Checklist - Rental Motorcycle Tour

Once you have booked your rental motorcycle, it is time to prepare your motorcycle trip. Have you heard of the British Army’s 7P’s? It stands for Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Piss Poor Performance. We want you to enjoy every moment of your motorcycle rental. For that reason, we put together a checklist of what to bring on your rental motorcycle tour. Use this checklist not as a definitive breakdown of everything, but more as a guide to prepare yourself for your motorcycle rental experience.

 

1. Paperwork

To ride a rental motorcycle in France, you need to carry the following documents:

  • Passport or ID card
  • Motorcycle driver’s licence. If your driving permit is from outside Europe or outside the USA, you need an international licence
  • Proof of motorcycle insurance

 

2. Luggage space

We recommend traveling light. Most our rental motorcycles come with top and side cases. Please visit our motorcycle luggage page to find out what luggage is available on what bikes. To give you a better idea, we included the motorcycle luggage volume in liters. In comparison, a carry-on airplane bag (50 x 40 x 20 cm) has a volume of 40 liters.

 

3. Motorcycle Gear

Safety comes first. We strongly recommend you ride with all the gear all the time (ATGATT) such as:

  • Motorcycle jacket with shoulder, arm and back protector
  • Motorcycle trousers with protective inserts
  • Motorbike boots and gloves
  • Full-face motorcycle helmet
  • Waterproofs just in case

Please check the weather forecast online and pack accordingly. We are aware that motorcycle gear takes up a lot of space in your luggage. As alternative, customers have sent their motorcycle gear by post to us. We then handover their parcel together with the rental motorcycle.
Unfortunately, we no longer offer motorcycle riding gear. Due to the "excitement of riding our bikes" and more likely the sunny weather of the South of France, the riding gear developed a distinct smell. This made it impossible to rent out and we had to dispose of the gear. An expensive experience. As most customers bring their own riding gear, today we just offer helmets. Should you have left something behind, there are good motorcycle stores in Cannes.

 

4. Routes

The South of France offers amazing motorcycle roads such as our favourite roads around Cannes and Corsica. Navigating with a GPS is convenient. However, we advise you study your route before your trip. Your GPS could fail and without a general notion of where you are, this could become an uncomfortable situation.
If you wish to pre-plan your route on your desktop and then transfer the routes onto our motorcycle GPS, we are happy to help. Just send us your Garmin Basecamp files and we upload them onto our BMW Navigator V. We recommend routes with no more than 300 km (200 miles) per day. Although this might seem little, riding 300 km on twisting roads is plenty. Last but not least, please familiarize yourself with the specific motorcycle riding rules in France. Our Online Riding Guide gives valuable advice.

 

5. Communication

Staying in contact with friends and family while abroad can be expensive with the roaming charges. If you want to avoid roaming charges, you can get a prepaid card in France. We recommend the company Lebara. You can sign-up online and have your SIM card sent to our office in Nice. We then handover your SIM card with the rental motorcycle. Further top-ups are done online. Talking about phones, please make sure to take your charger and adapter. Same goes for any other electronic devices such as your camera or tablet. Plugs in France look like this.

 

6. Fitness

Riding a motorcycle over extended distances can be tiring. Especially, when you are riding on sweeping roads, which are unknown to you. Add jet-lag and you will feel drained in the evenings. To avoid this, we recommend regular physical exercise a couple of weeks before the trip. This will make your motorcycle tour more enjoyable and safer.
Last but not least, please make sure you take breaks to drink water. The South of France offers over 300 days of sunshine per year. Being de-hydrated will decrease your concentration, impact your reaction time and make you feel tired. Having a good time on a motorcycle does not involve taking unnecessary health risks.

This is pretty much it. Should you have any question or want to add something to our checklist, please do not hesitate to contact us. Looking forward to hearing from you and keep the shiny side up!




1 comment


  • sean

    I like your recommendation about physical fitness. As fun as motorcycle trips are, it is, usually, surprising how physically demanding they are. As you said, physical exercise a few weeks in advance will make your trip much more enjoyable.

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