Edelweiss Ducati Tour Part 6: The Dolomites and the end.

The night in Bolzano, (or Bozen in German) is worth mentioning. We stayed in a 5 star hotel, apparently the best in the city; a cut above any of the other hotels we stayed at - not that any of them were bad, but this was special. I suspect someone at Edelweiss head office goofed, and this was all that they had time to organise. We enjoyed an excellent dinner in the garden, and then our guides took us on an interesting city walking tour.

The Dolomites in northern Italy are not only a great riding area but a hugely popular tourist destination.

 Great roads, spectacular mountain scenery, plenty of restaurants and accommodation made for a lot of traffic in places, although we tried to avoid the main roads. Lots of bikes on the road and lots of very capable riders really winding it.  Not to be outdone, with Matthias leading, we kept a cracking pace  - speed limits be damned. Apparently in Italy the road signs and road markings are viewed as "guidance" only, so on the "odd occasion" we crossed the solid white line, lane split, sped, etc. and had this been Australia, we would have probably lost our licences and had our bikes impounded several times over, on the day. But simply put, you cannot help yourself on these bikes on these roads. They are very twisty and are well surfaced and properly cambered, making fast cornering at unbelievable lean angles easy. Up at the front of the group, it was simply balls-to-the-wall all the time. 

We had lunch at the top of the Giau pass surrounded by stunning Alpine peaks 

and then rode on to the picturesque ski resort of Cortina where we mooched around for a while.

We made our way back from Italy into Austria to overnight at the town of Lienz. Being peak European holiday season there was a big open air market right next to our hotel, surrounded by several beer garden style restaurants. Unfortunately the revelry outside went on into the wee hours, to the great irritation of some of our party. 

The last day

The next morning it was raining and misty as we made our way to Grossglockner. I was ffffffreezing as the temperature went down to 3 degrees, with the Ducati ice warning coming on. But as we arrived at the main viewpoint, there was a sudden break in the weather and the view of over 30 peaks higher than 10,000 ft became visible against a crystal clear blue sky - a truly magical moment and unique vista. And then, just as we were leaving, the weather closed in. Impeccable timing. 

Our guide Marko, stopped for lunch at this spot in the middle of a series of tight turns on the road where we were treated to a grandstand view of the passing show of bikes roaring through. Inspired, some of the group left early to ride the road again while we finished our coffees.

The final section of the ride took us through the Bavarian State Forest with a coffee break at a golf course right in the middle of it.  And then it was back to Seefeld to return the bikes. Unfortunately on one of the days, a stupid parking lot mishap cost me a me a mirror at €55 and a hand guard at a price yet to be determined.

In all, it was a very memorable tour, probably the best riding I have ever done, although New Zealand comes close. Could I have done it a bit cheaper? Yes, but without knowing the area and the best roads it probably would not have been anywhere near as good. Having a support van makes a big difference for this type of tour. You have much more luggage with you and don't have to carry any of it.  It is waiting for you in your hotel room when you arrive. Also it was fun meeting a group of people from all over the world with a common interest. I had many interesting conversations and we shared a wonderful experience.

Edelweiss Ducati Tour Part 5: Stelvio in the Rain

The day began with a steady showers.  Personally, I welcomed the cooler temperatures but the  prospect if riding the Stelvio Pass in the rain was a bit disappointing. So it was on with the wets and out into the pouring rain.  

By the time we arrived for a brief coffee stop at the historic ( so they tell me ) town of  Glurns, I had discovered just how porous my boots were. With a 14 degree temperature, my feet were pretty cold.

The Stelvio at 2757m is the 3rd highest pass in Europe-  the other two are in France. It is very much part of European motorcycling folklore and is a destination for anyone touring the Tirol.  It is a very impressive sight even though on the day there was a lot of mist. (The pictures below are not all mine)

From the bottom, all 48 switchbacks to the top were quite wet. The road surface is generally quite good but is patchy in places and can be quite narrow, so one has to ride carefully. When it was built, horse drawn traffic determined a maximum gradient of 11%, so it's not that steep and many cyclists come to do the Stelvio.  Lots of cars, caravans and camper vans too.

After a brief stop at the top, it was down the other side, which is a lot more modern and more fun to ride.

After lunch in Bormio we rode the Gavia pass- definitely the most tricky and dangerous road I have ever been on .  The temperature was down to 6 degrees - note to self: need new boots! In places the cliff hugging road has no barrier at all and drops off for hundreds off metres. The road is barely wide enough for one car and scores of blind corners make it quite hair-raising. You have to use your horn around every corner. There are a number of YouTube videos where you can see this. Just add pelting rain and wet roads to the equation and you will get the picture. Unfortunately I did not take any pictures. But we all made it without any mishap. A testament to the ability of the riders on this trip.

The last bit of the days ride into Bolzano was fast sweepers on a fantastic road. So in one day we got to really see how fabulous and versatile the Multistrada is. Despite the rain we were able to maintain a pretty good pace on wet roads due to the great grip and suspension. The rough roads are dealt with by simply switching driving modes and in the fast bits we could ride at super bike pace.

Tomorrow its the Dolomites.

Edelweiss Ducati Tour Part 4: Switchbacks

Day 3 of this tour. 

The route stitches together 6 passes between the Swiss town of Andermatt and the Italian town of Livorno:

St Gottardpass

San Bernadino Pass

Splugenpass

Passo del Maloja

Passo del Bernina

Forcola Di Livigno

All different, all good. The interesting part of these passes is how they are laid out and the riding technique required.

I have ridden a lot of mountain twisties in different parts of the world, but Alpine passes are quite different. In almost all cases, the gradient of the slopes that has to be traversed is extreme, requiring the road to snake left and right up the slope. The series of resulting hairpin bends are called switchbacks. These hairpins are different to what you might be thinking. Firstly they are often extremely tight, with a radius barely greater than half the width of the road in many cases (big vehicles have to stop and reverse to get through the turn and on a bike it is close to a full lock turn) and at the inside point of the turn, the gradient is extreme; almost a step.

Getting through a series of switchbacks on a pass requires a fair degree of coordination and skill. If you are going uphill, firstly you will need to choose your line carefully so that you are at the outside limit of the lane and prepare for a late apex turn-in. As you are about to turn in, you need to look uphill, which is a pretty sharp turn of the head and up, to check the line through the corner and more importantly to check for oncoming traffic. In many cases the roads are very narrow and a vehicle descending could be using your side of the road. In a right hand turn (remember you are driving on the right in Europe) If you do not have enough momentum and are going to have to put your foot down, you are in trouble and could drop the bike as there is no downhill footing due to the steep gradient. Once through the first 90 degrees, you look through the corner and accelerate out.

Once you have mastered the technique you can put the series of manoeuvres together smoothly and link one corner to the next. Downhill it's a bit different as you are scrubbing off speed. Due to the gradient, the back brake is virtually useless and the front forks are almost fully compressed, shortening the steering and allowing for a quick tip-in. On left hand descending corners one can carry quite a bit of corner speed and drop the bike low for a fast traverse. If the road surface is good, and you have plenty of grip, this is great and exhilarating fun.

Day 4 of the Tour.

This is a "rest day". We stayed in Livigno, and just did a short 180km loop taking in the town of Davos and the Albulapass. 

Livigno is a "duty free" town and the most northerly city in Italy, only a few km from Switzerland. It is a bustling place, popular all year round due to its duty free status. Prices are much cheaper than just 30km away in CH. 

Tomorrow its Stelvio!

Edelweiss Ducati Tour Part 3: Passes

To most motorcyclists, the twisties are the best type of riding. Passes are a special and riding the Alps is about riding passes. Passes are special as they combine challenging roads, beautiful scenery, slow moving traffic and often dangerous drop-offs. But they are amazing fun. They are to motorcyclists what honey is to bears. And this tour includes a number of the best Alpine passes.

Day two's ride started by taking us through some picturesque Alpine foothills and valleys on to through to Lichtenstein and then on to Switzerland. It was very hot and with Switzerland's 80 kph general speed limit it looked to me like today was not going to be as good as yesterday.

We made our way through Lichtenstein capital city, Vaduz, and on to the beautiful Walensee lake (which is back in Switzerland) for lunch. (Point E on the Map.) 

Switzerland is an expensive place. My garden salad lunch was CHF19.50 ~ AU$24. It would have been about $12 inMelbourne. Petrol works out to AU$2.17 a litre!  

After lunch the fun began. The first pass was Klausenpass. The road rises through a valley and then several switchbacks take you up to a high vantage point with a spectacular view. There was quite a bit of traffic on this pass so a moderate riding style was needed....

and the road surface was pretty crap!!

There always seems to be a cafe or kiosk at or near the top of the pass where everyone stops to marvel at the view and share the moment, as we did. The exhilaration of the ride and the cooler temperature in the mountains had us set off again with renewed enthusiasm on to....

 Sustenpass....

Not all that challenging, but a great ride. Somewhere along that road someone has a pig sty. peeuw, the disgusting stench wafted up-hill for probably 8-10 k's. Ahhh, the joys of motorcycling!

And then it was on to Grimsel Pass.

And finally Kurka Pass; the biggest and the best of the day.

Lots and lots of bikes, and your mettle is properly tested. There were no police around and I just followed the locals example, hitting 150 kph at certain points! Brilliant!!!. 

The official Day 2 route is 230km. Does not sound like that much but with the traffic and with about 40% of the distance within 50 kph zones, it took us from 9am till about 4.30 pm. Marko the guide, suggested we do a little additional loop to take in the three passes above. Seeing as we had such keen riders, so in all it turned not a 320 km day. We arrived at out hotel in Andermatt at 7.30 pm, shagged out but exhilarated. 

Edelweiss Ducati Tour Part 1: What's this all about then?

To say I am enamoured with my 2012 Ducati Multistrada would be a bit of an understatement. Razor sharp handling a demonic powerplant very light weight and a class leading electronics package make it the best adventure/touring mount available today.

Once you have ridden a bike of this calibre - there arguable being nothing better, the issue switches from finding the best bike to finding the best roads. You can only ride your local rides so many times a year before you start getting bored. So for many years I have wanted to ride in Europe, where the roads are arguably the best in the world.

The Edelweiss Ducati tour through the European alps has been on my b-list for a good couple of years. With a European conference to soften the cost burden, this trip suddenly became doable. Alpine roads are what the Multistrada is all about. The Majestic Alps Tour is a Ducati only tour; Multistrada's  or Monsters. You choose. You fly in, pick up your bike and can ride either with the group or do your own thing, arriving at prearranged accommodation at the end of the day. The daily reccommended routes avoid major highways and have been properly planned to pack the best riding on the best roads into the fewest number of days.

The tour starts in Seefeld, a small Tyrollean tourist resort town not far from Innsbruck, Austria. I flew into Frankfurt and planned to train my way down to Seefeld the next day. A summer heat wave with 35+ degree weather was waiting for me the next morning as set out on the last leg, arriving at 3:45 pm on Friday.

I met the 9 other tour participants at the Saturday afternoon briefing; mostly "mature" blokes with a fair bit of riding experience. All very nice. Two American guys, a father and son, both named Charles are Harley riders, looking for something different. Everyone else was either a Ducati rider and in one case a KTM rider. The tour guides, Marko and Mathias, both German, are excellent. Very good riders and hosts, and full of local knowledge. 

Edelweiss Ducati Tour Part 2: Pretty as a Picture

The bikes were splendidly turned out. All in perfect nick equipped with panniers, top box and tank bag.

I ditched the gigantic expanded panniers and tank bag on the Multistrada - quite unnecessary. All my rain gear, water and other bits and pieces fit comfortably in the top box. There was great excitement as we set off. It was already in the high 20's by 9 am with temperatures forecast to be between 32-35 degrees depending on altitude. Really hot.

This is the first week of the European summer holidays, and so there was a lot of traffic. Cars, camper vans and many bikes. The Austrian and southern German countryside is quite beautiful. Very green, rolling farmland, small villages and forests. The villages are very quaint. Beautifully presented, neat, tidy and very clean. Almost all the homes and the many guest houses and hotels have colourful gardens and window boxes at every window - bursting with colour. Pink, orange, red and mauve.

The route is generally on B and C grade backroads. Highways and main arterials are avoided. Today the route took us alongside the Walchensee, a large azure lake - lots of boats and swimmers all enjoying the hot weather. The roads are amazingly good. Although quite a bit narrower in general than Australian roads, the surface is like a tennis court. The road camber is always confidence-inspiringly perfect. Traction is as good as you can hope for which all means you can push hard through the corners. :-)

This particular tour is mostly about riding with a touch of site seeing added on. The Linderhoff Palace near Ettal built in the late 1860's was our sight for the day. This was not one of the major sights that I wanted to see before I die, but seeing as I was there, I took the €8.50 tour which was surprisingly fascinating. The palace is supposedly an imitation of the palace at Versailles (on a much smaller scale). Whilst spectacularly decorated, the accommodations while sumptuous, are not anywhere near as extensive as one expects from a palace - only about 10 rooms in all. Peh....

Out sojourn at the palace ended just as the rains came, thankfully cooling everything down. After about an hour driving through the rain, it stopped and we turned onto a beautiful road with almost no cars. Lots of bikes though, and lots of twisty stuff. The gap between Mathias an I and the other riders really started to open up. Fabulous riding. We had to stop and wait for the Harley riders to catch up several times. By the end of the day, they started to understand just what they have been missing all these years riding American Iron while some of us have taken Latin lovers.

The overnight stop is the Jagerhotel, Warth.