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!