Europe/Alps, etc 2016

[gazelle]

"Bucket List": Fly to Europe, rent a bike, 10-14 days, ride the Alps, Dolomites, etc. NOT a guided tour. Prefer to ride every day. Met a guy in Banff last year who served in the Army in Germany a couple years and toured a lot while there. We hit it off and are in preliminary stages of planning. I've never been there (I was lucky...VietNam duty) so I'm looking for suggestions, one of the first being where do I get a road map that'll show me most of Europe so I can at least get an idea of locations, passes, etc. Any suggestons are appreciated. My friend is asking where I want to go and at this point I don't have a clue. Thanks for any thoughts/suggestons...Tentative plan is Sept 2016..

 

[LKLD]

Hold on a sec, Don will be here shortly.

 

[escapefjrtist]

For maps, visit your local Barnes & Noble.

For the rest, wait for beemerdons...

Have fun, sounds like a great trip!

--G

 

[Mudslide Miller]

Did the Alps and Dolomites with Don and several others from here 2 years ago through Edelweiss. That was my first and only ride in Europe (so far) and it was definitely the trip of a lifetime. As far as unguided, Don is definitely a plethora of information, as he's done many of both. Paging Don Stanley to the white phone!

 

[SacramentoMike]

I was on that ride as well. Just couldn't have been better, period. We took so many amazing roads and every one was on the Michelin maps (easily available, as said) listed by Edelweiss Tours in their pre-ride materials. Trouble is, ALL the roads are on those maps, so I don't know how we'd have found the best ones on our own. Our guide, and whoever plans the itineraries for Edelweiss, though, they knew 'em. Better than anybody, even Beemerdons.

For my money, and at least for anybody's first time there, there's a lot to be said for expert help in arranging first class rental bikes, routes, schedules, meals and lodging. But I'm sure you can find some pretty spectacular riding on your own. Just head for the nearest mountain, then go up.

 

[beemerdons]

Guten Tag Herr Gazelle, wie gehts! US Army 1968-74 RA, in my case my entire Artillery Battalion was sent to Vietnam; just before we flew out I was put on an Individual Manpower Levy to Reese Kaserne in Augsburg, Bavaria, Germany. Bought my BMW R60/2 and have ridden Alps und Dolomites ever since!

https://www.edelweissbike.com/en/touren/?c=4AE I've returned to ride Europe every few years like clockwork, if this is your 1st time I highly recommend the Edelweiss Alps Extreme Tour. Trust me on this one, you can't pull off a similar tour on your own for less than the $2,400 that Edelweiss Bike charges!

If you are insistent on a do it yourself tour, then use mein Freund Stefan Knopf of Motorrad Reisen en Heidelberg! Mention to Herr Knopf you are my Friend.

Knopf Motorcycle Touring (Stefan Knopf).

+49/6221 782913, fax +49/6221 786814; [email protected], [email protected], www.knopftours.com Buergerstrasse 21, D-69124 Heidleberg, Germany. (Frankfurt airport pickup)

gazelle if you need more info on M/C Touring Europe feel free to PM me or 480-440-4666 or [email protected] Also LOVE riding Spain, ese!

 

[beemerdons]

Hold on a sec, Don will be here shortly.

With these 4 Michelin maps I cover all the Alps that I`m planning to ride:

• Italy North West Michelin Map Number 561 (scale 1/400.000);
• Italy North Est Michelin Map Number 562 (scale 1/400.000);
• Michelin Map France: Provence-Alps-French Riviera Number 527 (scale 1/200.000);
• Michelin Map Switzerland Number 729 (scale 1/400.000).

 

[beemerdons]

https://www.amazon.com/Motorcycle-Journeys-Through-Alps-Beyond/dp/1884313388 Need to pick up a copy of "The Alps Bible"! John Hermann is a friend of mine, the best Alps book ever!

"This fifth edition of John Hermann's classic alpine motorcycle touring guide is the complete, best loved resource for any traveler to the high and twisty roads of Europe. Covering more area than any previous edition, Hermann's fun-to-read text has been throughly updated and expanded, this time with more new roads in Switzerland and France. The maps have mountain relief backgrounds to highlight the topography, and many spectacular new pictures have been added. Every region of the Alps is covered: Switzerland, Germany, Austria, Italy, France, and even special alpine lookalike places such as Corsica, Slovenia, and the Pyrenees and Picos de Europa mountain ranges of Spain. All of the important roads and passes are described and critiqued. Each recommended trip has a detailed route description, easy-to-follow maps, advice on places to stay and things to do, and plenty of photographs. Local customs, history, and amusing travel anecdotes dot every page to enrich the journey. There is no other book like this one. It is the guide of choice for every motorcyclist who wants the trip of a lifetime to motorcycling's nirvana."

 

[LKLD]

Hold on a sec, Don will be here shortly.

Told ya'.

 

[gazelle]

Thanks to everyone who has replied thus far ! More comments and suggestions are welcome. At this point It appears I need to purchase some Michelin maps and a book and do some research. I'm really pretty set on a self-guided trip. The more people in a group the more likely I'm thinking "I'd rather not be around this person...." I ride solo about 40K miles/yr in East TN & Western NC plus a cross-country 6500-7K trip Labor Day week. Guess I've reached a point in life that I detest schedules and appointed times. I never make reservations when I travel and the unexpected, unplanned experiences are the ones that I've most enjoyed. I envision this trip to be a compromise with my OR friend as to where we will ride. I basically just want to ride every day and see and experience as much as possible as I doubt I'll do it again. Next on the list is AK. And I've got to make a decision to quit WORK to do that one as I may set a departure date but NO return date ! 3 weeks or 3 months..I'll decide 1 day at a time.

 

[beemerdons]

gazelle, I hear you loud and clear on "I'd rather not be around this person...." Our FJR Forum Alps Extreme Tour Photo, we sure were a handsome group! Except for the Canadian guys, those ugly Hosers should have worn ski masks for the picture shoot! Especially the Lout behind Pam! jes' sayin' and nuff' said!

"I never make reservations when I travel and the unexpected, unplanned experiences are the ones that I've most enjoyed."

gazelle this is all well and good except for a weekend afternoon when a PM snow storm has blown up and all Gasthauses und Hotels within 100 kilometers of your current location are booked solid, then you wind up riding through sleet down the Alps for a room! This IS NOT Mauldin, SC!



A decade ago in August AZ Beemers and FJR Forum encountered this blizzard at intersection of the Austrian, Swiss and Italian borders.

If we didn't have reservations in Glurns, IT: We would've had to abandon our bikes and then taken the train to Milano, Italy! Not Real Good!

 

[gazelle]

I don't take issue with any of the above. I will say that in general we motorcyclists are a resourceful lot and are usually successful at making the best of a bad situation. Even Mauldin, SC (Greenville) has it's extremes...Long story...flood last summer....rode through close to two feet of moving water..pulled my horns the next day...both had pea-sized gravel in them. Over close to a milliion miles (almost 400K on FJR's) I've ridden in a little of everything....from -14F to 115F. Rode into Durango, CO 12 (?) years ago with a buddy....womdered why we'd passed so many BMW's....National raaly was there....(heard later double the expected attendence was there). We didnlt even LOOK for a room. Rode to Silverton...hotel (100 yrs old ?) with character, cold beer, good food. No doubt in my mind a better experience than anything in Durango even if we had a choice of venues. I must confess I did make reservations years ago (1 day at a time) on a trip to western Newfoundland. Was with a lady friend in an '89 Legend coupe, 5-speed which I still use on a road trip once a year to the Keys. Newfoundland is VERY sparsely populated. We'd look at the map...set a destination that AM and call to make reservations. Was in PEI years ago.....was "old home week"....NO rooms....Government tourist folks found me a B & B not far from town...old farm in same family over 300 years...

 

[RBEmerson]

I did an Edelweiss tour at the start of July '16. I liked the mountains (mostly). The group split into tiny cliques and generally there was no group cohesion. One guide was intent on breaking the sound barrier, the other was stuck with the slow and the scary. Overall, a hell freezes over first experience. This past summer ('17) I rented a BMW K1600GT and went pass hunting. The passes with the serious "do or die" hairpins were, on the K, near drops waiting to happen - no bottom end guts and no way to wind the motor up even 1st. The '16 trip was on a '16 BMW R1200 RT. Once I learned to "ride it like I hate it", it worked out well enough (see avatar). NTL, by the end of the week I really did hate the RT.

Last summer, when I was looking into rentals, I looked for FJR's. If anyone rents them, I didn't find them. And I saw very few on the road.

In general, tours talk about 3-4 star hotels a lot. The stars aren't Michelin, Tripadvisor, Google, or even AAA stars. They're a measure of the hotel's extras - pool, steam room, gym, etc. At the end of a long day or lots of passes, time in a gym is highly unlikely. Steam? Maybe. NTL, all those stars are folded into the bill. I'm just sayin'...

There's no point in trying to see or ride it all. Just not gonna happen. I scheduled some amazingly long days (150 - 175 miles is much longer than it seems! DAMHIK) and, by the end of most days I was seriously knackered and PO'ed I'd had to cut things short. If I'd had any sense, I would have, as an example, stayed near Andermatt (google same) and operated from there. Interestingly, St. Gotthard, Nufen, Grimsel, Susten passes were surprisingly easy. Furkapass (can't get back to Andermatt from the west without it) looks like another friendly ride. And then you reach the descent back to Andermatt.

The big take-away? Passes take far longer than expected. There's a lot to do along the way. Include time to stop and smell the roses. This is not a place for Ironbutt riding.

- - - -

"We booked...", "I stayed..." short version, my wife doesn't ride. She, her sister and brother, went off on their own trip while I went off riding. We met up during the week.

 

[RBEmerson]

Very much necro-posting, but... how did this planned trip work out?