It’s estimated that there are around 1.2 million active motorbike riders in the UK, and the web is a great place to become a part of this huge community. It is also a useful place for getting information, inspiration & trading motorbike goods. With this in mind, we have sought out the best online resources for the motorbiking community and have brought them to you in this handy guide…
JUMP TO SECTION…
1 – Finding & mapping motorbike rides
2 – Where to find the motorbike community online
3 – Motorbike journeys to inspire
4 – Finding motorbike events, shows, ride-outs & rallies
5 – Researching a new motorbike purchase online
6 – Buying & selling your motorbike online
It’s important as a biker that you make the most of your rides (after all, riding is more about the journey than the destination). There are a lot of biking navigation apps out there but many are badly built and unreliable. These apps should help you easily find, create and navigate some fantastic rides…
—MotoGoLoco—
MotoGoLoco provides a mapping tool for motorcyclists helping them plan out and download routes across any part of the world – although the map has been built for the UK & Ireland and so is more suited to rides in these areas.
As the app uses the Google Maps API, the map creator tool is extremely easy to use and has lots of other useful features.
The Create Your Own Route tool allows you to set a start and end point for your journey and then edit your route directly on the map. You can do this by dragging your planned route to add additional “Via” points focusing on the locations you want to pass through and the distance you want to ride.
A really nice, unique feature of this motorbike route planner is the ability to view motorbike friendly hotels and hostels across the UK on the map. What’s more, every one of the hotels, hostels or B&B’s on the site has been visited, checked and approved by a member of the MotoGoLoco team, meaning you have some strong reassurances about being welcomed into any of these places.
The MotoGoLocco map app includes a preplanned set of routes across the UK & Europe with each map including distance, miles and like ratings from other users.
Another nice touch with built in routes include the “Perfect for” and “Route Type” section. These show you which bike type is most suitable for the ride and they also give you some idea about the type of route.
—Best Biking Roads—
This website is a necessary resource for any biker looking for tried and tested routes across every continent of the globe. It allows its 28,000 members to upload their own routes either by drawing on a map, or uploading their GPS data.
Most of the routes on this website are given a star rating for key biking elements including corners, straights, scenery, road surface, visibility, police presence(!) and hazards.
All maps can be downloaded as GPX files which means they can be uploaded to most good sat navs like the TomTom Rider All Garmin Zumo GPS.
Best Biking roads have also recently launched Best Biking Roads app for Android and Apple.
Whether you are a newbie to the motorcycle world, or a veteran of two wheels, online motorbike forums are the best place to speak to other bikers and allow you to offer up or receive useful motorbiking information.
Here are a couple of the best, and most active biking forums online…
—The HUBB—
The HUBB is a forum built onto the motorbike travel blog Horizons Unlimited (which is also a fantastic resource for bikers), and currently has a large number of worldwide members. It was started by two motorbike travelers, Grant & Susan in 1997, and the website and forum have grown and developed into the site you see now over the last 17 years.
If you’re going on a big trip and want to share your story with your family, or the rest of the biking community, the site allows you to create your own mini blog where you can upload photos and text, sharing your journey with anyone who’s interested!
The forum is incredibly active with new posts being added, or questions being answered by the community throughout the day. Discussions on the forum include planning routes, finding other bikers to travel with, travelling stories, motorbiking events, and specific topics about travelling in certain countries and travelling equipment. Although the topics on the site primarily revolve around motorbike travelling, there are also a dedicated sections to repairs & buying & selling.
The forum has lots of glowing testimonials from loyal members who rely on the site to indulge in their hobby.
“Thank you! The website, The travels, The insight, The inspiration, Everything, just thanks.” Colin Askey, UK
Membership to the community is free, although you are able to upgrade your membership privileges with a donation to the running of the site.
—ADV Rider—
ADV Rider is a hub of information from motorbike riders and enthusiasts based around the globe. The ADV Rider forum has nearly 300,000 worldwide members and forums topics are split into four groups:
RIDING: Containing discussions about motorbike rides, routes, racing and buddy-ups
Riding Alps July 9-16. Anyone else going?
BIKES: This section generally contains discussions about motorbikes, motorbike parts, motorbike problems and how to fix them, as well as members sharing pictures of their motorbikes and updates on motorbike fix-ups or conversions.
Multistrada 1200 – Has anyone solved the wind issue?
GEAR: This section contains discussions about specific products available to motorbikers and recommendations of motorbike kit. There’s also a vendor’s section which allows vendors to post information about their products and services.
AMC-400 Motorcycle Hitch Carrier review
Although the site is international the travel section does contains specific area information for those wishing to narrow down their search. The filters are split up into Americas – which shows post from North, Central and South America; EMEA – displaying posts posts from Europe, Middle East and Africa; and Asia Pacific – which shows posts from Asia and Australia.
—UK Bike Forum—
UK Bike Forum is a community based biking forum which allows users to submit topics and respond to discussions. This forum is dedicated to UK bikers only and has around 1,400 active members who engage with the site regularly.
Topics include riding skills, motorbike maintenance, ride-outs and meets, as well a a few other subjects which are unrelated to motorbiking.
Many motorbikers record their travels across the world through online blogs, meaning others have the opportunity to follow their journey, read about their experiences and even pick up tips for their own rides. We have picked a couple that could inspire even a non-biker to get on the open road on two wheels…
—ToughMiles—
This blog consists of a thorough account of two friends’ travels across the globe on Suzuki DRz 400 S bikes. The boys spent 2 long months of research on many of the forums mentioned above selecting the bikes that would be good enough. They then modified their bikes to prepare them for the ride and set off on their adventures.
The journey lasted around 8 months, starting in the UK and took the pair through Europe, Russia, South Korea and then over to Alaska where they rode their bikes south to their finishing point in Argentina.
The documentation of their trip is extremely thorough and written with great passion, humor and charm. The blog and includes detailed accounts of problems they ran into with the bikes, as well as how they overcame them.
“The BAM road is not just about motorcycling skill, it is a real test of physical and mental endurance. It is impossible to portray how tough this route really is, and once finally over it is far too easy to forget the pain each kilometer can bring. To ride it you need pure grit and determination.”
“The ride towards El Rosario was fairly uneventful, and soon the weather became so hot that riding in just a t-shirt was the only option. This makes for a cracking riding tan, and the trademark two-tone arm of an adventure rider.”
As well as the riding and the roads they encounter, the pair recount their experiences with the locals, the food, the authorities and other riders they met along the way.
—Austin Vince—
Austin Vince is widely known among the motorbike community as the one of the most inspiring motorcycling adventurers in the world.
Austin’s most famed tour was the ‘Mondo Enduro’ – an around the world adventure motorcycle tour which took place from 1995-1996. The journey saw Austin and others travel 40,000 miles across the globe on 350cc dirt bikes. His website also contains details of another trip named ‘Mondo Sahara’, which took Austin across Spain, Morocco and the Western Sahara.
The blog contains some fantastic video footage of both trips, as well as information about orienteering trips that Austin and Lois organise themselves.
—LoisOnTheLoose—
Created by motorbike enthusiast turned writer Lois Pryce (also the wife of biker Austin Vince above), Lois on the Loose is a website dedicated to her love affair with bikes and her travels on her various rides over the years. Now a celebrity within motorcycling communities, Lois continues to record her rides on her website, taking different bikes and friends with her on every adventure.
As you read about each adventure you’re introduced to the motorbike Lois took on her journey and the other characters who went along for the ride. Lois provides a concise description of each trip, including her experiences with the places she went and the people her tour encountered.
Lois’ inspiring trips include a solo two month ride around Iran on a Yamaha TTR250, a 1500 mile trip around Brazil with a group of female riders from various countries across the globe, a 6000 mile trip around the USA in a Ural side car with her husband, and a handful of other inspiring journeys.
—A blind woman, two wheels and 25,000 miles—
Touching The World is a website containing biking stories from bikers Cathy Burchall & Bernard Smith. In 2008, Cathy Birchall and partner Bernard Smith began their own world tour on a 1990 BMW R100T names “Bertha”.
The most inspiring part of this story is that Cathy lost her eyesight in her 20’s and was completely blind. Cathy rode pillion with Bernard and the pair documented every part of their journey with blog posts, images and videos.
As well as being the first blind women to bike around the world, Cathy also became the first blind person to climb Huayna Picchu in Peru. Cathy and Bernard had a large fan following before, during, and after their trip, and the pair’s journey is well known in motorcycling communities. Tragically Cathy passed away in early 2013 after being diagnosed with breast cancer. Her partner Bernard continues to ride Bertha, the bike the was taken on their worldwide tour.
The pair kept their website constantly updated during their tour, so other riders will find lots of useful information about the places they went to, the issues they encountered as well as some fantastic photos of the trip.
—C90 Adventures—
This blog contains the motorbiking travels of Ed March – who has “a passion to show the world that you don’t need a £15,000 BMW GS1200 to travel”. Ed March has already completed a trip from Mongolia to the UU, Malaysia to the UK and a trip around the Arctic on his Honda C90. He started another tour from Alaska to Argentina in July 2014 with his girlfriend.
Ed March is incredibly passionate about, and loyal to, his Honda C90 Motorbike, and his posts contain not only information about his travels, but also the problems he ran into with the bike, and how he remedied them.
India is difficult, dirty and dangerous. But in a weird sadistic way I kind of enjoyed it. I’d liken it to a marathon; it’s bloody hard work and if you just avoided the whole thing then your life would be so much easier. But once you’ve done it, you’re glad you’ve experienced it and know what it’s like for yourself.
The website contains written posts about his travels on his honda C90 as well as fun videos of each of his journeys set to funky music.
With such a huge community of motorbikers across the UK, there are motorbiking event, trials and shows on just about every weekend of the year. These websites should help you to identify motorbike events happening in your area…
—The Biker Guide Events—
thebikerguide.co.uk/bikerrallies
The Biker Guide to Events and Rallies provides a fantastic resource, listing biking events across every month in the UK. Listings include information about rallies, shows, ride-outs, runs and parties across the UK, and anyone hosting their own motorbiking event can list it for free.
—Bennetts—
Bennetts social pages include a map of events running through the year. The interface allows users to filter by the type of event listings; Racing, Track dates, Shows, Meet-Ups and Ride Outs.
The map includes a feature which allows users to search by location, which is a handy feature if you’re looking for events close to a certain area.
Whether you’re buying a new or used bike, a bit of research is important. Each motorbiker is unique, and we all have different needs, so getting advice from professionals and other bikers will help you find a bike that suits you and your ambitions…
—MCN Motorbike Reviews—
motorcyclenews.com/motorbikereviews
Magazine site Motorcycle News hosts a large database of reviews for around 800 bike models. As well as containing a score from the MCN review, owners can also able to rate the bike and leave feedback, meaning that you get a broader spectrum of opinion about each model.
Each review provides a new andused price for each model meaning biker buyers can get some idea of what to expect to pay for their chosen model.
—VisorDown Motorbike Reviews—
Visor down contains over 1,000 motorbike reviews, which can be easily sorted by type (sports bikes, off road, tourers etc).
The bikes are reviewed and rated by Visor Down, as well as fellow bike owners. Each of the motorbike reviews contains plenty of detail, including a full spec of the bike and a summary of its pros and cons.
—Looking at Forums for advice—
Another option for those looking to seek out information about a bike model, is to use the bike forums mentioned above (ADV Rider & HUBB). If information about your chosen model doesn’t already exist on these sites, posting a question to the community is bound to bring back some useful answers.
Whether you are buying your motorbike from a dealer or a private seller, it’s important to shop around. There are a large number of motorbike classified sites which trade & private sellers use to list their motorbikes for sale to the public.
—Friday-ad—
friday-ad.co.uk/motorbikes-for-sale
The Friday-Ad motoring section advertises thousands of listings for used and new motorbikes from both private advertisers and motorbike dealers across the UK.
Insert ad detail page from new site here
The Friday-Ad search function enables user to filter the listing based on a particular make or model, or specific motorbike properties like engine size, registration year, mileage and condition. (insert picture of motorbike filter here).
And of course, as well as buying – the Friday-Ad also allows you to list your motorbikes for free.
Other motorbike classified sites include:
Preloved
Ebay
MCN Classifieds
Exchange & Mart
Gumtree
When engaging with buying and selling online (especially something as expensive and important as a motorbike), don’t be afraid to ask plenty of questions and avoid paying the seller any money until you have met the seller and inspected the motorcycles. For more info in buying or selling motor vehicles safely online check out GetsafeOnline
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You missed a whole section – Places to find info on how to fix/maintain/modify your bike, and great places to find parts and accessories…
Not mentioning any names here… 😉
Good list, a bit old though?
How about https://bikersunited.co.uk – the UK’s stolen motorcycle database