Went on my first scouting trip this weekend, re-visiting parts of Epirus region including the Zagori area. There will be opportunity for very interesting hiking if anybody is so inclined:

http://www.photoseek.com/greece/PindosOlympus.html

http://www.landscapes.nl/greece/gr10.html

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Nikos

Do you want to participate in an off-the-beaten-track tour of mainland Greece?
Check below for the big Sprint ST Greek Tour being organised for Spring '08
http://www.triumphrat.net/rides-events/68872-greek-bike-tour-next-spring-anybody.html

Here is a company that rents out Triumphs for self-guided tours:

http://www.triumphbiketours.com/

I did this last year... my wife and I took the Peloponnese tour. They provided us with a day-by-day itinerary, and pre-booked all of our lodging. You may be able to negotiate just the rental of the bikes, providing you give them a fairly detailed plan for the trip. Just a thought so that the folks that can't get their own bikes there will have an option. They do have Sprints (or at least they did last year).

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Don

'01 Sprint RS (over 100K miles and still going)
'07 Thruxton (my new baby)

I'm new to this site, but have been a part of my local RAT site for years. Now I'm sorry I took so long to join in.

I'm definately interested in going. I would also be interested in seeing some of the historical/biblical cities like Corinth and Thesolonika. I may have misspelled the last one. "John was here" how cool is that? Seeing ancient Sparta would be cool too.

I saw an article about an mc touring outfit that specializes in renting Triumphs. I'll see if I can dig it up. cr

I found the magazine article just type in triumphbiketours into your browser or email them at tritours@otenet.gr. Let us know what you find out.

Hi Guys,

The triumphbiketours are a good company if you're interested in 'formal' guided tours. Unfortunately they will guide ON the beaten track and will avoid most of the most interesting BIKING or scenic roads. Good though if your main interest is archeological tourism (i.e. mostly what you could do in a coach but you prefer to ride) and you don't mind meeting millions of other tourists on the way especially during the peek summer months. As far as biking is concerned the itineraries are about averagely interesting although out of necessity we will cover some of the roads they do.

I plan on visiting some ancient and other tourist stuff that is on the way (e.g. Delphi, Meteora, Vergina, Nikopolis etc) , but the idea of the tour is mainly biking and savoring the landscape and the village life in parts of Greece that not many tourists have the chance to see (Greeks know about those places though). Our itinerary will cover broadly part of the same geographical area their 'Alexandrian' tour covers although it will be 'deeper' and 'narrower' in scope (more mountains, less highway).

They say in their site they are able to rent bikes for a self guided tour so if you're interested it may be worthwhile to contact them and join us.

Last time I checked their site their bike selection was limited to older models (carbed Tiger, Tbird and Adventurer). I'm not sure what the state of their bikes is. Maybe they have some new bikes but their site doesn't show that. Certainly worth a contact.

The owner used to be the T importer in Greece back in the old days but I don't think they have any relationship to T or their current distributor nowdays.

If you are interested in booking with them for a guided tour (rather than joining us for our informal tour because it sounds too adventurous) pls. be aware that due to this summer's extensive wildfires in the Peloponese area, lots of scenic roads and beautiful landscapes especially in Southern and Western Peloponese will have been greatly affected making the landscape grim and depressing and the locals moody (lots of villages and farm land have been burned down too).

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Nikos

Do you want to participate in an off-the-beaten-track tour of mainland Greece?
Check below for the big Sprint ST Greek Tour being organised for Spring '08
http://www.triumphrat.net/rides-events/68872-greek-bike-tour-next-spring-anybody.html

Here's a video in English about part of the region we'll cover:




And some more stills of the region:

__________________
Nikos

Do you want to participate in an off-the-beaten-track tour of mainland Greece?
Check below for the big Sprint ST Greek Tour being organised for Spring '08
http://www.triumphrat.net/rides-events/68872-greek-bike-tour-next-spring-anybody.html

Sounds like a splendid idea Nikos, next year I have plans to hit the arctic circle in Finland so will not have any spare time for this, but the year after is a definite possibility. Greece is a beautiful country and I've always found the Greek people THE most hospitable and friendly of folk. Good luck with setting this up and to anyone sitting on the fence and wondering whether to go !! JUST DO IT. Just make sure you stay in small family hotels and leave room in your leathers for the additional weight you'll gain

Nikos,

This sounds like a brilliant idea - something i'd really like to do & just my kind of tour. Little bit difficult to commit tho' just now as i'm out of work at the moment. That said, there's no problem getting 3 or 4 weeks off (!) to ride over from Ireland & had been thinking of Italy.....which is on the way to Greece....what temperatures do you expect late may early june ?

I'm going to think seriously about this over next few weeks.

There's not many recent posts but I hope you still plan to go ahead....

Will get back to you,

Cheers, Mike

Nick, count me in too ...

Nikos,

It's looking like I'll be able to come, travelling from Ireland, cross to UK then France, Italy and Ancona/Patras.

I have some specific dates where I can take the time, tho' don't want to 'railroad' things if these dates don't work.

The time I have available, for the whole trip, is from Thursday May 15th to Monday June 9th, with maybe the best time for Greece being the week starting Monday 26th May.

How does this look ?

Mike