Why not Hire a GS on the Med?

[Betty Swollocks]

I am just back from a 12 day trip to the Med. the perfect holiday if I might say so. My wife and her sister headed over to Barcelona last week with the kids, but myself and her sister's husband, Colin, had a head start of about 5 days. We spent a night in Barcelona, before being picked up at the hotel by Mike, a Scot, who is the owner of www.motoespana.com
We did the paperwork and headed off on our two hired 1200GSs for 9 days. Both had a brand new back tyre and I was warned mine had new rear pads as well.


A nice day in the lower Pyrenees, ending up in Carcassone. Day two, we bimbled through the Frence countryside, being gentle on the bikes, as they didnt belong to us




We ended up in Frejus, where we spent the night camped out on the deck of a friend's eurocamp caravan site.... after a few well earned beers.

Did the coastal tour, ending up in Cannes next morning. It began to rain as we entered the town limits of Cannes and chucked on us as we had lunch then headed for the Pass de Napoleon. What a magnificent introduction to the Alps! We did it and ended up in Grenoble.... what a hole. Ended up dining in Mc Donalds before retiring to a motorway cheapie hotel.

Next morn it was a few more mountain passes. we ended up in Italy by mistake, after following a detour somewhere near Mont Blanc.



Had lunce in sissa , sassa or something similar, before blasting back the way we intended to go in the first place. Another pass, and dropped down to Val D'Isere. Not a single hotel opened we found, as it was betweem the winter and summer seasons, when they varnish the buildings or something!
Ended up in St Maurice or something similar.

Next morn, tagged a follow with a couple of English BMs who were heading for the Petit St Bernard pass, with a Sat Nav which actually worked. (Our free rental Garmin Quest had base maps only.) They guys were doing the 55kph Miss Daisy thing, so we headed off and did the pass at our own pace, remembering the bikes were hired and not ours to abuse!

before stopping at the bottom of the Italian, Grand St Bernard pass. Lunch worked out a bit expensive, as I cracked a tooth, which I found out today will cost £330 to get replaced with a crown.

 

[Betty Swollocks]

The Big St Bernard Pass was great, taking us over the Swiss border,



The temp picked up and the only reading we got for the day was 37 degrees at 4.30 as we passes through a swiss village. We headed into Santa Maria De Maggario, where we picked up a couple of rooms in a 3 star hotel for 35 euro each. The food was excellent and the wine and beer as well.
On our way to the Italian Lakes we had a couple of highs



As we did lake Maggario, and arrived at Lake Lecco at 5.30pm I realised I wasnt imagining the heat.




We parked up for the night at the 2 star Europa hotel, who provided us with a free beer as we paid in advance with cash. I didnt get much sleep that night as the thunder storm was like nothing I had seen before, it wasnt scary, just well worth staying up half the night to watch.

 

[Betty Swollocks]

Next morning I wondered why my back wheel was a lot dustier than Colin's, and checked on the new pads which were now about 5 days old.
Less than 1mm left on them, they must have been a soft batch, as I think Colin was doing more braking than me.



So. it was a gingerly ride off to Lecco, where I spent a whole 45 minutes in Laurio BMW garage. (35 minutes of that was doing the paperwork in limited English) The labour for fitting the pads was 8.50 euro, I wonder how that compares to our UK prices?



The other GS on the ramp above mine was 2 days old and had just taken a slide down the road. It's owner was in replacing it for a new 1200 Adventure with all the toys!

We then headed off the long way down to view the famous tower, before sunset.



Then it was off to find a hotel for the night.

 

[Betty Swollocks]

Next Morn we headed off about 11, and did the motorway thing all the way to the wives' camp site, just outside Barcelona. about 900kms I reckon. It was a hard slog in terrible heat. 4 fills of fuel and about 40 euro in tolls. For me, it was worth the wait, as the family thought I wasnt arriving till the next afternoon. I met up with Mrs Swollocks and the kids around 10pm



The next day I did about 20kms on the bike, just to explore the town we were in.
Day after that it was returnng the bikes to Mike, an hour or so down the road.
Mike apologised on behalf of BMW for the dodgy brake pads and refunded me my 60 euro for their replacements.
Colin had a battery die in Marseille



muggins here did all he worrying about it at 5pm on a Saturday.
I sourced a replacement, from a Piaggio dealer, whilst Colin and Marc, a local business man who loaned us jump leads to help diagnose the problem, lit the barbie and drank beer!

 

[Betty Swollocks]

All in all it was the trip of a lifetime. Well worth the £70 flight to Barcelona and the 850 euro rental of a bike. We didnt have to worry about the price of ferries, losing 4 days getting to and from the Med, price of a bike service, as we racked up 4000 kms in around 7 days. We saw some places I really wanted to see



And got to abuse someone else's bike




I will definately be back again. I apologise for any spelling mistakes to place names.

I can definately point anyone interested, towards Mike at www.motoespana.com a top bloke, offering a top service!

Of course, you can always finish off as I did, with a few days with the family, having a normal holiday before heading home..... keeps the Wife happy as well!

 

[Thunder]

Excellent report and great pictures

 

[GS TRV]

Def sounds like a good plan

abusing someone else's bike is always fun

 

[Sleepy]

£115 a day....

...and it's only a 1200...

 

[Betty Swollocks]

£115 a day....

...and it's only a 1200...

115 Euro a day..... and I have still got my SE Adventure 1150 to compare it to..........

 

[Sleepy]

115 Euro a day..... and I have still got my SE Adventure 1150 to compare it to..........

170 euros a day.. about £115..

 

[Betty Swollocks]

170 euros a day.. about £115..

OK Sleepy, of course you are right, £115 a day.

I have the receipt in front of me, it was 855 euro for 9 days, 95 euro a day, working out at £67.85 a day, with a free Garmin thrown in.

It's a one man operation and he discounted the price (without being asked) as we took two bikes.

But I guess it was a special price for the Irish customers...... him being a Scot and all that!

 

[de crowe]

Great Report.
I hired a spanking new GS from Hertz in Malaga, working out at about €100 per day wihtout the luggage or the garmin. I brought a touratech bags as my carry on luggage and strapped it straight onto the back of the gs. I spent five days exploring Seville, Cordoba, Granada, Malaga, and more importantly the mountains in between including some fantastic tracks.While the rental for the bike is expensive relative to a car, and the fcuk wits at the rental depot hardly know which end of the bike is up, I think it is a great facility when you dont have the time to drive down to spain particularly the south of spain and back, particularly coming from Ireland. You are specifically excluded from travelling to morocco, i did ask, but that did not trouble me with the few days that I had. A ryanair flight to barcleona and a few days on a bike there sounds like a plan for a long weekend in October.

 

[Betty Swollocks]

Yeah De Crowe, I saw a 1200RT at Hertz in Barcelona as I was leaving the hire car back on Tuesday. They couldnt give us a price for it at the desk and told us to ring a specific number. (As you said, didnt know one end of a bike from another)
Worked out at 110euro for a RT and 88euro for a 1200GS. 300kms a day.
I dont know if it included luggage though. The advantage of that would be collection and return from the airport, saving time mucking about, (although Mike in motoespana does collect and return you from airport or hotel free of charge).