Months of planning, two intense weeks and 4000+ miles to produce 60 pages… and hundreds of downloadable routes

Mark Manning and Simon Weir go motorcycle touring in Spain and Portugal for RiDE magazine

The work for this supplement began almost as soon as the 2014 Guide to Spain was published. Every time we got a “you should have been to/ridden…” email, we noted it. As we got closer to setting off to Spain and Portugal to take the pictures for this guide, we sought more assistance from experts to refine our photoshoot route… Then we ran out of time and found ourselves on the ferry.

Rolling onto the quay in Santander, we were hit by a shower that lasted for two hours. That was all the rain we saw until the final day of the trip, rolling back to Santander. For the next 15 days we averaged just over 290 miles a day in temperatures generally between 23°C and 35°C, with about four hours a day spent taking pictures on top of the riding.

Back in the UK at the end of the trip, the real work began: nine months of turning all the notes into the final routes. The research had generated more than 85,000 miles of possible roads to ride – whittled down gradually to the 43,000 miles actually used in the routes for this guide. None of it would have been possible without the help of the RiDE readers and the generous professionals who shared their knowledge with us.

What we rode

The photographer: Mark Manning
The bike: Triumph Tiger Sport
Price: £10,950
Engine: 1050cc inline triple
Power: 124bhp
Weight: 238kg
Fuel capacity: 20 litres
“Fast, agile, comfortable – as happy carving up mountain roads as devouring distance with the cruise control on. All the performance of a sports tourer with a more-forgiving riding position. Ideal for this kind of trip.”
Favourite road “The N330a from Manzanareula to Santa Cruz de Moya in Spain.” Route 45, Grand Tour, East Spain Tour

The writer: Simon Weir
The bike: Triumph Tiger Explorer XRT Current version Tiger 1200 XRT
Price: £16,150
Engine: 1215cc inline triple
Power: 139bhp
Kerb weight: 242kg
Fuel capacity: 20 litres
“Supremely capable everywhere from bumpy, gravelly minor roads to immaculate hairpins and high-speed sweepers. The big screen’s effective, the riding position roomy and miles just fly past – and I mean fly: it’s a big bike, but it’s real-world fast.”
Favourite road “The N339 from Covilha to Seia in Portugal” Route 90, Grand Tour, Portugal Tour, Picos & Portugal Tour

Please note: This page contains the route files for The RiDE Guide to motorcycle touring in Spain and Portugal which came free with RiDE magazine in July 2018. These website page are not regularly updated, so please check all critical information before you travel. All route files are in .gpx format. Garmin and BMW users can download the main file, which contains all the routes and our recommended hotels as separate waypoints. TomTom users can download the individual routes and use the Tyre software to convert them. For many routes we also have Google Map links. However, as Google Maps will not plot routes over seasonally closed high Alpine passes (such as those in the Pyrenees) when they’re shut, these may not work for every route all year round.