BRITTOUR 2001: REMARKS

The AMA UK/Isle of Man Tour (25 Aug - 6 Sep)

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I have a few observations and recommendations for anyone going to the UK or one of the AMA tours.

The tour may be expensive, but you're in good hands and the extra cost gives you plenty of comfort of mind about spending time in a strange country (well, not as strange as Mississippi but ...). If the other guides are half as good as BruceandBrenda (they are a package deal, or should be), you're in good hands. We saw this when Ned and Patty crashed and when I broke down (twice).

Consider renting a mobile phone from someone in the country you're visiting. I was lucky when I broke down - each time I was able to get to a pay phone. Check out Mobell or Planet Fone - they have phones you could rent for the duration of your trip. I've suggested to Frank Covucci, the boss of AMA Tours, that future tours consider getting phones for everyone on the tour - Mobell offers group discounts.

Make photocopies of your passport and driver license and jot down the numbers of your travel checks, then put them someplace other than the originals. If you lose the originals, getting replacements will be a lot easier with the copies/numbers.

What about the bike you ride?

Rent a USEFUL bike, not one you would necessarily like to have. I have a Wing and a Honda Pacific Coast. Riding one-up on what I presumed would be narrow roads/streets, I decided I wanted something light and nimble like the PC, not a bus like a Wing. Sure, the Wing has more comforts for touring, but I really appreciated the narrow footprint and agility of the ZR-7. I didn't like that bike in particular - it was hard to turn the key in the ignition and very hard to shift to 4th or 5th gears, and the pipe was high, but a mid-sized bike was the right choice for the UK. Also, a crotch rocket might sound like fun, but mate, do you want to spend two weeks in that position? I went with the upright seating position of a Universal Japanese M/C (UJM) precisely because I could vary my riding position. I just wish it had highway pegs so I could stretch out my legs on the longer rides.

Hard but removable luggage would have been better than the soft stuff I had. Never felt comfortable leaving the bike with soft luggage on it, for anyone to poke in. HGB was good at supplying the bags - I got a cavernous pair of saddlebags (panniers, as they call 'em) and a large tank bag (but it was held to the tank by magnets and I think it messed up my music cassettes - demagnetized them, 'cause a number of tapes suddenly went bad on me). Ideally, I think in the future I want hard bags and a trunk and a tank bag with a shoulder strap so it could be carried when I was away from the bike. HGB's bag had a strap.

A fairing or at least a windscreen is a good addition - really makes riding a lot easier when you've got to go 100 miles in a high wind or driving rain. I had a wind screen and would have welcomed a fairing, even something like a BMW K bike fairing, to protect my legs.

Finally, I brought along a "wrist rest" - a small plastic thing that you put on the throttle. It has an inch-wide flat piece of plastic on which you can rest your palm to hold a constant speed. That way you can spend all day in the saddle and not get carpal tunnel syndrome from holding the throttle open all day. Course, it isn't used in heavy traffic or on twisty roads, but for the long boring stretches, it's a great way to kick back and relax while riding.

Money. I took $1,000 in travel checks and used about $400. I was able to charge almost everything on my Shell Master Card (with that, every purchase gives you 1 percent credit toward Shell gas; 3 percent if you buy Shell gas, which I did in the UK). Often, if I bought something for less than £10, a store would often charge me £10 and give me change, so I would get more cash without cashing a check or hitting an ATM. HOWEVER!!! When I got my credit card statement back home, I found out that Shell (Chase is the bank) charged me an extra fee for a "foreign transaction"!!!! I had convenience, but at an extra cost. Check with your credit card company before you go and ask if they charge a fee for using it overseas. Shell didn't do that when I went to Australia in '99. As for cashing a check, the common cost seemed to be about £3 regardless of the amount of checks cashed, so if you cash checks, cash a bunch at once.

When you get to a town, especially on the UK tour but elsewhere, too, I suspect, look for a local tourist information office and see if they have local maps. I got some great maps of local areas and roads which I used when I went exploring. They had a lot more detail than the United Kingdom map I had and information about touristy things in the area.

Pack light. Just plan to wash while on the tour. If you find something you want to take home and it's bigger than a ham sandwich, ship it home or someplace where you can pick it up on your way out of the country.

As Clint Eastwood once said in one of his movies, "A man's gotta know his limitations". I chose to not ride with the herd because I assumed they would not want to stop when I did and would not ride as I would prefer to ride. I saw this the one time I tried to keep up with BruceandBrenda. They hit the corners and hoof and mouth mats a lot faster than I would have done and they soon lost me in the dust. If I had pushed the envelope to keep up with them, I'd have been riding beyond my "comfort"/risk zone and might have increased the chances of having an accident. Also, I wouldn't have been able to stop and take all the neat photos you see here. But if you ARE a good high speed rider, or get lost easily, you might be better off with the herd. The guides will show you great roads and stuff they've seen many times before. It's a trade-off. I rode at a speed that was comfortable to me and allowed me to see the country and the maps and info I got from the tourist offices told me what to check out, so I was happy to ride alone. I was LUCKY my breakdowns were not far from phones, because HGB was first rate at helping me. I would have been no better off riding with the herd.

Remember, your objective is to enjoy yourself. Don't push yourself, don't take chances, and you'll have a great time and have some yarns to tell your new riding friends as you decompress in a pub at the end of the day.