Testimonial Monte Carlo or Bust! September 2024

“This was my 4th tour with BN European Tours and it was another memorable one. Both John and Jen took turns in leading the group whilst the other drives the van with our luggage. The routes/roads were well researched and are excellent, along with fuel stops at about the 120 mile mark, and coffee stops before and after lunch. Everyone on this tour looked like they were enjoying the roads and performance of their bikes, followed by cold beers at excellent hotels at the end to sign the days riding off.

Don’t be put off because you don’t get GPS files to follow, the drop off system works and allows you to ride at your pace, but for me it was fun trying to stay within 100 metres of Jen!

John and Jen once again another big “Thank You” and cheers to everyone on this trip.”

Frank Ojo, 4th tour, Ducati Multistrada 950, Kent

“Hi John and Jen, thanks for another great trip. Highlight for me was trying to keep up with two sixty-something women for half an hour on Jen’s last leading day! How can you explain that to others when you get home??? Thanks again and hope you have a great Spanish Cities Tour.”

Steve Moss, 7th tour, Triumph Street Triple 675R, Dorset

“I didn’t think it was possible to surpass the riding experience John & Jen offered up on both the Swiss Alps and the Spain & Portugal tours. I loved them both, however my overriding memory of this trip will be the fabulous roads. The twisties just kept on coming, day after day, snaking through the gorgeous gorges of the Lot, Tarn, Ardeche and Verdon, followed by the fast sweepers of the Route Napoleon. It was a great tour, made all the more special by the lasting friendships that were made. As soon as your dates are released I will definitely be booking up for two tours next year”

Sue Worthy, 4th tour, KTM Duke 890 R, Dorset

“Hi Jen & John, thank you for another great tour. As always your attention to detail was spot on. Don’t know how you do it for the money!! All the best & see you in South Africa!!”

David Lindfield, 8th trip, KTM 1290 Superduke GT, West Sussex

We also received feedback from two of the group of six in the picture above. In the interests of full disclosure we have included their comments (slightly condensed) in this review together with our replies below:

From Frank Townley:

Firstly, I can fully appreciate the effort, planning and organisation required to put together our tour, the hotels, routes and service given by yourselves was first class.

I can fully understand the needs for refuelling on smaller bikes – made worse by excessive speed and weekend straight road rangers – well at least until it rained! But with numerous fuel, coffee and lunch stops many days were spent with stoppage times over 3 hours…and I think this accentuated our late arrival a few days as the days riding mileage was not long on any day.

I think the incident the first morning was unfortunate and caused by some finding their position in the running order in rain conditions, a number were riding beyond their ability in the rain with many “near do” incidents caused by a desire to catch up/overtake then having more speed than ability.”

Our reply:

The tour page on our website states that “as we always stop every hour and a half for coffee, lunch or fuel any pillions will not be too long in the saddle”. As Tim was on his 19th tour with us – and has done this tour previously – we’re surprised you weren’t aware that we regularly stop. We do not want our tours to be an endurance test, and considering there were guests on this tour who have done 26, 21, 19, 12, 11, 10, 8, 7 etc trips with us we feel we have the balance right.

All the fuel stops were scheduled in our routes. There were no additional stops for small bikes using excessive speed. There were only two instances when we arrived at a hotel after 18.00hrs – once due to ticket problems on the peage, once due to a road closure resulting in difficulty getting out of Nice.

To suggest the cause of John Y’s accident on the first day was for the reasons you have stated – we would like to point out that John Y is an advanced rider of 16 years, an Observer with the IAM for 5 years and until recently was the Chair of Norfolk Advanced Motorcyclists. This was his 12th tour with us, he would not have been riding as you suggest, he has nothing to prove and always rides within his ability to an advanced standard.

And from Mark Darlington:

The initial contact by John was excellent, paperwork, price and organisation was great. Hotels were good, food lovely and John’s friendliness and organisational ability was 10/10. He was considerate to others in the group when riding and kept to the speed limits in towns. He checked everyone was with the group at stop off points and made a great effort at night to talk to everyone. Overall John was an excellent ambassador and host for the company and I thoroughly enjoyed his company.

HOWEVER, on the first day I heard Jen say “YOU’RE ON HOLDAY, YOU ARE ALLOWED TO BREAK THE SPEED LIMIT”. I was not too happy with that comment.

Jen appeared to ride for herself when leading the group and had no consideration for the people at the back. She exceeded the speed limit in towns, overtook on solid white lines and contravened “no overtaking” signs which set a bad example to other members of the group who obviously thought it was acceptable to do. This did not look good for your Company.

Jen was quite distant from our group and did not make any effort at all to get to know us.

Her sarcastic comments about “THE EXCLUSIVE 6” irritated as the days progressed.

Jen shouted at John in public at least twice.

Jen drove the van on the last day on the motorway between 110 – 130kmh which was stupid. Some people were doing 150kmh to catch up.

Some of the group had no idea how to ride as a group with no etiquette or consideration for other members. 

At the end of the tour it was quite evident Jen did not want to make any effort at all to say goodbye to our “Exclusive” group.

If John had solely run the tour I would have given 10/10 and recommend you to many of my biker friends.

Due to Jen’s obvious dislike to our group which was extremely noticeable and due to the comments above 4/10 with no recommendation at all, which is extremely regretful as I know how much John worked hard on the tour.

Our reply:

At our first briefing to the whole group John mentioned speed limits and suggested that if anyone was going to break the speed limit they should not do it on a long straight approaching a town as that is where the Gendarme would most likely be. Jen does not recall saying what you have written above, especially as a Gendarme was present in the breakfast area during the whole briefing.

When Jen leads the group she rides at a speed she considers suitable for the road and the rider behind – some we know well are happy to make progress – but everyone has to ride their own ride. There is no need to consider people at the back as the marker system allows everyone to ride at their own pace and if anything goes wrong the lead rider will be notified – as is what happened when John Y had his accident. Jen cannot see how she can consider people riding at the back of a group of 15 motorcycles.

Your group were extremely difficult to approach as you all sat together at every coffee stop, lunch stop and at dinner – apart from the first & last nights. Any approach Jen made was met with a brief response and no reciprocation at all. 

Jen never referred to your group as “the EXCLUSIVE 6”. At breakfast in Orange she did say that we had “infiltrated” your group as we had taken two places at a table set for six. You and Frank sat at the opposite end of the table and when Tim arrived he commented that there were only four places left for your group. What was very disappointing for us was that the behavior of your group in keeping yourselves to yourselves drew several comments from the other guests.

We cannot recall Jen shouting at John – we do have “banter” which regular guests come to expect.

The van was infront of the group on the motorway to Falaise before lunch stop – possibly Jen got through a peage before the bikes. But there would be no need for anyone to be doing 150kmh to catch up as the bikes were following John who was riding at 130kmh – the speed limit.

Regarding the group riding – in our first briefing we always ask fast riders to make sure all overtakes are courteous and that no-one is put under any pressure. Equally slower riders are asked to keep an eye open and if a faster rider wants to overtake to move over and let them pass. We did have a word with one fast rider and at the next morning briefing reiterated the “quid-pro-quo” that we would like to see. Unfortunately, the feedback we received every day was that your group would not move over to let the faster riders pass and that as you all rode close together you made it very difficult for other riders to overtake, hence they overtook many of you in one go.

When we parted company in Falaise Jen shook hands with all of your group and said goodbye. It was commented on afterwards by other guests that none of you could even be bothered to stand up to say goodbye.

Jen was very disappointed in your group’s failure to socialise with the rest of the group and the fact that other guests felt the need to comment on this when they were on their holiday. As we wrote to Frank above, the number of repeat visits by our guests speaks volumes. Obviously not everyone is going to get on with everyone else in this world all the time.

We would like to add, for the benefit of anyone reading this, that in 22 years of running motorbike tours, 534 trips and 5855 guest visits (as at the end of 2024) we have never experienced a group such as these six who kept themselves to themselves so much, nor received such disappointing feedback.

Since posting this review we have received wonderful feedback from others on the tour in response to the two comments above – your support is very much appreciated:

“We were incensed at a couple of the comments from our fellow travellers. How dare they! Surely Frank read the information beforehand where it states quite clearly that you stop approximately every one and a half hours for a coffee or lunch break…And as for his comment about John Y – well words fail us! As for Mark’s personal attack on Jen – that was totally uncalled for and pure fiction! Everyone rides at their own pace (and they certainly did!) and his comment “Some of the group had no idea how to ride as a group with no etiquette or consideration for other members” – we can only assume he meant the members in his group. And they were a group. Most of them made no effort at all to socialise with anyone else. We noticed in all the photos they are always together, whereas other people mixed. They were incredibly puffed up, arrogant and rude road users. One of them  pulled out in front of us on a couple of occasions and, when tooted at, made no effort to apologise. We will certainly continue to use and support BN for our touring”

“We are disappointed and disgusted by the reviews by Mark and Frank. Both reviews are unfair, unfounded and in no way are their views representative of the group. Their personal attack on Jen was disgraceful and undeserved – definitely not the Jen we all know…They rode with arrogance and total disregard for other group members – it was like trying to pass a mobile roadblock. On more than one occasion they intentionally tried to block other members of the group from overtaking them…Jen please take their comments with a pinch of salt, as deserved. This is our 3rd tour with you both and we look forward to many more. If you wish to repost this as a reply from us to their reviews please feel free.”

“OMG! have just seen the tour pictures and reviews – those from two from the group of six are out of order! You always run fabulous tours and if your customers are prepared to get involved then it’s reciprocated by you both in spades. It’s clear some people are never pleased and have an over inflated ego! Thanks again and long may you continue to run superb tours at excellent value for money”

“This feedback is absolute nonsense – excellent responses back to them. Don’t let it bother you – the repeat business from us all speaks volumes”

“Thought that the couple of your reviews from those that kept to themselves were a bit harsh.”

And that’s it, back to the ferry and only one more tour to go. Thanks to all those who sent great feedback and photos – especially Sara (I remembered your review this time!), Sue and Marion & Paul. Thanks too to Ken & Sue for riding as “back-markers”. This tour has amazing scenery, brilliant roads with great hotels & food. We appreciate that the late arrivals at two hotels (due to a road closure in Nice and problems at the peage) made for a couple of long days but hopefully everyone still enjoyed the tour. We hope to see many of you again on future tours. Ride safe, John & Jen.