FJR Forum Alps Extreme M/C Tour; August 8-15 of 2012.

[huron52]

Just love that buzz just before a trip like this.

Just ran through the check list and we are pretty much set.

Just hoping some of the weather we are having now will move over to Europe

Chris

Wait Wait Wait.... There's a check list?

 

[beemerdons]

Just love that buzz just before a trip like this.

Just ran through the check list and we are pretty much set.

Just hoping some of the weather we are having now will move over to Europe

Chris

Wait Wait Wait.... There's a check list?

I know that everyone going on our Alps Extreme Tour is an experienced long distance motorcyclist, so this list is probably unnecessary. However, many years ago on a solo Motocicleta trip to Guatemala I got 500 miles South of the Mexican Border and realized I had left behind a dozen items I wish I would have packed. So, perhaps this check list Papa Chuy has prepared for his senile and geriatric self may be of some help to you! De Nada, mis Amigos!

Here is the Pyrenees Packing List I used when I went to Spain, modified for the Alps:

 

Frank Thomas Riding jacket with liner and pants. Pair of clear safety glasses and RayBan sunglasses.

New HJC full coverage helmet with flippable sun shade; three pairs of gloves (light, med and heavy).

Widder heated vest with thermostat cable (not bringing a sweatshirt or thermal undies-it is August!).

Tank Bag for BMW F650GS Twin. My Overnight Travel Bag goes in the tank bag.

$1K in cash, split between Dollars and Euros and Alps/Dolomites paper maps.

Around the neck Security bag with Passport, License, Credit Cards & Insurance papers.

Cable lock with 2 sets of keys; I don't want my rental bike stolen in Italy, having to pay a deductible.

Two cameras with extra batteries; two small flashlights with extra batteries; small binoculars.

Can of Fix-A-Flat-bought in Germany, sticky string with tools and glue, Stop-N-Go plug kit; hand air pump.

Small BMW Tool Kit that fits my BMW F650GS Twin. I'll share this M/C kit with others on the ride.

Seven pairs of socks, 8 pair of underwear and 5 handkerchiefs. One shop towel.

Three pairs of long pants, one pair is from REI and converts into Bermuda shorts.

Swim suit, tank top and sun screen for any lake or pool swimming!

Sidi tall M/C riding boots; black tennis shoes and pool shoes.

Five long sleeve shirts and two short sleeve shirts; and one tanktop.

 

[Checkswrecks]

Good list Don and while I won't be on your trip, a few suggestions:

Take a few color copies of your passport. When the hotel clerk or a cop asks for my passport, it's what I hand them. Hotel clerks usually are OK, cops 50-50.

Email or iCloud yourself a copy of your passport, medical info, driver's license, eyeglass prescription, and any other important papers. internet is EVERYWHERE now in Europe.

MedJet is one of those few things that is beyond indispensible - Don't ride more than acouple hundred miles from home without it. And if in another country it's incomparable! I'm in a risky biz and have had to check my guys into hospitals in China, Thailand, and other countries. One of our Maryland TOR guys just recently had a tumble 60 miles from El Paso and after he rode 60 miles to the hospital and they found bleeding on his brain, the following were his words:

"I am finally at home. Once the decision was made to medivac me back to MD Medjet assist took all of 5 hours to get a Lear jet from ATL to El Paso and then a four hour flight to BWI. I spent 24 hrs in the hospital in Annapolis and now am home. Not supposed to drive for 3 days. No motorcycles for two weeks. Have to go see my primary this week, a neurologist in two weeks, and a cardiologist right away. Bike should be enroute shortly.

if you do not have MedJet Assist and travel more than 150 miles from home you are CRAZY!!!"

https://medjetassist.com/membership/comparingservices.aspx

For an annual $260, MedJet or any other plan is a steal.

When in Europe, plan for wet. It's normal. Dryness is just icing on the cake. In addition to waterproof gear, take a waterproof camera.

Rental bikes come with low tire pressures and loose chains. Check BEFORE them and the oil level leaving the agency.

Photo EVERY inch of a rental bike AND photo the person checking it out. Look for and photo EVERY scratch. Do the same when checking it in. Having these photos has saved me a couple of times.

Take some tennies or other hiking shoes for Euro trips.

With a $10 coiled cable lock, you can easily secure 2 helmets and 2 jackets while you hike or have lunch in some little village. Having either stolen mid-trip totally throws a wrench into a vacation. btdt

 

[SacramentoMike]

Some GREAT ideas I'm adding to my own check list, both of you.

.

 

[beemerdons]

Checkswrecks, your suggested checklist is Fantastic. With my extreme gratitude to you, I've also moved this over to https://www.azbeemers.org Thank You, your recommendations are Great Ones!

Good list Don and while I won't be on your trip, a few suggestions:

Take a few color copies of your passport. When the hotel clerk or a cop asks for my passport, it's what I hand them. Hotel clerks usually are OK, cops 50-50.

Email or iCloud yourself a copy of your passport, medical info, driver's license, eyeglass prescription, and any other important papers. internet is EVERYWHERE now in Europe.

MedJet is one of those few things that is beyond indispensible - Don't ride more than acouple hundred miles from home without it. And if in another country it's incomparable! I'm in a risky biz and have had to check my guys into hospitals in China, Thailand, and other countries. One of our Maryland TOR guys just recently had a tumble 60 miles from El Paso and after he rode 60 miles to the hospital and they found bleeding on his brain, the following were his words:

"I am finally at home. Once the decision was made to medivac me back to MD Medjet assist took all of 5 hours to get a Lear jet from ATL to El Paso and then a four hour flight to BWI. I spent 24 hrs in the hospital in Annapolis and now am home. Not supposed to drive for 3 days. No motorcycles for two weeks. Have to go see my primary this week, a neurologist in two weeks, and a cardiologist right away. Bike should be enroute shortly.

if you do not have MedJet Assist and travel more than 150 miles from home you are CRAZY!!!"

https://medjetassist.com/membership/comparingservices.aspx

For an annual $260, MedJet or any other plan is a steal.

When in Europe, plan for wet. It's normal. Dryness is just icing on the cake. In addition to waterproof gear, take a waterproof camera.

Rental bikes come with low tire pressures and loose chains. Check BEFORE them and the oil level leaving the agency.

Photo EVERY inch of a rental bike AND photo the person checking it out. Look for and photo EVERY scratch. Do the same when checking it in. Having these photos has saved me a couple of times.

Take some tennies or other hiking shoes for Euro trips.

With a $10 coiled cable lock, you can easily secure 2 helmets and 2 jackets while you hike or have lunch in some little village. Having either stolen mid-trip totally throws a wrench into a vacation. btdt

 

[beemerdons]

https://medjetassist.com/membership/comparingservices.aspx Following Checkswreck's recommendation I signed up for MedJetAssist, $125 for the 15 days I'll be traveling in Europe.

I figured since I was riding every day alongside of SacramentoMike and drinking every night with yamafitter Bill F., MedJetAssist made good sense for being around those two!

 

[SacramentoMike]

Two things:

First, I heard from Don that Orestes (Dave) will be riding down from the UK and joining us in Italy--just for a couple of days, I guess. If he still needs it, he can have a spare bed in my room, as long as there is one or they can bring one in. I chose the "solo room" option.

Second thing is I'm signing up for a travel insurance plan that a friend in the insurance business recommended. I'll be glad to offer the info on the company by PM if anybody is interested. It covers medical up to $100K and emergency evacuation up to $1M. I'm also adding partial trip coverage in case of something happening before or any unforeseen delay. That part's the gamble, since it gets expensive to cover the full cost of the trip, so I'm keeping it down and hoping for the best. Only $82 for the medical and evac, plus $1000 trip coverage, $109 to increase coverage to $1500, $145 for $2K, $221 for $3K coverage, and so on. If anybody hasn't done this yet, check your own medical policy. Most do not cover out of the US (or, um, Canada, I suppose). If you're younger than I am (highly likely), even cheaper.

 

[Checkswrecks]

https://medjetassist.com/membership/comparingservices.aspx Following Checkswreck's recommendation I signed up for MedJetAssist, $125 for the 15 days I'll be traveling in Europe.

I figured since I was riding every day alongside of SacramentoMike and drinking every night with yamafitter Bill F., MedJetAssist made good sense for being around those two!

The best part about MedJet is that it's no questions asked. like, even if a gypsy hooker somehow was in the story, MedJet won't care.

Ummm - just saying' mind you....

For those who can get it .....



Seriously, like Marty wrote after his El Paso spill, it makes sense if you ride pretty much ANY distance from home, so the annual fee makes sense to me.

There may be cheaper ways to get evacuation insurance, but I know this one works when needed with minimal beaurocratic crap.

 

[beemerdons]

The best part about MedJet is that it's no questions asked. like, even if a gypsy hooker somehow was in the story, MedJet won't care.

Ummm - just saying' mind you....

Checkswrecks, how could you possibly have known about my incident in Naples back in 2007?

 

[beemerdons]

First, I heard from Don that Orestes (Dave) will be riding down from the UK and joining us in Italy--just for a couple of days, I guess. If he still needs it, he can have a spare bed in my room, as long as there is one or they can bring one in. I chose the "solo room" option.

Good Work SacramentoMike, thanks for stepping up to help Orestes (Dave) out! orestes is a Fine English Gentleman, unlike that Wanker from Norwich! Orestes on the left and Dr. Bob on the right!

 

[beemerdons]

One of the Italian Passes we Alps Extremists will be riding soon!

 

[yamafitter]

My package finally arrived yesterday so Don sent me an e-mail ....

Bill, if you need any help reading those maps just let me know; by the way, the maps are those folded up piece of paper thing-ma-gigs that are in the mailing Envelope!

Don Stanley

It's OK Don. Thanks for your concern but I think I've got it figured out...

I have Day 1 already programmed into my Garmin Montana by just routing through the towns as per page 52 in the book.

 

[yamafitter]

Unlike Don I live in the 21st Century so I played around with Basecamp and have the routes for the upcoming Alps Tour plotted out in both the gpx 1.1 & the Garmin gdb file formats. For those without a copy of City Navigator Europe NT 2012.1 (I can't understand why you would not

) you can still plug the gpx file into Goggle Earth and play with it there.

Here is the link to my dropbox folder ...

Alps Tour GPS Files

If BeemerDons understands any of this I will be dumbfounded.

There is something weird going on with the accommodation in Lienz. The book lists Toblach as the destination for Day 5 but the Hotel is in Lienz. Then the next day the route in the book lists the trip back to Erding as 380 km but if you assume the hotel list is correct we do a loop first thing in the morning and the total day route in Basecamp is approximately 520 km.

If you don't do the loop then the 380 km makes sense. According to Basecamp there are no hotels in Toblach.

 

[huron52]

Excellent Bill! I have City Navigator Europe NT 2012 but I couldn't get it to load on my computer. Your files work in Google earth for me.

P.S Bill I hope that you are wearing some clothes in the picture :blink:

 

[yamafitter]

Excellent Bill! I have City Navigator Europe NT 2012 but I couldn't get it to load on my computer. Your files work in Google earth for me.

P.S Bill I hope that you are wearing some clothes in the picture :blink:

I'm not sure about the final destination point on Day 3 (Firn Or Vernagt) but it should be close. The end of Day 5 and the start of Day 6 will need confirmation from our guide since the directions in the book don't match what is listed on the hotel list.

Unlike Don I always have my pants on (or at least shorts) whenever there is a camera around.

 

[beemerdons]

Unlike Don I always have my pants on (or at least shorts) whenever there is a camera around.

Totally unnecessary and a complete waste of time! jes' sayin' and nuff' said!

 

[huron52]

This trip must be getting close my airline sent us an email about things we should remember to do... :lol:

 

[SacramentoMike]

Unlike Don I live in the 21st Century so I played around with Basecamp and have the routes for the upcoming Alps Tour plotted out in both the gpx 1.1 & the Garmin gdb file formats. For those without a copy of City Navigator Europe NT 2012.1 (I can't understand why you would not

) you can still plug the gpx file into Goggle Earth and play with it there.

There is something weird going on with the accommodation in Lienz. The book lists Toblach as the destination for Day 5 but the Hotel is in Lienz. Then the next day the route in the book lists the trip back to Erding as 380 km but if you assume the hotel list is correct we do a loop first thing in the morning and the total day route in Basecamp is approximately 520 km.

If you don't do the loop then the 380 km makes sense. According to Basecamp there are no hotels in Toblach.

I hope you get it all figured out, pal. I'm planning to follow you.

This trip must be getting close my airline sent us an email about things we should remember to do... :lol:

Any good suggestions? I'm kinda forgetful myself.

 

[yamafitter]

I visited my friend who was on this trip last month and watched some of the video that he shot. All I can say about some of the pass 'roads' is that you shouldn't really think about them as roads but more like golf cart paths as far as the width of the road is concerned. As far as the hotel at the end of Day 5, the hotel they stayed at is not the one listed on the hotel sheet so we are going to have to wait till we arrive in Erding to get the actual route.

Each day there were options that added a little more riding to the day that I cannot determine from the information we currently have though the gps files that I linked to are very close to the actual main route. The Rest Day ride to Lake Garda was a very good ride according to my friend. My friend is going to try and forward me the GPS tracks that one of the other riders has. If I get those I will add those files to my Dropbox.

As a side note guess what showed up in the mail on Friday?? The original tour package finally arrived after its journey to who knows where. The address had my street address and Postal Code but no where did the label mention Canada. Apparently Ontario has been annexed to the USA which means my income tax should now be lower.

 

[huron52]

This trip must be getting close my airline sent us an email about things we should remember to do... :lol:

Any good suggestions? I'm kinda forgetful myself.

Packing tips

Luggage with rollers or casters is recommended for your checked baggage, as it is easier to carry. Retractable rollers are even better since they aren’t detachable. Use luggage with removable straps since they can get caught on conveyor belts and break or damage your luggage. Make sure your luggage has a lock that doesn't dangle too much to avoid catching and tearing.

Each piece of baggage must have a name tag indicating the passenger’s address, phone number and e-mail address, if possible. Since cell phones are used worldwide, adding your number is recommended if travelling with your cell phone. We also recommend inserting personal identification (a business card, for example) inside your luggage and marking your travel dates on the tags.

Passengers should not pack food or beverages in checked baggage.

Footwear should be packed on top of other contents in order to protect them.

Personal belongings should be stored in a clear plastic bag to reduce chances of the screener having to handle them.

Books should be spread out, not stacked.

Undeveloped film and disposable cameras should be placed in carry-on baggage as screening equipment will damage them.

Gifts should not be wrapped.

Pack liquid items in less than full plastic bottles since they might freeze and expand when travelling through cold weather. Place the bottles in freezer bags with a seal to further protect your items.

Pack shoes in shoe bags or old socks to keep soles from dirtying your clean clothing.

Bring along a plastic trash bag to separate soiled items from clean clothes.

Replace aerosol cans (hairspray, deodorant, insect repellent) with the non-aerosol kind.

To keep your clothes smelling fresh while travelling, pack a sheet of fabric softener in your luggage.

Don't pack too many items in your bags.

Pack clothing that's less likely to wrinkle.

Button up your shirts so they'll hang properly when you wear them.

Roll up T-shirts or underwear and wrap your items around them. Keep clothes from creasing by wrapping them at a fold line.

Use proper-sized luggage. In a bag that's too large, items are more likely to move around, wrinkle and get damaged.

Place plastic dry cleaner bags between items. Avoid dry cleaner bags with printing on them since the ink can rub off and stain your clothes.

When you arrive, unpack as soon as possible.

Hang wrinkled items in the bathroom while you shower to steam out wrinkles.

Carrying and Taking Medication On Board

Pack medication in your carry-on bag. If your medication is temperature-sensitive, it is also less likely to be damaged.

Carry medication in their original containers to prevent security concerns.

Keep a record of the generic names of your medication as brand names vary.

Bring a letter from your physician stating you have a legal right to use your medication, especially if you're carrying large amounts.

Make sure your medication is not classified as illegal in your country of destination.

You may ask a flight attendant for water at any time in order to take your medication.

Camera Film

New screening equipment requires camera film to be packed in carry-on luggage. The best protection for your film is to buy it once you arrive and develop it before you return.

The Canadian Air Transport Security Authority (CATSA) has deployed and will continue to deploy new screening equipment for checked baggage at Canadian airports. This new equipment will damage camera film but will not harm digital disks.

The equipment used at pre-board screening (PBS) areas will not damage film under 800 ISO/ASA. Most amateur photographers use film in the 100-400 ISO/ASA range. However, multiple exposures (more than 5 times) of the same roll of film to PBS x-ray inspection may cause damage. If passengers are concerned about their film, even when placed in their carry-on baggage, they may request a hand search at the PBS area.

This new screening equipment is consistent with the types of equipment being deployed across the United States and around the world.