 miles) so need to think about how whether to carry extra fuel.
4) Is it true you can ride anywhere offroad?
5) Did you camp every night or get some occasional luxury in local B&Bs? Are they readily available like in France or few and far between ie do we need to book? We are planning to mainly camp, but treat ourselves on a couple of nights with a decent bed and evening meal...
Sorry, but we have KTMs. Hopefully this won't put you off helping us. If it helps we are genuine off-road enthusiasts.
Thanks in advance
Andy
Hi
Myself and 3 others have booked the ferry to Santander and plan to ride from North to South Portgual, with as much offroad as is possible. The ride back (due to time - we only have 10 days total inc ferry crossing there/back) will be on the road.
I have some questions, which I hope you can help us with:
1) Navigation
I have a Garmin Zumo 550 and a few people kindly gave me some routes, one of which is 5000 waypoints which I have split into 14 sub-500 waypoint routes as the Zumo only supports 500 WPs.
My concern is that the Zumo will not display the trails, just arrows. Is it going to be good enough?
What did you use and how successful was it? Any recommendations appreciated.
Which route did you take?
2) Tyres
The terrain in your photos looked predominantly like gravel tracks with a little bit of water. What type of tyres would you recommend? I've heard mixed reports about TKCs on the road and have no stories re offroad. Also been told about Heidenraus.
3) Fuel
Are there plenty of fuel stops? As you probably know, the KTMs have small tanks (150 miles) so need to think about how whether to carry extra fuel.
4) Is it true you can ride anywhere offroad?
5) Did you camp every night or get some occasional luxury in local B&Bs? Are they readily available like in France or few and far between ie do we need to book? We are planning to mainly camp, but treat ourselves on a couple of nights with a decent bed and evening meal...
Sorry, but we have KTMs. Hopefully this won't put you off helping us. If it helps we are genuine off-road enthusiasts.
Thanks in advance
Andy
Hi
Myself and 3 others have booked the ferry to Santander and plan to ride from North to South Portgual, with as much offroad as is possible. The ride back (due to time - we only have 10 days total inc ferry crossing there/back) will be on the road.
I have some questions, which I hope you can help us with:
1) Navigation
I have a Garmin Zumo 550 and a few people kindly gave me some routes, one of which is 5000 waypoints which I have split into 14 sub-500 waypoint routes as the Zumo only supports 500 WPs.
My concern is that the Zumo will not display the trails, just arrows. Is it going to be good enough?
What did you use and how successful was it? Any recommendations appreciated.
Which route did you take?
You'll probably need a GPS which will hold all the tracklogs eg. Garmin Colorado.
2) Tyres
The terrain in your photos looked predominantly like gravel tracks with a little bit of water. What type of tyres would you recommend? I've heard mixed reports about TKCs on the road and have no stories re offroad. Also been told about Heidenraus.
Pirelli MT21
3) Fuel
Are there plenty of fuel stops? As you probably know, the KTMs have small tanks (150 miles) so need to think about how whether to carry extra fuel.
You should be ok but may need to deviate from the route to find fuel., carry a little extra to be sure.
4) Is it true you can ride anywhere offroad?
The guy pointing a loaded shotgun at us seems to say otherwise.
5) Did you camp every night or get some occasional luxury in local B&Bs? Are they readily available like in France or few and far between ie do we need to book? We are planning to mainly camp, but treat ourselves on a couple of nights with a decent bed and evening meal...
All camping untill we hit the coast and found a room. Campsites are difficult to find in the areas we rode but they are there. We wild camped as well but I don't think this is legal in Portugal so keep your heads down.
Sorry, but we have KTMs. Hopefully this won't put you off helping us. If it helps we are genuine off-road enthusiasts.
Thanks in advance
Andy
Sorry about the delay in replying...I clean forgot
Have a great trip, it was a wonderful route and one I shall definately be doing again
Cockney
Registered user
Thanks for the feedback. I'll check out the Colorado. The GPS is the only thing I'm really worried about and as nominated tour operator I'll be hung drawn and quartered if I get it wrong - mates eh!?
Thanks again
Andy
Thanks again
Andy
It's funny..... just reading this thread again has given me the taste again...... I'll be looking in the garage tonight to see which bike is ready!
Timpo.
Timpo.
It's funny..... just reading this thread again has given me the taste again...... I'll be looking in the garage tonight to see which bike is ready!
Timpo.
Me too! Perhaps next May for me as that was such a lovely time of year...Hmmmm 640KTM or Rallye bike? XC for you surely?
SkyGod
What Tyre pressure you running
I fancy that on the HP. 
ide be up for it on an xc
dommidave
Guest
trip
hi tim,
great trip you did there, i am thinking of doing it next year, could you please advise me of the coordinates you used, and if you did it again what month would you consider to be the best to do it in?
thanks,
dave
hi tim,
great trip you did there, i am thinking of doing it next year, could you please advise me of the coordinates you used, and if you did it again what month would you consider to be the best to do it in?
thanks,
dave
merlings1200
Registered user
Hi Tim
I would like to join you for this trip if possible
XC RALLYBIKE FOR ME
Regards
Mark
I would like to join you for this trip if possible
XC RALLYBIKE FOR ME
Regards
Mark
Buttso
Registered user
as always.. great report Tim.. you do get to the most interesting places.. 
I did a bit of looking around and found a link on advrider for a gpx file that has all waypoints for portugal off roading stuff..
I converted it to gpb, so mapsource would open it and it all looks good.
let me know if anyone wants it...
I did a bit of looking around and found a link on advrider for a gpx file that has all waypoints for portugal off roading stuff..
I converted it to gpb, so mapsource would open it and it all looks good.
let me know if anyone wants it...
Me too! Perhaps next May for me as that was such a lovely time of year...Hmmmm 640KTM or Rallye bike? XC for you surely?
Like the sound of it
north to south
Is anyone interested in doing this trip again next year, I just keep coming back to this report . after riding in Spain it seems the next adventure to have. How much road work was there would a wr450 cope with it ?cheers
Is anyone interested in doing this trip again next year, I just keep coming back to this report . after riding in Spain it seems the next adventure to have. How much road work was there would a wr450 cope with it ?cheers
Sorry Pete I missed your previous post.
The route we took went from NE to SW had very little roadwork although involved a lot of roadwork just to get back up to Santander via the Picos, but I believe there's a similar route which runs NW to SE which means a much longer figure of eight or just a big loop in the north.
So I would say yes the WR would be great although fuel range may be an issue, it's just a matter of strapping your luggage securely.
dommidave
Guest
hi halfpint,
myself and probably a couple of others are up for doing this trip next year, maybe we can sort something out? dave
a little ride
I would like to do this trip next year if we can sort the route, take bikes down in the van park up and go. may seems good time to go? May need to find more details and who s up for this. any input wecome.
I would like to do this trip next year if we can sort the route, take bikes down in the van park up and go. may seems good time to go? May need to find more details and who s up for this. any input wecome.
i'd be up for it,
looking at planning a trip somewhere, was thinking France!!
I ride a wr450f, was thinking of getting a 600 for something like this though!
Elliott
TTAlmeida
Registered user
Can I join?
Any month is good to come and visit my country but the weather is much better from April to September!
If any help/sugestions needed just ask!
Any month is good to come and visit my country but the weather is much better from April to September!
If any help/sugestions needed just ask!
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