2017 Alps tour

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I wanted to put my Alps tour this year into its own thread, to keep all the content in one place and serve as a guide to anyone else thinking about a similar trip. What things worked and what things we’d do differently next time. This will be my seventh European trip, and likely to be the biggest one I’ve done yet in terms of miles and equipment carried. It is, in part, a training tour for the larger tour to Nordkapp that we hope to do next year. We depart on Saturday 15 July, and I'll try and post a few updates in this thread as we travel.


There are just two bikes for our tour this year (because the others wimped out when their wives / girlfriends kicked off about the tour being so long ). I’m on my S1000XR and my mate is on his Triumph Explorer 1200. The load for my bike is below, and the other bike will have similar gear apart from more camera equipment.

Documents
Passport, wallet, V5, insurance certificate. Not taking any paper copies of ferry / train / hotel / camping tickets etc this year.

Tools
Toolkit, puncture repair kit, CO2 canisters, spare bulbs, chain oil, visor wipes etc

Camping gear
Sleeping bag, tent, pillow, roll mat, jet boil, water container


Electronics
2 x GoPro 5 Sessions, Sony RX100 IV, DJI Mavic drone, various tripods and mounts, MacBook Pro, iPhone 7+, external hard drive, SENA 20S, chargers and cables etc

Toiletries and clothing for 8 days.

This is packed into two panniers (clothing, tools), a top box (electronics) a dry bag on the pillion (camping gear) and a tank bag. We want to film and photograph quite regularly as we travel, with plenty of stops, and I figure the electronics are most easily accessible in the top box, apart from the phone which will sit in the tank bag alongside any batteries that need charging from the bike as we ride.

The route
We’ve chose not to map out the route in detail this year, but instead chosen a series of destinations to aim for each day. Hotels are booked for the first and last night and then we have a list of camp sites in each target destination. We’ve also noted down key passes and routes that we want to ride in-between each destination on each day. Because of that we can’t work out the total distance as yet – our latest rough estimate shows 2,800 miles.

The basic route is to go across the Alps from West to East, starting with the Combe Laval in France as we’ve always both wanted to ride that balcony road. Then in to Italy before spending three days in Switzerland, ducking in and out of Italy. Over to the Stelvio pass because Stelvio, before two days in Austria. We finish off with a ride through the Black Forest in Germany back into France before the drudge motorway to return home.

The first and last days are the real mile crunchers, with 640 miles to Meximieux on the first and 505 from Epinal to return to the UK.

Day 1: Meximieux, France
Day 2: Valnontey, Italy
Day 3: Andermatt / Interlaken, Switzerland
Day 4: Andermatt / Interlaken, Switzerland
Day 5: Umrai / Stelvio, Switzerland / Italy
Day 6: Grossglockner, Austria
Day 7: Arlberg, Austria
Day 8: Epinal, France

If anyone has any comments on must-do passes or sights around those areas (other than the obvious passes!) then please let me know

We’re on the Eurotunnel on the way out, and chose to take the ferry on the way back to give ourselves an extra hour relaxation break before the final leg.

The tour budget is £1,000, covering fuel, camping, hotels, road carnets, food and booze.

 

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Post-tour summary


So, this was the best European trip I've done so far. Few incidents and a whole lot of fun.


Firstly, a few comments on the kit. I've done a few of these trips now, and after every one I vow to reduce the amount I take with me. This one was pretty good but I still didn't use a couple of items of clothing and one pair of bike gloves. Still, nice to have them there as an option. Irreplaceable items for this trip were my Anker battery back - charging GoPros, cameras and phones like a champ at night and on the move - and the Sena headset - just so nice to have on really long days of boring motorway and fantastic for helping each other overtake on twisty sections.


Since my last European trip I've made the switch to GoPro 5 Sessions, and I'm really pleased with them. I rarely used two at once, so that's a bit of a luxury, but the quick record and auto power off are really good and we were generally getting at least a full day out of them, sometimes two.


Nothing to say about the bikes - they didn't skip a beat. The Triumph is shaft drive, and I oiled the XR's chain just twice during the trip, both times after heavy rain. No noticeable difference between the start and end of the tour.


Day one was ok. 4 am start, and 630 miles and 12 hours later we were in Meximieux, France, and in sight of the good roads. We took it pretty easy, toll roads all the way sitting around the 130 kph limit and taking breaks every 2 hours or so to fill up. We were both getting a little sore by the end of the day and, despite the early start, suffered from ‘first day of tour’ euphoria in the evening. A few beers were followed by a decent steak, wine and more beers until a little later than expected…


This impacted day two. Over breakfast we convinced ourselves that doing both Combe Laval and Montvernier was too far out of our way. We binned Combe Laval and road to Montvernier. Visually it is spectacular, the tightest and steepest climb of our whole trip, but fairly unrewarding to ride with a hangover and fully laden bikes. The following ride to, over, and down Val d’Isere was far more fun, despite poor road surfaces at times. A quick snack there and we headed down into Italy to camp for the night. Here we encountered what would be a recurring problem for the trip – poor internet.


One of the aims of this trip was to be as free as possible, heading in a rough direction each day but with little pre-planning. We’d assumed that we’d be able to get some internet in each location but that rarely happened. Our phones often had limited reception, and wifi was not always available. It was difficult to plot a route via a phone, and more difficult still to plot and transfer that into our sat navs. We did take proper paper maps with us, and relied on them more than once.


Day three was great. Taking a few good passes and roads out of Italy, we hit our destination of Ulrichen, Switzerland by mid afternoon. We chucked all the luggage off the bikes and immediately headed up the Furka pass – our favourite pass from last year’s trip. A great afternoon riding, meeting other riders and filming.


Staying at Ulrichen again overnight meant the bikes were free of luggage again the next day. The heat was really starting to build up at this point, over 30 deg C by late morning, and the weather showed storms for later. Undeterred, we rode our planned route – Neufenen, old St Gottard, Susten, and Grimsel. A special mention to Susten – it has now replaced Furka as our favourite Swiss pass. On the way up the north side we met a couple of Swiss bikers who knew it well and followed them up. I don’t think that’s the fastest we’ve ridden, but it was the smoothest and most enjoyable.


We spent a while on the north side, filming just before the tunnel at the peak, and then carried on through. Half a mile down the other side and we stopped again, as the view there is absolutely spectacular. More filming, meeting other bikers and then we carried on down. In the valley between Susten and Grimsel, the storms finally caught up with us and we had to stop, waiting around 45 minutes before the rain eased enough to continue. Unfortunately, just as we started to ascend Grimsel it bucketed down again so we didn’t stop at the summit but simple carried on down. The rain started to ease then, and looked like it wouldn’t come over the mountains so, at the bottom, we decided that a ride up the Furka would be the best thing to dry out our gear.


We got to the top and start to come back as we could see the storm finally making it over the peaks into our valley. Eventually the hail was so bad we had to stop and take shelter. That was actually good fun, watching the storm roll right over us and experiencing lightning strike around 50 yards away. Not so great for one of the other British bikers staying at our place who decided to keep going – he crashed (without injury) not far down the road. Many beers were consumed that night…


Next day was off to get closer to Stelvio. We departed over Neufenen again – amazing just how much quicker you can ride a pass when you’ve done it just once before – and then did Splugen twice – over and back. The weather was getting very hot again, and so we stopped on the Albula Pass for a swim in Lake Palpuogna. Crystal blue and freezing cold of course, we discovered afterwards that swimming was not allowed… Still, nice and refreshed we headed on at quite a leisurely pace before entering Italy again and camping in a small place around 15 km south of Stelvio. The predictable afternoon rain had started again so we took a lodge instead of pitching the tents – 30 Euro between the two of us.


Despite another highly entertaining evening, we were up early and arrived at Stelvio. Virtually no traffic, so after a brief stop at the top we descended and came back up. Definitely not a great riding experience, but the Stelvio box was ticked and we went back down Umbrail. Heading into Austria, we made another change to our original plan. First cloud then rain descended again, and we decided not to head east to Grossglockner. Perhaps a mistake in hindsight, but we’ll definitely be back to Austria again. Instead we spent an easier day doing some filming and sightseeing off the bikes, before finding a campsite towards the German border. By not heading east, we instead planned a day in the Black forest in Germany.


That was actually a real hoot, and nice to be on some flatter forest roads. With no particular route in mind, just a direction, we had a lot of fun. Virtually no traffic, no speed cameras, nothing. We even had a brief autobahn blast to see how quick we dared take the bikes fully loaded (230 kph was my limit!). In the afternoon we headed towards a campsite near Freiberg as recommended by a German chap who we met the night before. A brief comedy moment then ensued when we pulled up into the campsite only to be greeted by a load of naked campers! At first we thought we’d been stitched up good and proper, but they explained that there was a ‘normal’ sister campsite with the same name a few miles down the road… That turned out the be less of a campsite and more of a holiday resort for campers, but it had a pool, decent restaurant and bar and so we indulged in a few beers with the few other bikers who were there.


There was definitely a sad sense of turning home at this point, but the penultimate day certainly made up for it. A beautiful ride through Alsace and then a whole afternoon racing through the Vosges mountains. These were stunning – not the heights or valleys of the Alps, and far more wooded, but great road surfaces (with occasional overbanding – always on a corner of course!) and far more sweeping. Aside from riding Susten this afternoon felt like the best rides we had all trip, despite getting stung by a wasp. Twice.


Overnight in Epinal for a last taste of decent French steak and red wine and then it was the long slog home. We’d booked the ferry rather than the Eurotunnel for the return, and I was glad we did. Both of us got a quick nap and that made the last leg in England (130 miles or so) so much easier.


On reflection it was really nice to not really have a plan each day other than a rough direction – on previous trips we’ve mapped everything out precisely. But I think we went too far with the ‘let’s see what happens’ approach for this trip. We’ll plan a bit more for the next one.


Sorry it took so long to write up. And now – some pictures!

 

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Top man, thanks Kreeee

 

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Very useful, thank you. I get the point about Stelvio, but it feels like we've got to make the effort to tick that particular box. Especially as we're unlikely to go back to the Alps for two or three years at best after this trip. We did Furka and Susten last year (Grimsel was still closed). Looking forward to some of the Austrian passes.

 

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Finished packing and loaded her up. Incredibly heavy to move around now, and I've lost use of my rear grab handles. Also near impossible to get back on to the centre stand, so I'll need to take bags off her first at night before standing her up.

I went for a quick ride, as the last time I rode with anywhere near this much gear was three years ago. The electronic suspension firms up nicely, and while you can feel all the weight higher up now it feels fine. Looking forward to the 4.15 am start tomorrow, and there's nothing glamorous about the route... https://www.motogoloco.com/map?route=38925

 

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It's free on bikes

Yep. Plus I think it is also free for everyone still at stupid o'clock!

 

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Tough day today - 630 miles - but we got where we needed to be. Combe Laval and Lacet de Montvernier to start tomorrow.

 

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Yeah, that was exactly the purpose - to put us close to the Alps by the end of day 1 - just crunching through the miles really.

Had a good ride yesterday through France, over Val d'Isere and into Italy where we camped. Up early this morning and back into Switzerland and to our accommodation by 1 pm. Dropped all the luggage off the bikes and spent the afternoon and early evening up Grimsel and Furka, spending as much time off the bikes messing around filming and relaxing as we did on them. Tomorrow is Nufenen, Old Gotthard, Susten, Grimsel and then the first part of Furka again. Great weather today but tomorrow might be an exercise in dodging a few thunderstorms.

A quick view from Grimsel, looking over Furka.

 

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Great day today, solely in Switzerland. A day of experiences, rather than just riding. I will write up more detail on the return, but for now let's just say that we experienced the two sides of the Alps in the space of two hours between Susten and Furka, via Grimsel. I've never been so close to a lightning strike in my life!

 

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I'm saving the good photos for the proper write up

Another good day today, moving into Italy by going through the Neufenen pass again, over San Bernadino (sp?), up and down Splugen, through Albumina (sp?) and then across Livigno pass into Italy. Nicely located to tackle Stelvio a couple of times early tomorrow morning before heading off into Austria. We dodged the rain all day until the final 10 minutes where we again caught a big thunderstorm before reaching our destination. Managed to stop for a quick swim in a lake off Albumina (sp) en route.

Too late to post up any photos today, but there are a couple from the roadside photographers. Look at http://www.foxphotos.fr/folio/978/tessin-side/page-2.html and go down to near the bottom, looking for the white XR and the blue Explorer

Weather looks pretty crap tomorrow, so we're keeping our route fairly flexible. Casualties of yesterday's storm are my mate's iPhone and Tomtom Rider - the latter note quite as waterproof as advertised. Currently sitting in a bowl of rice...

 

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Just think, I can do all of those passes in a day trip from my house and be back in time for dinner whenever I want

I prefer to choose the days when there are no storms as they can be and often are lethal!

One of the lads staying the same place as us had an off yesterday, thinking he could still ride through the storm. The hailstones were sitting a couple of inches deep down the Furka.

You're lucky to live there. With the exchange rate now Switzerland is even more expensive than last year. We're making the most of it that we can, as we won't be coming back while it stays this way. Nearly twice the price of France, and nearly three times the price of Italy for basic accommodation, meals and beers. When one of your party is on a tight budget it makes things very difficult.

 

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Back on a decent wifi connection now and heading for home tomorrow, overnighting in Epinal. The ride yesterday from Austria into Germany was good but great. Today was fantastic, around the south of the Black Forest into the Vosges mountains. Better than the Alpine roads, only lacking the view. I did a couple of passes in the Vosges last year but it was late evening / dark and today was so much better.

Stelvio was ok, but no better. On the Swiss side it photographs much better than it rides - the Italian side is good though.

Long slog tomorrow to get home, and back to work on Monday . Anyway, a few photos:

 

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Everyone said the same, but I think that you have to tick it off if you're there, and we're glad we did.

Largely trouble free ride back home yesterday, 535 miles back from France and 2,400 miles total for the trip. Fairly tired by the end but really enjoyed it - much better and more variety and enjoyable time than last year's trip, which was not as well balanced. Both bikes didn't prove any trouble, and that's nearly 10,000 miles on the XR for me - I'm using it far more than previous bikes that I've owned.

We had a lot of time to reflect and chat on the ride back. We loved the Vosges and Black Forest - the roads are generally more enjoyable than the Alps (in general) and it is far cheaper, but you don't get the same stunning views. In the end, if you're going to those places then you're that close to the Alps that you may as well make the extra effort and go there too, if you have the time.

I'll try and do the full write up and share some of the better photos later this week. Video will take a little longer.

 

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How many wet days food you have in the Alps? Just looking at the weather and it's looking like plenty of thunderstorms at the moment, we've ordered 25 degrees and sun though so should be OK

It was pretty good, actually. We dodged most of the thunderstorms, which seemed to be mostly in the afternoon after the hear built up. We got caught in a monster one going across Grimsel from the north, and it came back around while up the Furka pass - we finally took shelter during that one. Then some afternoon rain in Austria a couple of days later, but nothing really to write home about. Other than that the only rain that came was either once we'd pitched up for the night or while we were commuting. We hit some heavy weather yesterday south of Calais and then again on the M25 but it didn't really slow us down.

The thunderstorm on the Furka was pretty cool, and we got some good video clips as well as soon moody pictures of the Triumph.

 

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Now updated with video. Riding with a mate who's a professional photographer dabbling in video is a little soul destroying, but hopefully both are enjoyable!

 

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And now updated with a write up and photos in the first few posts. It took far too long to do, but the photos of everyone else currently in the Alps made me do it!

Photos also posted below for those who don't want to go back and read my drivel

 

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Yeah, he's very dedicated. Left his jacket pocket open taking those shots in the storm and it drowned. He reckons the shot was worth it though!