It all started with a message in a WhatsApp group - Are you here? How about a nice ride?You could borrow your dad's GS and Cristian could get one of his 300 bikes or ask his cousin for a working one?!?
After a bit of back and forth we set the date and time and I was in charge of the route...
A bit of banter with the help of Gemini led to this poster being created... One person couldn't make it. - it kind of worked in Italian so I hope Gemini's translation to English makes sense..
So here are the bikes, photos taken whilst we were at the first bar drinking espresso at 9:30, it was going to be a hot day.
Off we went for total of 225km, I think seriously no more than 15km straight.
We all got home around 17:30 so quite a ride in the heat of 35C...
Here is the snapshot of the route I plotted in Google maps
Now a bit about the bikes and the pace.
I have a 2012 R1200GS in UK and I have to say it is a better bike, but the 1150 is more comfy for my body geometry, the bars, the footpegs feels just at the right distance. The age was just showing when I had to wrestle the 1150 in the heat more than I liked to.
Make no mistake of course I was able to keep up with the 1250GSA and my crazy friend that thinks the law of physics do not apply to him when on the KTM Duke 790, we were on the road after all...
Anyhow my friend with the Ducati Scrambler, since he run over a badger on his moped when he was 15, he's been always on the cautious side, so when I needed a bit of rest I would follow him for 5-10min before teasing again the front two.
The friend with the GSA led the way as he had the Google maps trace displayed on his carpure thingy, quite nice I have to say and so is the bike. I could see him leaning and I tried to follow and my GS and my forearms would protest haha... The thing is i knew very well only half of the trace so I knew how to get there without GPS, where to push a bit more etc, but I'm glad that for the hottest part of the day I let him led so I just had to be in the flow!
The area is fantastic, not known at all and there is little to no traffic and s***d checks are a rare occurrence so you can make progress easily up to a ton when you have room for it!
There are so many switchbacks, straight were you get two gears up, then brake two gears down lean rinse and repeat!
We stopped a few times, bakeries, lunch, coffee, cold drinks, a piss in the wild and loads of laughs. We all felt like 15 again, these are the friends I grew up with and I am really grateful they took time out of their lives and we had a really great day. So great that everyone can't stop talking about it and we are already thinking about the next one, France, Italy or UK with our bikes or renting... Let's see when life will let us meet again!
Here are a few bad photos
Cheers for reading
You had to soak your head in the schorco!
Charcuterie and cheese board (tagliere)
Afternoon cold drinks at the last village
And a nice flip over helmet my GSA friend has!
I didn't know Givi helmets it seems really well made for the price (€150)... So I might import it for <£135 from the EU let's see..
After a bit of back and forth we set the date and time and I was in charge of the route...
A bit of banter with the help of Gemini led to this poster being created... One person couldn't make it. - it kind of worked in Italian so I hope Gemini's translation to English makes sense..
So here are the bikes, photos taken whilst we were at the first bar drinking espresso at 9:30, it was going to be a hot day.
Off we went for total of 225km, I think seriously no more than 15km straight.
We all got home around 17:30 so quite a ride in the heat of 35C...
Here is the snapshot of the route I plotted in Google maps
Now a bit about the bikes and the pace.
I have a 2012 R1200GS in UK and I have to say it is a better bike, but the 1150 is more comfy for my body geometry, the bars, the footpegs feels just at the right distance. The age was just showing when I had to wrestle the 1150 in the heat more than I liked to.
Make no mistake of course I was able to keep up with the 1250GSA and my crazy friend that thinks the law of physics do not apply to him when on the KTM Duke 790, we were on the road after all...
Anyhow my friend with the Ducati Scrambler, since he run over a badger on his moped when he was 15, he's been always on the cautious side, so when I needed a bit of rest I would follow him for 5-10min before teasing again the front two.
The friend with the GSA led the way as he had the Google maps trace displayed on his carpure thingy, quite nice I have to say and so is the bike. I could see him leaning and I tried to follow and my GS and my forearms would protest haha... The thing is i knew very well only half of the trace so I knew how to get there without GPS, where to push a bit more etc, but I'm glad that for the hottest part of the day I let him led so I just had to be in the flow!
The area is fantastic, not known at all and there is little to no traffic and s***d checks are a rare occurrence so you can make progress easily up to a ton when you have room for it!
There are so many switchbacks, straight were you get two gears up, then brake two gears down lean rinse and repeat!
We stopped a few times, bakeries, lunch, coffee, cold drinks, a piss in the wild and loads of laughs. We all felt like 15 again, these are the friends I grew up with and I am really grateful they took time out of their lives and we had a really great day. So great that everyone can't stop talking about it and we are already thinking about the next one, France, Italy or UK with our bikes or renting... Let's see when life will let us meet again!
Here are a few bad photos
Cheers for reading
You had to soak your head in the schorco!
Charcuterie and cheese board (tagliere)
Afternoon cold drinks at the last village
And a nice flip over helmet my GSA friend has!
I didn't know Givi helmets it seems really well made for the price (€150)... So I might import it for <£135 from the EU let's see..
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