I came across this: https://www.raid-orion.fr when I was trying to research some stuff for a magazine article.

It's a 'posh' French organised bike tour from Paris (as you'd expect) to Samarkand (Uzbekistan, to save you looking it up) that seems to have been running for a few years now (not 2020, obviously) and they say they're going again this year in August. These Rally-Raids do seem to have some history - the first one I can find was run in 1972 (on the coat tails of a car one in '71) although they may go back beyond that.

The 'posh' bit above is down to the 4* / 5* hotels they use + the organisation to make it run smoothly and it reflects in the cost - €8700, but as an alternative to spending the kids inheritance on a cruise it looks to me like a much better thing to do.

So, finally, my question. Anyone have any experience of these trips and care to comment. Or comment anyway even if you haven't been. The articles I found on the 1975 version - Raid Shah Abbas - made it sound like something you'd do if the Paris - Dakar wasn't tough enough, but that was probably 'journalist as hero hyperbolic excess' - or was it?

I won't be signing up for it this year as I have my own travel plans well advanced (+ it's fully booked) but my wife thought it sounded interesting and she's the one with the money

Like in a good crime story the best advice is sometimes the simplest - follow the money and get it booked for next year! It looks interesting and sprog #1 raved about Samarkand when she went a few years ago.

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You will have to do without pocket handkerchiefs, and a great many other things, before we reach our journey's end, Bilbo Baggins. You were born to the rolling hills and little rivers of the Shire, but home is now behind you. The world is ahead.

Hard to say...

But shipping, Hotels, flights included - sounds nice.

Best part is - you can have fun, the crew car did carry your Luckage.. More fun because your bike didn’t have to carry stuff.

If I look on FB, they seams to avoid the Iran on 2021 what is reasonable because of COVID...

But I never did hear from it, and it is a Roadtrip? So the Adventure is not same like a rally where you need a special driving licence? You will probably don’t Race really.

So to get a organised ride, could be the opposite to a adventure- compared to drive alone???

Surfy

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About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

These things always sound more exciting when they're described using French terminology. 'Rally' sounds like there's some kind of competitive element involved - special stages, timing, winners. losers, who's swaggering around with bragging rights, who's standing in the corner wearing the dunce's cap. The 'Raid' bit sounds like some kind of special forces activity involving a submarine and rubber boats.

I've always been a little uneasy about mixing motorcycle touring and 5* hotels. They seem at opposite ends of the activity spectrum, a little like rushing out of a sauna and jumping into an ice covered lake. Going from one to the other can be quite a shock. The only organised bike tour I've ever been on (back in the 70's) used campsites and 1* hostels. Whether that says more about me and the expectations of bike travellers in general is open for debate but there's always been a limit to my levels of two wheel travel stopover 'luxury'. Money, bizzarely, doesn't really come into it.

There's quite a few of these tour and stay in posh hotels events available for the four wheeled world - for classic cars particularly. Stuff like Alpine tours, drive the wine roads, cultural highlights of mitteleuropa etc. Despite having a suitable classic car they've never appealed, but somehow this bike one does. Maybe it's the destination rather than the organisation, or doing it in company with somebody else doing the heavy lifting rather than as a solo effort. Perhaps if there was one where you had to stay in ditches or sleep under bridges I'd be more interested, but if I used my B120 for the Raid-Orion version I'm not certain they'd let me in to some of the hotels.

For £8,000 + you could have 3 months in Morocco and come back with £3,000
to spend on the wife !!

For £8,000 + you could have 3 months in Morocco and come back with £3,000
to spend on a deposit on a new bike !!

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Hear the challenge, learn the lesson, pay the cost.