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Edited Date/Time
7/8/2018 2:03pm
My brother & I are planning on riding in Belgium & Holland this summer. We plan to go to Lommel, Honda Park & possibly Valkenswaard & anywhere else really. We're planning on going for about 6 days.
Here's a list of questions I need advice on:
Live in the South East England so going to cross at Dover, ferry or Channel Tunnel? (I've got a LWB Ford Transit). How much will either of these cost?
How much fuel can I take across with me? I'll probably take 40 litres with me but not sure if that's allowed.
Best place to stay overnight & cost?
Best places to ride?
How much to ride a day & do I need a license?
Best roads to get to Belgium/Holland?
I was thinking £500 each for me & my brother for the complete trip. Is that way off the mark????
I would advice from people who have done this trip to help me budget, where to stay & ride.
Cheers
Here's a list of questions I need advice on:
Live in the South East England so going to cross at Dover, ferry or Channel Tunnel? (I've got a LWB Ford Transit). How much will either of these cost?
How much fuel can I take across with me? I'll probably take 40 litres with me but not sure if that's allowed.
Best place to stay overnight & cost?
Best places to ride?
How much to ride a day & do I need a license?
Best roads to get to Belgium/Holland?
I was thinking £500 each for me & my brother for the complete trip. Is that way off the mark????
I would advice from people who have done this trip to help me budget, where to stay & ride.
Cheers
You can fuel up when you are there, plenty of petrol stations just like here in the uk
Some good tracks to ride Honda park, lommel, valkenswaard, eindhoven, lierop, eersel, use the mx brothers site to locate tracks, tracks tend to open at 1 and there are no session like here in the UK
As far as prices and licences go Belgium is fine, you don't need a license, just turn up and ride Honda park and lommel are both about 15/20 euro
Tracks in Holland are sometimes more strict, the only track that required a licence from the above was lierop, (can do it at the track for 65euro) the other tracks allow you to do a day licence usually about 10 euro per day
No tracks are open on Mondays, and I believe lommel is the only track that opens on a friday, Honda park open every day except Monday and friday, valkenswaard and lierop are only open on Wednesdays and saturdays,
The drive is fairly simple, head towards Antwerp then use the e34 to take you towards Eindhoven/ lommel, Antwerp can be quite bad for traffic, apart from that everything else is easy, about 2.45/3 hrs to Eindhoven from Dunkirk
As far as places to stay goes im not overly sure, there are well equipped campsites in lommel, aswell as a centre parks in lommel and also valkenswaard
Depending on accomadation 500 seems very reasonable
Why take fuel ?? they have pumps over there too..
there are loads of nice campsites around valkenswaard area, BUT you will have to behave properly, any noise and pissing about and they will biff you off.
We are off to Miracourt in france this weekend, Dover Dunkirk was £80..
We usually do Dunkirk on a friday (which I definitely recommend), get there mid day, have the track to ourself and he grades it Friday mornings so its like a motorway (insanely fast on a 450), then set off and stay in the NH Hotel in Eindhoven, fairly cheap, has a poo, barl etc and plenty of parking. Most of the decent tracks are around the Eindhoven area, Honda Parc is great and a track called Veldhoven just outside the airport is good. Cab ride into Eindhoven on a saturday night for a few beers, the tracks don't open until mid day on the sunday anyway.
Don't forget to take Enduro Mats for when your in the pits, some tracks get pretty funny about that. We have a good friend over there that chats to the track owners and we have never had to pay for a licence, its something to bare in mind you may need.
I reckon 6am ferry friday AM, hit dunkirk straight off the boat, and then drive into belgium after.
And +1 on the saturday night in Eindhoven.. awesome place .
The Shop
A great trip is to go over for the Valkenswaard GP weekend.Ride Lommel on the friday and Honda Park on Saturday for example then go watch the GP on Sunday.This year the GP is Easter Monday however.
We stay at a b/b on a working farm which is 10 mins from Honda park. http://www.zandput.be/EN super friendly place.
Our 1st trip over using the Tunnel we were stopped and checked if we were carrying fuel.We were and had it confiscated.They didnt care about fuel in the bike just cans.We ended up filling up some road touring bikes on the same tunnel booking rather then give it up to an official.
Like the guys said above the tracks dont run sessions and its a joy.You will end up like PhilG and going 6 times a year.
In Holland you are required to have a 'KNMV district licence'. Rules about this licence have changed this year and the price has gone down from 75 euros to 60. You can no longer get these at the track, they have to be done beforehand, just a heads up. Some tracks may not ask for it, but most will because basiclly the whole track's insurance is gone if one guy is riding without the licence.
You can get a 'days licence' but the price has gone up and is like 30 euros or something rediculous. This is without the track fee btw.
PM me if you want to get one, I can help you with filling out the forms.
60e isnt that much but riding there week 3 days Belgium and 3 days Holland. Riding 3 days you havet to pay licence 60e or 30e day?
Basically you have 2 options:
-30 euros (or 25 I can't remember) for a day licence. This can be bought at the track
-60 euros for a year licence. This has to be done beforehand.
@philG Not sure why I thought about taking fuel, I suppose its because we always get our fuel before we go to the track. Least I now know not to take fuel because it'll get confiscated.
@Fearo I have read about having to get a license to ride in Holland. 60 Euros for a license doesn't seem that bad. Also if I do need a hand filling the forms out, I'll definitely PM you, cheers.
What about washing the bikes? I'll take a petrol washer with me but what about the water feed?
Is there shower facilities at the campsites so we can at least have a wash?
What are the best days to go riding? Who has the better tracks? Do they only grade on a certain day or is it everyday?
Sorry for so many questions, I just want to get a plan together so it makes life easier.
Lierop is open on a wednesday and saturday 13:00/17:00
Lommel is open daily, Tracks like Veldhoven/Eersel are most of the week op, only monday closed i believe.
Grevenbroich Germany, got a great and nice summer sand track. 1 hour from Eindhoven. Also NO licence needed.
Veldhoven and Eersel are oke but nothing special IMO
And if i take out a DSMB license in Germany , i have to surrender my ACU one here, so there is no way round it.
Also we have to take insurance for bikes like other countries do for cars and that
covers also crashes. Anyway when you are different country better play
their rules.
I know the nh hotel in best near eindhoven has a big security gate and pool etc.
Also heard bikes from hotel so.must be a track nearby!
I don't think any of the other common tracks have jet wash on site, not 100% sure though
If it's summer when you're going the tracks are usually pretty dry
Sorry for bad English.
Pit Row
Lommel has a 24/7 webcam so you could check beforehand if it's graded.
The only track that has shower facilities that I know of is MC Lille in Belgium.
Like other have said go to Dunkirk, the track is awesome and there is also a bit of waste ground you can play about on which is good fun.
Also the last time I rode in the Netherlands they knew we didn't have a Dutch license, so they just winked at us and wrote down the number from our British driving license. They were pretty chilled out about it.
Thanks.
Try to find out when Hondapark is groomed, a really rough hondapark will make you quit instantly
my swedish operator didn't work there so we all bribed him off for the day to let us ride and then we got it done at Veldhofven the day after with WiFi
Does anyone know of anywhere I can camp or Bed & Breakfast near Lommel/Honda Park?
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