Road closed to motorcyclists east of Bouillon - N865 between Douhan and Mortehan

[J biker]

Was planning to ride this road next week. Just changed my route to avoid, thanks to a tip from a local.

COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT IN THE ARDENNES: ARE MOTORCYCLISTS BEING DECLARED OUTLAWS? - KGL Racing blog

Motorcyclists banned from the N865 between Dohan and Mortehan. Why the motorcycle is being scapegoated and why this collective punishment must stop.

blog.kglracing.com

Also, had planned to stay in Bouillon on my return leg.
But sod ‘em. Will divert, to somewhere else that is motorcycle friendly.

As per the link, very much an over reach, treating motorcyclists unfairly, based on a few riders. As ever, boy racers in their jazzed up Porsche and BMW. Pas de problem !

======

Edited the title to give bods a better idea of the road in question.

Richard

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

Was planning to ride this road next week. Just changed my route to avoid, thanks to a tip from a local.

COLLECTIVE PUNISHMENT IN THE ARDENNES: ARE MOTORCYCLISTS BEING DECLARED OUTLAWS? - KGL Racing blog

Motorcyclists banned from the N865 between Dohan and Mortehan. Why the motorcycle is being scapegoated and why this collective punishment must stop.

blog.kglracing.com

Also, had planned to stay in Bouillon on my return leg.
But sod ‘em. Will divert, to somewhere else that is motorcycle friendly.

As per the link, very much an over reach, treating motorcyclists unfairly, based on a few riders. As ever, boy racers in their jazzed up Porsche and BMW. Pas de problem !

It’s spreading
Soon bikes will be banned from lots of scenic areas in Europe
Noise pollution
Irresponsible riding
Speeding
Crashes

 

[KMD]

It’s spreading
Soon bikes will be banned from lots of scenic areas in Europe
Noise pollution
Irresponsible riding
Speeding
Crashes

B500 on a weekend apparently.

 

[JohnnyBoxer]

B500 on a weekend apparently.

We’re gonna find out next week

 

[Wapping]

The five and a quarter miles of road closure:

In other news: The roads in Belgium are shit, full of potholes and covered with leaves. Bouillon is shit and closed. We read it here. Go to France instead. They love motorcycles and motorcyclists in France and always pull over to let you hoon past.

 

[Wapping]

As an alternative, do the Adventure (with a capital A) thing and look for an alternative. It means looking at a map (That’s well hard, mate) and using a bit of imagination.

Yes, it’ll add about nine miles to your journey and, yes, the cross country roads aren’t green bordered, but hey-ho. They look OK, even if they are not as race track smooth as the N865. You’ll doubtless not die on your awesome Adventure steed.




Just think, you’ll possibly be using roads nobody else uses. It’s what this forum says that everyone should do.

 

[Santa-2512]

And how are they y closing the road?

The article said no noise checks, speed checks

so is Bert in a booth going to man a barrier 24hrs a day

Just say No (Roland) !

 

[Wapping]

And how are they y closing the road?

They have trained mice to enforce the ban. It has cost millions.

 

[Sneldog]

The five and a quarter miles of road closure:

View attachment 505249

In other news: The roads in Belgium are shit, full of potholes and covered with leaves. Bouillon is shit and closed. We read it here. Go to France instead. They love motorcycles and motorcyclists in France and always pull over to let you hoon past.

Your replies of this nature are baffling. I’ve met you and you seem to be a decent chap, so these sardonic posts are either some sort of in-joke or a recurring misjudgment perhaps? It could be me of course - maybe I just don’t grasp the funny side of these smug, sarcastic, thinly veiled jibes?

You’re very helpful when it comes to route planning and local knowledge, invaluable even, so why do you insist on regularly crafting posts like this one that make you seem like a bit of a twat?

 

[J biker]

The five and a quarter miles of road closure:

View attachment 505249

In other news: The roads in Belgium are shit, full of potholes and covered with leaves. Bouillon is shit and closed. We read it here. Go to France instead. They love motorcycles and motorcyclists in France and always pull over to let you hoon past.

Yep.
That is the very small section of road that is closed. Shame it was exactly in the middle of my route. Now modified. Was on my return leg too. With the plan to stay at Bouillon.
Yes. I could divert. I have. I now miss out Bouillon both ways. I suppose they will not notice 3-4 motorcyclists less eating and drinking there for one evening…
Great area. There are some great roads. We will be on different ones now.

Really just allowing folks the chance to re-route by highlighting the closure.

 

[Wapping]

Your replies of this nature are baffling. I’ve met you and you seem to be a decent chap, so these sardonic posts are either some sort of in-joke or a recurring misjudgment perhaps? It could be me of course - maybe I just don’t grasp the funny side of these smug, sarcastic, thinly veiled jibes?

You’re very helpful when it comes to route planning and local knowledge, invaluable even, so why do you insist on regularly crafting posts like this one that make you seem like a bit of a twat?

The road closure is not the end of the world, despite the overly hand wringing words of the linked article. Create an opportunity to do something different. We see the same advice continuously on the B500 threads.

 

[brut33]

As an alternative, do the Adventure (with a capital A) thing and look for an alternative. It means looking at a map (That’s well hard, mate) and using a bit of imagination.

Steady on, talk like this could tip some over the edge.

 

[Wapping]

Yep.
That is the very small section of road that is closed. Shame it was exactly in the middle of my route. Now modified. Was on my return leg too. With the plan to stay at Bouillon.
Yes. I could divert. I have. I now miss out Bouillon both ways. I suppose they will not notice 3-4 motorcyclists less eating and drinking there for one evening…
Great area. There are some great roads. We will be on different ones now.

Really just allowing folks the chance to re-route by highlighting the closure.

Your highlighting of the closure was indeed useful and timely. I’ve taken the liberty of amending the thread’s title a little. Not least, the whole road (not just the closed section) is yellow and lined green…. The ultimate and possibly only guide to motorcycling heaven, as we read here so often.

Whether the hotels, restaurants and shops of Bouillon suffer from the closure and object to it, remains to be seen. The town has certainly been a very popular stop-off point for motorcyclists and tourists of all sorts and, not least, actively recommended on these pages. That said, a post from last year, I think, said that the town had gone into a natural decline and should now be avoided.

Who knows, maybe the closure to motorbikes came, in part, from local residents and businesses, coupled to ‘political’ pressure from ‘Green’ parties (that’s possibly a spin off from proportional representation for you) and / or the police / emergency services, fed up with scraping up the pieces? There has certainly been a marked shift in regions (not just in Belgium) away from actively promoting motorcycling, replacing it with the financially lucrative promotion of walking, ‘wellness’ and bicycling…. It’s the new world!

 

[J biker]

Shame. One of the hotels next to the river was perfect for bikers, with ample enclosed secure parking. Last there around eight years ago..

 

[Sneldog]

The road closure is not the end of the world, despite the overly hand wringing words of the linked article. Create an opportunity to do something different. We see the same advice continuously on the B500 threads.

That’s a perfectly reasonable response but I wasn’t replying relative to the route.

It seems you’re deliberately missing my point. I’ll reiterate - your habit of sprinkling your posts with barely disguised digs at your fellow motorcyclists is, in my view, pretty pathetic.

I have no idea what compels you to do this and guess it must be because it can be done through a forum and that means it’s without consequence? Because in a face to face situation, insinuating that someone is a bit thick or too lazy to think for themselves is an entirely different proposition. And to be clear, I’m no hypocrite so would be more than happy to say this to you in person.

It’s a shame because your contribution to this forum is really significant for the most part.

 

[Wapping]

Shame. One of the hotels next to the river was perfect for bikers, with ample enclosed secure parking. Last there around eight years ago..

That’s possibly the ‘De la Poste’ hotel, which has been very popular over the years.





That’s my HP4….. a bike that’s impossible to tour on, apparently.

 

[J biker]

Yep.

 

[wessie]

Shame. One of the hotels next to the river was perfect for bikers, with ample enclosed secure parking. Last there around eight years ago..

that hotel hasn't changed much, assuming you mean La Poste.

It's the opposite side of the river that seems to be a bit run down with many closed businesses. The street alongside the river and the cobbled Grand Rue off it.

As for the road closure, it is a few miles from Bouillon itself and not hard to avoid. The concern is that this sets a NIMBY precedent that goes against the promotion of the area as a motorcycling destination by the Wallonia Tourist Office. We have seen it in parts of Germany where the hospitality businesses advertise as catering to motorcyclists but the local residents demand regulation.

 

[Wapping]

There is an ongoing battle between ‘The world as we knew it’ and the new reality.

There is even a misfit on these pages, where bods advocate the joy of staying in quiet (almost silent) locations to ‘chill’ (that dreadful expression) but advocate louder exhausts on their motorcycles in order to get there, along with the hooning that inevitably goes with it. That many of the same bods would ban anyone on a motorcycle looking like this, is of course a given:

 

[Berin]

that hotel hasn't changed much, assuming you mean La Poste.

It's the opposite side of the river that seems to be a bit run down with many closed businesses. The street alongside the river and the cobbled Grand Rue off it.

As for the road closure, it is a few miles from Bouillon itself and not hard to avoid. The concern is that this sets a NIMBY precedent that goes against the promotion of the area as a motorcycling destination by the Wallonia Tourist Office. We have seen it in parts of Germany where the hospitality businesses advertise as catering to motorcyclists but the local residents demand regulation.

And this is the issue. That few km of road on its own is no big deal.

But given that in general governments hate motorcycles then soon it won’t be just that.

Where I live in Oxon the Green/Lib Dem coalition are now working on designating many roads as “quiet lanes”. Now there’s a few already and they didn’t mean much but they are now awarding themselves powers to ban specific vehicles on these roads - which are roads.

The point being, it doesn’t end well.

So how about just a bit of solidarity instead of snideyness.