South West Bikers | Motorcycle Forum

Organised Donny motogp this year for 4 of us, now they are saying, what about Le mans next year

So if i am going to organise this how many others would fancy going.

Idea so far is :- Overnight ferry from plymouth to roscoff on friday night
travel down to Le Mans sat
Watch the race sunday
travel back to roscoff for monday afternoon ferry

Approx price £250 - £300 each

Why not try Portsmouth - Le hauvre, the ferry crossing is alot cheaper.
Just started lokking at prices and one way in March 09 it is £22!
It pays for the fuel up to Portsmouth at that price. Tis an over night crossing so you arrive Sat am and then a short drive down to Le Mans.
Worth thinking about.

Never been to a MotoGP there, but been to both car and bike 24hrs a time or two .......

Caen is closest, but the ride back to Roscoff is the best by far overnight ferries out are always best, with a cabin

I would assume the camping arrangements are similar for the MotoGP as the 24hrs, and we usually use the "concentration" which is based in "Le Houx" section of the circuit. This is shown as the green area all along the back straights. This year we found a great spot, right at the very far end, just before the circuit goes back round to the start finish straight. New shower & toilet block adjacent, and good views of the back of the circuit

The benefit of "concentration", though it costs a little more than say the traditional brit area of Garage Rouge, is that the bike and helmet get stickers with matching numbers, and these are checked everytime you leave or enter the circuit. They also check ignition switches to make sure they haven't been forced. You also get free vouchers for a sandwich, beer/soft drink, and hot drink.

Once again, not sure if its the same, but at the 24hrs NO SHOP within a 10 mile radius is allowed to sell beer. This year they were also stopping people taking glass beer bottles into the campsites We usually go to the intermarche at Eccommoy, south of Mulsanne towards Tours for beer supplies, and this year bought tins Beer is sold in tins on th circuit/site, but is expensive.

There is a new tram link from the entrance to the Houx area direct into the town centre, so once camped and provisioned you shouldn't need to ue the bikes again ..... A trip into town on such weekends is usually quite entertaining in the town square/near the railway station

Could be up for this. Went about 5 years ago.

Don't like the idea of camping though, like a bit of comfort!!

ZX6R wrote:Why not try Portsmouth - Le hauvre, the ferry crossing is alot cheaper.
Just started lokking at prices and one way in March 09 it is £22!
It pays for the fuel up to Portsmouth at that price. Tis an over night crossing so you arrive Sat am and then a short drive down to Le Mans.
Worth thinking about.

Who is that with ?

We will look at all ferry crossing options but was not really thinking about camping

If you're not camping, you'll need to be booking hotel rooms as soon as the dates are confirmed, unless you are prepared to be staying 25+ miles away ......

There again, if you have a rough idea of dates, you could just makes reservations over a cople of weekends, and cancel the ones you don't need when the dates are confirmed

Used to know of a really nice hotel at a place called Loue, but that was closed when we were looking for a hotel a couple of years ago There was also a good place at Eccommoy, but the chap sold up several years ago. Arnage looks to have some nice places, but never stayed there, and Mulsanne has a couple of places too. If you can get in at one of the places at Les Hunaudieres you would still be in walking distance of the circuit and the tram station at Houx

Dynasangel wrote:

ZX6R wrote:Why not try Portsmouth - Le hauvre, the ferry crossing is alot cheaper.
Just started lokking at prices and one way in March 09 it is £22!
It pays for the fuel up to Portsmouth at that price. Tis an over night crossing so you arrive Sat am and then a short drive down to Le Mans.
Worth thinking about.

Who is that with ?

LD lines, Brittany Ferries, and Condor all sail out of Portsmouth, Condor also go from Weymouth still, I believe.

LD Lines ae the only one going to Le Hauvre, and seem to be good on the price too.
I check my ferry prices on http://www.ferrysavers.co.uk/ they seem to cover most crossings

Oh provisional motoGP dates for 2009 are
Dates Grand Prix Circuit:
12th April Qatar Doha/Losail*
26th April Japan Motegi
3rd May Spain Jerez de la Frontera
17th May France Le Mans
31st May Italy Mugello
14th June Catalunya Catalunya
27th June Netherlands Assen**
5th July United States Laguna Seca***
19th July Germany Sachsenring
26th July Great Britain Donington Park
16th August Czech Republic Brno
30th August Indianapolis Indianapolis
13th September San Marino Misano
20th September Hungary Lake Balaton
4th October Portugal Estoril
18th October Australia Phillip Island
25th October Malaysia Sepang
8th November Valencia Ricardo Tormo Valencia

Chris

Already checked the dates with 1 hotel in Le mans we stayed at 5 years ago and got room for the 6 people i know want to go thats why i need to know if any one else is interested.
The dates dont tend to change to much so i used the weekend of the 17th May. Ferries wont have schedules until later in the year, but the hotel is a priority.

17th may for 2009, we went 3 years ago for my stag weekend and camped in the circuit near the dunlop bridge

no beer for sale close to the circuit but they had the best secure parking ive ever seen but you need to have your v5 and insurance documents to get your bike out of the car park. was a awesome weekend and would love to do it again but feel your pricing is slightly wrong colin. when i went 3 yrs ago it was 140£ for the ferry on the friday morning portsmouth to caen (plymouth to roscoff was ridiculous pricing and close to £250 if i remember correctly) and returned sunday night. the advance weekend ticket which included camping worked out to be about £55.

Like i said times & prices are'nt available for next may so used Oct prices as a base price

Just done a search on a hotel index page and came back with 9 hotels but all were fully booked.

Colin wrote:Like i said times & prices are'nt available for next may so used Oct prices as a base price

Just done a search on a hotel index page and came back with 9 hotels but all were fully booked.

am I allowed to say "told you so"

Our ferry fares for the 24hrs this year, LD Lines Portsmouth - Le-Havre return, out on Thursday night back on Monday evening, including a berth in a cabin on the way out, was approx. £65 for bike and rider. Four of us went, sharing a 4 berth en-suite cabin

We camped friday/saturday, and booked a (formule 1)hotel in Alencon for Sunday.

In fairness, I was really surprised at the quality of the new shower/toilet blocks they have built around the circuit for campers, and also how clean the attendants kept them all weekend

I can see the GP might be different, but staying at the circuit with the attendant "atmosphere" is what the 24hrs is all about

no at the gp the toilets were kept very clean,had to say i was impressed with the whole le mans motogp experience

the camping was a experience and a very good one too,we had a load of frenchies from the cognac region of france so spent the weekend accepting their hospitality