Stelvio Pass

[sven]

It's spectacular to look at, but the Lenzerheide, Fluella and Ofen passes on the way there from Chur are much more fun to ride

I'd recommend riding it from north to south and don't forget to sample a sausage sandwich at the top

From Bormio at the south end, ride over the Gavi pass and then take the SS42 to Bolzano (the SS38 to the north of the Stelvio national park is very congested) and head into the Dolmites and then over the Grossglockner - an absolutely awesome road to ride.

 

[streaky]

Cant remember where this was ,but it was near the stelveio

 

[Rambling Sid Rumpo]

Grossglockner - an absolutely awesome road to ride.

Amen to that; it's also the only time I've been overtaken by a pushbike..... just tooling down the northwards side into Austria, a gentle 60 or so round these lovely sweeping bends on an apparently endless downhill, sun shining, all's well with the world.....

....and this lunatic on a racing bike came out of nowhere, pedalling like feck, hunched over the bars and shot past me like I was standing still. Embarrassed? I should say so, me old beauty. There's me, on 1150cc of Germany's finest, ATTGATT, and this guy wearing half an ounce of lycra on a 5lb pushbike goes whacking past. Most unsatisfactory . Matched speeds with him at 80mph....... and let him go.......

 

[Deleted account 211025001]

....and this lunatic on a racing bike came out of nowhere, pedalling like feck, hunched over the bars and shot past me like I was standing still. Embarrassed? I should say so, me old beauty. There's me, on 1150cc of Germany's finest, ATTGATT, and this guy wearing half an ounce of lycra on a 5lb pushbike goes whacking past. Most unsatisfactory . Matched speeds with him at 80mph....... and let him go.......

Tell me about it, bleedin' nutters

The same thing happened to me in the Dolomites and I was on one of the faster 1200's

Andres

 

[Rambling Sid Rumpo]

one of the faster 1200's Andres

I'm glad it's happened to someone else as well. Good though, when you're 15 klicks into a 1 in 5 uphill and find a bunch of them trogging away like Gimli's bloody dwarves. I admire their strength and fitness, but I like my ability to open the throttle and blast past a lot more Also on a faster 1200 now!

 

[how much]

Any recomended places to stay in the general area of Stelvio?

am in the early stages of planning a trip there this summer, this thread has been really usefull thanks for all the info


how much

 

[Deleted account 210609001]

We stayed for a night in Livigno at teh Hotel Montanina HERE. Nice hotel, reasonable cost, coped with about 15 of us easily enough. Booking was a bit hit and miss, they close for a month or two in May/June, and as it turned out our booking had been "lost" despite hone calls and e-mails. However, they slotted the three of us on my booking in ok, the rooms were fine, the restaurant was great for evening meal and breakfast, and there is a bar in the basement with a "slide" into it. The drink of choice was limoncello...

Livigno is full of hotels, I would imagine most of them out of the skiing season will have room. Bormio (between Livigno and Stelvio) looked more expensive but I have nothing definite to base this on.

If you do head over to the Grossglockner there is a useful website with English pages HERE. We stayed in a basic but brilliant hostel called the Iselsbergerhof just south of the pass road outside Lienz in a place called Iselsberg, website HERE. Cost for B&B was 28Euros, it sells itself as a biker hotel so was full of continental bikers with a three-way split between tassled Harley riders, functional biek riders on Hornets and TDMs and BMWs and some nutters on tricked up sports bikes and race tyres who had weekly tickets for the Grossglockner (it's a toll road) and used it as their own personal racetrack. For some reason accommodation in Austria seems to be generally much cheaper than elsewhere, and half the price of Switzerland.

Of the places I've been on the bike, I regret not having more time in Austria and the South Tyrol (which seems to include a bit of Italy but everyone speaks German there and considered themselves more Austrian then Italian as far as I could tell. Great scenery, great roads, everything very clean and efficient. Petrol's cheap too. And I've never seen an ugly Austrian girl ...

(There's a BMW Motorrad dealer nearby in Kaprun just in case your 1200 needs something like, oh I don't know, maybe a fuel pump controller... Don't ask me how I know this.)

I want to ride the Bielerhohe pass in Austria, which is another toll road but highy rated. See the Alpine Roads.com website for detials and if you get there before me, post soem pictures/video.

 

[how much]

Nice one Robin

BIG thanks



how much

 

[Invicta Moto]

Went to the Stelvio this August, about mid month. Hot and sunny on way up, clouded over, wind got up and blew the umbrellas off the pub forecourt into the valley and pissed down with rain for about 30 mins, dried up and carried on being sunny but bloody cold.

Were we disheartened. Were we ****!

 

[Greg Masters]

I'm not really sure why the Stelvio is hyped as much as it is.

It's a great bit of road building, but, as roads go, it's NOT a great riding road.

Squirt, brake, turn; Squirt, brake, turn; Squirt, brake, turn; Squirt, brake, turn; repeat ad nauseum (literally).

I wouldn't discourage anybody from doing it once, but, having done it many years ago, I won't be rushing back.

Greg

 

[John Armstrong]

I'm not really sure why the Stelvio is hyped as much as it is.

It's a great bit of road building, but, as roads go, it's NOT a great riding road.

Squirt, brake, turn; Squirt, brake, turn; Squirt, brake, turn; Squirt, brake, turn; repeat ad nauseum (literally).

I wouldn't discourage anybody from doing it once, but, having done it many years ago, I won't be rushing back.

Greg

Me too

Went from east to west, going the other way might be "nicer" as the 40 odd sharp hairpins are on the downhill side.

 

[Wapping]

I'm not really sure why the Stelvio is hyped as much as it is.

It's a great bit of road building, but, as roads go, it's NOT a great riding road.

Squirt, brake, turn; Squirt, brake, turn; Squirt, brake, turn; Squirt, brake, turn; repeat ad nauseum (literally).

I wouldn't discourage anybody from doing it once, but, having done it many years ago, I won't be rushing back.

Greg

Me too

Went from east to west, going the other way might be "nicer" as the 40 odd sharp hairpins are on the downhill side.

I think that is to miss the point of the road, or many of the Alpine passes in general.

They are what they are. And what they certainly are is quite unlike anything here in the UK. That the Stelvio is amongst the highest and with its racing car history simply makes it a little special, that's all.

OK put on the "I've done it, it's boring" face if you like but there are plenty of people haven't, plenty of people who want to and plenty of people who keep going back. Would I swap it for the A10 up through Tottenham and Enfield, the A65 out of Accrington or even a season ticket at the eponymous football club? I don't think so.

 

[Greg Masters]

OK put on the "I've done it, it's boring" face if you like but there are plenty of people haven't, plenty of people who want to and plenty of people who keep going back. Would I swap it for the A10 up through Tottenham and Enfield, the A65 out of Accrington or even a season ticket at the eponymous football club? I don't think so.

Maybe I didn't pitch my comment very well.

It was, for many years, on my 'must do' list, and I think that everybody who wants to ride it shouldn't be put off. But, when I actually got there, I was bored after the first few sequences. I watched a repeat of Top Gear the other day when they took a Lambo, an Aston and a Porker up there. I thought that the cars were wasted and, after they'd found a better road, so did they!

Horses for courses, I suppose, but I'd prefer the road shown below - deserted, great tarmac and 100mph sweepers.



Greg

 

[Deleted account 210609001]

I'm with Greg up to a point - there is a limit to the number of similar hairpin bends that can remain interesting for their own sake. BUT the point of the Stelvio is that it is the most extreme, the longest sequence, one of the highest passes and something of a legend. For that reason alone, it is absolutely worth doing. There are better, longer, more interesting passes nearby but they're not the Stelvio and that matters, somehow.

I wouldn't ride to Italy just to ride the Stelvio again, but the fact is that once you've got there a million and one mountain roads are waiting to be ridden. What constitutes a "better" road will be very personal, as we each have different criteria and our perception of each road will depend on the countless variables at the time.

My favourite roads include Alf to Daun in boring Germany where we stumbled on a road that really suited my bike at the time (a K1200RS), the Puerto de Villaroyal and the road from Cantavieja to Villaluengo in Spain, which was really tight and bumpy but suited a GS down to the ground and was in amazing scenery. Friends I was with on both ocasions may have an entirely different view! I've been through the Pyrenees twice, including one two-day trip criss-crossing between Spain to France, but the weather was lousy so I don't have good memories of those roads. In the sun they may be amazing.

The Stelvio is intense, very much "up and down" but a real kick nonetheless.

 

[Dellis]

I'm not really sure why the Stelvio is hyped as much as it is.

It's a great bit of road building, but, as roads go, it's NOT a great riding road.

Squirt, brake, turn; Squirt, brake, turn; Squirt, brake, turn; Squirt, brake, turn; repeat ad nauseum (literally).

I wouldn't discourage anybody from doing it once, but, having done it many years ago, I won't be rushing back.

Greg

I'd agree with that. It's well worth doing once but there are many more much better passes for riding than the Stelvio.

Dave

 

[Dellis]

Any recomended places to stay in the general area of Stelvio?

am in the early stages of planning a trip there this summer, this thread has been really usefull thanks for all the info


how much

Dave,

as has been said before Livigno is a good place to stay and everything is cheap, including accommodation, fuel, beer etc, due to favourable tax incentives. It's also a nice ride to Bormio from there and, in my opinion, the Stelvio is better ridden from Bormio heading north east. Whatever you decide to do the Alps is a fantastic biking destination.

Enjoy

Dave

 

[John Armstrong]

I'd agree with that. It's well worth doing once but there are many more much better passes for enjoying theriding than the Stelvio.

Dave

IMHO Been there, done it, didn't bother with a tacky t-shirt, wouldn't go out of my way to do it again E - W. Ok?

 

[Wapping]

Maybe I didn't pitch my comment very well.

It was, for many years, on my 'must do' list, and I think that everybody who wants to ride it shouldn't be put off. But, when I actually got there, I was bored after the first few sequences. I watched a repeat of Top Gear the other day when they took a Lambo, an Aston and a Porker up there. I thought that the cars were wasted and, after they'd found a better road, so did they!

Horses for courses, I suppose, but I'd prefer the road shown below - deserted, great tarmac and 100mph sweepers.



Greg

OK, I see what you mean...

That's the super thing about Europe....great roads all over the place! Leave a bit of room for the Stelvio though, somewhere inside the list.

 

[how much]

thanks Guys

i never ever intended riding all the way to Italy.... just to ride the Stelvio

BUT

it is the one everybody knows and its been a box looking for a tick for a good few years... i had a picture of it over my desk at work for years!

i wont be dissapointed even if i am dissapointed with it

box ticked then ride as many of the other passes as we can too

its like the climb upto Applecross..... does feck all for me! i think the route past Applecross is way better!


we all like different things

any of these "famous roads" can be a nightmare if the weather is crap or they are bogged down with tourists in micra's etc


doesn't stop me wanting to go there

how much

 

[Deleted account 210609001]

thanks Guys

i wont be dissapointed even if i am dissapointed with it

Sounds like a great attitude!

Last year I did the Route des Hautes Alpes, Stelvio, and Grossglockner. So many great roads and corners that they all blend into each other a bit... Just get there and enjoy it!