Well, we're off on a European road trip this Saturday. Me on my Burgman Exec and two others - another Burgman and a Yamaha R1. No fixed routes or stopovers, we'll just ride until we've had enough each day and then find somewhere to stay for the night. The rough plan is through France and Switzerland, then into Italy. We'd like to take in the St Gothard and Stelvio passes. Got to get a move on though as the wives are flying out and meeting us in Sirmione on Lake Garda on the Tuesday. Staying with them until Thursday, then and start making our way home. Get home on the following Saturday. Bought myself a GoPro camera so should be taking a few mountain road videos. Did Monaco last year and it was fooking fantastic. Can't wait!
Re: European road trip
Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:48 pm
by pikey
Theres 2 Gottards new one and old one ,Old one is most challenging as its cobbled narrow and steeper.Stelvio is scary not so much the road as other traffic coming down as you go up depends which side you come from tho one side more fast flowing other side is the 40 hairpin one
Re: European road trip
Posted: Sun Jun 30, 2013 9:22 pm
by michaelphillips
be safe, and have a wonderful time...
Re: European road trip
Posted: Thu Jul 11, 2013 10:31 pm
by Steve_D
pikey wrote:Theres 2 Gottards new one and old one ,Old one is most challenging as its cobbled narrow and steeper.Stelvio is scary not so much the road as other traffic coming down as you go up depends which side you come from tho one side more fast flowing other side is the 40 hairpin one
Did both Stelvios, Gottards pass, st. Bernadino pass and Simplon pass.. Took some film too - will upload them when I get home. On our way home now - currently in Chamonix. Cant decide wether to push on for home tomorrow and save the price of another overpriced hotel but its over 650 miles from here to my house. The plan is to ride from about 7.00 and make a decision around lunchtime. Bloody good it has been though.
Re: European road trip
Posted: Fri Jul 12, 2013 9:07 pm
by Steve_D
Home! 661 miles to get here. Long, hard, days riding.
Re: European road trip
Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 8:10 am
by Steve_D
Heres my 'race' down the Stelvio against an R1. Surprsingly he left me for standing when he wanted to! In my defence, on the way up on the other side he couldn't lose me because there was a series of about 50 very, very tight bends with short straights and aparently a Burger van (as he calls it) can take tight, uphill bends better than the R1 that has a turning circle of a london bus. I nearly hit 95 at one point and the R1 just left me standing - he must have easily been doing 120+ " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
Re: European road trip
Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 9:47 am
by pikey
I turned off right to Swiss near start on your video starts OK then as you descend its goes to gravel and no barriers goes back to tarmac after few miles .Takes me back tho and good to see still has snow in july
Re: European road trip
Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 11:49 am
by Steve_D
Just giving the scoot a quick clean and noticed that the topbox carrier says a max weight of 6kg. I weighed my box and contents and it was 14.7kg. I also had a full seat bag on the back seat and was fully loaded under the seat with a hefty padlock and chain, a full tool kit as well as china plates and other shite the wife bought in Lake Garda. No wonder it felt a bit funny at speed and round sweeping bends!
Re: European road trip
Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 12:12 pm
by pikey
Amazing I post about stelvio and I get adverts about free ski lift cable car pass if you stay in hotel in Davos or Klosters on face book I went thro both on my way from Stelvio to Andermatt
Re: European road trip
Posted: Sat Jul 13, 2013 2:07 pm
by Steve_D
Calais back to Calais we did 1945 miles. Heres another one down from the St Bernadino pass. Strangely I uploaded it from my ipad but cant watch it unless on a PC. Nothing special about the riding but just look at the road and the scenery - bloody fantastic. " onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;