Save your pennies, riders. This fall my buddies twisted my arm hard enough to convince me to join them on a great adventure. We hopped on a plane to Barcelona, Spain. We rode the Pyrenees mountains to San Sebastian and back. The route covered a lot of the border roads between Spain and France used by the Tour de France bicycle race. The best description I can come up with is that it was like riding the Tail of the Dragon, back to back, a dozen times per day, for eleven days in a row. We did a self guided tour rather than join a guided tour, with the tour company, IMT, fixing us up with bikes, hotels, and gps routes. Pretty awesome.
Best ride in 60 years - Ultimate twisties
- Thread starter numbersman
- Start date
Cool description... I've heard that about the Pyrenees. Sounds like a great trip you had. Maybe you could post a ride report with some pics?
Oh my, what pix could I post. We collected 1400 pix, 260GB of GoPro movies and another 400 GoPro Pix. The photo album writeup is up to 17 pages so far. To tell the truth, very few of the pix give a meaningful view of the quality of the ride, but a lot of them are memories particular to us. An example of that would be a dark and hazy picture of barely visible horses wandering on the road, in dense clouds with 20 meter visibility, that we rode into at the top of a mountain pass. We look at that one and break out in a sweat, but to anyone else it is just a bad picture of horses. Here are a few pix. The view from our hotel, which was a castle built in 960 on the top of the highest hill for miles, the horse picture, parking in a cow herd, and a view down onto some of the roads. Enjoy. There is probably a better way to post these, but I have not tried this before.
Yes, I totally agree. I will be doing this again.
My buddy and I did a 10 day Pyrenees tour through northern Spain, Andorra, and southern France two years ago.
All three countries had magnificent riding in their part of the Pyrenees.
Parts of southern France remind me of middle and east Tennessee, except our roads are on better shape but we do not have the breathtaking gorges and architecture. Parts of interior Spain remind me of Colorado, with castles. We stopped at Castle Cardona and ate there.
Spain's roads are very well kept. I also preferred the food. People in all three countries were very nice and most of them I ran into spoke some English.
My buddy and I did a 10 day Pyrenees tour through northern Spain, Andorra, and southern France two years ago.
All three countries had magnificent riding in their part of the Pyrenees.
Parts of southern France remind me of middle and east Tennessee, except our roads are on better shape but we do not have the breathtaking gorges and architecture. Parts of interior Spain remind me of Colorado, with castles. We stopped at Castle Cardona and ate there.
Spain's roads are very well kept. I also preferred the food. People in all three countries were very nice and most of them I ran into spoke some English.
Numbersman,
Your trip looked great, I was there in Autumn/fall 2015. The Pyrenees are a great ride and your description of the roads are spot on although the Twisties can only truly be seen to be believed. I would suggest that anyone with a week or so to spare also takes in Portugal, the people are great and the value for money is the best in Europe in my opinion. The ride through the Picos is as spectacular as the Pyrenees from Green Spain into northern Portugal.
Upt'North.
Your trip looked great, I was there in Autumn/fall 2015. The Pyrenees are a great ride and your description of the roads are spot on although the Twisties can only truly be seen to be believed. I would suggest that anyone with a week or so to spare also takes in Portugal, the people are great and the value for money is the best in Europe in my opinion. The ride through the Picos is as spectacular as the Pyrenees from Green Spain into northern Portugal.
Upt'North.
SmashVol
Site Supporter
WOW! just WOW! Great Pictures and looks beautiful.
- Joined
- Feb 5, 2005
- Messages
- 8,537
- Age
- 77
- Location
- Kingman, Arizona
- Bike
- 2000 ST1100 ABS TCS
- STOC #
- 004
House guys are pushing my dream: get there, buy a bike, and... Go Ride!!!! 
Here is a video of our trip put together by one of our group. Yes it is long, but we were on the road for 11 days. Wish there were better views of the twisties but you can't take your eyes off the road.
https://youtu.be/MQSdbZqoozo
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
https://youtu.be/MQSdbZqoozo
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
NumbersmanThanks for the video. Brings back fond memories of previous rides. The Pyrenees are spectacular and tends to be much quieter than the Alps.
I also really like the Spanish folk and food.
I would recommend to everyone visiting this area to also pop into northern Portugal. Again great people and the best value in Europe.
Thanks again.
Upt'North.
I also really like the Spanish folk and food.
I would recommend to everyone visiting this area to also pop into northern Portugal. Again great people and the best value in Europe.
Thanks again.
Upt'North.
I watched part of this video on my tablet this morning, since my desktop doesn't handle streaming video very well. Enjoyed what I watched, but the image just wasn't large enough to really appreciate it. Since I then knew the title of the video, I found it this evening on my ROKU and just finished watching it on the big screen from my easy chair in the living room. Very enjoyable watch. I have to say that I wouldn't have the nerve to do some of the things you guys did on this tour. Sharing a narrow road with busses, cars, cows, and horses in the fog would probably give me an anxiety attack. Still a very enjoyable video, worth the watch.
Last edited:
I will check with him. I used a rented GPS and could not save the route.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Forgot to mention that this ride was a 75th birthday present to myself. I'm very lucky to be able to enjoy a ride like this. Have to admit it was easier on a 450 pound BMW 700GS than it would have been on my ST1300 PA.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
STraymond
Site Supporter
Congrats on the 75 years! You are an inspiration to me - I am about 7 years behind you, and would like very much to still be riding at 75.
Someone else had asked about the cost. Can you give us some approximare numbers?
Ray
I did not keep very close watch on the pennies for this ride, but here are some parts. First, you have to get to Barcelona. That cost me a bit short of $1000 from Chicago via Dublin. The part of the trip bought from IMT included bike rental/upgrade to the 700GS from the base 650, GPS with programming, and hotels with single supplement. This was self guided tour and cost about $4200US, when the exchange rate was pretty good. Joining into their guided tour is about $500 more, and includes some meals. Then you don't want to forget about travel insurance. I did not want to pay the ridiculous cost to insure the whole trip, but I wanted the highest limit policy I could find for medical and evacuation. I insured only the air fare portion of the trip with great limits on other costs for under $100. Would have been out of luck on the uninsured portion if I had to cancel the trip for any reason. We ate pretty well, which I estimate cost about $1,000. A few bucks for an international driver's license and that is about it. You could probably save about $500 if you rented the bike, booked the hotels, and made your own route, but we think it was worth it to get the package and the expertise. Go to IMTBIKES.com and look at the Wild Pyrenees ride.
I talked it over with my friend who brought his own GPS rather than renting one. We agree that it would not be fair to the tour company to pass along their proprietary routes. Sorry we can't help with this. IMT really does put a lot of work into their routes and tour book, as well as their selection of hotels, etc. They earn their markup. They will rent you a bike at a reasonable rate, should you need one.
I'm going to wait and enjoy the full vid at home with a cold beverage in hand...my feet up and my fingers crossed that I should be as fortunate as you and your friends to enjoy such a trip someday. But, like the above....I have to ask after replaying and pausing 3 times..." feet held up in the air and CPR being performed on a bicyclist?" wow !
THANK YOU all for sharing !
Yes, it was a bicyclist who had an apparent heart attack. We were 20 monutes down the mountain beforewe saw ambulance coming up.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
I should mention that mycost included about $600 single supplement.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk