Nürburgring bans motorcycles from tourist laps

As the opening day for Touristenfahrten–the Nurburgring’s daily open-access tourist laps–nears, the track just announced that there will be something missing from the public sessions on the Nordschleife in 2025: motorcycles.

“The safety of all participants is our top priority” according to Nurburgring managing Director Ingo Boder, "and that analysis led directly to this decision. For 2025, cars and bikes will no longer mix during Nordschleife tourist days, but motorcycles will be allowed to participate in dedicated bike-only sessions during the tourist days held on the Gran Prix circuit."

Motorcyclists looking to experience the Nordschleife, however, will have to attend one of the four dedicated motorcycle training days the track is hosting or an independent club track day. For bikers, that means a track day with an entry cost of 700 euros or more, versus 30 euros per lap for Touristenfahrten laps.

Boder goes on to say that their analysis revealed that “the different driving dynamics can lead to misunderstandings between two- and four-wheelers. In this case, motorcyclists are particularly at risk because, unlike car drivers, they have no crumple zone. That is why we have decided to strictly separate cars and motorcyclists in the future and to restructure the offer for bikers so that they can enjoy the Nürburgring experience as safely as possible.”

At the risk of being overly nitpicky, we’d counter by saying that motorcycles do indeed have crumple zones, just that they’re made of dude. And that’s possibly the biggest logistical hurdle to having bikes and cars share the track. In the case of an inevitable crash during tourist laps, a car incident will generally be cleared quickly, likely even without a need to close entry to the track. A motorcycle incident is far more likely to involve serious injury requiring ambulance intervention, which then requires the traffic—and therefore the revenue—to stop flowing until the incident is cleared.

Speaking as someone who has shared the ‘Ring with bikes before, it’s a bit surreal. Motorcyclists at the Nurburgring tend to exist at one end of the spectrum or the other: They’re either on a leisurely cruise, or they’re going absolute balls-to-the-wall, dragging knees through every corner and hovering the front wheel between them. But even the fastest, most well-piloted bikes make their speed in a very different way than cars do, and they’re not exactly the most visible things when they’re at extreme lean angles.

While I feel for my two-wheeled brethren, and this is a crushing loss of high-quality track time on a legendary circuit, I’m honestly surprised the cohabitation lasted as long as it did. Here’s hoping the circuit can maybe find a way to safely integrate the bikes into Nordschlieife operation more than those few days a year and give motorcyclists a safe place to engage in their sport.

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