Harley · Mallorca
Five Days Around Mallorca
One island, one mountain range, two hundred and eighty kilometres of coast road, and a rhythm that suits a heavy cruiser better than any Alpine pass ever will.
Chrome, coastline, unhurried miles
Harley
A heavy cruiser is a poor choice for a piste and a wonderful one for a coast road at seven in the evening. This department is about the second kind of journey: warm tarmac, long sightlines, a hotel with somewhere to park, and days measured in views rather than kilometres.
Everything here assumes a machine that weighs 320 kilograms, carries its weight low, and rewards a smooth hand more than a quick one. That is a different sport from the rest of this magazine, with its own rhythm and its own mistakes.
Start with Mallorca if you want the short version of why this works, with the touring piece if you have ridden sport or adventure bikes and want to know what actually changes.
All stories in Harley
Harley · Mallorca
Five Days Around Mallorca
One island, one mountain range, two hundred and eighty kilometres of coast road, and a rhythm that suits a heavy cruiser better than any Alpine pass ever will.
Harley · Technique
What a Cruiser Changes
Three hundred and twenty kilograms, a long wheelbase and your feet in front of you. Every one of those changes how a riding day works, and none of them is a disadvantage once the route matches the machine.
Harley · Andalusia
Andalusia at Walking Pace
White villages, empty plains and a mountain road to Ronda that was made for a machine with long legs. Southern Spain in spring is the best week a cruiser can have in Europe.
Harley · Logistics
Touring in Style, Without a Support Truck
Luxury on a motorcycle trip is not a better hotel. It is not carrying your own luggage on the days you do not want to, arriving before dark, and never once standing in a car park wondering where to park.
Where would you point a cruiser first?
Questions we get asked
Is a cruiser a bad idea for a touring holiday?
Not at all, as long as the route is tarmac and the days are sensible. A modern touring cruiser is comfortable for six hours, carries luggage properly and is quicker along a coast road than the numbers suggest. It is the wrong tool for gravel, for hairpins taken hard and for anywhere you might have to turn it around on a slope.
Rent or ride your own?
Rent, for anything more than a few hours from home. A week on Mallorca or in Andalusia on a rented machine costs less than the fuel, tolls and ferries of riding there, and you arrive rested. Book the model rather than the category, and confirm the panniers.
How many kilometres a day?
Two hundred to two hundred and fifty is a good day on a cruiser in the Mediterranean, including a long lunch and two viewpoints. Three hundred is possible and turns the trip into transport. Four hundred means you will not remember the third day.
Field notes
One letter a month from the track
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