Just got back from my tour of the Swiss Alps following the suggested route from RIDE mag last year(?). The ride down avoided all tolls and motorways taking in the best of Belgium, Luxembourg, the B500 through the Black Forest. The Swiss part of the trip was based in Innertkirchen with a figure of eight tour through 5 mountain passes (Sustenpass, Furkapass, Nunenpass, Gottardpass and Grimselpass). Return trip was via the Alsace, Vosges mountains, Reims mountains and Great War battlefields again without motorways or tolls. Absolutely brilliant and I would highly recommend it. Throughout 2500 mile tour we saw two cops and suffered no breakdowns. Only problem was an occasional Fuel Sensor Error which cleared after 5 mins or so. Would highly recommend: 1. Ohlins Mechatronic SCU - Marvellous - Guys following couldn't believe how stable Mutley looked when I was throwing it around fully loaded. Every evening the other guys would be pissing about with their suspension trying to dial out this and that whilst I had a beer! 2. Leo Vince decat and can - sounds brilliant going up and down the mountains barking like a rabid dog! 3. CJS retune - Fuelled perfectly in all weathers (from 12 deg - 31deg) and all altitudes. Power scared me shitless. 4. Michelin PR4's - 3500 miles done now and just starting to show slight signs of wear. Gripped like shit to a blanket on all road surfaces. 5. Always wear a wicking base layer under your clobber no matter how hot. Found this out after 4 days of suffering horribly from sweaty wotsits. The stuff from from Lidl (Crivit?) worked just as well as more expensive stuff. 6. Doing it all again next year!!
The weather coming back through Switzerland was horrendous, roads and bridges washed away etc. Piccy here of me and my mate adding to the Swiss chaos!
If you want to get pics off your Android phone onto a Mac the easiest way is to install Android File Transfer onto your Mac. If you have a Google Drive account you can set up your phone to automatically back up your pictures to Google Drive, making them easily available to your Mac, and you can copy a link to show them in posts. Nice pics by the way.
We essentially followed the RIDE mag Swiss Alps Tour route, tweaked slightly to take into account the location of our own accommodation (although we used the Hotel Hof and Post in Switzerland). We even tried some of suggested coffee and lunch stops. Follow this link then scroll down to the tour. There are Google maps and GPX files to download to a satnav. tour2014
Hi Martyn, Glad you had a good time. I had hoped to do the same roads - the Ride magazine Swiss pass loop out of Hotel Hof und Post, Innertkirchen - on the way down to World Ducati Week. Sadly my alternator packed up in Mulhouse and I had to wait for a new part to arrive and be fitted, so ended up having a tedious motorway thrash through Switzerland to make up for being a day behind schedule. Glad the Ride route is worth doing -maybe try again next year (Monster electrics permitting!)
Shame about the breakdown. You would have loved it. The Hotel Hof and Post is very much a bikers hotel. Fairly basic rooms with shared toilets and showers but it's all you need when you're just using it as a base for daily rides. Food and beer both great.
Sounds amazing. I was looking at that ride when the magazine came out. I'd love to check out the mountain passes. I've spent time in Austria and Italy but never Switzerland. We're off to South Italy in September, although avoiding Switzerland as we want to get the miles done quicker until we get into Italy and a bit worried about Swiss police and speeding. What sort of mileage were you doing a day? we're planning on around 400 miles for the trip with maybe some more through Belgium and Germany as we want to get down to the Alps fairly quickly. We'll then take it more leisurely once we're in Italy. We seem to manage more than that around the UK without being too knackered so hopefully it will be realistic for a long trip.
400 miles a day is about right, but it depends on the type of roads. Motorways are dull but easy to rack up the miles, 100 miles in the mountains will take a lot longer (especially with additional stops for photos and coffee's). Keep hydrated and if the weather is hot a mesh jacket and gloves are a lifesaver. South Italy will be very hot at that time of year. Switzerland is OK, you are supposed to buy a carnet to use the motorways but as long as you don't enter or leave on a motorway you are usually OK. Austrian carnet is cheap (and great roads). B500 is probably my favourite non alpine road.
The daily mileage worked out about 225 on average, except for the day in the mountains when it was only about 135. We could have done more that day but as Twin4me says you need time to take piccies, have coffee and generally take in the amazing scenery. The trip to and from the Alps was all about the ride so the route we took down avoided all motorways. This made the daily 225 - 250 miles a very full day, especially as we wanted to stop for coffee and lunch. We'd be on the road at 9am and arriving just after 7pm. About 175 would be a better average in my opinion. If you need to take the motorways (which we had to last year en route to Italy) you can cram in more miles (over 600 miles one day but I wouldn't want to repeat that too often!). Only time we saw the Swiss cops were when they were closing the roads because of the floods. Again we avoided the motorways (and the cost of a vignette) so that's probably why. If you have to get down to Italy fairly quickly have you not thought about taking the train. It's supposed to be very good and gets you down there in a day or so. Give you more time to enjoy those lovely Italian roads!
+1 for the mesh jacket and vented gloves. They were an absolute lifesaver in the 28-30 deg. heat. +1 for the B500 although it was wet and misty when we went down it. Could see the potential though.
I've attached a link to a website run by a guy who knows everything you need to know about taking your vehicle by train. There are links there to the booking website I think. The route that would interest you I suppose would be the one that runs from Holland to Livorno in Italy. Guide to Motorail trains in Europe | Taking your car by train My mates and I were seriously considering this in an attempt to get down to the WDW but logistical problems meant we had to abandon that and do the Swiss Alps trip instead.
Is a week off work sufficient for this trip? Some googling suggests it is Ride October 2013, which I'm about to buy. UPDATE: just bought Oct and the tour in that issue is Spa to Netherlands, so must have got my googling wrong
