Motorcycle Road trip: From Volcanoes to Deserts Across Southern Europe

🏍️ 7-Day Motorcycle Road Trip Across France and Spain | Touring through Scenic Routes, Mountain Passes & Desert Roads

Chapters:
00:00 – Roadtrip plan
02:22 – Day 1
03:33 – Day 2
07:01 – Day 3
11:00 – Day 4
15:11 – Day 5
18:25 – Day 6
20:59 – Outro

Join me on an epic 7-day motorcycle touring trip on my BMW Nine T Urban GS through some of the most stunning landscapes in southern France and northern Spain! Starting from Strasbourg and riding down to Clermont-Ferrand, I teamed up with my buddy Stéphane (riding his classic Triumph Thruxton 900) for a 5-day loop through the southeast of France, the Pyrenees, and even the Bardenas Reales desert in Spain.

From volcanic mountain passes to twisty off-road tracks, from chilly mornings to desert heat—this ride had it all. Whether you’re into motorcycle touring, planning your own bike trip in Europe, or just love the open road, this video is packed with cinematic shots, riding stories, and helpful GPX files you can download to plan your own adventure.

🗺️ Route Overview & GPX Files:
Day 1: Strasbourg to Clermont-Ferrand (France)

Day 2–3: Mountain roads & Pyrenees into Spain

Day 4: Riding through the Bardenas Reales desert

Day 5: Back into France with beautiful passes

Day 6–7: Return to the northeast of France

🧳 What I Packed:
Duffel bag + backpack + 14L side pannier
Minimal gear for maximum freedom

🔔 Don’t forget to LIKE, COMMENT & SUBSCRIBE for more motorcycle adventures across Europe and beyond!

🎯 Tags (auto-included):
#MotorcycleRoadTrip #MotorbikeTouring #FranceByMotorcycle #SpainMotorcycleTrip #BardenasReales #MotorcycleAdventure #EuropeanRoadTrip #MotoVlog #bmwr9t #TriumphThruxton #PyreneesMotorcycle

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/r2motooo/
Stephane https://www.instagram.com/stephanecamusso
Contact mail address: r2onwheels@gmail.com

Gear:
Helmets: Shoei Glamster
Jeans: Pando Moto BOSS DYN 01
Jacket: Age Of Glory
Gloves: Cafe Leather
Boots: Helston’s Mountain

Video equipment:
Cameras: Sony ZV-1 / iPhone 15 / GoPro Hero 8 Black
Microphone: Rode VideoMicro (For Vlogs and Facecams) / Bird UM1 (For Voice-Over)

[Music] [Music] [Music] what’s up guys r2 here today we’re talking about the road trip I did earlier this year in April i did this road trip with Stephane on his Triumph Thruxton 900 who I also did a road trip with in 2020 the video is on my channel by the way so we planned a 5-day road trip across the southeast of France the north of Spain and the southwest of France back to the center east and the northeast of France for me we were essentially going to do a loop across the south of France and north of Spain the small catch for me is that I needed to meet Stephane in Clermont-Ferrand i live near Stasbour in the northeast of France so I needed to add one day at the beginning and one day at the end of the trip so for me it would be a 7-day road trip and I wouldn’t do a loop i would actually draw kind of a six on the map instead of a zero so what was the plan i don’t know i let Stephane do all the planning and I was just going to follow him i had a vague idea of where we were going but I didn’t know the names of anything i just knew I needed to meet him in Clermont-Ferrand so I got to packing and I didn’t pack too much i packed pretty light i had a duffel bag strapped to the end of my seat i had a side paneer a small side paneer 14 L I believe and I had a backpack first day was going to be great fun it was going to be highway only it wasn’t actually as bad as I expected the 90 suspension was pretty stiff and I had pain in my butt starting 2 hours after I left but I expected it so it made it kind of bearable the worst part wasn’t the highway it wasn’t the suspension or the seat it was my runny nose because of course I got sick right after leaving for the trip which sucked i had to stop several time to blow my nose and get all the snot out of my face very fun and very gross here are a few images of the ride it was pretty boring but it needed to happen for the fun days to come afterwards [Music] [Music] [Music] i finally got to Stephane’s place at around 7 and a half p.m and it was great seeing him again after 5 years of not seeing him the last time I saw him was in the previous road trip in 2020 i was very tired and I forgot to film anything he made me aligu which is a local specialty very healthy very light and I went to sleep pretty early because I was sick tired and needed to sleep the next day it was time for the real fun we left pretty early it was a bit cold but it was okay and we started by doing the volcanic mountain passes roads that Stephane knew pretty well because he lived nearby the target for the day was Perpon in the southeast of France i’m going to be honest and admit that I didn’t know which roads we were going to take what the route was so I don’t really know the names of the mountain passes we went through Stephane was telling me over the intercom what the names were but I didn’t remember anything but I will leave the GPX file in the descriptions of all the days you can go look at the GPX files and insert them into your future road trips if you want to and for most of the rest of the video I’ll just leave you with the images because they speak louder than words anyway [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] day three for me day two for Stephane we were finally entering Spain and this will be a recurring thing for the next days we went through beautiful mountain passes we had great weather and it was just amazing we had a lot of fun [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] for day four we were actually going to go through the Badinas Desert this is a desert kind of out of place in Spain there’s greenery all around it but the desert itself is very dry there’s no sand it’s more like a rocky desert i was promised some nice roads by Stephane this is our co code word for off-road and I got them [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] day five we were back in France we went through beautiful mountain passes in France as well we had great weather we went we weren’t even cold just in the morning a little bit but that was about it one thing that happened is despite signs clearly showing that some mountain passes were closed Stephane decided to go and look for himself i had to follow he pronounced the now infamous words “Trust me it will be fine.” Of course we had to turn back because it was closed as mentioned by the signs at the bottom of the pass but there were a lot worse places on Earth to have to turn back on and to do twice the views were still amazing the corners and turns were great so you can really be mad about it plus we had enough time in the day so we were not running late for anything [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] day six started with some shitty boring roads but we had no choice uh except maybe going to the highway we just had to go through these roads to go to the good roads again and looking at the images we really understand now why they call it the empty diagonal in France there’s basically nothing and I wouldn’t wish to live there at all luckily the rest of the day was great we had once again great mountain passes great roads and great weather and by the end of the day we were back at Stephane’s place we got to a food court we ate tufad which is another very light very healthy specialty and we had a beer to mark the end of the trip [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] i still had another day of riding back home through the highways but there’s nothing special to say about it it was pretty boring i had back pain butt pain everything pain but it had to be done that was the end of the trip i got back home safely this trip was great we were very lucky with the weather uh everything went smoothly the roads were amazing our bikes didn’t have any issues oh except one member of the group lost his foot peg by dropping his bike i’m not saying who it was but it wasn’t me but I’m not saying who it was the BMW R90T was probably not the best bike to do this kind of road trip and it’s probably not the best bike for touring in general but it did the job it’s pretty polent uh you can take it off road you can take it through the twisties you just got to accept its flaws you will have wind hitting your face the suspension is stiff it will hurt your back and your butt especially if you don’t have a comfort seat which I didn’t have but this is just character of the bike the engine is amazing it’s smooth there’s no complaints to be made about it i love it and it’s overall a great bike i would be lying if I said I didn’t look at used trail bikes when I got back home but the 90 is great that’s it for the video guys there will definitely be more road trips and road trips videos coming in the future probably next year subscribe if you want to see more videos road trips uh product reviews bike reviews and leave a like on this video if you at least got somewhat entertained by it and I’ll see you in the next one