How to ride a motorcycle in Spain: 3,387km in a heatwave

Who on earth thought it was a good idea to ride a cheap Chinese motorcycle, on my own, through France and Spain in a mid-summer heatwave?
This vlog covers great roads in Spain, places to stay, the best motorcycle riding kit to wear in hot weather, and tips and advice for riding in Spain. It's your motorcycle travel advice guide for Spain. While I'd have loved to have done this motorcycle tour on my BMW R1250GS, that would have been too easy, so I took the Zontes ZT350-T that I bought for £4,000, despite the engine light coming on, it hesitating and stalling, and me just not trusting it.

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Chapters:
00:00 Day 1: Home to Portsmouth
00:38 Taking the ferry to Saint Malo
01:51 Day 2: Saint Malo to Porcheresse
06:13 Day 3 Porcheresse to Pamplona (N135 - best motorcycle road ever?)
07:21 A closer look at the Chinese Zontes ZT350-T
12:21 N135… The best motorcycle road?
16:07 Day 4: Pamplona to Cuenca
16:36 My best motorcycle kit for riding in hot weather
23:01 More of the best roads in Spain
24:51 Day 5: Cuenca to Benalmádena
26:02 Day 8: Benalmádena to Toledo
28:05 Day 9 Toledo to Aguilar de Campoo
29:00 Day 10 Aguilar de Campoo to Santander
33:35 The best way to get to Spain on a motorcycle
35:16 12 tips for riding a motorcycle in Spain

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[nathan]

Really appreciate this series, im so sick of "bike reviews" that are really just long adverts with everyone saying that every bike is amazing. Its great to see a brutally honest long term review

[marcos]

As a Spanish, advice:
-Dont come here in July or August, is just too hot
- If you want to come in July or August, visit only the north, is not as warm as the rest of Spain
- If you still want to ride in the half south, try to ride very early on the morning and try to take montain roads (it wornt be as warm)

[petervisi]

Thank you John for your selflessness to go through that journey and pushed the bike (and yourself) to the limits to show us how it performs. You're a legend.

[barnbersonol]

As soon as any gadget exists, we suddenly can't live without it and, like, nobody goes anywhere without their tomtom. I went from Calais to Marseillan Plage using a photocopied page from an atlas to navigate south from major town to major town and didn't even use that coming back up. It'd be far more useful (and zero cost) prep to learn French or Spanish over the winter than fork out on gadgets.
Not having a go cuz each to their own, but you and other riders who lavish an absolute bomb on these trips seem a bit detached from the elemental fun of motorbikes.
I haven't been away since 2019 due to work/family/money/enertia based on the three previous reasons but this vid's properly incentivised me to do it next year. Current bike is a cbf250, me having gone full circle via all the 600cc+ and back to where I started!
Thanks for the vid, been a good watch.

[davidcolin]

I'm pretty sure that Zontes sells large numbers of machines here in Spain, so you'd probably have no problem with spares.
And the reason why Spain is so welcoming to biukes is that most middle-aged people rode when they were young. I must know 60 or 70 people who are 40 years old or older, and I can only think of one who hasn't had a bike. It should come as no surprise rthat Spain has 4 rounds on the MotoGP Calendar, and they ALL get attendances of over 100, 000.

[motechRevolution]

Spain is one of the best countries in Europe to ride, I live in Murcia and we are still in a long drought. Me and my wife have ridden all summer about 5k in total but July and August can be brutal. We see 40c plus regularly inland so morning riding is a must. But with 320 days of sunshine it's no wonder they call Murcia the California of Europe. We tend to think of July and August in similar terms to the UK winter. Not ideal riding weather. The other 10 months is perfect., ☀️🌞

[nickthequick]

Spain is probably the very best motorcycling country in the world! North, South, East or West, it doesn't matter where but if you like having the roads to yourself the eastern part - inland from the coast - is the most sparsely populated in Europe.

Done loads of riding there during the hottest months and I love it. Just one thing: don't put sun protection on your forehead before you ride out, it will completely blind you in a nasty way when you start sweating.

[andyw]

Riding in Spain is a dream - and I recognised the scenery of the Serenia de Cuenca, my favourite place for riding. I loved your video, thank you for posting it.

[istanbulianb]

Good man.

Spain is a riders paradise. Lovely, empty roads and great economical places to eat. I had always avoided Spain due to a snobbish elisitm against the likes of Bendorm but was blown away by the reality of Spain away from the Costa Blanca. Your report capture the highs & lows of lon journeys; strangely the "lows" and unplanned incidents stick in the memory more and recovering from the unplanned incidents really makes the journry. Just do it.

PS: The Parador at Toledo is expensive but the view of the city from there is sublime.

[captbarb]

We've just returned from a 2000+ mile trip to Spain and Portugal (last two weeks of August). Agree that its really too hot. But we spent most of our time in the mountains in the north taking the back roads. Scenery is stunning. We were riding a 20+ year old Aprilia Caponord two up with paniers and top box. Lovely to ride, eats the miles up, a big bike but handles the switch backs well enough. Importantly my partner finds it more comfortable than the other big adventure bikes we've tried even with her dodgy hip, we usually need to stop every two hours for a drink and a pee long before she's uncomfortable. Agree get the ferry to Bilbao or Santander. Done the ride through France before and wouldn't bother again. Food is lovely. Try the Hotel Rurals for accommodation - some lovely interesting places to stay with character.

[Nell]

Been riding to Spain since mid 1990's, so agree July & Aug can be far too hot in Spain, ive found the best months for riding are March-May & Sept-Nov, if you travel earlier & later than those dates you may find out what the stripey poles alongside the roads are for in the hills & on higher ground 🌨️ Portsmouth Bibao or Santander are the best crossings, assuming theres no bad weather in the Bay of Biscay 😮 Beats all those French speed cameras, fuel bills & unwelcome overnight stopovers. Travel overland & stop in the many villages & eat & drink well with the locals 👌

[PaulJackson-wm]

Thanks for the honest review John.I guess you like a challenge!glad you saw it thru till the end.

[ca]

Great to see how many people love Spain for bike tours/trips. It really is this good and even more when you know where and how to go. I also great to see how many spaniards are here offering help.You could plan to ride for weeks non stop and not touch a freeway for a mile, millions of curves and breathtaking views. Never hesitate to ask for help, a little humbelness and good will takes you to the end of the world. The biking community is top, and this is a top channel.

[RocketMan_Moto]

Very entertaining video. You’re a braver man than I😊

[openroadadventure]

just completed, spain france italy coast to amalfi dubrovnic croatia bosnia herzegovina Slovakia back in italy switzwerland germany holland belguim back to scotland, ,, all on a solo trip f850gsa over 5 weeks, loved it temp reached mid 40 degrees, cant wait for next year.

[FRANCOTORO]

Love your videos and this one is exceptional. Thanks for what you do for the biking community

[drdoolittle]

Blimey John, I've been awaiting this vlog for ages and wow, what a stunner! Trouble is, when is the next block buster, i cannot wait? Very glad all back in one piece!

[barnbersonol]

I went to Marseillan Plage on a Honda rs250 in 1988. Back then you could turn up on spec at Calais and board a ferry for about a tenner.

[nigelwyatt]

What a fantastic entertaining video John. On the ferry to Santander on 13th September for two weeks around northern Spain with the highlight being a couple of nights at the restored Canfranc station hotel. Thanks for the advice.