Our Sassy take on fuel budgeting in Europe
A bit of recent history
Samantha and I are relatively new to world travel by Moto, only having taken a course and road test in 2014! What started as a lifelong dream of learning to ride has now turned into a full time passion! Thank you Too Cool Motorcycle School.
It’s hard to believe we have travelled more than 40,000 kms in four and half years of motorcycling! We did this while still working full-time!
We are happy to share our experiences, tips, tricks and planning methods. The internet has been a huge resource to us. I guess maybe this is our way of giving back.
It is with this passion for MC travel in mind that we decided to sell everything and take a year abroad. As you can well imagine we spent some time planning and budgeting for such a trip!
We have rolled around in nine countries including Canada, USA, Costa Rica, Italy, Bali, Britain, France, Spain and Belgium.
In this post we will focus on the last four countries listed above as that is where we are right now! Petrol prices in Europe are over 2X the cost of our native Canadian gas prices.
Alright, time for the nitty gritty!
Our fuel budget planning looked something like this:
Distance:
We looked at a map and punched in a bunch of way points to determine an estimated total distance to travel. We settled on 14,000 kms. Keep in mind that we want to experience the places we go, staying for longer periods of time. I know many riders who undertake long duration trips will put on a lot more miles. The slower cadence gives us the opportunity to really meet and get to know locals and to see the sights.
Mileage:
We travel a maximum of 250 kms per day and at a top speed of between 80-90 kph. For comparison, in Canada and the States we will do 400km per day largely due to the long straight roads. (And no roundabouts!)
Before we left, our Sassy Soviet steed had been getting a very consistent 14 km/ltr (7 ltr/100 km or 33 US mpg) and so we used 14 km/ltr for our calculation.
Petrol cost:
Scouring the internet for up to date petrol pricing in the countries we planned on seeing produced some numbers. We also spoke to friends, family and other motorcycling enthusiasts. This research gave us a very reasonable 1.60 euro per ltr estimate.
Calculation Total: 14000km / 14km per ltr x 1.6 euro per ltr = 1600 euro x 1.5 exchange =$2400 CAD
Fuel prices so far this year
These are the fuel prices we’ve experienced in the first 3 months of travel in Europe:
| France | 1.40-60’s euro per litre |
| Spain | 1.08-10’s euro per litre |
| Belgium | 1.20-30’s euro per litre |
| UK | 1.20’s pound per litre or 1.37ish euro per litre |
Working it out in the real world
As you can extrapolate from the above chart we are very happy with our calculation because the overall budget allowed for more than we are paying.
Our fully fitted and loaded up 2017 Ural Gear Up, Sassy, is now getting between 15 and 17 km/litre consistently. That’s in the neighbourhood of 38 US mpg or 6 ltr/100km!! Almost what I was getting with the Triumph Tiger 800, two up and loaded!
With fuel even cheaper than expected it all equals a score for us! We are under budget.
Since June of 2017 we are travelling Nowhere Fast but Everywhere Cool!
Fully filled we carry 19 ltrs in the tank and an extra 10 ltrs in the jerry can. Estimating 16 km/ltr and with 29 ltrs on board we could make it 460 kms in a pinch.
Thanks again to everyone who is following along with our adventures and sharing the experiences with others! Don’t forget to drop your comments below and or email us with questions, comments and suggestions.
Take care and keep on travelling,
Dan&Sam
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2 Comments
Geoffrey · April 26, 2020 at 6:57 am
Nice article, as a fellow traveller I have always found relaxation by knowing I had plenty of gas to get me to where I was going and beyond. I take every opportunity, within reason, to fill my tanks.
I would love to hear/read how “Sassy” is handling the miles. Any mechanical issues? Did you carry any spares to service or maintain the Ural. I have a 2015 Ural GearUp and do back road driving as I’ve never felt comfortable on the highways… Radom thoughts of becoming a hood ornament as I plot along at 90km hr whilst everyone else is drifting by at 120km hr.
Dan&Sam · April 26, 2020 at 7:53 pm
Geoffrey, Sassy is handling the miles really well. We had some kinks to work out in the beginning but since then we’ve been smooth sailing. At 27, 000 kms now, we were just out for a ride in the foothills yesterday and she was purring. I will be posting a new video soon about her mechanical state and some of our upgrades and maintenance since coming back to Canada. Check out our YouTube channel and subscribe for a notification when it comes out. Take care.