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Notes on riding in Greece
Notes on tolls, riding conditions and road behaviour in Greece;
TOLLS
They are included in the final costing
FUEL
Most stations open at 7.00 and close at 8.30 p.m. In towns, at each area there is one that stays open overnight. On big roads they close much latter usually. At the mainland and Peloponese the stations are quite regular. In rural areas are few and far apart.
· Some stations accept credit cards.
· Lead-free is widely available.
The octane rating of super is 96 or 98
Unleaded super gasoline has an octane rating of 95
Regular unleaded gasoline has an octane rating of 91 or 92
Nowadays SHELL has unleaded called “V-POWER” at the rating of 99
and BP unleaded called “ULTIMATE” at the rating of 100
Unleaded is priced between 0.69-0.89cents/litre (20/10/03)
ROADS
The tour is designed for the average rider. Novices probably will find it too demanding.
The tours do not have on-off riding except the occasional piece of gravel road.
A lot of new road nets are built the last few years. The overall standard of roads is much higher than 5 years ago. Nevertheless, during the tours we are going to ride through some roads with magnificent site seeing, but not so great asphalt quality.
Minor mountain roads usually do not have the white line at shoulder.
ROAD SIGNS
They are not so many of them at the country.
Not all are written in English as well as Greek
Except the main road nets, the changes of road conditions are not always sign posted.
RIDING
WE DRIVE AT THE RIGHT LANE
“Red traffic lights are often ignored, and other driving habits are typically dangerous. These facts stem from understandable frustrations due to terrible congestions, narrow roads and lack of parking space. Nevertheless traffic lights are generally observed. Short of refering to the typical driving as unreasonable, let's term it offensive but, given the context, reasonably so.” MOTO EUROPA: A free resource for European motor travel
At the countryside the above facts are not so intense BUT on narrow country roads riders must constantly be on the lookout for oncoming, passing vehicles.
Entering and exiting a mountain village the road always gets narrower, SLOWDOWN
SLOWDOWN and/or STOP when you encounter sheep on country roads
· Speed limits are as follows:
· 40 -60 km/h in built-up areas
· 70 - 110 km/h outside built-up areas
· 120 km/h on expressways.
· Some roads are three lanes wide: the middle lane is used for passing in both directions. If there is little room to pass on the road, fast drivers expect slow drivers to pull onto the shoulder in order to let them by.
· Passing is illegal when approaching a train crossing that isn't equipped with a barrier.
· Fines should be paid to the designated police station or the rental office, not to a police officer.
GENERAL
A lot of times restrictions/regulations are not followed, even though you have to know when you can do this.
Helmet is compulsory. They can even confiscate your bike if you do not wear it, even though this is hasn’t happened with rentals.
Bikes can park on the pavement, but is better not to block pedestrian’s walking space.
Bikes can ride in designated bus lanes in big towns.
Be careful of uneven road surface when you are putting your feet down at stopping or hopping off.
Speeding, helmet and drink-drive laws are strict.
ROAD MAPS are very good Greek regional maps
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| Went Live : Mon 26th January 2004 |
| Author : Anna |
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