Louisiana MC Instructors VERY unofficial European tour (Swampland to the Alps)

You guys picked a fine time to leave the swamps: 105 on the range asphalt yesterday. Oh for the Alps at high altitude right now. Have a great trip !

The rest of the gang are off enjoying Totnes and the South Devon coast. Some heavy showers about so I hope they're having fun. Meanwhile, I stayed back to try and get The Duchess back up and running.

Sherlock's came through with a new coil. When I asked about testing the old one I was told "It's one of the old ones, we have a bin (garbage can) for those." Picked up a spare ignition module and a litre of transmission oil at the same time. £100 total - Ouch! Still that was quite a bit cheaper than the local Motorrad outlet would have been if they had a coil in stock.


New coil installed, The Duchess fired up at the first touch of the button. I guess she'll be on the ferry tonight after all.

Thank you Dad for driving me up to South Molton to pick up the parts!

Outstanding!

Hot here the last couple of days. It might even have hit 75

Who can resist climbing on top of a Tor




At Dartmeet


Lunch in The Prince of Wales, Princetown


Pulling (pints!)


Three old guys started chatting with us in the pub. We had a great time listening to their reminiscences about everything from a 1926? Rudge to The Blitz, American Servicemen in WWII and Dartmoor Firefighting.


Two Mel's sharing desert in The Church House Inn, Rattery. Blonde Mel is my niece, who joined us just for the day.

OKAY I now have a prescription to this thread!!!!!!

Subscribed! Your previous UK tour was excellent info for me when I was planning mine. I have since decided I don't have enough time to do all I want - so France, Northern Italy and the Alps it is. And there you are to try the ground before me again. Thanks!

Highlights from the first day in France (photos to follow):

• Famous Last Words... Me to my father "Don't chase after us if you find something you think I might have left behind. I have everything." 30 minutes later he catches up with us at the ferry port and gives me the spare battery and charger for my new digital camera. How the heck did he get here so fast? Thanks again Dad!
• The ferry was a-rockin' and it wasn't us - We went "dorm style" - Boys in one cabin, girls in another. Actually quite a smooth crossing - and no one dropped their bike getting on or off the ferry. Tubastew snores in the key of G-flat
• Wasted a couple of hours after disembarking, looking for fuel, then looking for an ATM. Miss Bling's card is declined AGAIN
• Managed to avoid toll roads, except for one very short stretch, but it meant we were on slow roads, passing through dozens of small towns and villages. Fantastic charlie foxtrot while we all tried to fish out toll tickets and paltry change for a 10km section
• Weather was perfect - nice and cool - a little cloudy at times. We had a nice, golden sunset just as we got to the hotel at Moulins
• Miss Bling discovered Mexican restaurants are not common in rural French villages... "Can I get a taco?" to proprietor in red beret, sipping a glass of vin rouge. We fell about!
• Roundabout count = 100+ Mrs Dewnmoon got very close to dragging her broken toe on the asphalt
• Fabulous pastoral scenery and fresh country smells - really!
• Pimpdaddy demonstrated how to pick up an RT - Tee Hee!
• The seat on an SV650 is not conducive to comfort when you ride from 7am to 10pm
• One GPS dead as we cruise past the ancient chateaus - How will we find our way now? Good job I brought a backup.

Somewhere on the Loire


Rural cemetery on one of the back roads we followed - staying off the major toll roads. This meant we had to contend with a 90kph speed limit instead of 130 on the major routes, but we got to see dozens of little villages and old towns.


Typical view from The Duchess' saddle for the last couple of days


Passing through Romans, alongside the Isere - Just before turning toward the Vercors Massif and riding the incredible roads known as Le Grand Goulets - More on that later...

Myself, Dewnmoon and Tubastew are sitting in the restaurant at Les Bruyeres En Vercors, a cute little hotel in Villard de Lans, on the edge of the Vercours Massif. The rest of the group are off shopping. The hotel has a big lock-up garage where we parked the bikes - Perfect!

Later on, the (loose) plan is to ride back through part of the gorge and take some photos (it was starting to get dark when we rode through last night), then on into Italy.

Here's a random video clip from part of Le Grand Goulets gorge. My old laptop is not allowing me to view it myself so I'm not sure exactly what is on it.

When I remember how to properly embed these, I'll come back and edit the post [DONE!]. Anyhow, here's another clip from Les Grand Goulets: (We're off to pack the bikes and put some more kilometres under our wheels)

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3rd day on the continent:

• Had a relaxed start - Did a little (window) shopping - The ladies bought some cycling gear to deal with the hotter weather
• Curves = 1000's
• Switchbacks (Hairpin bends) = 100+
• Max altitude circa 7000 feet.
• Miss bling's gearshift fell off just as we approached the top of a pass - Good job we were stopping for ice-cream
• Ambulance passed us going down as we were going up a steep series of tight switchbacks - motorcycle crash unfortunately.
• Pimpdaddy took a wrong turn entering the autostrada - somehow managed to get back to us but we were wondering if we'd see him again
• Fighting with change, tickets, barriers, etc. at toll booths
• Stopped for pizza and got chased back onto the road by a thunderstorm
• Crossed the flattest, hottest and least interesting area between Turin and Milan on the autostrada, at high speed, in the dark

Too tired riding for a few days as well as no I net access yesterday to post and a ton of pics to go thru.

Surprised the crew with the first real ride in the French Alps yesterday as a warm up to the Italian and Swiss mountains.

French Chateaus, clean roads crossing into Italia today.

Hmmmm what is it with all these Alfas, Fiats wound out and Ducs/ Aprillias usually in a group of 2-4 with exhausts thrumming, full leather, blitzing by on any twisty section of road that resembles someone throwing spagetti at a piece of paper and calling wherever it lands a road. The turns here make the Deals Gap look like an easy cruise. Mix it up with cycling teams training on the roads sometimes blitzing by in echelon, micro cars passing (playing chicken) with oncoming traffic....

On the Auto Strada to stretch the legs of the mixed rides with Italian drivers, My GPS registers a top speed of *#@ mph on our run. I guess Pimpdaddy has the advantage on us. He raises the electrically adjustable windshield on the RT, put on the cruise and grins.

Dinner last nite via GPS and local directions in some tiny Italian village. A neighborhood place obviously.. I'm translating, ha like I can read it. A mix if broken spanish work well enough to order a bit of Spag carbonara (sp). Lightning appearing over the mountains to the west tells us it's time to move out east.

Nite at Hotel Victoria? near Novarra I think..

Next morn Slardo's GPSs gets us off the Autostrada and the associated tolls to some local twisties to challenge us again.

At a gas stop we discover a screw sticking in the rear tire of MS Bling's rear tire. Pulling and inspection reveals it fortunately went in at an angle and didn't pierce the tire. San Carlos,up up thru somewhere off the beaten path along river valleys crossing into Switzerland.

Temp immediately drops from 25-27 degrees C to 11 or so. Then the rain threatens as we approach Furca pass.

Stopping briefly to give my navigator a break (she keeps urging me on faster faster..) Oh no the clouds close in leaving me with about 30-40 ft visability on 1st and 2nd gear switchbacks where the edge of the road is marked by what looks like painted stones and occasional low guardrails. (I'll be the first to admit I'm not fond of look over the edge. Especially when a couple of oncoming busses great me leavingjust enough clearance to allow the saddlebags to clear as I paddle walk by them in the clouds..

Catching up to the others Ms Bling discovers ... not leaving the bike in gear by accident will require road side mods to the shifter...

Over the pass into Andermatt in the rain, new meaning to cold tires and wet road to check enthusiasm.

Here are a few pics uploaded while waiting for the clouds to lift a bit.

Riding between the hedgerows



Lil Melissa really wanted to be excused from school to take te ride.




Sunrise over the channel




Swiss cattle herder

My new girlfriend, Tina ...loves having her ears rubbed


Tina's home in Villard de Lans


Stopped in Les Grand Goulets (yeah, it was so good we went back to ride it again)


Pimpdaddy horsing about


Pimpdaddy reattaching Miss Bling's shifter at the top of Col du Lautaret




Picked up a hitchhiker

Day four on the continent (introduction to the Swiss Alps)

The old computer I brought with me is destined for the scrap heap when I get home - pitifully slow. Spent half the morning wandering around Andermatt while it processed and uploaded just the shortest video clips from yesterday's ride.

Here's approaching the Furka Pass from the South:

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...and a short clip of the very "exciting" descent in the clouds from the top of Furka. Missed the view but at least couldn't see the huge unguarded drops

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We've now spent a day riding around the Andermatt area and I think we've all completely run out of suitable descriptive adjectives or expletives to describe the awesome scenery and experience. I've certainly screamed my self hoarse inside my helmet. ... "Yeeeeeaaahhhh Haaaaaahhh!"

We rode three passes around Andermatt today and, still not content, Dewnmoon Pimpdaddy and Mrs Pimpdaddy went back to the top of Furkapass, where it was clear and dry today although only 1 degree above freezing at the summit. They came back with cold hands and stickers.

In an effort to manage with limited capability to post, I'm still working on yesterday's photos. Will get some posted asap.

Something the Italians and especially the Swiss do extremely well is to build mountain roads and tunnels. Driving through the shorter tunnels can be a bit disconcerting as your eyes may not have time to fully adjust. This is worse if the entrance or exit is on a tight curve as you might find water just inside on the bend - this has not caused any problems so far however. The longer tunnels we went through (up to a mile or two) were deliciously cool after the heat of Italy, although I understand the very long tunnels are quite hot inside (and not nice to ride on a bike.) We deliberately avoided all the very long tunnels - they bypass the nice passes after all - but some fairly long ones were unavoidable.


I had originally intended to head to Andermatt over the San Gotthard pass but fiddling around with GPS waypoints somehow led to us following the route to the Furka pass. This was not a problem. We were also well prepared to stop on the way up and add appropriate clothing to deal with the cold rain but we had not anticipated the thick fog (low cloud) as we approached the summit


It was worse on the north side of the pass and we rode down a couple of thousand feet before we got out of the cloud.




Another thing the Swiss do very well is mountain railways. By means of tunnel systems and cog railways, the trains can go just about anywhere the roads go. It seems strange to traverse a steep mountain face and keep crossing train tracks. There is a busy rail system connecting many of the small towns and villages in the area


We did not cover a huge distance(under 200 miles) but the intense heat of Italy took its toll and it still ended up as a long day in the saddle. We were worn out when we arrived in Andermatt and still had to spend a while trying to find the best deal on a hotel. We eventually settled on the Hotel Sonne, which had good rates, including breakfast, and a secure garage to park the bikes.

Going out to eat was an adventure in itself as we encountered numerous mad Brits on some sort of rally - They were all driving beat up old cars, painted or decorated in a number of "themes". Many of the crews were also dressed up. ...but that's best left for a future post

Looks like an amazing trip so far.

Furka Pass last evening at 1 degree C

Today:
Oberalp Pass
Julia (sp) Pass in the Snow
Maloja Pass

Our circuit yesterday included the Oberalp pass, Lukmanier pass and St. Gotthard pass - Where we went part way on the old cobbled pass and part on the new pass with it's wide sweeping turns.













Back in Andermatt, I went for a walk - Saw the symbol of the local Canton and came back to find a band playing in front of the hotel.