L3nny's Euro Tour

[L3nny]

A couple of weeks ago me and my frind who has a Thundercat went for a quick 2800 mile bimble around Europe.

I spent hours before leaving trying to find a route that would be challenging but not too hard (remember it is a holiday).

I wanted to include the Route Napoleon, Routes des Grandes Alpes the Stelvio Pass a bit of Austria, the Black Forest and the Nurburgring/Eifel park.

We both booked 8 days of work and decided on the following for days 1-5 then booked accomodation for each night. We thought we'd kick it freestyle on the last 3 days. I couldn't be bothered with camping and hotels can be found pretty cheap and you only have to carry half the gear.

The Route

We booked the Etap hotel in Lyon and the fast ferry from Portsmouth to Le Harve, unfortatley the boad developed a large hole and the crossing was cancelled. I didn't fancy the 7 hour crossing on the slow boat so at 5 am Sunday we headed off to Dover to catch a ferry from there.

Here are the bikes loaded up at the services just before Dover. After months of trying to fit a top box on my Fireblade I gave up and went with a tail pack. Was much better than a top box hanging over the rear wheel and messing up the handling. Only problem was I couldn't get my leg over so to sepak so had to jump onto the bike. More on this later.




As soon as we got off the ferry we headed for fuel and my mate noticed my tire was a bit low. I had forgot to check the pressure before we left so stuck in a few bars and made a not to keep an eye on it.

Every time we stopped it was getting low so I had a look and fouund a screw in the rear tire.



I squirted in a tube of emergency puncture repair and after spotting a AIM instructor we carried on.




Had anoter issue at a services just before Lyon, the alarm fob wouldnt work.

After calling the RAC, then the French police I was ready to spend the rest of the week in a hire car like last year's trip. The guy in ther petrol station luckily came to our aid saying the mobile phone mast on the roof messes up the alarm signals and if I push it 100m down the slip road it should start. Luckily he was right and we got to Lyon. 600 miles in one day was an absolute killer, but we got there.

Day 2

Woke up and saw my tire was completly flat. By an amazing stroke of luck there was a tire place opposite the hotel who repaired the tire for 10 euros. The owners reccomendation to stick to 50km/h were strictly adhered to (not).

We headed off to Grenoble and the start of the Route Napoleon. I found a place selling bike tires and was going to buy a new one but they had none in the right size. The guy who ran the place looked at the puncture repair and said he's had one of them in his bike for years without problems so I should be fine. With renewed confidence I headed off up the twisties.





We stopped for lunch and it soon became apparent the route we had planned was a bit much for one day so we took a slightly different way but it was equally good and even came across this lake.



I suppose if we didn't spend so much time taking silly photos then we'd have time but meh



Spot the obvoius wardrobe malfunction.

It was about 8pm by the time we reached Monaco so we didn't have time to look around, we've both been there before it's not that exciting so we headed off to our Hotel in Cap Martin. Stopped and took a few snaps though.





The next day we we planning on going over the Routes Des Grandes Alpes to Bourg Saint Maurice but my mate hadn't programmed the route into his sat nav properly and we eneded up on the motorway heading into Italy.
I was a bit annoyed at first but it was the most amazing motorway I have ever been on, if it wasn't 2 lanes wide it would be called a twisty and the scenery was amazing. Reminded me of Ridge Racer.

We eventually got off the motorway and it started raining. A good chance for me to try out my new waterproofs.



Then it got a bit foggy.



Carried on through the clouds, worst riding ever and came across this.



The ride down the other side was much better, much clearer and drier.



We stayed in the Hotel in Bourg St Maurice reccomended by Daimo and had the worst Pizza I have ever had in a bar while watching the France game.

Day 4

We had now realised our planned routes were way too long and as we had booked a posh hotel in Lake Como that night we decided that we would do one short twisty and then go the rest of the way on the motorway.

The short twisty took us here.



And into Italy



Spotted a glimpse of Mont Blanc on the way down



After a few hours on the Autostrada we arrived at a wet Lake Como. Riding around Lake Como turned out to be a lot less fun that expected. he traffic was terrible and it appears they polish their Zebra corssings and I narrowly avoided a few high siders.

Here was the view from our balcony, we sat there drinking beer till the minibar went dry watching the thunder storm before having a really nice Pizza.



Thankfully the morning brought clear skies.



Day 5 was the best days riding I have ever had. Everything was perfect, weather, views, roads the lot.

I was having so much fun I dodn't stop at the border crossing going into Switzerland and an angry guard jumped out in front of me brandishing a gun!!

A few interesting roadside views.













Then out of the blue, the Stelvio Pass!!!









The Stelvio pass was fun but the bends are too tight and have to be taken in 1st gear.

This pass was much better



We carried on into Austria and our last planned stop.

[L3nny]

Day 6

The next morning, Austria was cold, wet, and looking at the mountains we saw more fog so got straight on the Autobahn and headed off to the Black Forest.

We arrived in some town I can't remember the name of went into the tourist information and some old fella was in there who ran a B+B. Here is the view from the window, you can just about see the alps in the background.



Day 7

As we had nothing planned for this day we just went riding round the black forest heading towards the D500 which is a famous road there. I wasn't too keen on it, unless you are doing over a ton the bends aren't that tight and the scenery was too good to go that fast.





Gatecrashed a Porsche owners willy waving competition.

Parked up here to take a snap, the bike wasn't leant over much so the stand wasnt down that firmly.



As I said before I had to jump on the bike to prevent hitting the tail pack and had an epic fail and the bike ended up on the floor.



Not too much damage, just a scratched sticker, nearly put my back out lifting it back up though.

Another random view



We found a bargain hotel in Bad Wildbad managed to get a suite for £60!!

Day 8

We needed to head homeward and decided to go via the Nurburgring. Wanted to take the bike on the track but there was a vintage car race on. And it started raining again so we just went back to the bar in the hotel.




Next day we headed home.

That's about it really.

Any questions?

[Mr Speirs]

Not a question just an observation....how can a bend be too tight!! Thats what makes them fun!!!

[L3nny]

Yer well it was fun, just not the best road in the world as some people say, wsn't even the best road I did that day.

[sv4me]

Thanks for that after a shaky start (to say the least) looks like you had a blast. Bummer about the rain at the ring, I managed 2 laps there before the heavens opened.

Loving the waterproofs too btw!

I'm planning on doing a lot of what you covered next summer but in reverse, from the Ring down through the black forest, over to Stelvio Pass (you're not the 1st i've heard say its not all that, between the traffic and the sharpness of the turns you're better off on the surrounding passes) down through the Dolomites to Garda, down to Nice and then up the Routes Des Grandes Alpes and then home through the french back roads. I'm gonna take between 10-14 days though

So i'll be asking you a few stupid questions between now and then if you dont mind

Dave

[L3nny]

Ask away mate. 10-14 days is a much better timescale. I didn't have enough time to enjoy most of the places we stayed at.

[sv4me]

You might regret saying that

Yeah I want some time to wander about places and get most of the riding done by 5ish each day.

I was estimating doing 200 mile a day and picking places to stay by that but someones told me 200 miles on mountain passes will be tough going, like 10 hours in the saddle. I should be aiming for more like 150 a day especially over the Grandes Alpes. U go along with that or do they need a slap?

[L3nny]

Yer I would go along with that. Problem is the views are so good you keep having to stop and take photos. You also want to stop and have a leisurely lunch and you dont want to leave early becuase you want to enjoy breakfast.

The Routes des grandes alpes should be done over 2 days in order to enjoy it fully.

I think we made the right choice in doing it in September, the weather was perfect most days, from reports it looks like there is still quite a bit of snow about in June and July.

[sv4me]

Originally Posted by L3nny

Yer I would go along with that. Problem is the views are so good you keep having to stop and take photos. You also want to stop and have a leisurely lunch and you dont want to leave early becuase you want to enjoy breakfast.

The Routes des grandes alpes should be done over 2 days in order to enjoy it fully.

I think we made the right choice in doing it in September, the weather was perfect most days, from reports it looks like there is still quite a bit of snow about in June and July.

I'm thinking i'll be stopping for photos every 5 minutes the grandes alpes site says its 400 miles, which is why I was aiming for 200 mile a day. How much of it did you do in how long a time? Yeah Col de l'iseran sounds like the last of the snow is removed in early July so was planning on late(ish) July or early September (prefer July cause I dont wanna wait that long!)

[L3nny]

The plan was to do this in one day but in the end we took the motorway to Turin and ended up doing this

The origional route at the pace we were going would have taken about 12 hours so should have been spread over 2 days.

The route we actually took looks boring but it was the best motorway I have ever driven on, it's all bridges and tunnels going through the mountains just the engineering thats gon into building it is worth seeing.

It then flattens out into a really long flat, straight section which was a bit boring, unless you go flat out, which I did.