The only negative thing I can possibly say about our experience at Yuri's is that mamma's bread was nothing special - and that's really nitpicking. Yuri greeted us at breakfast and had a fine spread laid out for us. He brought out our dried gear, then posed for some pictures and introduced us to gramma and his uncle ("he's the General, I'm just the last soldier") while we finished getting packed up. Eventually it was time to say goodbye to Yuri and his hospitality (total cost for a room with a great view of the mountains, full breakfast, and a personal town tour guide? 35 euro per room - what a deal!), and after posing with the bikes for a group shot we took off for Gavia. Not even we could get lost on the way to Gavia, as Yuri's road is practically on the pass.
My room with a view
Yes, it's going to be a good day
Breakfast at Yuri's
Yuri taking care of our gear
The Four Horseman of...something
What can I say about Passo Gavia? It was suggested to us by some Dutch riders we met on our last trip, and they described it as this "it is two way, but how do you say, sometime no possible?". With a recommendation like that Jim and I couldn't turn it down, and it turned out to be one of the highlights of the trip - and a road whose pictures sparked concern for some of this year's group. Yes, it is that narrow. Yes, it is fun. The views are superb, the pavement, with a couple exceptions, is in great shape, and there are hairpins a'plenty. The section on the middle of the pass is what really gets your attention. While the road is just about one-car wide, it's no narrower than the western half of Wurz Joch. On Gavia, however, there is a lot of exposure on that narrow section with steep dropoffs into the abyss. We're not talking La Paz death-road drops, but you can't afford to fool around.
I had a small moment on the very first hairpin when I rode over some fresh manure on the apex, but quickly recovered. I stopped a bunch to take photos of the pass and the guys on the pass and really enjoyed my trip up to the summit. There was a lot less snow this year, possible because it was 2 weeks further into the summer than last time. Once everyone arrived at the top we hung around a bit before finishing Gavia. There isn't much to say about the northern descent, it's very scenic and has a good mix of hairpins and sweepers, but after riding (conquering?) the souther half it's a bit of a let down.
Peter heads up Gavia
So does Dave
Go Dave!
One of the places you have to watch for oncoming traffic
Man, that's a tight hairpin - but fun!
Section of exposure on Gavia
You can see the upcoming blind hairpin on the Zumo
Just another hairpin
TDM on Gavia
Peter
Dave and Peter taking a moment
Rare guardrail
Here comes Peter
OK, that's a winner
Ascending Gavia
View from the cockpit on Gavia
Peter's a natural at drawing a Maple Leaf
Pavement gets a little worse when you get near the top
You can see the ascent of Gavia on the left
Peter on Gavia
And Dave
You can get a sense of how steeply the road ascends that hairpin
Neat glove drier
V-Strom
Great pictures of Gavia when its really snowy
Oh, that's not good
More goats!
The top of Gavia
Frank descending Gavia
Looking back up Gavia
TDM on Gavia
Peter coming down Gavia
There was a short connector road to get to the base of Stelvio, then a quick gas stop. Unlike most of the passes we've done, where finding them can sometimes be a challenge, you can't possibly miss Stelvio as there are signs all over town directing you towards it. The start of Stelvio is plenty of fun with a couple hairpins to get you warmed up. The nearly pitch-black tunnels were a challenge, as they were very narrow and often contained ninja bicyclists that you could hardly see. The best part of the ascent is when you come around one of the turns and get a glimpse of the zig-zag climb up the mountain that lay ahead of you. It definitely gets your attention.
We had to share the pass with a lot of other bikes, bicycles, cars and busses but it wasn't overly crowded - I for one had a great time. We again kept passing each other as all of us stopped for photos at one place or another, and I loved knowing that my buddies were most likely having the time of their lives today. I find the southern ascent (which we were coming in on) is more fun than the northern descent, as the northern side just seems like an endless series of hairpins with not much else to add any variety to the ride. The southern side does have a lot of hairpins (and since we were going up they were trickier) but it's not the defining feature - there's a lot of different types of turns to keep you entertained. I had a twinge of regret when we passed the Hotel Folgore near the top, which is where we were supposed to stay last night, but I'm very happy the way things turned out.
Nice group of Lotuses leaving the gas station
Waiting for some action
Griso starting the climb up Stelvio. You can just start to see the back-and-forth hairpins ahead
No slight on Frank, but I'm betting that guy doesn't stay behind him for long
Looking back down the start of Stelvio. You can see the long series of dark tunnels and galleries that lead up to the hairpin ramps.
Unfortunately you had to deal with traffic on hairpins sometimes
Looking down Stelvio
Climbing Stelvio
Higher and higher we climb
Back and forth, back and forth
5 layers of road
Almost to the top
Peter ascending Stelvio
This is really a lot of fun
The top of Stelvio was, as usual, a circus. On my 2009 trip the very cold temperatures and strong winds probably kept the crowds thin, but today was a beautiful summer afternoon. Bikes by the hundreds, dozens of souvineer vendors, several food carts, all contributed to the carnival-like atmosphere - which I loved. We squeezed the bikes into a hole in the crowd and walked around the top of Stelvio shopping, eating and oggling the bikes. One of the things Dave (and probably Peter) was looking forward to was the possibility, I kid you not, of skiing while we were here. It might have worked out had we stayed here last night, but there certainly wasn't enough time today to make that happen. As a consolation prize we decided to take the cablecar from the top of Stelvio to the ski areas just to check out the view. Now I'm not a huge fan of cable cars, but the things we do for our friends...
Frank and Dave shopping
Mmm, bike nakeds
The scene at the top
Nice pipes on that Griso - this was the bike that was behind Frank in an earlier picture
Don't see many "Big One's" anymore
Looking ahead to the descent
I bet that's perfect for these passes
Those MT-01's are all motor
"Oh man, can you believe where I am?!"
Dave and Peter atop Stelvio
Tasty tasty tasty.
My "naked" dog
Dave waits for a dog while a bus passes by
Dave's Dog
My Zephyr! I had some great times on that bike...
Man do they have some ugly cars over there
Hey, it's that same CB1300S!
More trinkets to buy
I guess they do have year-round skiing here
A Stelvio on Stelvio!
Welcome to Sticker City
Several of these crazy trikes were here today. I just now noticed that my Zephyr is hiding behind this one, I would have loved to get a closer look at my old girl.
Busy, busy, busy
(Somewhat) aerial view of the top of Stelvio
Up we go
Higher and higher
Looking back towards the lower tram station
Looking down on the northern descent of Stelvio
Close-up
We killed some time on top of the mountain, and I have to say I was blown away by the scenery. We do a lot of vacationing in the Rockies in Colorado and I always feel at home in the mountains. It was very cool to look down and see bikers riding on Stelvio, then look over and see people skiing down the slopes. As I said before I'm no fan of riding in cable cars, but this was definitely worth the few minutes of elevated heartrate.
Thankfully we didn't have as long a day ahead of us as last time, but we still needed to get moving again to make it to Linderhof at a reasonable hour. Back down the mountain we went, and after a quick round of stamp/postcard buying got ready to roll out.
Dave's on top of the world
Peter was impressed
I was very suprised to see how gentle a ski slope lay at the top of Stelvio - heck, I'd give that a try (I've never been on skis)
That has to be the bathroom with the world's best view
Nice view from the sinks
Peter lost in thoughts of skiing
Heading back down the mountain
Still busy
Guy's doing some serious traveling on that V7
Nice Aston Martin, with a Bentley Continental right behind
Another Stelvio on Stelvio
Blinged-out Kawasaki ZR1100, the big brother to my Zephyr 750 and another bike I lusted after back in the day. This was replaced in K's lineup by the ZRX1100.
Check out the encased video camera on the ZR1100
This Sportster was pretty cool
Probably a fantastic bike for pass bagging
One of the dozens of new Multistradas we saw
No accounting for taste
Uh-oh.
On a couple of occasions earlier in the trip Frank's Varadero experienced some troubles starting but after a couple stabs at the starter would eventually fire up. This time, up at the very top of Passo Stelvio, one day before the bikes had to be returned, it steadfastly refused to start. It would crank and crank but never turn over.
Uh-oh.
Our first thought was to try bump-starting the bike, so Frank rolled out into the middle of the zaniness and tried, without success, to bump-start the bike. And tried, and tried. Figuring this was our best bet at getting things going, Frank used the downhill grade of the pass to repeatedly try to get the bike going. We had a quick discussion before deciding which way to descend, and agreed that there was it made more sense to head to the town at the southern entrance (which we passed through earlier) rather than continuing north into unknown territory. The three of us waited at the top, fully expecting Frank to roar on by in a few minutes. When it was obvious that wasn't going to happen, I headed downhill to catch up with him and see what was going on.
Frank was on dirt pull-off area trying to get the bike started. He had coasted down a number of hairpins repeatedly trying to get the bike to life. We looked the bike over for a while, doing a lot of beard-stroking and head-scratching, and Frank thought maybe the bike was low on oil. The sightglass really didn't show any oil, so that was a concern. I left Frank there and rode (quickly) back up to Dave and Peter and sent them on an errand to find a biker with some spare oil. Returning (quickly) to Frank, enough time had passed with the bike stationary that the sightglass was showing an acceptable oil level. Frank wanted to try some more bump-starting, so I rode (quickly) up to Dave and Peter to call them off the oil search.
We all rode back down to Frank and when he left to continue coasting down the pass we had some time to discuss our options. Perhaps we could find a biker with more mechanical skills to help us out, or maybe there was a shop down in town that could fix the bike. If the bike was dead, though, what would we do? The bikes were due back tomorrow (Saturday) by 1, but we could be later if needed. Dave and Peter had reservations on a train to Rome Saturday night, and my family was arriving in Munich Sunday morning. While you never want to leave a man behind, it wouldn't make any sense for all of us to stay together if the Varadero wouldn't run. There were a couple hotels right on the summit that had rooms and restaurants, so it wouldn't be like we were leaving Frank to the wolves in the wilderness. Still, no one really looked forward to abandoning one of the group. Hopefully it wouldn't come to that.
We watched Frank below us, slowly working his way downhill before pulling into another parking area, and we rode down to join him. I had put PDF's of service manuals and owners manuals for all the bikes both on my phone and my iPad, so we started doing some reading. Of course nothing really helped. We called Herman, this time knowing the trick of dialing + in front of the number. After playing a little phone tag on his answering machine he got back to us, but didn't really have any helpful advice. Eventually he said he would try to find a mechanic nearby that could come help us out. OK, that was a plan.
Frank coasting downhill
Well, that didn't work
On the phone with Herman
More quads out for play
While waiting on the Varadero we saw a few dozen of these VW Eurovan/Vanagons/whatever in packs coming (excruciatingly slowly) down the pass, creating lots of passing fun for bikers
Literally the minute we hung up with Herman the bike started. Wahoo! We'd probably spent 30 minutes poking and prodding the Varadero to no avail, and now, magically, it was running just fine. I called Hermann back to tell him we were fine (for now), and told Frank not to turn the bike off under penalty of death. We rode back up to the summit and started our descent on the other side. Whew.
Had a great ride down Stelvio, enjoying the photo stops in this perfect weather and getting in a nice groove when I got back on the bike.
Looking down the northern descent
Frank approaching a typical 0-degree right hairpin on Stelvio. Fortunately no oncoming traffic to deal with this time. You can see the ramps up to the summit in the top of the picture.
Frank on Stelvio
Dave had some traffic to contend with
While I was shooting on the hairpin this bus just missed me. I was watching him come down, all geared up and ready to move the bike if needed, but he didn't so much as tap the brakes coming at me.
Check out the BMW rider making a super-tight turn and passing the bus on the inside. I had my own fun passing the bus a little later (though just in a straight line).
Stacked roads and Dave
Nice to have the hairpins to yourself
The sidecar guy would tilt the rig a good 30 degrees in the air on most downhill right-handers. I followed him for a while just for the laughs.
What a great thing to read - Aperto!
We regrouped at the entrance to the pass and looked at our options for getting north to Linderhof, our town for the last night of the group trip. Linderhof was close enough to Landshut to make an easy ride Saturday morning to return the bikes, and not so far from Stelvio that getting there would be a stretch for the day. Of course we were planning on starting the day on top of Stelvio rather than having to cross Gavia, but it was still doable. We had about a little over 2 hours of uninteresting roads ahead of us before there was an option to head over a pass, and then another hour and a half or so to get to the hotel.
There were a couple amusing moments on the last section of road leaving the area of Stelvio - one was watching a guy push a solar-powered bicycle uphill, and the other was my having to abort a passing attempt on a bicycle. The guy was doing a good clip downhill, and I couldn't get a clear enough section to get around him. Frustrating, but also very funny.
Nothing really interesting to say about the next 2 hours, other than advising you that if you see wind farms in the valley you're riding through (as opposed to on the hilltops), hang on! We were all getting pushed around quite a bit for a while, but at least that helped relieve the boredom a little. It was probably more than just boredom that was contributing to my melancholy - we had just finished the last major pass of the trip and the bikes were going back tomorrow. I know I was not looking forward to this adventure coming to an end.
At the next gas stop I convinced Peter to switch bikes with me as I was eager to give the FJR a test in it's natural habitat - fast B roads, sweepers, traffic to squirt around, etc. I don't think super-tight hairpin roads showed the FJR in it's best light and wanted to give it a fair shake. I don't think Peter was that thrilled to be back on the TDM, but being the nice guy he is he indulged me.
Indeed, I ended up enjoying the FJR a lot more on these open roads. The seat is sofa-like in width, the windscreen provided a pretty serene cockpit, and the motor was a lot of fun to wind out when room allowed. I could definitely see the appeal of a bike like this in the states, where a much larger percentage of time is spent on less technical roads.
We felt we were making good enough time to detour off the fast B roads and make a run over Hahntennjoch. There was also some concern over possible toll roads and whether we were required to have vignettes if we stuck to the "shortest time" route, plus I know I wasn't going to say no to a chance at a pass on the last full day of riding. Hahntennjoch turned out to be nearly deserted, I don't think we saw more than 10 vehicles while we were there. The south side had some very big views of green hills, and a road that hugged the mountain. The northern descent was more of the same to start, then turned into the familiar scene of switchback after switchback. I was glad I had switched back to my TDM at the top of the pass for the twistier descent.
I think Peter was ready to call it a day at the gas stop
Hey, it's the Sporty from the top of Stelvio!
What a hoot this has to be on Stelvio
Climbing Hahntennjoch
Peter riding "my" TDM on Hahntennjoch
Looking back on the southern ascent of Hahntennjoch
This guy flagged me down to help him push this cruiser onto the trailer
The top of Hahntennjoch
Ready to start down the pass
The rain started when we got to the bottom of the pass, but not hard enough to warrant rain gear. The route from here to the hotel was primarily on empty, endlessly twisting backroads, which was a great wind-down to the day. Nothing especially challenging, or fantastically scenic, but just nice curve after curve after curve, with a very occasional hairpin or two thrown in. Think of a European version of the Blue Ridge Parkway and you'll get the idea. We had a group of bikers behind us for longer than usual, but eventually they decided to wick it up and sped past us. Watching them ride 2 abreast through some of the really tight turns was eye-opening.
We were getting pretty cold by the last half-hour or so, and between that, the drizzly rain and the long day behind us some of us were more than ready to get to the hotel. The Schlosshotel Linderhof looked deserted when we arrived, but there was someone at the front desk when we dragged our soggy butts inside. The world's tiniest elevator whisked us to our rooms where we got quickly changed for dinner before the restaurant closed. We were the only people in the dining room by the time we got down there, and it was obvious the staff wanted to get out of there. The only thing on the short menu that appealed to me was the salad, but the other guys were more adventurous. The beer was icy cold and most welcome.
Tomorrow will be just a short ride to return the bikes. Bummer.
The Schlosshotel Linderhof
We had to park out back
My nice-sized room
Dinners
What did I do to deserve those looks?