Sorry, longish post; Just back from a long and at times very wet Alps trip. Exhausted from the return leg (but now planning next year!). Loads of great roads, with many highs and lows along the way; The bikes; MTS1200 Caponard 1200 zzr1400 fz1s Route; Newcastle ferry to Amsterdam then down to Baden Baden via qucikest route. 1 night stay then a blast down the B500, zig zag through Germany (stunning roads) via Ravensburg east to Sankt Anton. This was via Silvrettastrasse....and the first hiccup. zzr1400 wheel bearing failure. So after a 3 hour wait for recovery I got to ride the Silvrettastrasse fully loaded with 16 stone passenger on the back-great! lol Arrived at Sankt Anton to find owners of accommodation knew nothing about booking!! (beware of booking.com , just because they have emailed confirmation to you, it may mean fuck all) Luckily owners were great and were able to accommodate us, including a few free taxi rides down to local bars/restaurants So next day while zzr owners waited to find out the fate of his holiday, we fekd off out for a ride over Jaufenpass and Timmelsjoch (one for all etc......). Great ride out, including one very happy phone call to say Kwak now sorted and back in the game (what, like we would just leave him..) Followed by more beverages that night, we loaded up next morning to head for Saint Moritz. Mistake. Ride down was okay till the last hour then it turned freezing and the heavens opened. Arrived in Saint Moritz cold, wet and pissed off. More pissed off after walking around and around trying to find anywhere with character for a few beers and some food. Expensive. (very). Checked out the weather forecast to find we are right in the middle rain, rain and rain. With some rain thrown in for good measure for many days to come. So we hatched a cunning plan. Bail out of Moritz a day early, head in to Italy via our planned Lake Como ride in the morning. What a cracking decision. Straight on to dry roads with sunshine on our backs. Como was stunning. Thanks for the help with the route I posted up a few weeks back. Cheap accommodation was found in Verres (near Aosta). Superb food on the night and all ready for the next day travel to Les Arcs in France. Roads were good. Picked up the Petite St Bernard as planned. Having a ball! Then...we hit the top of the pass and its snowing for feks sake. Why my pinlock always fails at this point is a mystery, but on cue, it does.:Wtf: The descent from the summit has the temperature display showing 'ice'. Nice. Surely the weather is only shit at the top, right? No, its only snowing at the top. We drop down in to Bourg St Maurice and we have rain and low cloud. Fuel up, head back up in to the cloud at Les Arc 1800. Wet and dejected again with the weather the decision is made to just go for it in the morning. Maybe 'some' roads will be dry?? 7 ish next morning we are greeted with ..more low level cloud and fog. Grrrrr So, not expecting much we head west out of Bourg, roads dry up and we start one of the best days riding we have ever had. Yep. Bloody superb; Col de Madeleine, Col du Glandon, Col de Mont Cenis and many others that I didnt even see the name of. Got back to hotel around 8pm happy and exhausted. Game over. Two days riding back home ( in pissing rain cant spoil it now, have to try harder yer bstards) with a Calais/Dover ferry crossing, over night stay at St Quintin (don't bother!) and the 'rose tinted spectacles' are working perfectly, cant wait to go back and do it again
I was in Bourg St Maurice on the 8th and 9th July and yes it rained persistently all day epressed:, that sounds like approx the same time as you. On the morning of the 10th the forecast was for more rain so I left for Castellane and there the weather was hot and dry Your Kawasaki riding friend had a close escape.
[QUOTE="DonaldDuc, post: 392748, Your Kawasaki riding friend had a close escape.[/QUOTE] Very, complete collapse of rear wheel bearing. Lucky he was on a straight road and at low speed at the time. Only 12000 miles on his bike as well.
Great pics and report. Just shows you what a difference weather makes on a trip like this. Did pretty much this route in late May/June, on my MG Stelvio, and only got caught out with bad weather on one day, snowing at the top of the Julien pass and pissing down either side.(funnily enough en route to St Moritz.) Did find a half decent boozer though and wasn't too dear. Had a cracking day for the Petite San Bernard(just as well cos the surface was atrocious with temporary repairs).
