Poland 2020 on a BMW R1250 GS Adventure 

Thanks a lot. Congratulations on your purchase. I hope you enjoy the GSA; it is definitely a good bike for my kind of riding, with mostly paved roads and relatively easy unpaved roads. I only ride one-up so I could probably go with a bike with less power, but I like the comfort. Thanks for watching 😊

What the hell are you saying? USA has some of the most breathtaking scenery in the world (except for the central planes). And I say this as an European.

Thanks for watching 😊

Thanks for watching 😊

Congrats on your new bike. Thanks for watching 😊

Yes it was!

Glad you enjoyed

Poland is a great country. There is a lot of heavy traffic on secondary roads, so I really enjoyed the forest roads. There are a lot of paved forest roads too; they don’t have to be gravel. Congratulations on your GSA. I love mine. No doubt I’d want a lighter bike while on sand and stuff, but overall with the type of travel where - at the end of the day - the majority of kilometers are on paved roads, the GSA is a better choice for me. Thanks for watching 🙂

Hhahahaa 😂😂 you got me! Well, compared to the TikToks of 2020 they’s certainly more meat on that one 😁

Poland is awesome! Loved it!

The GS is really a great fit for my kind of motorcycle travelling. Let me know about your first ride on it.

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures I still haven't bought one, but I'm VERY close now!! I hope all is well with you since you haven't posted any new rides in many months!

I’m currently on a trip around the Balkans. I’ll post when I get back. (posting this from a Croatia).

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures Looking forward to seeing it!! Have Fun!!

Thanks for watching 😊

Thanks for the story :-)

Awesome! Can’t wait to ride the roads of Scotland. Thanks for watching 😊

Thanks a lot for watching 😊

Thanks for watching 😊

Are you under curfew? It’s icy here these days, and not much daylight, so I’m spending most of my time outside work planning the rides of this year, hoping the situation allow. Thanks for watching 😊

I have never ridden a Multistrada. I rode a Monster once, but I don’t think that counts 😁 The GSA is a good fit for me and my kind of travel. Thanks for watching 😊

I didn’t know that. Thank you. And thanks for watching 😊

Thanks for watching 🙂

Well, yes and no (to skipping places being the idea). Yes to skipping popular places, although interesting (like Auschwitz, Krakow, Zakopane), but not if there’s something I find (or someone suggest) that might not be obvious. That said, the problem is mostly more about what you choose to skip, not what you choose to include. I know that the popular places are popular for a good reason, but you... it is always difficult. I do post my plans for future rides on my web site hoping that people familiar with the places have suggestions. I am definitely going back to Poland. It takes me only half a day to get there, so I have no excuse. Thanks for watching 😊

​@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures Ok - your channel name explains a lot. You like to start something new by off the bitten path. I agree that then you getting your own (not obvious) picture and experience 😊. Btw: At the same time I was having probably the motorcycle trip of my life. It's sad when you think that the moto journey of your life is behind you already, especially when you still feel young, but ... I don't know for me what moto adventure could beat it 😊. Enjoy. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-d4e8W2pFm2A.html

Thanks for watching 😊

Yes, I like them a lot too. Interesting you use them in SG - with the wet roads in the rainy season? I wouldn’t expect much roads in SG to be anything but paved. Do you ride to Malaysia for off-road? I lived in SG for a couple of years back in 2000. Had an office in Suntec Tower 3 (was pretty new back then), and stayed at the Bayshore next to the ECP close to the airport. Thanks for watching 😊

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures Yes, the rainy season is now, but I don't take any chances. Just go easy to work (Tuas) and back with all the panniers on = daily training (Kung Fu). Before the Covid 19 pandemic we used to ride to Thailand and almost every weekend to Msia - Johor and KL. In Johor, Ulu Choh, we had an off-road training ground. All closed now and no chance to go there from SG. We can only wait until everything is over and the borders open again.

Sounds awesome. Spain is a great country with lots a great scenery. Thanks for watching.

Great feedback, thank you. I will put more emphasis on that in the coming videos. Thanks for watching 😊

I am planning a trip to Ireland next year. Not sure when yet. Would love to get inspiration to good roads. This is the plan currently: backroad.life/adventure-pipeline/british-isles/

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures I'd be delighted to help you with information or maybe I'll tag along for bit of the journey. I'm in Galway so I can help with some of the trip out west.

That’s awesome. I would love to ride with you. If you want, you can join the Facebook group so we can stay connected. facebook.com/groups/BackroadMotorcycleAdventures/

Poland is awesome! Thanks for watching 😊

Hey, thanks for he feedback. Normally, I let Google decide the number of mid-roll ad breaks. But it has gone crazy, I can see that. I have removed a lot of them, so there is an ad break at the beginning of each day, so 6 in total. I think there is one at the beginning as well. Thanks for letting me know, and thanks for watching 😊

Den var sjov. Ja, det er svært at vente på næste tur. Men det bliver nok kun en weekend her i december, hvis vejret tillader. Ellers næste år. :-)

Hahahha - that is cool. It looked pretty old though. Thanks for watching 😊

Thanks. You’d be surprised how much I cut out as I ether don’t understand what I am saying or it just doesn’t make sense 😆

Yeah, it was fun. Thanks for watching 👍😊

The truth is that I rode a lot of secondary roads as well (highways only when crossing the border with Germany). Thanks for watching 🙂

Thanks for watching 🙂

I'm not sure which trip you are referring to? I don't have any specific dates for next year's trips. Thanks for watching. 😊

On your Poland tour from the video I just watched. Poland 2020 on a BMW R1250 GS Adventure

Sorry, I misunderstood. Sure, it was from September 27th to October 2nd.

I recognize parts that I've also visited. Great ride !

Awesome. I’d like to ride a take the ride a little more south next time :-)

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures Indeed ! Why not ?! Riding through Germany into Austria, heading for Switserland and Italy ! I can defenately recommend it. Also the Baltic states, Czech republic is very nice. What about Romania ? You'll love the Transfagaran ! Me too prefer the little back roads. GS'ses are made for that ;-)

Btw, if you make it to Belgium I'll introduce you to the best beers in the world... After that, you can move forward to northern France and Normandy, Brittany. Excellent rides over there too !

Thanks! 😊

It's the Adventure Rally model. Thanks for watching 😊

Thanks for watching 🙂

Booking.com er nok den bedste måde at få en fornemmelse, hvis du går efter hotel. Det kommer meget an på placering og hvilket niveau man går efter.

No problems at all. Where there is clearly signed no entry, I turn around. The sign at Treblinka where I turned around is a regular road closed sign. I try to stay within the rules as to not upset anyone. I ride slow when close to houses and livestock. When I meet someone (like the forest works) I often try to talk and be friendly. I didn’t really meet people on those small roads, but those I met were all friendly and positive. Thanks for watching 🙂

To you too. Thanks for watching 😊

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures spend festival of lights by watching your videos

I generally use furkot.com to plan the route. In Balkan the small routes are often gravel. I export the route to KML format to import it into Google Earth to see if there are any photos nearby. If there is streetview I can see the surface, if there isn't streetview, there's a good chance that it is gravel. The Google Streetview cars seem to avoid gravel :-) Thanks for watching.

Thanks 😊 I didn't check the odometer, but according to the GPS tracks, the total KM is 2273. But that includes the ferry (approx 220 km), which don't really count. Day 1: 351 km (less 110 km ferry); day 2: 288 km; day 3: 359 km; day 4: 311 km; day 5: 466 km; day 6: 498 km (less 110 km ferry). Day 6 was more highway than I wanted, but I ran out of time for my ferry and needed to cover some distance. The German backroads also turned out a lot slower than I expected, with towns every 2 km. Thanks for watching 😊

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures Thank you for the reply. I am impressed that you covered such distances on remote dirt "roads".

The GS is a great bike. I don’t know, I don’t even know how much slang I am using. Maybe I have gotten too influenced by movies 😄. I have been working 5+ years in a US company, working with a lot of Americans and other foreigners, where english was the spoken (and written) language. I think that also taught me not to be held back by my limited vocabulary and funny pronunciation. 😊

I am planning a trip to the British Isles ( backroad.life/adventure-pipeline/british-isles/ ) In August I will be riding through the Balkan countries ( backroad.life/adventure-pipeline/balkan-2020/ ). I had planned those trips for 2020, but you know, COVID-19. Thanks for watching 😊

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures On Your Balkan tour, I see that You are going to travel thru Istra - Croatia. My suggestion is that You divert a bit, and go thru city of Pula, in which is famous Pula Arena (coloseum) - it is smaller than in Rome, but still absolutly amazing and just it's size is stunning. Then drive thru Limski kanal (Lim bay - fjord) and that road is fenomenal and view is just stunning (1964 movie "the long ship" was filmed there). From Limski kanal You go to small cities of Vrsar, Funtana and then city of Poreč (it is the town where I live in :D ), which was roman colony, and it's old town is absolutely beautiful and You should really take Your bathing suit, because if You don't go swimming in August, You would really really miss a lot. Then You can continue thru your preplaned tour to Pazin from Poreč (it is 30 km from Poreč to Pazin), which is famous by it's river Pazinčica (it is mentioned in Jules Verne's book Mathias Sandorf) and then Buzet (it's beautifull old town on hill) and continue to Slovenia, or You can go from Poreč to Umag, then Novigrad and continue to Slovenia :) That detour should take You just couple of hours (arround 140 km) but belive me, it is worth to see :) I hope that I gave You something just to think about!! Greetings from Croatia from fellow biker :)

Fantastic. Awesome feedback. I will definitely change the route according to your suggestions. Thank you! 👍😊

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures Yes. Istra is really beautifull. So much history that expands for 2000 + years. And it is really something to be seen. Just an follow up question.... I saw that You were in past in Plitvice Lakes, (I see that You are going to pass them in this 2021 trip). If You didn't go, You should definitely visit "Željava airbase". Ex YU, and partialy Cro base after the War of Independence. There is Douglas C-47 plane and whole base is really awesome to see. Milions of dollars were spent on her during 60-70s, and it was litteraly blown up with 50 + tons of explosive, but that did jut a bit of damage because of the tons and tons of steel, iron and concrete :D You should check the route on google maps (and fotos from her) because it is really favoured for sightseeing, especially for bikers!! Cheers 😊

Yes I have been at the air base a couple of times. It is great fun. I saw one riding in to it but fell after a couple of meters as it is so slippery. Also metal parts and stuff, spikes, and what not makes me not want to ride into it myself. But it is definitely worth a detour.

No, it’s not. At least I don’t think so. They are just marked as ordinary roads, although small. I did ride some boring paved roads with too much traffic too. Quite a bit actually, but they are edited out 😊 I using furkot.com that uses openstreetmaps. They have a better coverage of non-paved roads. Thanks for watching

I'm doing the rough routing in Furkot, which use OpenStreetMap. That is primarily because it has good satellite overlay so I can get an idea of what the roads look like. It is also pretty good at estimating the distance that I cover in a day, and it has built in integration with booking.com, camping.info and other sites that gives me an idea of where accommodation facilities are. Then I import it into BaseCamp to make sure that the route is aligned with the Garmin maps (which is not always the case with two different sets of map data between the two). I also export to KML and check the route in Google Earth. I check photos along the route to check if there is something I should visit. Then in to the GPS. Yes, it does follow the unpaved roads, as long as there is a road on the map. Often, where there are no roads on the map, I set that section as "direct". I also export the route as track, but I don't really use it. The purpose is to have a "print" of the route regardless of the map data in case I need to (I haven't gotten that much lost yet).

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures this is really good detail, thank you!

The spoiler is from MRA (VSA-TYP C) and can be adjusted (tilted). It can be attached by drilling holes into your windscreen or by clamping it on (which I have done). It makes the windscreen wobble a bit more in turbulence, but nothing that have concerned me. I don’t really ride more than 140 km/h on highway and I don’t think the spoiler puts more stress on the windscreen than if you go 200 without. But I can be wrong. No, I don’t need the Montana. I would never go out a buy one, but I had it laying around. You can easily put OpenStreet Maps on your Nav6 as well. The Montana is better at tracks and recording those, but it provides no features that justifies buying one if you already have the Nav6. Thanks for watching 🙂

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures thanks for your help. If you want I can tell you how to enlarge the track lines on your Nav 6... by easily modifying the stock themes

I think it depends on how you plan your routes. If you’re planning the via points carefully before the ride and use the gps to take you along that planned route, the nav6 is a great tool. If you plan point to point as you go along, your phone will be as good. Personally I and happy that I have the nav6 - but you could consider any other device too, like the Garmin Zumo XT. The nav6 has some features where you can control the device with the handle bar wheel. I use it for zooming only. It has other features that I don’t use. Congrats on your purchase. And thanks for watching 😊

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures thanks for a great reply

www.mrashop.de/com/model-based-products/aprilia/atlantic-125200250300/bj-03/7188/vsa-typ-c-30/18-cm-vario-touring-part-vsa-c-incl.-clamps-all-years?c=90006445

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures thank you friend.

Mine is the clear version.

The spoiler is from MRA (www.mrashop.de/com/model-based-products/aprilia/atlantic-125200250300/bj-03/7188/vsa-typ-c-30/18-cm-vario-touring-part-vsa-c-incl.-clamps-all-years?c=90006445) and the Cool Cover is from Wunderlich.de (www.wunderlich.de/shop/en/catalogsearch/result/?q=cool+cover&vehicle=&___from_store=de) Thanks for watching. 😊

Yes, they make the seat a bit softer, doesn’t really get wet, and they keep my butt cool and a lot less sore on long warm days. In cool weather, they can make a little too cold, but it comes off easily. Thanks for watching 🙂

Det är en Garmin Montana GPS jag använder för tracks och backup GPS. Det var lite overkill, men jag ville testa. Kommer nog inte att använde den igen med tanke på att jeg också har en GPS 66i.

No. I’m sure you know the difference between the two, and I think they are equally capable - at least with my skill level and type of riding.

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures my family is from Poland i am from USA my dream trip is to drive from Alaska to New York than to ship the bike to Lisbon Portugal and drive to Krakow Poland will i have any difficulty getting service done while in Europe? Thanks for amazing video soon as the world opens up again this is the first thing i want to do

No, you’ll find plenty of shops. Authorized dealers are in larger cities though, but there are lots of places that can help you out in case you need it. Thanks for watching 🙂

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures just one more question haha im sorry, how does one go about getting international insurance so im covered driving across europe

I’m not sure. I would check out www.horizonsunlimited.com to see if there is any information.

Being the visitor, I am the one not speaking the language. Often, I try to read out loud what google translates, as my pronunciation makes people smile. I only met awesome people in Poland. But I know how to say “pivo”. Thanks for watching 🙂

Yes. Friendly horses though.

Sure, it’s a smartLav+ from Rode connected to the GoPro adapter through a TRRS to TRS adapter (SC3). Sounds like a lot (and it is), but it can easily be tucked in between the helmet shell and pads.

Thanks for your recommendation, RodeSC3 was the right one. Thanks, and when ever zu travel to northern Germany Braunschweig, let me know it. I’m living next to the local mountain called Harz an we have a lot of very nice tracks in the sourounding.

Awesome. I have only been to Harz by car. It’s a very scenic area.

Hi, check this: backroad.life/2022/02/poland-2020-track/ thanks for watching 😊

Mitas E07+ sorry if my pronunciation is off. www.mitas-moto.com/en/products/motorcycle--trail--tires/e-07-plus

No, I’m on Mitas E07 plus. They work great for me on the Poland trip where gravel is mostly sand and sometimes a bit deep. They are a little more road oriented but gives me good confidence on loose surfaces. But it really depends on the trip. My next ride (subject to restrictions) where it will be 99% asphalt, I’m going for Conti Trail Attack 3, which is 99% percent street tire. I don’t really know how long time it takes to plan a trip. The Poland trip probably an hour a night in average over a couple of weeks. I don’t plan with the overnights in advance. I have spent a lot more time on the British Isles trip with a lot of research on roads and point of interest. Maybe evenings over half a year. I enjoy the planning. If I just go out riding and follow the signs I probably end up taking the same roads as everyone else. I try not to do that.

I have added Arabic, but there is nothing in the subtitles as I don't know Arabic 😊

Thanks for watching 😊

Yes, they are not precise. But precise enough, I believe - at least for me. The change in behaviour I felt after airing down the front was probably mostly in my head. Thanks for watching 😊

@@BackroadMotorcycleAdventures cheers bma stay safe