Riding a motrobike in France is fun. You have the whole gamut of roads: from the wide well maintained autoroutes, via good country roads with its sweeping bends to the narrow single lane mountain roads, where the hairpins are like hairclips and you have to turn your steering to the stops and are leaning heavy on the back brake. Also, riding with the trailer is a breeze, I was amazed how easy I could navigate these narrow twisted roads. But there is a learning curve to climb. Firstly, with 300 kg (wet) the bike is quite heavy by itself. Add two people in riding gear and a fully packed trailer plus some stuff in the side panniers, and you almost double the mass. This means that you have to plan the corners with care so you can take them in one smooth sweep and you try to avoid any need for corrections half way. The small roads are often very bumpy, especially in the mountains. So if you are leaning into a corner with an unven surface, the whole system starts to flex. The first time that happens you think that the whole kaboodle is running out of control, but amazingly, you get through it in one piece. But next time you take the corners a little slower and look out for bumps.
A special mention for some of the road repair jobs they do. One method is to pour asphalt into long, small cracks. You end up with thin lines of pure tar on the road. They can be extremely slippery. The first time I hit one in a corner, my front wheel slipped of the tar until it was stopped on normal road surface. Whoah, that cranks up the old adrenaline pump!
People often complain about the French driving manners, but In general I have no problems with that. In every country you have your quota of dickheads behind the wheel, but overall the riding is OK. The drivers are very attentive compared to Australia: they often leave a gap for you to merge or to enter the roundabout, something unheard off in Western Australia. And if there is a “bouchon” (traffic jam) they go out of their way to let bikes through! With my Beowulf exhausts they can hear me coming up from behind, and I love to see them all moving to the side to let me pass! Same in the city: you can just move to the left of a long line on cars and skip to the front. Love it!
So in all, it has been easy to adjust to the local driving style and I have not encountered anything totally unexpected (yet! 🙂 )
Tripping Europe 
Hi, nice web page you have here. (great pictures) I am looking for a trailer like yours. And I too have a FJR (2009). What is your experience (Feeling when driving, maintenance, solidity etc.) after having the trailer for approx a year.? (It looks so nice. Great design)
Looking forward to hear from you 🙂 (I live in Norway)
Riding this trailer is very easy and I love it. The ride is smooth and stable and the FJR has more than enough power to pull a fully laden trailer even with a pillion.
You need to steer with a steady hand: avoid too much corrections when you go into the corner. If you are a bit uncontrolled the whole thing can start to flex. But the big advantage is that it has the same size as the bike. Therefore no surprises with getting stuck: if the bike fits, the trailer will follow.
And I have done very narrow alpine roads, and I never had any difficulties navigating the hairpin bends.
Initially I had some problems that it started to sway at higher speeds (above 130 km/hr). But that was completely gone during the last trip. Probably due to a new suspension and different tyres.
I was unlucky that the suspension broke on me. Most likely a manufacturing fault of the main body, but the result was that it required a complete suspension replacement. The design of which has now changed and it is lot more robust.
BTW, the guy who makes this one now has a new design which I fancy.
Thank you for the reply. I will contact Mono-Trailer and Eric Debenham for further info. (I was not able to open the link in your answer) But I trust this new designed suspension are in all new trailers. Drive safe 🙂
BTW; what kind of tyre would you recomend.? And what was OE mounted on the (your) trailer.?
Sorry, the link was borked. It works OK now.
About the tyres: no idea to be honest. Eric will know as the trailer is with him at the moment. I am presently in Australia so I cannot have a look 🙂
Thanks, and have a good time “down under” 🙂
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