European Motorcycle Tours

Harley-Davidson Motorcycle Tours
in Europe and Beyond

This is our team. All love what they do to bring you great motorcycle touring.....

Gary France – Director and Tour Leader

Gary France – Director and Tour Leader

Gary, who formed and runs Tour1, is an experienced international rider, who has ridden in many countries. The list currently stands at 32 …..

Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Croatia, Cuba, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Italy, Lichtenstein, Luxembourg, Morocco, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Scotland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland, United States, Wales.

A regular at many international Harley-Davidson events, as well as many in the UK, Gary is an active member of HOG. Gary mainly rides a Street Glide and a Road King, plus he has a passion for custom motorcycles. Use this link to see Gary’s website.

In 2010, Gary rode 21,475 miles around the USA in a single four-and-a-half month road trip. He wrote a huge book about his journey called ‘France In America’. This is available here on Gary’s personal motorcycling website.

The motorcycle press often write about Gary, his travels and motorcycles. For examples, click here.

Gary leads many, but not all of the tours.  Other tour leaders are personally hand-picked by Gary.

Charlie France – Tour Leader

Charlie France – Tour Leader

Charlie has been riding motorcycles since the age of 17 and has a passion for building, maintaining and riding many different types of bike. At the last count, he has 8 motorcycles!

Charlie balances his time between riding motorcycles and his other two-wheeled love, bicycles.

As well as riding bicycles himself, he often crews international race teams by providing team management, logistics and mechanic skills.

He is an excellent motorcycle rider, which terrific inter-personal skills and he makes an excellent tour leader. He makes long-term friends with many of the people he goes on tour with.

Charlie has attended the Road Captains course run by Harley-Davidson, along with a Biker Down course run jointly by the Fire Brigade and Ambulance service, so is well qualified for the tour leader role.

Steve Morrell – Tour Leader

Steve Morrell – Tour Leader

Steve has been riding motorcycles since the age of 8 and has a real passion for touring and leading rides. He is very welcoming and friendly and thrives on others enjoying the tour. He currently rides an Electra Glide but, having a love of classic bikes, he also owns a 1953 Matchless which gets plenty of use.

Steve is the organiser of the annual  ‘Ride of the Ruperts’ charity ride, which raises money for disabled children.

Outside of work everything revolves around his passion for motorcycling and travel. He has also attended the Bike Safe course and a Biker Down course.

Steve is a very experienced rider, has ridden across Europe several times and also parts of the USA.

Gordon Dick - Tour Leader

Gordon Dick - Tour Leader

Gordon has a true love of Harley-Davidson developed over the last 20 years after attending a Harley-Davidson Rally in Aviemore, Scotland where he recognised the love for the bikes and the fun everyone was having.  Since then Gordon’s owned several Harley’s including his 2005 15th Anniversary FatBoy and his most recent a 115th Anniversary Street Glide.

With a young family Gordon hasn’t stopped riding in fact he’s introduced his kids to the brand!  Noah now asks to go to Bike Rally’s for his summer holidays and Erin…….. Well Gordon’s worried she’s going to steal one of his bikes before she turns 5!

In case he wasn’t busy enough Gordon was until recently also a Chapter Director & Road Captain for Red Rose Chapter & a hugely active HOG member.  To help others enjoy riding their bikes he commits time each year to train Harley-Davidson Officers from across Europe in skills including Event Organisation and Planning / Leading Rides.  In fact that’s where he first met Gary, Steve & Charlie.

Vicki Green - Tour Leader

Vicki Green - Tour Leader

Vicki found her love of motorcycles after having to say goodbye to her horse of a lifetime. Her late father-in-law saw her devastation and offered her a Honda VFR750 (that was the same age as her!) if she was to pass her test… the rest is miles and miles of happy riding!

With Vicki’s day job being involved with the Harley-Davidson UK & Ireland’s marketing team, and her weekends being involved with H.O.G. Vicki really does live, breathe and love Harley-Davidson!

As the Head Road Captain of the Sherwood Chapter, with over 20 active road Captains, Vicki is used to leading, tailing, and organising large group ride outs and maintaining a full and exciting riding calendar. She has attended several Biker Down and Bike Safe courses, as well as being first aid trained.

Vicki is also the National Ladies of Harley Officer and enjoys connecting with female riders and pillions all over the world to share the passion of riding and the Harley-Davidson lifestyle.

Vicki is a chatty, positive person who loves nothing more than getting to know the people on tour and making memories and friends she can cherish.

Matt Green - Tour Leader

Matt Green - Tour Leader

Matt has been riding motorcycles since the age of 19 and after buying his first Harley-Davidson at the age of 21 he hasn’t looked back!

Matt spends his days as a Harley-Davidson technician at Robinhood Harley-Davidson in Nottingham working on a huge range of models, and you can guarantee that he will bring a wide selection of tools on tour with him – just in case!

Matt is an adept motorcycle rider and is an instructor on the H.O.G. Road Captain’s Training Course alongside Gordon, and has attended many Biker Down, Bike Safe and First Aid courses over the years.

Matt is also part of the H.O.G. National Demo team and can often be found leading demo rides at large National events on behalf of Harley-Davidson. He is also the Assistant Director of the Sherwood Chapter and an active Road Captain regularly leading and tailing large group ride outs – he is known for his scenic and twisty route planning!

Matt loves nothing more than to ride. He is happiest in the saddle, riding with friends on the twistiest road he can find!

Elaine Shepherd - Tail Rider

Elaine Shepherd - Tail Rider

Elaine is one of the most well-known riders in the UK & Ireland HOG scene and has both organised and taken part in many Harley-Davidson events & initiatives. Until 2022, Elaine was the National Ladies of Harley Officer for 10 years and did a huge amount to inspire & encourage female riders and pillions to share their enthusiasm & passion of the Harley-Davidson lifestyle, creating many friendships along the way.

She’s also enjoyed many travel adventures in the USA and again, she has made some life long friends with members from US HOG Chapters.

Elaine is one of the national team of instructors for HOG ROC and the HOG Road Captain’s Training Course alongside Gordon & Matt.  That’s where she also met Gary, Steve, Charlie, Matt & Vicki.

She has attended Biker Down & Bike Safe courses over the years.

For Tour1, Elaine has a key role, tail riding some of our most important tours – the WW1 Battlefields and D-Day Landings tours, along with riding tail on every single ladies-only Bubbles and Chocolate tours for Tour1.

Having previously owned a Nightster and two Classic Springers she’s now more than happy clocking up the miles on her 2006 Road King.

Georgina Franklin - Office team

Georgina Franklin - Office team

Georgina started working at Tour1 in 2019 and lives close to the office. She looks after all of the behind-the-scenes work including booking all of the hotels, dealing with ferries, Eurotunnel, restaurants and generally helping towards the tours running smoothly.

You may occasionally get an email from Georgina.

When Georgina is not busy in the office she has three young children who keep her on her toes!