17 replies to this topic

[DrWackadoodle]

Being a solo-raver this year I’m planning on riding down on my motorbike.  Is it worth sacrificing the extra space and gear a car allows you to bring for the convenience of getting on and off site?

[ivan]

Hey !

I have a bike , but I would prob never take it to a festival again !

Done local ones such as Rock n Blues , but for me there is too much risk riding home after partying
for 5 days.

I have an R1 and it brought the possible consequences when I had a long weekend camping and
partying in Wales.  To this day I am still not sure how I got home with myself and the bike in
one piece.  I made sure I was OK to drive and had plenty of sleep etc , but it did not make much
difference and it was scarey trying to concentrate !

[The Nal]

Syd Barrett had a bike.

[robalotalob]

ivan, on Feb 16 2010, 12:50 PM, said:

Done local ones such as Rock n Blues , but for me there is too much risk riding home after partying
for 5 days.

Whereas driving a car is fine!

[barnaby cringle]

The Nal, on Feb 16 2010, 12:52 PM, said:

Syd Barrett had a bike.

He also had a cloak that was a bit of a joke.

Edited by barnaby cringle, 16 February 2010 - 01:09 PM.

[Sabcully]

robalotalob, on Feb 16 2010, 01:05 PM, said:

Whereas driving a car is fine!

    

[Mark E. Spliff]

I've done three festivals by bike, including Glasto in 2008.

It's brilliant.  On your way down to site, you'll have ample opportunity to overtake long stationary lines of traffic.  If you encounter the chaos which happened on the roads last year, you'll be the only one moving.  When you get to site, there's a free motorcycle compound with 24hr security which is just off the main road - you can just ride straight in and out.  You get given a ticket, which you'll need to use to get your bike back out - and you can do this throughout the festival, so if you need to go and pick supplies up from a supermarket, it's no hassle.

I've got a sports-tourer with a 3-box hard luggage system.  I managed to squeeze almost everything into the boxes, and then strapped my tent and double airbed to the pillion seat with ratchet straps.  If you haven't got a luggage system, you could probably do it by using a huge rucksack - which would rest on the pillion seat anyway.  This would have the advantage of making you that much narrower and able to squeeze through smaller gaps.  However, the advantage of hard luggage is that you can leave it on your bike and leave all your helmet and bike gear in it - saves you carrying it all to your tent.

I doubt you'd be able to carry everything in one go though.  You'd probably want to arrive, set up camp, and then head back out and do a supermarket run for food and alcohol.  I managed it in one run, but I didn't need to bring food or drink as I get it laid on in the workers campsite.

Weather is an issue - you'd want to have some pretty good waterproofs to be on the safe side.  However, after 2008, the only problem I had was blowing all the dry dust off before riding away.   The ride home was one of my favourite rides ever - perfect weather, dry roads, and I waited til around 6pm, so I'd fully recovered from Sunday night.

(Don't forget to bring a nice big plank of wood to stick under your side stand.)

[5co77ie]

The Nal, on Feb 16 2010, 12:52 PM, said:

Syd Barrett had a bike.

Did it have a basket and a bell?

[beamends]

barnaby cringle, on Feb 16 2010, 01:08 PM, said:

He also had a cloak that was a bit of a joke.

You could ride his bike if you like.

[DrWackadoodle]

Mark E. Spliff, on Feb 16 2010, 01:36 PM, said:

I've done three festivals by bike, including Glasto in 2008.

It's brilliant.  ...

... The ride home was one of my favourite rides ever - perfect weather, dry roads, and I waited til around 6pm, so I'd fully recovered from Sunday night.

Sold!  To the man with a GS1150 (ie me).  I take you point Ivan but if I'm not on the bike I'm in the car.  I rekon chlling out most of Monday is a bloody good idea, I'd be lucky to make Newcastle in one go anyway.  

Roll on June!  

[The Nal]

barnaby cringle, on Feb 16 2010, 01:08 PM, said:

He also had a cloak that was a bit of a joke.

Love the avatar. A proper legend.

[barnaby cringle]

The Nal, on Feb 16 2010, 02:13 PM, said:

Love the avatar. A proper legend.

Paul McGrath, m'lord, Paul McGrath. Oh Lord, Paul McGrath. On the piss, m'lord, on the piss..........(and so on, and so forth)  

[Langdale Wolf]

This thread is excellent - I can't remember a better thread title.

I can't ride a bike (or drive a car) but I think I want to purely on the strength of this thread title.

A+.

[mr_bizarre]

I've done many a festival on my bike, but it's a rather large ex police BMW with large panniers so there's always space to strap tents and things on

Your packing has to be light but it's easily done & you don't have to queue with the cars

Never done Glasto on the bike though.....Would rather do it then public transport though....

[Nickyboy]

Me and my mate have done our last 2 Glasto's (05 and 09) on the bikes.  Its great for getting out and in to the site really quickly.  

Obviously you have to travel a bit lighter (48 packs of lager a no no, etc), and organize yourself a little better.  But otherwise no downsides.

We usually wait until mid afternoon Monday before getting back on the bike, and as other commentors have said, its the same rules that apply for Driving in terms of sobering up, etc.

One word of warning, although the bike compound is guarded 24 hours throughout the festival, when we got back to our bikes last year, my mate had his wing mirror broken off, and my number plate was broken.

We both suspected some person, less conciensious than us, and a bit worse for wear, did a bit of weaving out of the compound on Sunday / Monday morning.......the toerags.

[lord stradmor]

And there was me thinking Chris Spedding had been booked...








Often been tempted to take the mighty 750ss, as I always travel light anyway and often have to get on and off site and as Lady Stradmor and I will be arriving seperately in June, this could be the year...

[denwyn]

I love my bike to much to leave it out in the rain at Glastonbury       . Did think about going on it,but would'nt sleep at night knowing it was not tucked away in the garage...Sad I know

[musiclove123]

Kinda off topic but I have been on the back of a motorbike a few times and it is most exciting if not slightly terrifying!