The Italian Job 2011

[Pauly S]

This is a ride report for the Italian Job 2011.On Board we have Me,Dave GS,Cookie Dave,GS Garth,Wobbo,Gs or Bust.
The original Thread is here
Day 1.It All started off around 4am with a dash to the Dover Calais Ferry,where Me, ,Davegs(dave),wobbo(Mark),gs or bust(Nigel) and Gs Garth(garth),cookie dave(dave) were due to meet up at the maidstone services.
We had a Call on the answerphone to say Garths bike had died, and was being recovered to the garage<now there="" was="" five,="" any="" ways="" we="" head="" off="" to="" the="" ferry.
The ferry was straight forward with a full english slap up brekky for five.
The aim of today was to get to a nice hotel in strasbourg which we acheived.
I'll try and post these in day order but i'll probably fail.
Some of the tossers here..Left to right.Me,Nigel,Mark,Cookie Dave,Dave gs

The picture behind is the passo de stelvio,(The stelvio pass), in Italy.
The bikes...
Mine is a yellow 1150

Cookie Dave has a "GS Blade" they dont make a GS small enough...

Nigel on his 1200 adv(catalogue Man)

Mark on his zx9r Ninja race me you bugger brains in glovebox machine

Gs Garths rocket ship zzr1400 turbine nutter double turbo hyper rice rocket

Dave gs in the middle. unusually upright...More of that later!!!

[/IMG]There wasnt many pictures of strasbourg, i seem to recall we had a cracking chinese there though,I'll keep searching for more pics.
Right onto day 2
this was from Strasbourg to a place in Austria called "see".
It was part of the motorrad hotel group, its owner Jan(pronounced Yarn) was an ex motocross champ.
Hotel below...

Views from the balcony

A pretty straight forward ride,crossing from france over the mountains to austria .I'll stop at day 2 to let the other riders get their pics in.More tomorrow.P
<dave gs.garth="" absent="" but="" en="" route,="" i'll="" explain="" later

 

[Mide]

Looking good Paul

 

[davegs]

Italian job

Great stuff Paulie, yelow (fastest GS's) to the fore YES!!!!!.

 

[davegs]

Route to Austria

Going through Germany past Lake Constance (I think) (if I'm wrong my dad will soon correct me!) we saw an airship not a blimp but what looked like a smaller replica of the Graf Zepplin, amazing must have been at about a thousand feet and moving along at a reasonable pace, and no, we had NOT had a drink as we had an early (very!) start and had been hard at it all day aiming for Austria. About here I saw a sign post for the "Zepplin Museum"
has any one been here? as an airship fan (my time was wrong!) I would like to see this but not even sure of it's location. Eureka!! being an old fart I just thought look on the web!, however I digress, the Hotel in Austriaa was really second to none and the Host Jan was a for mer european Moto Cross champ and made us all very welocome. Scenary was fantastic and we had a couple of great rides out before attacking the Stevio. Forty five hairpin bends going up here!! tight ones!! lots of snow but not on the road job to see what was comming around the bends but all made it with no prangs!! (I made up for this later!!) Los of people at the top (8500FT) and fantastic veiws and the coffee shop takes Euros!! (this is in Swizerland swiss francs rule!) We tried to get Paul to takes us to his swiss bank account but no go, had amnesia or something!!. The way down was via a similar lot of hair pins but not so many
and much easier a nice run very sunny and if anyone tells you that GS's don't handle well we all know thats rubbish. I have just been accused of causing someone to become an "internet widow" so will leave the next episode to Dad.
Dave GS.

 

[teejay]

Zeppelin Museum worth a visit, amazing things before they catch fire that is!!!


Teejay

 

[Pauly S]

And on we go day to day 3

Day3 .A picture from the ride en route to bologna from Austria before Garth caught us up, time for a coffee.This was up in the mountains i think after the fluellapass,and near to the stelvio.

We took in the place below,The passo del stelvio.Blow me this was fun

In Bologna we stayed at the amati design hotel,A rather posh affair and by far the nicest hotel ive ever stayed in, this was an underground secure garage which we had sole use of.

Above is the garage which was fab.


At this Point garth had disconnected his hyperdrive on the zzr1400 , he had been blasting across europe to catch up the rest of the team.
Here he is proud as punch after rattling off a zillion miles in no time,obeying the speed limits at all times honestly occifer.
And now the team was a healthy six riders.(for a while,more later)

We had a hearty pizza and shall we say a couple of beers and bed.
Above is Garth outside the hotel,below are pics of the inside,i think you'll agree its fab.

Day 4 was the ride from Bologna down to Rome centre.More Tommoz.P

 

[Mide]

enjoying this Paul!! Making plans for next year

 

[Pauly S]

well its like this

Theres a Ireland raid in the planning and a blast down to southern spain with a bit of dirtbiking thrown in yous wanna come?, around late april next year
i'll do day 4 shortly, its where we hit Rome, this bits gonna be funny.

 

[Pauly S]

Day 4.Five alive

We had a good night the night before at the Amati design hotel and all six riders were getting ready to load up the bikes for the assault on Rome.
We were heading for the Happy campers village, review here.
Dave gs left the underground garage ready for the kick off, and rode up the access ramp,a second later there was this almighty crash bang wallop, i didnt pay much attention at first, because builders were making a new swimming pool at the rear of the hotel,it sounded like they had chucked a load of rubble into a skip.
Next i heard was a muffled quiet heeeeeeeelllllp.Wtf?
I went round the corner to find Dave in an unusual postion, with bike on top of dave, adopting the missionary position,Dave you really are taking this bike hobby a bit far arent we?The bike wasnt on it side, it was upside down on top of Dave , how the feck did he do that, i'll never now.There arent pictures of this however funny it looked.
Well we picked the nymphomaniac bike off dave, and he didnt look too good,walking about looking like a one arm bandit.
Feckity feck dave, i think youve busted your collarbone,double feckity feck.
I mended dave's bike ,on the hope it was a mere strain or summat,but it wasnt,A few calls and dave was on his way to the one arm bandit repair centre and A&E.
We arranged for the hotel to babysit daves bike,called the Rac,and went off after dave en mass to the hospital to do a reccy .
After an hour trying read the italian hospital signs and muscling thru the language barrier we found the one arm bandit, in a hospital bed chatting up the nurses,he's a boy!!
Indeed the collarbone was broken,dave's ride was over,back to five riders.
Dave flew home, much to our dismay,we were sad to see our brother in arms fly home and miss the glory of Rome.feck.
A piccy of Dave the motorcycle nympho in action..He's on the 1150 mandarin(the fastest ones)

Ah well,we saddled up and turned on the taps,and our hearts were low having left dave behind.
Rome here we come...
Heres the colloseum i believe.

Here are some piccys of the happy campers village, which were good value and we can personally recommend for chalets or camping, with a free shuttle bus to the metro and then a short 25 min tube ride to Rome central.

The inside...

more piccys of the cabins outside

Dave and me playing human underwater surfboards and generally messing around..Note the silly blue hats and Dave's budgie smugglers...

This adventure motorcycling is really hard work.
Tomorrow we assault Rome on foot to get some exercise, and to give our butts a break, and pot some beers
More tommozP

 

[davegs]

Italian job

Well done Paul now I'll tell the truth!!! (the silence money hasent arrived so thats it!). It was a great hotel, no one else was allowed in the underground car park as it was brand new!. The hotel was good but lets face it he had us lot for company! all we had was him! but very nice place indeed, they looked after my bike till it was collected and when I phoned to enquire as to any parking storage charges were due no, no, all they were interest in was if I was ok. So, any doubters out there the RAC picked it up with all my gear and all was delivered home and put in the drive for me as having an arm in a sling was a bit aukward. Many thanks to Pauly and the boys for helping
me out and taking the piss when I was in hospital and these people were great the old 111 card working wonders even though it had run out a week before!. What happend was I drove off up the very steep ramp after thanking the manager for his help and pulled away in second gear!!!! half way up the ramp stop! oops usual prob the ground about a foot away from my foot and so crunch time!. Of course two days later I get E-mails of the rest of them standing in the sun in Rome with beers in hand! no mercy shown here at all. I only wanted to see Rome wouldent have minded if it happend afterwards couldent even get my application form in for pope, a chance lost.
Still up till then it had been a great trip going by plane in November so hope that don't crash as well!. Keep up the piccies Paul really nice to see regards to all the boys hope to see you all next year.
Dave (sometimes vertical) GS

 

[GS_or_bust]

Great work Paul.

This was my first time abroad on a motorbike and as the departure date approached I began to wonder if I was up to it, especially listening to Paul's tales from his previous trips. My concerns were soon allayed once the trip got under way. I do a lot of travel on business in the UK and abroad but the great thing about this trip was that it was all about the journey.

I downloaded the route log from my Zumo GPS when I got home and then put it on Google maps so you can see the route here.

I have a few pictures to add, taken on my IPhone.

This was a Tea stop on the way down on the first day.

Running repairs required on Dave's bike after a departure from the vertical.

Eating on the first night near Strasbourg. This was the first proper meal together for the group and a great chance to bond over a drink and good food.

A Panarama of lake Konstanz

Mark taking a drink just south of the Lake.

The Vivaldi Hotel in See had route cards that detailed suggested routes, this was the on we decided to try.

Here are some pictures taken at the top of the Stelvio.

Here is a picture of Dave's bike as we left it in the garage at the Amati Design Hotel. Man Down!

Here is the pool at the Happy Village.

An Idiot Abroad! They made us wear the silly caps, probably something to do with keeping hair out of the plug hole.

 

[GS_or_bust]

Here are a couple of videos

It was amazing how much time we spent trying to get all the different GPS units to agree on the same route to where we wanted to be the next day.

Here is mark trying to get the hang of a Tom Tom Rider.
<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/50PCSIVPSXU?hl=en&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>


This is a video taken at the top of the Stelvio Pass.
<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/No7Op26yn0s?hl=en&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[Pauly S]

Mr Grimsdale,Mr Grimsdale

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/C0CgSjxKnfk" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>
Mr Grimsdale,not now pipkin.

(just press play,it gets funnier, said paul wiping the tears from his eyes)

 

[GS_or_bust]

This is some video of the ride in the Alps. I let Paul overtake me and then Dave.

<iframe width="425" height="349" src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/Z_A2qQsJQS0?hl=en&fs=1" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

 

[John Roberts]

It looks a great trip, and pretty much like the one I'd planned for this summer. As it turned out we went by car, an Audi TT Quattro, so it wasn't that bad We hardly saw anything of the Stelvio Pass because of the mist, but there were so many other passes in France, Switzerland and Italy it didn't matter too much. One day I''l do it again, on a bike.

Thanks for the report!

 

[wessie]

For some reason I missed this when first posted. Good report, but just one query: I know you had conflicting information from your satnavs, but surely the entire Setlvio pass is in Italy so euros would be the currency needed? You only get into CH if you go through the tunnel from Livigno or down the Umbrail pass from the western side of the summit. Google map

 

[Pauly S]

Currency

Yep ch in switzerland and italy is euros.
All i have to do know is finish the report, its only half way thru, theres more to come and its quite funny.
Just need some spare time.Winters coming..

 

[Pauly S]

And on we go to Rome

And here is a typical crossing in Rome, it soon fills up and its like silverstone when the lights go green...

we also visited the Vatican, below are
some pics.

Garth taking it all in...

 

[Pauly S]

And some more pics

wobbo taking in all the scenery

Yes the team made it, well nearly all of us, cept Dave who was at home nursing a busted collar bone.

No points for guessing this one

Blinkin Bee-emms are every where

Garth and I were done over by a gladiator....

Blimey, i have hair for the first time in ages...

Some pics of the ruins there

A picture of GS Garth trying to look cool....ish

And me deffo failing in a big way....

Shortly after this pic Garth decides it would be fun to have his face in a video shoot for a film premiere trailer..some anglo saxon type film...
You cant see the camerawoman, she fecked off with the hump after he balls's up one of their takes...Priceless...

One of me, hiding from the camera woman..

as you can see, i'm still recovering from this lemon chello stuff from the night before, look at the eyes... kin ell

on to the trevi fountain..Dont fancy yours much...

 

[Pauly S]

And some more pics

Garth And I decide to see how many Italian police women we could chat up and get their pictures<some of us , have got it...what a scorcher..
NO 1

A typical bike park in Rome

The scenery....

off to Pisa shortly, just got to find the piccies..watch this space...