Max_Kool
Guest
Shameless crosspost from the ride report I posted on ADVrider:
Well then,
Max_Kool and Madmark were up to this spring's motorcycle trip. We do this twice a year. Once in spring, and the other time in autumn. Normally we'd go to the Eiffel in Germany to play outside for a long weekend. This year we decided to do things differently and go a whole week. Mark kindly offered his ski vacation, and eehhh Max offered nothing at all actually.
The trip would be throught the Schwarzwald to the Alps, to touch the north of Italy, and returm home after one week.
Day 1: First we took some German Autobahn to take us south real quick. Germany has no speeds limits (not on all streches by the way), so we cruised at 100 mph plus. During a pissbreak I notice that the right hand side headgasket has started to weep. A small drop of oil is forming on the front of the cylinder and rolls backward over the cylinder to finally splat on my boot. Now that's a start. I contact my spannerman to ask him what to do. He tells me the gasket could blow, but chances are it will last the whole trip. Thanks mate, now that's an advice!
We decided to continue the trip and keep an eye on the weeping gasket. As you can see there are plenty hotels in Baden-Baden, but that's not what we came for. I quickly removed the liner from my jacket, and on we went.
Now that's better, the Schwarzwald seen from the Schwarzwalder Hochstraße.
In the evening we found bed and breakfast, here are some randompics from the next morning.
Day 2: Back in the saddle we head for Garmisch Partenkirchen. through Garmisch we headed for Wallgau where we took the toll-road to Vorderriß. That's the Isar canyon. It's very quiet there and the road makes you dance alongside the stream. In Vorderriß we turn right to Hinterriß/Eng-Alm. On this dead end stretch you cross the German/Austrian border a few times and you're driving throught one of most beautifull and impressive countrysides. No markings on the road, no fences or armco. Suddenly you feel you're a guest of nature, you slow down and you're being overwhelmed by the mountains that rise up left and right. Res-pect.
Once at the end of the canyon there is an information sign. You can hike along here if you want. We decided to stay on our bikes. In the background you can see the clouds rolling onto the valley.
The same road took us out of the canyon again. We took an hotel nearby, here's a random balcony picture.
Day 3: This day promised to be a tough one. We started with rain, and lots of it! We had set our minds on having lunch at Edelweißspitze, that's the Großglockner. Down at the tollbooth we were kindly asked to take it easy going up. She was right. Conditions were, eeeerrrmm, bad...
Visibility sometimes below 100 yards.
Our reward, Kaiserschmarrn!
Once over the Edelweißspitze things got a lot better beter. Tarmac dried up, and we were able to dance again! We took the way up to the scenic view of the gletscher.
Once back in the vally we took the road to Lienz, and turn right heading for Matrei. Before we reached Matrei we turned left into some canyon. It was a lucky shot (we didn't really know what to expect). Turned out to the road to Staller Sattel. Could have been a smugglers route in the old days. Small roads, very quiet (again). And suddeny on top of the road there's a traffic light!? :shock:
The road down was so narrow that cars couldn't pass there. They fixed that "problem" by installing a traffic light. One quarter of an hour it's only uphill traffic, and the other it's downhill only. Just make sure you're the first in line at the traffic light, and the road is all yours!
We found a hotel just somewhere in Italy, right before Brunico.
We could park our bikes inside.
some random snapshots, Dolomites and Alpen cuddle up nicely, just like they are good friends it seems.
Day 4: Day 4 started with a fight with mister Garmin. The little gremlins inside the Quest really thought we wanted to ride round in a big circle... There was a track in the display, but definatetely not the one I had in mind. Anyway, a new one is created within a few minutes. Through some very nice roads we ended on the Passo di Sella. What's really surprising about this one is that you're riding into a canyon, and all you can see is this steep huuuuge stonewall ahead of you. You can't imagine there's a way over this pass. On top we met some very friendly Belgian bikers. One of them had crashed her bike on one of the many "gravelish" corners. The road was really very dirty because of all the construction they were doing. Her bike was still rideable luckily. Good people.
In the Avisio canyon mr. Garmin surprised us one more time. Instead of taking the main road trought the canyon, mr. Garmin thougt it was better to take a small secondary road about 1000 yards upon one side of the valley. We were shown some sort of GS testrack. All bumpy and stuff, up and down, U-turns, left-right-left-right through the woods, perrrfect. And not a single vehicle coming from the opposite direction. After leaving this canyon we headed a little in the direction of Austria.
From Eppan we took the Mendelpass, which was totally ruined for me by a handfull of sportsbike riders from Austria. These guys drove me nuts. Lots of horses, lots of noise from their exhausts, lots of revs, but make some turns? Hell no. Dumb Weeners. They really cranked the throttles on the stretches (I hardly ever go over 75 mph in the mountains, just because I come there to steer, not to just gas it), but every turn they were in my way again, messing up my line. Somewhere there was some road under construction, with a traffic light to control the cars going up and down. I stopped my bike right in front of two of those Weeners. When the light went green I really went for it. Just for good measure. Anyway, there I was after that ride, full of anger and adrenalin. And that was not exactly what I went on holiday for... Bad vibes Max, baaad vibes.
Next we took the Passo di Palado just together. Nice and sweet, dancing on the rhytm of the road. Here's a view towards Lana.
And in the back we see the Grödnertal.
Anyway, we were heading for Austria. A friend of us had told us not to forget the Timmelsjoch. The road kept on rising. From the warm valley we climbed up, an up. And it got colder and colder and even more colder. Until we came all the way "upstairs".
You can see the clouds rolling into the valley here.
The road down to Sölden was one to never forget. Freezing cold, the snow was on my goggles. Cutting wind, rough, wide, barren, desolate. Once down (still at 4000 ft) we found a place to sleep, and a place to eat. We felt like we deserved it.
Day 5: The next morning we wake up seeing some fresh snow on the mountains.
Exploded luggage.
Mission of the day was to get back to Germany. But not without riding some nice mountain roads. We started the day with Kühtai. The mountains were covered in some nice fresh soft sugar as you can see.
Next the Scharmitzpass into Germany. Through some more small roads we decided to sleep at the address we used on our first night. A good room, excellent bed, very friendly hostess (Martina we love you!) and a friendly price.
day 6: First thing we needed was a fresh rear tire for Mark's Multistrada. Even Metzeler Roadteks have limited life in them it seems. Dealerwaypoints in your Navi-gerät are essential. After some fiddling we set sail to the nearest Ducati dealer. Half the farm kindly offered to help us it seems.
Dealer found, new Metzeler Z1 on a clean rear wheel. Took them less than one hour, and that's including coffee and chit-chat.
We also did a few kilometers in France. Mr. Garmin thought that was absolutely necessary, and who are we to argue with mr. Garmin? The Vosgues are nice just as well.
No words needed.
We ended up sleeping in Graach. Was funny by the way. We stopped at a bed and breakfast to ask if there was some room for us to spend the night. In front of the b & b there were some kids from about 7 and 9 year old playing outside. We made a chat with these kids for a while after grandma the b & owner came out and asked us if she could help us. "We were wondering if we could spend the night here?"
- "Sorry guys, we're all bookup up."
One of the kids: "Aber Oma, du hast oben doch noch ein Paar Zimmer frei?" (But grandma, upstairs are still a few empty rooms?)
Ouch, that must've hurt!!! We didn't matter, there's plenty of b & b's all around there. We ended up with a room with this view.
This was a cold, tiring day as you can see, especially for someone who spent all day in just racing leathers (notice the witches).
Last day went without pictures. We took some really fast canyon roads behind Zell am Mosel, and then went up north, going home. Bitte sehr gern wieder. Will do a trip like this again in september or october. Hopefully on wider rims, and with one cylinder less. Next time I will take a little less stuff with me, came home with at least one third of my clothes still unworn.
MadMark, you can be my wingman anytime!!
Well then,
Max_Kool and Madmark were up to this spring's motorcycle trip. We do this twice a year. Once in spring, and the other time in autumn. Normally we'd go to the Eiffel in Germany to play outside for a long weekend. This year we decided to do things differently and go a whole week. Mark kindly offered his ski vacation, and eehhh Max offered nothing at all actually.
The trip would be throught the Schwarzwald to the Alps, to touch the north of Italy, and returm home after one week.
Day 1: First we took some German Autobahn to take us south real quick. Germany has no speeds limits (not on all streches by the way), so we cruised at 100 mph plus. During a pissbreak I notice that the right hand side headgasket has started to weep. A small drop of oil is forming on the front of the cylinder and rolls backward over the cylinder to finally splat on my boot. Now that's a start. I contact my spannerman to ask him what to do. He tells me the gasket could blow, but chances are it will last the whole trip. Thanks mate, now that's an advice!
We decided to continue the trip and keep an eye on the weeping gasket. As you can see there are plenty hotels in Baden-Baden, but that's not what we came for. I quickly removed the liner from my jacket, and on we went.
Now that's better, the Schwarzwald seen from the Schwarzwalder Hochstraße.
In the evening we found bed and breakfast, here are some randompics from the next morning.
Day 2: Back in the saddle we head for Garmisch Partenkirchen. through Garmisch we headed for Wallgau where we took the toll-road to Vorderriß. That's the Isar canyon. It's very quiet there and the road makes you dance alongside the stream. In Vorderriß we turn right to Hinterriß/Eng-Alm. On this dead end stretch you cross the German/Austrian border a few times and you're driving throught one of most beautifull and impressive countrysides. No markings on the road, no fences or armco. Suddenly you feel you're a guest of nature, you slow down and you're being overwhelmed by the mountains that rise up left and right. Res-pect.
Once at the end of the canyon there is an information sign. You can hike along here if you want. We decided to stay on our bikes. In the background you can see the clouds rolling onto the valley.
The same road took us out of the canyon again. We took an hotel nearby, here's a random balcony picture.
Day 3: This day promised to be a tough one. We started with rain, and lots of it! We had set our minds on having lunch at Edelweißspitze, that's the Großglockner. Down at the tollbooth we were kindly asked to take it easy going up. She was right. Conditions were, eeeerrrmm, bad...
Visibility sometimes below 100 yards.
Our reward, Kaiserschmarrn!
Once over the Edelweißspitze things got a lot better beter. Tarmac dried up, and we were able to dance again! We took the way up to the scenic view of the gletscher.
Once back in the vally we took the road to Lienz, and turn right heading for Matrei. Before we reached Matrei we turned left into some canyon. It was a lucky shot (we didn't really know what to expect). Turned out to the road to Staller Sattel. Could have been a smugglers route in the old days. Small roads, very quiet (again). And suddeny on top of the road there's a traffic light!? :shock:
The road down was so narrow that cars couldn't pass there. They fixed that "problem" by installing a traffic light. One quarter of an hour it's only uphill traffic, and the other it's downhill only. Just make sure you're the first in line at the traffic light, and the road is all yours!
We found a hotel just somewhere in Italy, right before Brunico.
We could park our bikes inside.
some random snapshots, Dolomites and Alpen cuddle up nicely, just like they are good friends it seems.
Day 4: Day 4 started with a fight with mister Garmin. The little gremlins inside the Quest really thought we wanted to ride round in a big circle... There was a track in the display, but definatetely not the one I had in mind. Anyway, a new one is created within a few minutes. Through some very nice roads we ended on the Passo di Sella. What's really surprising about this one is that you're riding into a canyon, and all you can see is this steep huuuuge stonewall ahead of you. You can't imagine there's a way over this pass. On top we met some very friendly Belgian bikers. One of them had crashed her bike on one of the many "gravelish" corners. The road was really very dirty because of all the construction they were doing. Her bike was still rideable luckily. Good people.
In the Avisio canyon mr. Garmin surprised us one more time. Instead of taking the main road trought the canyon, mr. Garmin thougt it was better to take a small secondary road about 1000 yards upon one side of the valley. We were shown some sort of GS testrack. All bumpy and stuff, up and down, U-turns, left-right-left-right through the woods, perrrfect. And not a single vehicle coming from the opposite direction. After leaving this canyon we headed a little in the direction of Austria.
From Eppan we took the Mendelpass, which was totally ruined for me by a handfull of sportsbike riders from Austria. These guys drove me nuts. Lots of horses, lots of noise from their exhausts, lots of revs, but make some turns? Hell no. Dumb Weeners. They really cranked the throttles on the stretches (I hardly ever go over 75 mph in the mountains, just because I come there to steer, not to just gas it), but every turn they were in my way again, messing up my line. Somewhere there was some road under construction, with a traffic light to control the cars going up and down. I stopped my bike right in front of two of those Weeners. When the light went green I really went for it. Just for good measure. Anyway, there I was after that ride, full of anger and adrenalin. And that was not exactly what I went on holiday for... Bad vibes Max, baaad vibes.
Next we took the Passo di Palado just together. Nice and sweet, dancing on the rhytm of the road. Here's a view towards Lana.
And in the back we see the Grödnertal.
Anyway, we were heading for Austria. A friend of us had told us not to forget the Timmelsjoch. The road kept on rising. From the warm valley we climbed up, an up. And it got colder and colder and even more colder. Until we came all the way "upstairs".
You can see the clouds rolling into the valley here.
The road down to Sölden was one to never forget. Freezing cold, the snow was on my goggles. Cutting wind, rough, wide, barren, desolate. Once down (still at 4000 ft) we found a place to sleep, and a place to eat. We felt like we deserved it.
Day 5: The next morning we wake up seeing some fresh snow on the mountains.
Exploded luggage.
Mission of the day was to get back to Germany. But not without riding some nice mountain roads. We started the day with Kühtai. The mountains were covered in some nice fresh soft sugar as you can see.
Next the Scharmitzpass into Germany. Through some more small roads we decided to sleep at the address we used on our first night. A good room, excellent bed, very friendly hostess (Martina we love you!) and a friendly price.
day 6: First thing we needed was a fresh rear tire for Mark's Multistrada. Even Metzeler Roadteks have limited life in them it seems.
Dealerwaypoints in your Navi-gerät are essential. After some fiddling we set sail to the nearest Ducati dealer. Half the farm kindly offered to help us it seems.
Dealer found, new Metzeler Z1 on a clean rear wheel. Took them less than one hour, and that's including coffee and chit-chat.
We also did a few kilometers in France. Mr. Garmin thought that was absolutely necessary, and who are we to argue with mr. Garmin? The Vosgues are nice just as well.
No words needed.
We ended up sleeping in Graach. Was funny by the way. We stopped at a bed and breakfast to ask if there was some room for us to spend the night. In front of the b & b there were some kids from about 7 and 9 year old playing outside. We made a chat with these kids for a while after grandma the b & owner came out and asked us if she could help us. "We were wondering if we could spend the night here?"
- "Sorry guys, we're all bookup up."
One of the kids: "Aber Oma, du hast oben doch noch ein Paar Zimmer frei?" (But grandma, upstairs are still a few empty rooms?)
Ouch, that must've hurt!!! We didn't matter, there's plenty of b & b's all around there. We ended up with a room with this view.
This was a cold, tiring day as you can see, especially for someone who spent all day in just racing leathers (notice the witches).
Last day went without pictures. We took some really fast canyon roads behind Zell am Mosel, and then went up north, going home. Bitte sehr gern wieder. Will do a trip like this again in september or october. Hopefully on wider rims, and with one cylinder less.
Next time I will take a little less stuff with me, came home with at least one third of my clothes still unworn.MadMark, you can be my wingman anytime!!
