French Alps - 4 Aprilia RSVs and a GS

Thought you might be interested in these pics. 5 of us went to the French/Swiss/Italian Alps. Me and three others on Aprilia RSVs (my GS was being serviced) plus a 2002 GS. The presence of the GS justifies the post I hope. Either that or we classify Aprilia RSVs as Adventure bikes!

The Aprilias demolished the GS on the more open roads (wide twisties), but the GS was awesome on the narrower and poorly surfaced twistier stuff like higher up on mountain passes. It didn't exactly leave the Aprilias for dead, but we were working damned hard to keep up whilst the guy on the GS looked to be having a gentle afternoon run.

Anyway, here's the top of the Col d'Iseran near the main French ski resorts (Val d'Isere etc)...


This is on the way up the Col de la Croix de Fer...the GS is just out of shot - sorry (!)....


This'll be a fun road then...


Brrrrroooooooaaaaaarrrmmmmmm


This is at the top of the Col du Galibier...


And this is the road up to the top of the Col du Galibier...


This is the old town of Briancon where we based ourselves for 3 nights. It's right in the middle of superb riding territory...


We also stayed two nights in Castellane, which is a lovely little village about 50 miles north of Nice. Here's a pic...


Another pretty awesome road. The GS was rather capable going up here if I remember right...


Hotels were pretty cheap - €20-€25 per person per night. Excellent excellent food. Beautiful weather. We rode down from Calais (north France channel port) all the way through France, into Switzerland, dropped into Italy accidentally, then back into France. We ended up in Nice (south coast of France) where we put ourselves and the bikes on the motorail train back to Calais to save the dull motorway ride back to Calais.

Overall, a superb trip and highly recommended. I'll be on the GS next time as my knees cant take the Aprilia for more than 3 hours at a time.

Tobers

Beautiful scenery, especially the twisty passes. Any good pubs in those little towns?

Thanks mang!

Cheers! :slurp

Lots of nice bars all over the place. Castellane was particularly helpful, and we merrily got totally slaughtered one night at an assortment of bars each about 10 metres walk from the next. Well recommended.

You don't need a GS to post ride reports here, just a spirit of adventure. Yours was a nice report, thanks. Makes me want to go riding there.

Oh yes, French Alps we like:

Ski slopes in Risoul. And yes, the left bike is a Pan European.


At 2400 meters up with 3 XT's

Try that with a GS.

Now that does look like a good laugh!

Tobers,
I suggest that the next time you do this ride that you contact me and I'll ride your GS or your Aprillia while you ride the other.
Of course you'll have to pick up lodging and food and possibly air passage from Portland, Oregon. But there are flights to the EU daily and I don't eat much.
I also speak Spanish fluently and Italian and French conversationally.
Oh, and I'm pretty good with the ladies!
It the least I can do to help you with your dreadful knee problem!

Nice report.

Bastard...

Cheers,
Jorge

That is eye candy man. I bet the Aprilia sounded lovely coming around that corner. I hope to tour Europe with Mrs Ostrich on a GS one day, but I have to first get her comfortable as pillion. Oh well, a little dreaming never hurt anyone.

How bad did the Aprilias destroy the GS on the open road?

Tobers.............very good pics......thanks...Twin

To answer Ostrich's question - the Aprilias fairly cleared off mainly by utilising their amazing punch out of corners. I know that the GS goes well out of corners too, but the Aprilias dont run out of puff - they go like s**t of a shovel.

However, when we got to the sort of roads that had corner upon corner upon corner, where the Aprilias couldn't really get above 80mph between bends, the GS was very capable of keeping up. Also, the GS was definitely the bike to be on towards the top of the mountains as the roads deteriorated.

The overall difference was pretty minimal once you take comfort and luggage carrying ability into account. My conclusion: next time, I'll be leaving the Aprilia at home and taking the GS.

Tobers, can you help me? Is it expensive to ship bikes by train here in Europe?

Take a look at my question here:

http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/ubb/Forum4/HTML/000376.html

Being able to ship will give me 4+ days on my trip, which would be WONDERFUL.

How can I find out fares on this?

Thanks!!

Hey Tobers, yeah Elemental and I just took 2 GSs over 320km of mountain passes on Saturday - only 3 bikes passed us all day and that was in a town (bloody Italians )

we caned the absolute crap out of the GS and yeah when it's tight and twisty the GS is <b>THE</b> bike to be on

here's a pic of the Stilferjochpass - 1st gear hairpins - hard brakes in, hard on gas out, rear end sliding and passing sports bike like they're standing still... OH THEY WERE standing still

oh and the pic only shows a small number of the hairpins - there must've been over 30 of them!!!

cos the GS was just so much fun to slide on the tight shitty surfaced roads

and yeah I got an RSV too and I would've been no where near as fast on the RSV on these roads as I was on the GS

mind you the RSV still looks the mutts nuts

l8r all
Jase

those bastards

Hi Venturello,

Re bikes on the trains. We shipped ours from Nice back to Calais overnight. We were on the same train as the bikes so got seriously bladdered on the overnight trip. The cost was £175 for one bike and one person sharing a 2-bed "couchette" (mini cabin-like thing).

I'd really recommend it as the ride back is always so dull and boring. Also, taking into account costs for the ride back such as fuel, tolls, tyre wear and an overnight stay with food, your probably not far off £175 anyway.

This site should give you some more info.

http://www.eurodestination.co.uk/rail/motorail/motorail.htm

And here's a pic of the bikes loaded on the train:

That train is a pretty cool idea. It would be cool if we had something like that in the states. Anybody know?

Hi Tobers,
we got back last week,and like wise all we did was ride the passes.We rode from holland down to Grenoble best part of 700 miles in a day then started the passes just east of Gap working up to cul du gr st bernard then into switzerland(very expensive) but we only stayed there one night,doing the andermatt loop,furka/grimmsel/stusten/oberalp passes which are fantastic.Then onto Italy to ride the Stelvio pass dropping down into Austria to do Timmeljosch pass which was the best one for me then up through boring Germany into Holland for the ferry home.It just makes realise how crap our roads are here in the UK
we covered 3200 miles in 9 days bikes did not miss a beat, 35C every day,every one you meet being a biker or not are so friendly and welcoming nothing is to much bother,one guy in france even pushed his old car out of the garage so we could put the bikes away safe overnite,hows that for service!!can't wait till next year
anyway here are few pics,But they do not do it justice you have to be there,if you have been you will know what I mean.Andyhttps://www.motorider.smugmug.com/gallery/1/3526/1448860[/UR

lets try that link again.
https://www.motorider.smugmug.com/gallery/13526/1/448860

This is the lake at the top the Col du mont cenis (france) just over the italian border heading up to val-d'Isere on the N6,you could ride this road all day it's fantastic as are the views.Andy

Is the Col de Mt Cenis the road with the cafe by the lake with loads of Italian bikers parked up around it? We hit it on Saturday afternoon going from Val d'Isere to Susa and it was mobbed - like a very stylish version of Box Hill! Ver friendly people, and the road down into Italy was just fantastic.

Cool looking bike you've got there by the way.

Tobers,
yes that is the same road,like you say fantastic. I could of rode it all day just before I took that picture I saw a guy who lives about 10 miles from on his V strom,small world hey!.Andy