The Last Day

The final day sees me and the trike depart the wooded Alsace region of France late morning heading towards the port, with our destination some 240 miles north.  Once again the sun is shining and we decide that we can take our time and enjoy the day.

The route is mainly motorway, but the ipod is on, the oil leak is holding out and we are nearer home.

Arrive in Saint Quentin to be followed by a Boom Trike that is customised as an homage to the 7/11.  The French couple stop and show us there bike and are interested in Dave's 'wing.

Pictures to follow.

The hotel is, again top class, three hundred year old chateau with linen wall paper and silverware in all the rooms.  Our rooms are on the top floor and have a kitchenette included.

100 yards up the road to the town square where we sit down to the local favourite of mussels and chips.

An early start in the morning as we are on the bikes by 7.15am for the trip to the Eurotunnel.  Again it is glorious sunshine and we arrive back in England having had no rain at all whist away to be greeted with storms within 10 miles and a three hour ride home in hail, rain and standing water - thanks Smog look like the dancing finally got through.

Best bits of the trip, besides the company, food, laughs, sunshine and scenery - taking the bike up the Stelvio Pass

Worst bits - not completing the Munsterhof Challenge and losing Bob and Mary

All hotels are to be recommended if you need a bike friendly quality bed in either France, Germany or Switzerland

Gavia Pass

Stelvio Pass

Stelvio Pass

On route to Livigno 

Another sunny alpine day

Day 7 - Homeward Bound

Yesterday was a quiet day with a bit of sightseeing and a great lunch just over the boarder in Italy. 

Agree that as tomorrow is the longest rude day of the trip an 8.00am departure is called for.   We are all disturbed by the rain we hear in the night and start the day in full rain gear with two mountain passes to get over, the Ofenpass and the Fluerlpass before getting anywhere near the motorway. 

Not looking forward to this ride. Anyway we leave Mustair and our failed challenge and head off up through the low cloud. To our hope we seem to be heading towards better weather.  Complete the Ofenpass in an hour, and I an riding like a complete numpty convinced I will fall to my death anytime soon. 

Another thirty minutes sees us all at the top of the Fluerlpass with me thinking only one more down hill to go. 

Off we go and a mile down the road Bob pulls up suddenly into a makeshift gravel parking place. He says his bike started to wobble. One look at the back wheel confirms the bearing has let go and his bike is going nowhere. 

Seems like it's Alps 2 Chromeheads 0

Spend the next two hours plus waiting for the tow truck to Davos, which when it arrives only has room for Bob and Mary is left up the mountain. We call on Dave's Taxi Trike who after taking Sue down to the garage comes back up the pass to pick up Mary. I follow on. 

We are all now in Davos trying to sort things out but Davos closes for lunch so nothing happens for another hour. 

Long story short.  The bike cannot be fixed by BMW so Bob and Mary try to complete the trip in a hire car, but it isn't possible so they arrange to fly home from Zurich. 

We leave Davos at 2.00pm with nearly 280 miles ahead of us to the Alsace. A long long ride and we arrive just as the headlight beams start to show on the road. 

The hotel is fantastic and the food French fine dining, stuff ourselves and crash out thankful that the day ended with nothing more serious than a broken bike. 

Patrick

Sent from my smart thing 

Day 6 - We're off

Early breakfast and off the check the cruisers. Notice a distinct lack of oil in the site glass, so after our 8.00am departure first stop is 500yrds for some oil 

The Umbrail Pass is very close, just up the road into town, turn left between two buildings and up. When I say up I mean up, as in 'side of mountain'. We got to the top in an hour,and it took us another hour to get down the other side. 

Next Gavia, slightly higher and just as tough. The only blessing is that the sky is clear and the sun is shinning. finally make it through and onwards to Tonale. 

Begin to realise that this is not going to be a pushover and head off to find fuel and stop for lunch. By now it is really hot and with only three passes gone I am beginning to realise that lack of ability, the difficult roads means success, just like the GB Olympic Team, is ebbing away - if it was ever there. 

We get lost going through the only major town on route, which is the only option we have for a road to take us back to Mustair. A further 10 miles up the road I pull in. It is 3.00, allowing for a quick lunch stop we have been on the bikes 7 hours and TomTom tells me my average speed is just 24mph!  Not even half way with four passes left and only five hours to do them in. It's not going to happen and I tell Bob and Dave that I am heading for home and defeat!

Stop for coffee on the way back and return to notice an oil patch under the left pot, so it will be a gentle ride back to the UK. Will investigate more tomorrow, haven't the energy tonight 

Rest day tomorrow. 

To all those riders who have completed the challenge, well done but slow down you will die!!!

Sent from my iPad

Day 5 - The Stelvio is cracked!

Start around 10.30 and head off for the Stelvio. 

Jesus it was busy. 

Cyclists, cars and just a few motorbikes..  Going up was OK. There seemed to be a code that when you come to a hairpin you look up, nothing coming and over to the other side of the road and around you go. Get to the top with the group united in the smell of burning clutch. 

Catch lunch and buy a souvenir patch. 

Then it's down the other side. OMG didn't  like that much and decide that I am just better going up than down. Overtaken on the way down by two cyclist who had the cheek to wave thanks as they went by!

Anyway cut back up a wonderful pass and onto Livigno which is a tax free zone and then back home, around a lake, over a dam, back into Switzerland and through a tunnel back to Mustair

Great day although not too many miles covered

Tomorrow we tackle the Munsterhof Challenge. wheels rolling at eight!

Sent from my iPad

Fwd: Day 4 - Let's call it Smogmeister Day.

Patrick

Sent from my smart thing 

Begin forwarded message:

From: Patrick <patrickmulcahy@yahoo.com>
Date: 30 July 2012 18:34:30 GMT+01:00
To: patrickmulcahy.chromeheads@blogger.com
Subject: Day 4 - Let's call it Smogmeister Day.

If you have been keeping up from the beginning you will have noted that Chromheads abroad have a history of cocking things up.  As this year had been going so well and Smoggy wasn't with us I made an assumption that these two things were linked, much like Ronnie and Reggie or BMW and 'how much did you say that part was!'. 

But alas this is not so because today on route to The Munsterhoff we cocked up.  Tom Tom is obvious a lady, and boy did she have a rant today.  I led off no problems, got us around Basal and then for some reason 'she' decided that we needed to tour the middle of Zurich, down side street, over tram lines, one way streets. Inevitably we got split up and I was 'Billy no mates' for the rest of the day. 

Eventually get out of Zurich and on to Davos and up into the mountains. 

Serious sweeky bum time as I travel up, over and down two alpine passes on my lonesome. 

Scenery is absolutely stunning and there seems to be an awful lot of motorbikes about!

Anyway arrive safe and dry some two hours ahead of the rest, who must have had a bloody long lunch!

Picture from the hotel terrace 

Day 3 - France to Germany

Another blue sky start to the day. But, as avid readers will guess something is about to go Wong, very wrong

Unlike us we find the motorway without spending out usual tour of the town we are trying to leave, and pop a couple of miles up the road to the toll booth. Another couple of miles and Dave flies by and pulls over. It seems he forgot to take off the handbrake when he left the hotel and had boiled the brake fluid leaving him without any rear brakes...........

Anyone detect a theme?

So only option is to leave things to cool down and see if it sorts itself out, which thankfully it does and we carry on.

Three hundred miles of motorway today which we brake into 70 mile stops for stretching of the legs!

At one of these we leave a fly on up the motorway, only for me to look back after about to miles to see no sign of Dave. Catch up Bob and we pull over. A minute later Dave arrives with steam coming out of his ears and informs us that Sue has left her bag at the last stop with passports and money. We are on a motorway not quite sure if between us we stand any chance of lifting the trike over the central barrier to allow Dave to go back, when out of the blue a car pulls up and hands Sue her bag!

They saw her leave it and have been chasing up the motorway after us!

Who said you cn rely on human nature.

The rest of the day is still more sunshine and a straight run through to Landhaus B&B

Brilliant place, great rooms and honesty bar. Walked down to a local restaurant.. Only people in the place, but three course for five with drinks came to 110 Euro. Can't be bad!

Day 2 - Surrey to Reims or "How to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory"

So we spend last night watching Dave and Bob discuss the finer merits of their Go Pro video cameras that they both now have and some I am expecting some good video taken from the mobility scooter during the trip!

The trip to the Eurotunnel begins with the unfamiliar sight of use travelling towards clear skies rather than the usual habit of searching for a dark cloud and chasing it until we get wet.   So don't knock it and  we emerge from Calais into a dry day with the sun shining as we head south. 

First pit stop on the A26 and in no hurry to cover the 165 miles to the hotel so a leisurely lunch.  

The route is very dull but I remember to be thankful for long straight stretches of tarmac as they will become scarce as the week progresses

Manage to find our way to our hotel without either getting split up or lost. A to B as planned. 

Never happened before, maybe it's an omen, maybe our friend from the north has not cursed us with his pagan magic. 

But no just then as we park outside the hotel Bob's immobiliser decides to self activate leaving his bike alarmed and unable to be moved. Saturday night, middle of France, needing to get to Germany tomorrow. Priceless. 

Change the battery in the key fob and after a further 30 minutes faffing about it suddenly sorts itself out. 

Finally for any bikers reading this, hotel is good. Room clean and tidy. Parking secure.  Two minute walk to good selection of street side dining, where we find a local microbrewery yum yum!

Patrick

Sent from my smart thing 

Munsterhof Here We Come. Day 1 Wiltshire to Surrey

Clean underpants? - Check
Ipod playlist? - Check
Tour shirts? - Check
Anything else? - Nope. Ready to go

After months of planning departure day has arrived.

And this is what awaits us in three days

Day one will be a nice sunny plod up the A4 to Reading, around Bracknell, join the M25 and the chaos being caused by something going on in East London  - ah the Olympic Opening Ceremony!

Down to Bobs to meet the rest of the party, have a few glasses of 'falling down drink' before popping off to France in the morning

The Challenge

Our adventure will test endurance, our sense of skill and most importantly bind our spirit of camaraderie as we tackle The Munsterhof Ironman Challenge.

Riding across France and Germany the Ironman Challenge is based in Mustair, a picture postcard alpine village and home of the Hotel Munsterhof, Hotel Muensterhofone of the famous Motorbike Hotel Group. http://www.motor-bike-hotels.co.uk/ located at the triangle of Switzerland-Italy-Austria, just near the Stilfserjoch-Pass and the Swiss National Park.

Here we will find 35 of the most challenging passes of the Alps and our challenge will be to ride 26 of them in three time trialed days, ending back at the hotel with a wondrous sense of self fulfillment and ‘thank **** that’s over’.

STELVIO PASS - The Stelvio Pass located in Italy, at 2757 m (9045 feet) is the highest paved mountain pass in the Eastern Alps,  The original road was built in 1820-25 by the Austrian Empire to connect the former Austrian province of Lombardia with the rest of Austria, covering a climb of 1871 m. Since then, the route has changed very little. Its sixty hairpin turns, 48 of them on the northern side numbered with stones, are a challenge to motorists. The Stilfser Joch retains an importance for sport when it is open from June to September. Countless motorcyclists struggle to get to the highest stretch of road in the Eastern Alps. The Stelvio Pass was also picked by the British automotive show Top Gear as its choice for the “greatest driving road in the world”

GAVIA PASS - Gavia Pass (el. 2621 m.) is a high mountain pass in the Italian Alps. It is the tenth highest paved road in the Alps.  The pass lies in the Lombardy region and divides the province of Sondrio to the north and the province of Brescia to the south. The road over the pass (SS 300) connects Bormio to the northwest with Ponte di Legno to the south and is mostly single track on its southern section.

TONALE PASS - Tonale Pass  (el. 1883 m./6178 ft.) is a high mountain pass in northern Italy across the Rhaetian Alps, between Lombardy and Trentino.  It connects Valcamonica and Val di Sole. It is delimited by the Ortler Alps to the north and the Adamello range to the south.

GAMPEN PASS - Gampen Pass (1,518 m) is a high mountain pass in the South Tyrol, northern Italy. It connects Lana in the Adige valley and Fondo in the Val di Non. The pass is open year-round. The pass road has a maximum gradient of 9%

Three circuits - three days

TIMMELSJOCL - Timmelsjocl. (8232 ft./2509 m.) is a high mountain pass that creates a link through the Ötztal Alps along the current border between Austria and Italy.  The Timmelsjoch connects the Ötztal valley in the Austrian state of Tyrol to the Passeier valley, later Adige Valley, in the Italian province of South Tyrol, as it bridges the saddle point between the Jochköpfl (10,305 ft./3,141 m.) and Wurmkogl (10,112 ft/3,082 m) peaks to its northeast and southwest, respectively.  The pass is sometimes called the “secret passage” because it is little-used compared to the much easier and lower Brenner Pass some 15 miles/25 km to its east, and Reschen Pass some 40 miles/60 km to its west.  On July 7, 1959, after four years of construction, the 12-kilometre road was finally opened to the public. The road was well-engineered and integrated into the landscape.  The pass is now popular with car and motorbike tourists. Due to its elevation, steepness, and narrow road, the pass is closed to lorries and vehicles with trailers. The pass road is open to traffic from the first half of June to the second half of October (the exact dates depend on snow conditions) daily from 7:00 AM to 8:00 PM.

RESCHENPASS - Reschenpass (Italian: Passo di Resia) is a pass (1504 m) over the Main chain of the Alps, connecting the Inn River valley in the northwest with the Vinschgau valley in the southeast. Since 1919, the border between Austria and Italy is located there, and at the Brenner Pass further to the east.

So follow the blog from 27th July 2012 as we set off from ‘Bobsmodels’ in the UK, through to Calais and overnight at Reims, Quality Inn - Reims onwards to Ballrechten-Dottingen, Landhaus-zur-badischen-weinstrasse complete the Ironman and return triumphant via Le Petite Pierre, Hotel Liondor and Saint Quentin Hotel Canonniers

The Story So Far

As a Chromehead we have experienced and lived through some of the greatest motorcycle adventures available to man.  From the beginnings some  6 years ago and the inaugural trip to Rhyadar in mid Wales and a trip around the Elan Valley, through a mist-covered weekend in Somerset, Devon and Dartmoor, to Buxton in Derbyshire and the Yorkshire Dales.

Mid Wales - a rare dry day

As a small but dedicated group we have covered much of the UK, accepting that the north is a bit rough and still to be tamed.  Chromeheads have ridden through it all. Not content with tackling some of the toughest and wettest weekends known to the experienced motorcyclist come drinker in recent years we have also been drawn to exotic places far and wide – well Europe!

In 2007 we dared to see if our trusty bikes could cope with being on the ‘wrong side of the road’.  We passed through the ‘not particularly scenic’ sights of Belgium and onto the wonderful open roads of Germany and the Mosel Valley. 

Coffee stop near to the Nurbergring

Here we first sampled Cruiser hospitality when some locals from the R1200C.de forum met with us and showed the back roads of the Nurbergring.

The following year, being ever-braver saw us set sail for a 20-hour crossing to Spain, where we immediately turned north and headed for home through the wonderful Pyrennes mountain range and onward up through the centre of France. 

Northern France after crossing the Pyrennes

We have tested our navigation skills throughout mainland Europe.  Not always a success and sometimes, well often, taking varying routes to our destination.  Chromeheads have tackled the autoroutes and byways of Spain, France and Germany, finding rustic friendly places to lay their head after a long day in the saddle. 

Spurred on, our quest for adventure became relentless and in 2009 we decided to put 1939-45 behind us and invited ourselves to the International Crusiertreffen at Hipping Austria.  

Hipping Austria 2009

Some serious mileage was covered – Calais to Hipping in a day and a half,  and we were ‘honoured guests’ amongst over 130 BMW R1200C’s of every shape and size imaginable.  Our hosts were convinced that we had trailerd our bikes but in recognition of our endurance (it was wet again on route) no evening went by without the customary high levels of beer and schnapps.

Having made new friendships, the ‘Group That Will Travel Anywhere’ came back year on year, in 2010 joining the international fun at Kisslegg and last year at Bitberg – which for us was so close to Calais it was almost a day trip.

Kislegg Germany 2010

Now bored with the rulebook Chromeheads are looking for a new adventure and have decided that 2012 will again be the year of independent travel...........