When you tossers were much younger…

[JohnnyBoxer]

it was

half a life time and we are old!

Very true

 

[jetjock]

A Michelin map , passport , travellers cheques and posh English accent to ask the way old chap .

 

[Micky]

Just winged it .... first foreign trip, six countries, six border crossings and six currencies. Michelin map, Piece of paper in the tank bag with the next town, road designation and that would be about it. An old Silva Compass for when the sun wasn't shining.
Broke down in Germany on the R100RS but no recovery.
The gearbox stuck in second gear, a common fault, the return spring on the gear change broke
Limped in to a BMW dealership just north of Munich. "Kaputt" I said as I wiggled the gear lever. "Kaputt" the dealer said as he wiggled the gear lever.
Wheeled it in to his garage and commenced work. Called me in, gearbox out and stripped down ... all parts laid out on a clean sheet on a workbench. The return spring is buried deep in the gearbox ...

Soon back on the road about a hundred quid lighter. (Dm then) and had recovery ever since

As we found out when Sue broke down in Mongolia and on another trip when a car turned right in to her and she suffered a compound fracture of the upper arm .... there's nothing that cant be fixed out there

 

[ChasF]

Years ago, long before the internet, digital cameras or personal gps we rode from Devon down to Cape Town and beyond. Very little planning - mostly relied on speaking to other travellers.

Read all about it (wifey’s version):

The Back Of His Head: 20,000 Miles Through Africa As A Pillion Rider : Fleming, Audrey: Amazon.fr: Books

The Back Of His Head: 20,000 Miles Through Africa As A Pillion Rider : Fleming, Audrey: Amazon.fr: Books

www.amazon.fr

 

[G&T]

Knocked on a hotel door... asked ,”If there was room in the Inn.” This strategy has worked for thousands of years.

 

[EVskiy]

Years ago, long before the internet, digital cameras or personal gps we rode from Devon down to Cape Town and beyond. Very little planning - mostly relied on speaking to other travellers.

Read all about it (wifey’s version):

The Back Of His Head: 20,000 Miles Through Africa As A Pillion Rider : Fleming, Audrey: Amazon.fr: Books

The Back Of His Head: 20,000 Miles Through Africa As A Pillion Rider : Fleming, Audrey: Amazon.fr: Books

www.amazon.fr

Nice one! Thank you for sharing…

 

[EVskiy]

Knocked on a hotel door... asked ,”If there was room in the Inn.” This strategy has worked for thousands of years.

It definitely has, but surely you must’ve had days where you have knocked on the door and the answer was “no” on multiple occasions, until not was so late, you have ended up sleeping on a park bench? In some instances no doubt, you would have been lucky but also the only guest in the hotel. I can sense you having a story to tell…

 

[Doc]

Map route taped to the tank and money and fingers crossed
Although usually there was a big group of us as we did a lot of bike rallies.

 

[Fireflyer]

It definitely has, but surely you must’ve had days where you have knocked on the door and the answer was “no” on multiple occasions, until not was so late, you have ended up sleeping on a park bench? In some instances no doubt, you would have been lucky but also the only guest in the hotel. I can sense you having a story to tell…

Only ever had one time when I struggled to find a bed and it was of our own doing.
I took a couple of mates along through the usual group of European countries as neither had been abroad on bikes before.

After one particularly long hot day they both got a bit too settled in a cafe bar late afternoon which turned into late evening before they agreed to go in search of rooms.
We were in a pretty remote area on the French-Spanish border with not many tourist facilities about and our late efforts to seek out accommodation meant the few options local were all closed or now fully booked.

With me at the front we rode through quite a few villages and small towns and with the clock now approaching midnight and nothing coming into view my mate kept flashing his lights and gesticulating (no intercom in those days ) every time we sailed through said villages for about an hour without stopping.

Eventually I stopped to have a chat about what to do and he was most upset that I had not been stopping to enquire at all the places he had seen in nearly every village we had passed through. Confused I asked him what he was talking about as I hadn’t seen any signs for any sort of accommodation at all.

“What about all those hotels that must be a part of a big chain in these parts”. Further puzzled, I asked him what chain as I couldn’t remember seeing anything at all.

“How could you miss them” says he “they’ve all got flags hanging outside and bloody big signs saying HOTEL DE VILLE !!”

Despite not being able to ride for at least 10 mins whilst I laughed uncontrollably we did find a place but they vowed to sort the accommodation before evening apéritif’s for the rest of the tour

 

[snelly]

Map, sheet of paper, pencil, a Michelin red book of hotels and their associated green (cultural) guide.

A smattering of assorted local currencies, no travel or breakdown insurance, some degree of currency control from the UK, sometimes some travellers’ cheques (assuming we were flush), tent, ill suited clothing.

I remember phone cards starting (first find a suitable phone box) and my first GPS device, predated Garmin’s mainstream arrival.

Patience at some / many border crossings.

A big sense of humour.

Using the old Russian space pen;

 

[Moto Bikemad]

The more than adequate Mrs sat on the back of the 1150 with the map on her knee. I could feel it being oriented as we went down the road.
At a junction a poke in the ribs in the direction to go.
Any time she had a question a tap on the shoulder and I popped open the front of the lid and leaned back.
Nothing said for hours just tapping and pointing.
Just the road and back seat navigation.

 

[Santa-2512]

First UK trip on a 125,

looked at map on computer Portsmouth - Worcestershire

had to use all A / B roads so started with every main road to a major town and went from there

I think the only place i got lost was around GCHQ, but using a map and roadsigns found my way there

And got back the same day

No Map, No RAC, Just money, map & tabs

First Erop trip

2 weeks of Satnav planning , a 2nd backup nav, Mobile phone and off i went

just followed the nav slavishly to the town, then an hour or so of wrong turns , up mountains (hills) u turns before arriving at your destination

 

[G&T]

It definitely has, but surely you must’ve had days where you have knocked on the door and the answer was “no” on multiple occasions, until not was so late, you have ended up sleeping on a park bench? In some instances no doubt, you would have been lucky but also the only guest in the hotel. I can sense you having a story to tell…

Well, if I ended up in a stable, I’d hope three wise men bearing gifts were on their way - just sayin’.

 

[leadfarmer]

First hint of “touring” was scooter rallies back in the 80s, didn’t even take a map with us, just had a look at what roads we needed to take and the major towns on the way then just followed sign posts
I have some good stories but I won’t digress

Started touring in Europe when we moved here in ‘98, kinda did the same thing until I got a GPS in 2013, probably took a map though cos wifey is smarter than me

 

[Berin]

Sam as many of the above. Pre cash point, so cash and travellers cheques. No visas needed for anywhere we could ride to, just a British passport. Maps, an idea of what we wanted to see gleaned from mates, travel guides, Sunday papers, and in my case I wanted to visit some of the places in the old East bloc that my dad worked in in the 60’s and 70’s.

Accommodation was in some ways easier. Many towns had a tourist information centre where you could pop in and they’d ring around and find you somewhere.
Look for the signs saying Rooms, Zimmer, etc and knock on the door - if they were full they’d usually know somewhere and ring them for you.

In some towns we’d go to the town square and there’d be people selling rooms, agree a price and all sorted.

Guide books, Michelin guides, and local knowledge- riding a British plated bike into town local bikers would stop us and ask if we needed accommodation.

We never slept on a park bench. The closest was in Morocco where we’d been misdirected by some weaselly Frenchies, and we ended up in Ahmed’s front room well after dark, up somewhere in the high atlas.

 

[Wapping]

Many of these posts probably relate to the mid-to-late 70’s through to the mid-90’s. That is between 30 and 50 years ago. I wonder what someone asking the same question in 2056 or 2076 will make of travel in 2026?

Maybe the question most asked will be: “Me and my six mates, are off to Mars, leaving Thursday. We want direct route, none of the moon base stuff first….”

 

[Berin]

Without stating the obvious we are now, as pointed out by Wapping, older. A lot older.

Expectations change. In my 20’s I could easily live for weeks out of the Head sports bag strapped to the back of a Gixxer 1100, and sleep in a sweaty flea pit of a shared room with sweaty foreigners. Riding till late evening and having a stale sandwich for tea was no big deal. The bike was often just parked on the road outside. I had no thoughts of what would happen if the bike broke down because it simply didn’t occur to me.

Now, I really want to be off the road by 5pm, into a nice hotel with a nice shower and a restaurant offering a selection of local produce, freshly cooked and with a decent wine list.

Preferably the room should have aircon, a sofa, and nice views, the hotel should look pretty and not be a square box. A bit of nice art or interesting objet’s is also good.

The bike or car should be parked securely somewhere so as to be inaccessible to scrotes.

The trip will have an objective of some sort, like last year when we visited the Knight Templar sites in Spain.

None of this lends itself to winging it, but then we do have far more tools available to us to help with that.

 

[LOLGEOFF]

Many of these posts probably relate to the mid-to-late 70’s through to the mid-90’s. That is between 30 and 50 years ago. I wonder what someone asking the same question in 2056 or 2076 will make of travel in 2026?

Maybe the question most asked will be: “Me and my six mates, are off to Mars, leaving Thursday. We want direct route, none of the moon base stuff first….”

Or "What should I do with all my old navigation equipment now all unauthorised movements have been banned?"

 

[EVskiy]

Only ever had one time when I struggled to find a bed and it was of our own doing.
I took a couple of mates along through the usual group of European countries as neither had been abroad on bikes before.

After one particularly long hot day they both got a bit too settled in a cafe bar late afternoon which turned into late evening before they agreed to go in search of rooms.
We were in a pretty remote area on the French-Spanish border with not many tourist facilities about and our late efforts to seek out accommodation meant the few options local were all closed or now fully booked.

With me at the front we rode through quite a few villages and small towns and with the clock now approaching midnight and nothing coming into view my mate kept flashing his lights and gesticulating (no intercom in those days ) every time we sailed through said villages for about an hour without stopping.

Eventually I stopped to have a chat about what to do and he was most upset that I had not been stopping to enquire at all the places he had seen in nearly every village we had passed through. Confused I asked him what he was talking about as I hadn’t seen any signs for any sort of accommodation at all.

“What about all those hotels that must be a part of a big chain in these parts”. Further puzzled, I asked him what chain as I couldn’t remember seeing anything at all.

“How could you miss them” says he “they’ve all got flags hanging outside and bloody big signs saying HOTEL DE VILLE !!”

Despite not being able to ride for at least 10 mins whilst I laughed uncontrollably we did find a place but they vowed to sort the accommodation before evening apéritif’s for the rest of the tour

I"ve made same mistake with Arsey last year, thinking it was indeed a hotel, until he put me right.

 

[EVskiy]

The more than adequate Mrs sat on the back of the 1150 with the map on her knee. I could feel it being oriented as we went down the road.
At a junction a poke in the ribs in the direction to go.
Any time she had a question a tap on the shoulder and I popped open the front of the lid and leaned back.
Nothing said for hours just tapping and pointing.
Just the road and back seat navigation.

Like that!