Riding in Belgium: filtering, speed limits and city zones

Carry your licence, registration document and insurance certificate. EU licences are valid as they are; UK photocard licences don't need an International Driving Permit. UK-registered bikes need no green card, according to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau, and need a UK identifier on the rear.

Belgian motorways have no vignette or toll for motorcycles. The one toll you may meet is the Liefkenshoek tunnel on the Antwerp ring, where motorcycles pay at the barrier. Belgium has announced a digital road vignette for cars and other four-wheeled vehicles; as announced it doesn't cover motorcycles, but check before you travel. If you are heading on to Austria or Switzerland, buy those vignettes before you reach their borders.

A helmet is compulsory for rider and passenger. Ride in proper protective kit; Belgian roads in the Ardennes are often wet and leaf-covered in autumn.

Road	Default limit
Outside built-up areas, Flanders	70 km/h
Outside built-up areas, Wallonia	90 km/h
Brussels-Capital Region	30 km/h unless signed
Motorways and divided roads	120 km/h unless signed

These are defaults: signs override them, and in Flanders many dual carriageways are signed down to 90 or even 70 km/h. The Ardennes are in Wallonia, so the 90 km/h default applies on the open roads there.

Belgium allows motorcyclists to filter between lanes of slow or stopped traffic, as long as:

• you ride at no more than 50 km/h, and
• you go no more than 20 km/h faster than the traffic you are passing.

On motorways and expressways, filter between the two leftmost lanes. Riding up the right-hand side of a queue is a different matter and isn't allowed where overtaking on the right isn't. When drivers form an emergency corridor between the two leftmost lanes, give way to any emergency vehicle that comes through.

Belgium's riding roads are mostly in the Ardennes and they're open year round, though summer weekends bring traffic around Spa-Francorchamps on race days. Check the circuit's calendar if you plan to ride the roads around it on a big weekend.

Brussels and some Flemish cities, including Antwerp and Ghent, run low-emission zones. Wallonia, where most of the riding is, has none. Each zone has its own rules, and foreign vehicles may need to be registered before they enter. Before you ride into Brussels, check the current rules for motorcycles on the official LEZ Brussels site, and for Antwerp or Ghent on the city's own LEZ page.

Fuel is easy to find along the motorways and in Ardennes towns. The Ardennes are at their best from May to October; they are low hills, so they stay rideable on dry days outside that window, but watch for mud and wet leaves on the lanes.

Belgium rewards riders who stay off the ring roads. The motorways around Brussels and Antwerp are among the busiest in Europe at rush hour, and a jam there eats the time you saved by taking the motorway. If you are heading for the Ardennes from the coast, it is usually calmer to cut south-east through Wallonia and pick up the valleys from Namur or Liège than to fight through the capital.

Once you are in the Ardennes, the riding is on the valley roads that follow the rivers: tight, wooded, with stone villages at every bridge. The surfaces are mostly good but the shade keeps them damp long after rain, and autumn leaves turn the inside of a bend into a skid pan. Farm traffic and logging lorries leave mud at field entrances. Keep a margin on blind corners and you will have the place to yourself on a weekday.

In the cities, cobbles and tram lines are the hazards. Cross tram rails at as steep an angle as you can, and treat wet cobbles like ice under braking. Bike lanes are busy, and cyclists will pass on both sides at junctions, so check mirrors and shoulders before you turn.

Junction priority is not always obvious on minor Belgian roads. Read the signs as you approach every crossroads, and if there are none, slow right down and be ready to give way.

From Calais or Dunkirk the Belgian border is a short ride, and the Ardennes are a half-day from the coast. That makes Belgium the natural first night on the way to the Eifel and Mosel in Germany.

• The Belgian Ardennes loop: the Ourthe and Amblève valleys and Spa-Francorchamps, with biker hotels in the Ardennes.
• The Eifel just over the German border, with Eifel stays.
• The Mosel valley, a short ride south-east via Luxembourg.