Motorcycle touring in Germany: the rules that matter

Carry your full driving licence with the motorcycle category, the bike's registration document and proof of insurance. An EU licence is valid as it is. Riders from the UK with a photocard licence don't need an International Driving Permit for Germany; holders of an old paper licence should check whether they do.

Green cards are not needed for UK-registered vehicles anywhere in the EU, Switzerland or the rest of the Green Card free circulation area, according to the Motor Insurers’ Bureau. Your normal certificate of insurance is the proof, but ask your insurer to confirm that your policy gives full cover abroad and not just the legal minimum. UK bikes need a UK identifier on the rear: a UK sticker or a number plate that shows it.

Motorcycles pay nothing to use the Autobahn and there is no vignette. Germany's motorway toll is a charge on heavy goods vehicles, not on bikes or cars.

The exceptions are two privately run tunnels in the north: the Warnowtunnel in Rostock and the Herrentunnel in Lübeck. Both charge motorcycles a toll at the tunnel, with seasonal and vehicle-class rates set by the operators. If your route to the Baltic coast or the Scandinavian ferries runs through either city, budget for it or route around.

If you cross into Austria or Switzerland on the same trip, you will need a vignette there before you join the motorway. See our Austria and Switzerland pages.

A helmet is compulsory for rider and passenger. Beyond that, ride in proper protective kit: it protects you, and it matters if there's ever an argument about liability after a crash. Most modern bikes run dipped headlights all the time; keep yours on in daylight too.

Road	Default limit
Built-up areas	50 km/h
Outside built-up areas	100 km/h
Autobahn	No general limit; 130 km/h recommended

The 130 km/h figure on the Autobahn is a Richtgeschwindigkeit, a recommended speed. Going faster isn't a fine in itself, but it can count against you on liability if you crash. In practice large stretches carry posted limits, often variable ones on gantries, and those are enforced. Lower limits around towns, villages and on bendy B-roads are common, and mobile speed traps on popular biking roads are too.

Filtering is not allowed in Germany. Riding between lanes of queuing traffic counts as overtaking on the right, and riders have the same duties as car drivers in a jam: wait it out.

On multi-lane roads drivers must form a Rettungsgasse, an emergency corridor between the left lane and the others, as soon as traffic slows. It is for police, fire and ambulance only. Riding up it on a motorcycle to skip the queue is forbidden and treated as a serious offence. Pull into the corridor formation like everyone else.

There's no national weekend ban on motorcycles, but local road authorities can close a road to bikes, fully or at set times, with the round "no motorcycles" sign. These closures follow noise complaints or crash records and they cluster on exactly the roads riders want. Two well-known ones:

• Schauinsland (L124), near Freiburg in the Black Forest: closed to motorcycles on weekends and public holidays through the riding season, open on weekdays. Check the current status with the Freiburg road authority before you plan a Saturday run.
• Kesselberg (B11), between Kochel am See and Walchensee in Bavaria: the climb from Kochel is closed to motorcycles in the afternoon and evening through the riding season. The hours have been changed more than once; check the signs and the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district office for the current status.

Other closures come and go, for example on summer weekends around the Feldberg in the Taunus. A route that worked last year may be signed off this year, so read the signs at junctions and keep a plan B. Loud exhausts are also what drives these bans: a standard silencer keeps the roads open for everyone.

Many German cities have an Umweltzone that needs a green emissions sticker for cars. Motorcycles are exempt from the sticker and the zone bans under the federal rules, as the Umweltbundesamt (Federal Environment Agency) lists. You can ride into Stuttgart, Munich or Berlin on a bike without buying one.

Fuel is easy to find. Autobahn service stations are open around the clock but charge more than stations in towns just off the junction, so it pays to come off the motorway to fill up. E10 is sold everywhere next to standard unleaded; check your handbook if your bike is older.

The main season runs from spring to autumn. The low ranges (Eifel, Mosel, Sauerland, Harz) are rideable from April in a dry year; the Black Forest tops and the Bavarian Alps can hold snow and grit into spring. Summer weekends are when the closures and the traffic peak, so weekdays are worth a lot on the famous roads.

Most UK riders cross the Channel to Calais or Dunkirk, by Eurotunnel from Folkestone or by ferry from Dover, then ride through Belgium. The Eifel and the Mosel are a long day's ride from Calais; the Black Forest is a comfortable two days. Belgium has its own filtering rules on the way, see riding in Belgium.

• The B500 Black Forest High Road: long, fast sweepers along the ridge, with biker hotels in the Black Forest.
• The Eifel and the Nürburgring: volcanic hills, empty B-roads and the Nordschleife on the doorstep. Eifel stays.
• The Mosel valley on the B49 and B53: vineyard bends and river villages. Mosel stays.
• The Harz loop in the centre of the country, with Harz biker hotels.
• The Sauerland loop: the closest proper hills to the Dutch and Belgian borders. Sauerland stays.