I’m a veteran of nearly a dozen motorcycle trips; some short, some long. Most were solo trips, which was the case on my first trip touring Tuscany in 2008. I made plenty of mistakes on that first trip and a few others on subsequent trips. Read on to get tips on how you can learn from my mistakes to help you prepare for your Adriatic Moto Tours adventure.

The author Tim Walker somewhere in Albania.

Hit the gym

I’m taking the 15-day South of Rome and Sicily Tour in mid-October — and I have been preparing for it since July. How? By going to the gym at least three days a week, doing a cardio workout plus muscle-strengthening exercises. Why? A two-week riding tour is not the easiest, and I want to make sure I’m in the best physical shape I can be. 

My muscle-building exercises will tone and strengthen my whole body, but I’m putting extra focus on the areas that will be working extra hard while I’m riding: the core muscles in my midsection, my legs, and my arms. I’m even giving my wrists a workout using small free weights.

We don't require something like that from our clients :-))) This is our assistant guide helping to change the van's tire. 

On my tour with Adriatic Moto Tours to Sardinia and Corsica in the autumn of 2022, my hands cramped up in the middle of the third day of riding. I could barely turn the throttle or work the hand controls. And when I was able to move my hands, even the tiniest bit, the pain was intense. My solution at the time was to take several of the magnesium pills I had packed; thankfully, they worked to unfreeze my hand muscles. I’ll pack the same pills this October, but I hope my gym workouts will mean I won’t have to use them.

Hit the road

The second way to physically prepare for your tour is a lot more fun than gym workouts. You should ride your motorcycle as much as possible before your trip so your butt is in shape for the tour. The more you ride, the more hardened the skin on your butt will become, and that’s a good way to help you manage long hours in the saddle. 

Riding in the group, north-western Slovenia.

I had a painful lesson of riding with a tender butt in 2013 when I took a solo trip from Zagreb, Croatia, to Albania and back in just six days. On my last day, riding back to Zagreb to return my rented Suzuki Bandit, I could only ride for 10 minutes or so before the intense pain from my butt required that I stop and rest. So, ride, ride, ride, before your trip. If possible, sign up for groups rides, so you will be up to speed on group riding techniques and etiquette. All that riding should toughen up your butt, but it’s still wise to buy some padded undershorts made especially for motorcycle riding. And because 100% of Adriatic Moto Tours rides have mountain twisties, practice picking a line as you approach a curve and follow it as you ride through it.

But don’t neglect practicing your low-speed maneuvers, either. Dropping your motorcycle at a slow speed will damage your ego, yes, but more important, it will severely damage your wallet, too. (See below when I talk about buying extra insurance for your AMT rental motorcycle.)

For a dozen years, I was a certified motorcycle instructor here in the States, mostly teaching basic riding skills to new riders. But I also taught some more advanced courses that taught higher-speed skills and some more advanced low-speed skills. See if you can take an equivalent skills course where you live. Or re-take a beginners’ course — you may discover you’ve developed some bad riding habits over the years that need correcting.

Take jet lag seriously

Jet lag can be very dangerous for motorcyclists. I should know. As I related in Touring solo vs. a guided group tour, I almost died on a solo trip I took to the Balkans in 2018 when I fell asleep while riding at about 100 kph about halfway down Croatia’s beautiful Adriatic coast. The cause? I was still suffering from serious jet lag, which was made worse because I got lost and so was riding an extra two or three hours that I didn’t plan on. In retrospect, I should have stayed at least two nights in Zagreb after I arrived there and not started out on my trip the morning after my trans-Atlantic flight.

Ljubljana downtown, Slovenia.

This shouldn’t be hard for you to do. AMT tours start in some great, world-class European cities — Rome, Ljubljana, Venice, Athens — so why not take 2-3 days exploring them before your trip starts? Arriving early to your tour’s start point also gives you time to deal with your airline if it has lost your checked luggage.

Pick the right motorcycle

With the wide variety of motorcycles Adriatic Moto Tours has for rent, you can likely find one that matches your ride at home, especially if it’s a BMW. (AMT rents a lot of BMWs!) If that’s the case, you’ll be very familiar with your rented motorcycle, and that’s a great head start for having a safe, relaxing, and enjoyable tour. But even if you don’t find a perfect match, you should be able to select an equivalent model that’s about the same size and has similar handling as what you ride at home.

Take care when selecting your ride to make sure it’s not too big, too heavy, too powerful, or too tall — and know that AMT mechanics may be able to adjust the seat height for you. If you can, go to a motorcycle dealer and sit on, and possibly test ride, the model or models you are considering.

Right bike, happy customer.

I ride a 1989 Honda Transalp 600 cc dual sport, and although I was disappointed that AMT couldn’t perfectly match my 35-year-old motorcycle, I was altogether content with the equivalents I rented: a BMW 750 GS on a 2021 tour and a 700 cc Yamaha Tracer 7 on a 2022 tour.

Some tours are more demanding than others, so place a high priority on rider (and passenger) comfort on these longer tours. But also keep in mind that all tours have plenty of curves (yay!), so pick a motorcycle that can handle the twisties, too.

Pick the right gear

Take a look at the group photos on this website. You’ll see smiling faces under full-face helmets, which are essential and provide maximum protection. If possible, bring a flip-up helmet on your tour, as they will offer more convenience and flexibility day after day.

Bring the right helmet.

Note the riders are wearing high-quality protective/windproof motorcycle jackets and pants, and that should be your plan, too. But think twice about buying new boots for your trip, as stiff boots that aren’t properly broken in can lead to blisters and ruin your trip. So will boots that aren’t waterproof. I have learnt the hard way that boots touted as being waterproof often won’t keep your feet dry in a day-long rain, so I bring waterproof socks, too. You can buy them at camping/outdoor recreation stores.

You’ll get more detailed advice on gear selection in the comprehensive packet AMT will send you prior to your tour. They will have good hints on rain gear (two-piece is generally more practical than a one-piece), motorcycle gloves (one light/summer pair and one warmer pair, ideally waterproof), and advice on clothing layers (bring a medium/light base layer, plus something heavier to use in the morning if it’s cold).

Smart Packing.

Miscellaneous advice

Other pieces of practical advice I can give you include:

• make sure your cell phone will work overseas;
• notify your bank and credit card companies that you will be traveling, so they don’t suspect fraud when you try to withdraw money from an ATM in Albania or buy a gift in Turkey;
• make sure your passport is not only valid, but also doesn’t expire within the next six months;
• bring your medicines in their original bottles so you don’t get delayed by nosy border and customs officials;
• consider buying trip insurance in case your trip is cancelled or if you get ill overseas; and
• consider buying more than the minimum amount of insurance from AMT in case you damage your rented motorcycle.

On that last point, I dropped my BMW 750 GS when I rounded a sharp curve in Albania and hit some loose gravel. It was a low-speed drop, no more than 25 kph, and although I was physically okay, my ego was certainly damaged. But even at that slow speed, the tipped-over BMW had plenty of parts that were dented, bent, and broken. Fortunately, it was still ridable. After the trip was over I learnt from the AMT mechanics that the motorcycle sustained more than 1.000 euros in damage. So I was I grateful that I had purchased the mid-level “VIP” insurance, which limited the damage to my wallet to 500 euros. So for peace of mind, consider upping the level of insurance on your rental.

Balkans & Adriatic Explorer Tour Group.

More advice coming your way

I’ve laid out what I hope is good, general advice that can help everyone have a more enjoyable trip — and a safer one, too. But know that these general tips will be supplemented by plenty of more detailed advice specific to your chosen tour, which will be in the extensive materials AMT will send you prior to your trip.

So be sure to read those materials for suggested packing lists, border crossing tips, telephone and money exchange tips, language and culture tips, tipping advice, road rules, emergency police, fire, and ambulance numbers and the like.

Armed with all this great knowledge, plus the excellent support you’ll get from AMT before and during your tour, you’re sure to have a great trip — and maybe become a repeat customer like I and so many other AMT clients have become.

Bon voyage!