Greece Motorcycle Tours

Greece motorcycle tours are motorcycle trips across mainland Greece, from Attica to Epirus, Macedonia and Thrace. Topics run from the Attiki Odos, the Kakia Skala road and the A7 to the Ionia Odos. Next come the Euripus Bridge, National Road 6, the Servia High Bridge and the Egnatia Odos. The Roupel Gorge, the Makaza pass and four short answers close the list. Related reading includes a Peloponnese road trip, a Mainland Greece tour and a 10 day Greece itinerary. Other trips sit among the wider range of Greece tours.

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What are Greece motorcycle tours?

Greece motorcycle tours bring motorcycle touring to a country with about 2,528 km of motorways. Motorcycle touring is a form of tourism built around a motorcycle. That motorway network ranks as the largest in Southeastern Europe. Motorways and national roads form the main Greek road network.

Motorcycle touring has been a subject of note since at least 1915. A touring motorcycle is built for long range travel and for carrying luggage. Range means the distance a machine covers on one tank of fuel. Such trips can also involve camping or motorcycle rallies. A rally is a meeting of riders.

Motorcycle touring has seen significant growth. One reason is a growing interest in exploring remote places. Better machines, gear and well-kept routes have opened such trips to riders of all levels. In Greece motorcycle tours, the word motorway translates the Greek aftokinitodromos. Greek motorways follow higher building standards than national roads.

For Greece motorcycle tours, every Greek motorway name starts with the capital letter A and a number. National roads carry the letters EO, which stand for Ethniki Odos, or National Road. Odd-numbered motorways mostly run north to south. Even-numbered ones mostly run east to west, with exceptions. Expressway is a third term for a standard between the two.

• Expressway: The Greek term Odos Tachias Kykloforias means a road for rapid traffic.
• Branches: Auxiliary motorways that branch off the main ones carry two or three digits, such as A621.
• Numbers: A motorway takes the number of the national road it replaced, though not always.

For Greece motorcycle tours, motorcycle touring is a growing segment within the motorcycle industry. Long-distance riders take the idea further, with rides of over 100,000 kilometres. Such journeys can last years or even decades. Touring also supports trade in motorcycles and equipment.

How does the Attiki Odos ring road around Athens fit into Greece motorcycle tours?

Greece motorcycle tours run through a nation whose capital has the Attiki Odos, meaning Attica Road. This toll network of motorways makes up the outer beltways of Greater Athens. A beltway is a ring road around a city. A toll is a fee for road use.

The Attiki Odos motorways reach a total length of 70 kilometres. Five motorways make up the system. The A6 runs from Eleusis to Athens International Airport. The A65, called the Aigaleo Ring, runs from Skaramagas to Ano Liosia. For Greece motorcycle tours, the A62 is the Ymittos Ring, Ymittos being the Greek form of Hymettus.

Construction of the A6 began in 1996. Part of it opened in March 2001, together with the airport it serves. The Ymittos Ring followed on 3 September 2003. That stretch crosses the north of the Hymettus hills. In November 2003 the western part opened, from the A8 junction to Kifisias Avenue.

A small 2.5 km section opened in April 2004. It joined the Ymittos Ring to the westbound side of the A6. Westbound means heading west. For Greece motorcycle tours, a 2005 plan proposed 76 km of new motorway for the system. That plan aimed for a total length of 141 km.

• Extensions: The plan of 21 October 2005 named new branches towards Rafina, Lavrio and Vouliagmeni.
• Hymettus Beltway: The same plan set out a southward extension of this ring to Vouliagmeni.
• Airport link: The A64 motorway runs from Koropi to Athens International Airport.

For Greece motorcycle tours, the A621 is a motorway inside the same system. It runs from Doukissis Plakentias Avenue to Agia Paraskevi. Talk of extending the network first opened in 2001. That was the same year the first section was delivered.

Which story does the Kakia Skala road give Greece motorcycle tours?

Greece motorcycle tours belong to a country where National Road 8a once linked Athens with Corinth and Patras. Builders laid it out in the 1960s. It took over from the old National Road 8 as the main route to the Peloponnese.

The road was a toll road across the Attica, Peloponnese and West Greece regions. Its route measured 215 km in total. The road started east of Eleusis, branching off the old EO8 as a dual carriageway. A dual carriageway has two separate roadways, one for each direction. Its western end met the A5 near Rio.

The Athens to Corinth section opened first, in November 1962. For Greece motorcycle tours, the Megara to Kineta stretch is the Kakia Skala pass. That stretch opened in late 1964, already built to motorway standard. Between Megara and Kineta the road ran through a series of tunnels. The Corinth to Patras section followed in 1969.

That 1969 section was a 14 m wide undivided road. Undivided means no barrier separates the two directions. The Aigio bypass opened in 1973 with motorway features. A bypass is a road that passes round a town. For Greece motorcycle tours, the whole route was delivered in stages between 1962 and 1973.

• Upgrade: Between 1999 and 2006, the Kakia Skala pass gained 3 lanes in each direction.
• Tunnels: That upgrade also gave the pass a network of five tunnels and a set of bridges.
• European routes: The Eleusis to Corinth section formed part of European route E94, an international road number.

For Greece motorcycle tours, the western section from Corinth to Rio was part of European route E65. The National Road 8a has gradually become a motorway, the A8. Three sections of the old EO8a survive today, including a bypass north of Elefsina.

What does the A7 motorway through the Peloponnese mean for Greece motorcycle tours?

Greece motorcycle tours are set in a land whose Peloponnese peninsula carries the A7 motorway. The A7 links Corinth and Kalamata by way of Tripoli. Its starting point lies west of the Isthmus of Corinth, a thin neck of land.

The A7 is a controlled-access highway, meaning vehicles join and leave only at set junctions. From Corinth to Tripoli the road measures 74 km. From Corinth to Kalamata it measures 147 km. For Greece motorcycle tours, a 45.5 km section of the A7 runs from Lefktro to Sparta. The total length reaches 205 km.

Builders made the Corinth to Tripoli segment between 1984 and 1990. It officially joined the Greek road network in 1992. Until then, Corinth and Tripoli had only one road linking them, National Road 7. That older road ran by way of Nemea, Dervenakia, Argos and Achladokampos. It had two lanes and remains open to local traffic.

A section of the old road west of Myli bears the name Kolosourtis. For Greece motorcycle tours, the A7 is credited with spearheading the economic growth of Tripoli. Spearheading means leading from the front. The southern end of the motorway also forms the ring road of Kalamata. It serves local farming and industry.

• Completion: The road became fully operative from one end to the other in late 2016.
• Upgrades: Work on older sections included new tunnels and the completion of the Artemision tunnel.
• Start: The A7 branches off Greek National Road 8A just west of the isthmus.

For Greece motorcycle tours, improvement work on the older A7 sections added more light fixtures. The same work upgraded the median, the central strip between the two directions. Curves on existing sections were also straightened. The agreement covered building, running, maintaining and modernising the road.

Where does the Ionia Odos run, for Greece motorcycle tours in western Greece?

Greece motorcycle tours unfold in a country whose western mainland carries the A5 motorway, or Ionia Odos. The road starts at Ioannina. It follows the western coastline of mainland Greece down to the Gulf of Corinth. Odos is the Greek word for road.

At Rio it crosses the gulf by the Rio-Antirrio bridge. The last section, from Perdika to Ioannina, was completed in August 2017. For Greece motorcycle tours, the A5 is the second major north to south road connection after the A1. It also forms part of the Adriatic-Ionian motorway across the Balkans.

Its building was one of the hardest construction tasks in Greece. One reason was its place on the foothills of the Pindus range. Foothills are low hills below the main peaks of a range. The motorway runs 196 kilometres, with 2 lanes each way. It has 19 interchanges, meaning junctions where roads cross on different levels.

For Greece motorcycle tours, the A5 counts 24 bridges and 4 twin-tube tunnels. A twin-tube tunnel has two separate tubes, one for each direction. The road also has 133 overpasses and underpasses. The 33 km Agrinio bypass was the first major northern segment completed. It largely replaced National Road 5, a route 12 km longer.

• Arta bypass: This 17 km stretch runs from Sellades near Arta to Filippiada.
• Rest areas: The motorway has 5 rest areas, 4 of them serving both directions.
• Patras bypass: This section passes east of Patras through the foothills of Mount Panachaiko.

For Greece motorcycle tours, the Patras bypass opened to traffic in October 2002. Its planning began in the 1980s, but building started only in the 1990s. The bypass holds a run of tunnels and bridges. Traffic in central Patras dropped markedly after its opening.

Why does the Euripus Bridge at Chalcis matter to Greece motorcycle tours?

Greece motorcycle tours share central Greece with the Euripus Bridge, a 395-metre cable-stayed bridge at Chalcis. It crosses the narrowest part of the channel between Euboea and the mainland. In a cable-stayed bridge, straight cables run from towers down to the deck.

Builders completed the bridge in 1992. For Greece motorcycle tours, it stands as Greece’s first road bridge of the cable-stayed type. Its concrete deck, the flat surface that carries the road, is only 45 centimetres thick. Engineers gave the slim deck enough stiffness to do without lengthwise girders. A girder is a large supporting beam.

The stay cables sit close together, about 5 metres apart. Each cable leans at a minimum angle of 23 degrees. During building, the cables also held up the formwork for the deck. Formwork is a temporary mould that shapes wet concrete. The deck is joined solidly to the towers to cope better with earthquakes.

For Greece motorcycle tours, the bridge spans run 90, 215 and 90 metres. A span is the stretch between two supports. The deck is 13.50 metres wide. It holds 2 carriageways and 2 pedestrian sidewalks. A carriageway is the part of a road that carries traffic. The deck surface covers 5,390 square metres in all.

• Towers: Each tower rises 90 metres, with about 45 metres above the deck and 45 below.
• Pendulums: Hinged tension pendulum members at the end piers pass uplift forces into the foundations below.
• Heat: Slender towers and a soft superstructure let the bridge handle stress from rising temperatures.

For Greece motorcycle tours, the bridge also goes by the names Euripos Bridge and Evripos Bridge. The deck was extremely slender, which made design and building a technical challenge. The deck is pre-stressed in both directions, along and across. Pre-stressed concrete is squeezed by tensioned steel.

What links National Road 6 to Greece motorcycle tours in Thessaly and Epirus?

Greece motorcycle tours: across central and north western Greece, National Road 6 links the Volos and Igoumenitsa ports. Its short name is EO6. On its way it passes through Ioannina, Metsovo, Trikala and Larissa. Ports are towns where ships dock.

European route E92 follows the eastern part of the EO6, between Volos and Trikala. A European route is a road number shared by countries across Europe. The road runs through five regional units: Thesprotia, Ioannina, Trikala, Larissa and Magnesia. Each regional unit is a smaller district of a Greek region. Its regions are Epirus and Thessaly.

For Greece motorcycle tours, the EO6 is officially an east to west route. Volos marks its eastern end and Igoumenitsa its western end. Along the way it passes Kalabaka and Mourgkani. At Neraida, the EO6 briefly overlaps with the EO19, formerly the EO18. Overlap here means two numbered roads share one stretch.

On 9 July 1963 a decision of the ministry created the present EO6. It joined all or part of three short-lived national roads. Those roads had existed by royal decree from 1955 to 1963. A decree is a formal order with the force of law. For Greece motorcycle tours, the old EO23 once ran from Larissa to Ioannina.

• Old EO14: This short-lived road ran from Volos to Larissa before 1963.
• Old EO26: This earlier road linked Ioannina with the port of Igoumenitsa.
• Old E87: Until 1975, the EO6 formed part of the old European route E87.

For Greece motorcycle tours, the EO6 has a junction with the A2 at Igoumenitsa. Another junction with the A2 lies at Metsovo. At Velestino the road meets the A1 motorway. Volos holds junctions with the EO30 and the EO34.

Which facts make the Servia High Bridge a landmark for Greece motorcycle tours?

Greece motorcycle tours belong to the same country as the Servia High Bridge, in the Kozani regional unit. At 1,372 m long, it is one of the longest bridges in Greece. It lies 15 km southeast of the city of Kozani, in West Macedonia.

Construction began in 1972, together with the artificial lake. Artificial here means built by people rather than formed by nature. The bridge was completed in 1975. Its Greek name, romanised, is Ypsili Gefyra Servion. Romanised means written in the Latin alphabet. For Greece motorcycle tours, the bridge forms part of the EO3, also numbered E65.

The EO3 runs from Athens through Lamia, Larissa and Kozani to Florina. The bridge lies 5 km northwest of the town of Servia. For Greece motorcycle tours, the Rymnios Bridge near Aiani is a smaller crossing of the same lake. It measures 615 m in length. It lies to the southwest of the Servia High Bridge.

Riccardo Morandi designed the bridge. He was an Italian civil engineer, best known for his new use of reinforced and prestressed concrete. Reinforced concrete has steel bars set inside it for strength. Morandi was born in Rome. He was later appointed professor of bridge design at the universities of Florence and Rome.

• Inspections: The ministry inspected the bridge in 1995, after the Kozani earthquake, and again in 2012.
• Old crossing: A former bridge across the Haliakmon river once stood beside a prehistoric settlement near Servia.
• Under water: That prehistoric site now lies deep below the surface of Lake Polyphytos.

For Greece motorcycle tours, the town of Servia has a population of 3,174, by the 2021 census. Excavations at the nearby prehistoric site took place between 1971 and 1973. They came before a dam flooded the valley to create the lake.

What story of building lies behind the Egnatia Odos, for Greece motorcycle tours?

Greece motorcycle tours fit a country whose north is crossed by the A2 motorway, the Egnatia Odos. It runs from the western port of Igoumenitsa to Kipoi, on the eastern border with Turkey. The whole route belongs to European route E90.

That E90 road runs from Lisbon in Portugal to Zakho in Iraq. For Greece motorcycle tours, the A2 megaproject began in 1994 and was completed in 2009. A megaproject is a very large building scheme. Before 1994, 94 km of the road already existed within other motorways. Between 1997 and 2004, builders added 393 km.

The motorway has 76 tunnels, together measuring 99 km. It also includes 1,650 bridges. Each direction has two traffic lanes, and an emergency lane runs on the right. A central reserve, a dividing strip, separates the two directions. For Greece motorcycle tours, a final bridge opened on day ten of the fifth month, 2014.

The road serves ten regional units, from Thesprotia in the west to Evros in the east. It passes through Ioannina, Metsovo, Grevena, Kozani, Veroia, Thessaloniki, Kavala, Xanthi, Komotini and Alexandroupolis. Its port links reach Alexandroupolis, Kavala, Thessaloniki and Igoumenitsa. Nine major vertical axes, or north to south roads, join it to its northern neighbours.

• Population: The area the road serves holds 36% of the total population of Greece.
• Farmland: The same area holds 54% of all Greek farmland and 65% of irrigated land.
• Airports: The motorway links to airports at Alexandroupolis, Kavala, Thessaloniki, Kozani, Kastoria and Ioannina.

For Greece motorcycle tours, the A2 area also accounts for 33% of the gross national product. It holds 41% of industrial jobs and 51% of mining activity. Gross national product is the total value a country produces.

What does the Roupel Gorge on the Strymon add to Greece motorcycle tours?

Greece motorcycle tours operate in a country whose northern edge holds the Roupel Gorge, or Roupel Pass. This steep river valley lies in the north of Central Macedonia, immediately south of the border with Bulgaria. The Strymon River formed it.

The Strymon rises in the Vitosha mountains and ends in the Aegean Sea. It enters Greece from Bulgaria west of the village of Promachonas. For Greece motorcycle tours, the river opened up the pass between the mountains Belasica and Orvilos. The gorge is rich in biodiversity, meaning a wide range of living things.

That biodiversity is at risk from the project to build Motorway 25. Motorway 25 forms part of European route E79. Past the gorge the ground gets flatter, so the Strymon loses speed. There the river splits into two branches. For Greece motorcycle tours, the western branch runs to Lake Kerkini. A branch is one arm of a divided river.

From Lake Kerkini the western branch flows southeast. It rejoins the eastern branch near the village of Lithotopos. The pass was fortified in the years 1914 to 1916. To fortify means to strengthen a place with defences. The Roupel Fortress played a major role in World War I events in Greece.

• Invasion: The Roupel Fortress also played a major role during the German invasion of Greece in 1941.
• Belasica: This mountain range on one side of the pass carries the Greek names Belles or Kerkini.
• Share: About 45% of Belasica lies in Greece, 35% in North Macedonia and 20% in Bulgaria.

For Greece motorcycle tours, Belasica is a fault-block range about 60 km in length. Its width runs from 7 to 9 km. A fault-block range is a mountain block raised along cracks in the earth’s crust. Its highest point, Radomir, reaches 2,031 m.

Where in the Eastern Rhodopes does the Makaza pass sit, for Greece motorcycle tours?

Greece motorcycle tours: the Makaza pass is a mountain pass in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains. It connects the southernmost part of central Bulgaria with north-easternmost Greece. A pass is a route that crosses high ground. It was once also known as Balkan Toresi.

The pass joins two regions, Northern Thrace and Western Thrace. It forms part of Pan-European Corridor IX, a transport route from Helsinki in Finland to Alexandroupolis. A corridor here is a planned long-distance travel route. For Greece motorcycle tours, the border sits on the top of the pass, 682 metres above sea level.

The pass runs from the Bulgarian village of Strizhba to the Greek town of Komotini. Strizhba lies in Kirkovo municipality, Kardzhali Province. Komotini is the regional capital for East Macedonia and Thrace. The Aegean Sea lies about 30 kilometres from Komotini. The pass also gives access to the A2 motorway, whose name is Egnatia Odos.

The pass crosses a saddle of metamorphic rock. Here a saddle means a dip in high ground between two ridges. Metamorphic rock forms when heat and pressure deep underground change older rock. For Greece motorcycle tours, this saddle separates the Maglenik and Gyumyurdzhinski Snezhnik ridges. A major battle of the First Balkan War took place there in 1912.

• Closure: The pass had been closed since the end of World War II.
• Iron Curtain: Bulgaria and Greece then ended up on different sides of the Iron Curtain.
• Reopening: Efforts to reopen the pass across the mountains began again in 1995.

For Greece motorcycle tours, new roads over the pass opened for traffic on 9 September 2013. The Makaza-Nymfaia border checkpoint opened on the same day. A checkpoint is where border officers check travellers. It is the sixth working checkpoint between Bulgaria and Greece.

What do travellers ask about Greece motorcycle tours, and what are the answers?

The Greece motorcycle tours country holds a capital whose main coastal road is Poseidonos Avenue. That avenue serves the Athens built-up area. Its other name is Paraliaki, from the Greek for seaside. The avenue runs from New Faliro in Piraeus to Glyfada and beyond.

Which screen history does Poseidonos Avenue hold for Greece motorcycle tours?

Greek film-makers shot a number of films on the road, particularly between the 1950s and the 1980s. Television shows have used it since the 1980s as well. The avenue is the major highway in the southern part of the capital. It ranks among the largest roads in the Athens urban area.

Before Greece motorcycle tours, what is the Makrynoros range?

Makrynoros is a forested mountain range that dominates the north of Aetolia-Acarnania, in western Greece. Its highest point rises to about 900 m. The range stretches north to south for about 25 to 30 km. Across, from east to west, it measures about 10 km. Such a range is a chain of connected peaks.

What is the Klokova Tunnel, in the setting of Greece motorcycle tours?

The Klokova Tunnel lies on the A5 motorway, the Ionia Odos, in western Greece. It lets the motorway bypass Klokova mountain. Until recently, the narrow National Road 5 crossed that mountain. Works on the tunnel began in March 2015. They ended when the tunnel opened on 12 April 2017.

Where do the Geraneia Mountains rise, for Greece motorcycle tours?

The Geraneia Mountains are a range in Corinthia and West Attica. Their highest point is the peak Makryplagi, at 1,351 m. The range covers the northern part of the isthmus. That isthmus separates the Saronic Gulf from the Gulf of Corinth. Gulf is the name for a broad inlet of the sea.

Featured photo: Nicholas Hartmann, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.