France To Austria

[Mattie660]

Time to take the new VFR for a proper road trip, and see if I have wasted my money !

The main event of the trip would be the High Alpine Road in Austria, called the Grossglockner - it is very popular route with bikers.

For me the trip there and back came to 2,738 miles over two weeks. Across France, southern tip of Germany (the Black Forest) and Lake Constance, on into Austria through the 8 mile long Arlberg Tunnel, and on to Innsbruck.

On the way back the idea was to travel down the western side of the Alps to the south of France and back up to the ferry port of St Malo, then home.

As it happened that area of France had heavy thunderstorms and heavy rain, so got the head down and put some miles between myself and the weather front, and appeared in the sunshine two days later.

Biggest pain in the @ss for the trip was not having a sat nav. Wasted lots of time trying to look at my plastic road map, in the rain, whilst trying to navigate to the west bound motorway system to escape the rain. Little town after little town, and wrong turn after wrong turn, and all the while being rained on whilst reading a plastic map.

Once on the motorway system, head down and lying on the tank some of the time. Bearing in mind French speed limits on the Autoroute are 81 mph (130 kmh). Did most of France in a day, which is not bad going and cleared the bad weather.

Camped for all but two nights of the two weeks holiday, and the bike received many compliments from all sorts of people. Kept it looking nice, and always cleaned the dead bugs off it at the end of every day. A few pictures:

Part 1 of 2 - Getting There.

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a ferry trip. The crew always lash the bike down, but I always hang around to ckeck they have not been over enthusiastic with the ratcheting down of the straps. Usually they are very good.

First campsite, this little varmit was running around chewing the grass round the tent. He had these little tunnels all over the place and would chew some grass and run off back along his tunnels again.

Lovely sweeping open roads through Champagne region of France.

Lake Constance, teken from the norther German side of the lake. The lake also borders Switzerland and Austria and gets very busy with tourists at this time of the year; quite slow going with little towns with 20 mph speed limits. Very pretty.

The next stop was in Austria and the climb up the Grssglockner High Alpine Road. The weather was perfect, and it was a Saturday so there were many people on their way up and down. There was a huge convoy of old VW Combi vans that slowed all the rest of the cars on their way up, but all the bikes made short work of them and soon left them behind. Amazing sight all these lovely old air cooled Combis, that on an ordinary day would have been a spectacle in their own right. But when your are competing with the Brossglockner and alpine scenery, then they have to take second best.

And this is what they are looking at:

The highest point of the route is 8,215 feet. As to whether I prefer riding up or down, well I think going down is more involving; I love that whole dynamic of big brakes for a tight corner you can see round.

Dude with a Pan European, we parked up next to the snow for the tourist shot ! I left all the luggage at the campsite but kept the panniers on, for a camera and waterproofs - no weight in them.

That really ends the journey out and the furthest limit of the trip. All the rest will be the return journey.

[Switchblade]

Great pic's !!!

[vguy]

Looks nice and cool. Great pix. Thanks.

[Mattie660]

Part 2 - The Journey Home

I suppose mountainous regions are notorious for bad weather at any time of year, and I figured I had been lucky so far with perfect weather in Austria. Things were still looking good right up until southern Germany and the first spots of rain. Then heavy rain and thunder and heading straight towards the weather system, no way round it really. Through the Black Forest in Germany and the Vosges in France, it seemed to take for ever to get clear of it, but it worked in the end and sunshine again.

Titisee, Black Forest, Germany. Shall I stay and wait for the weather to pass, or get the hell out of here ! waited for it to stop raining mid morning and packed up and left.

Crossing the Rhine at the German French border. More rain.

The Vosges, in France. Rain everywhere.

Time to stay in a Motel. I asked for a room on ground floor and wheeled the bike round to park it in front of my room. It had a bit more shelter from the rain and I could keep an eye on it. Nobody said a word about it being parked there !

Cleared the bad weather after many hours on the autoroute. At one of the stops they had this dispaly as a warning to motorists about falling asleep. This highway road works van - with the big flashing arrows - was hit by a truck which sent it 60 meters across the road - nobody injured - amazing.

Isle de Re. Proper hot weather and rain a distant memory. Ice creams, cold drinks and finding shade are the order of the day. Lovely spot where people come to relax in a pair of shorts, a shirt and a sun hat. Quite popular with the rich set, but nothing flash, all low key but can be expensive.

Donkey rides. Poor fella looks a bit hot under that wooly coat. Something about a traditional breed from the area though.

Salt pans on the eastern side of the little island.

And lastly, the ferry out of St Malo and heading for home.

So have I bought a dud ?

Well, tucked in behind the little windshield the bike sped across France. Tucked in laying on the tank (feeling a bit silly at first) the bike was like a hot knife through butter - just had to keep easing it back as it was getting quicker. It covered a big distance that day across France, trying to escape the bad weather.

In Germany on the Autobahn the bike was similarly plenty quick enough, especially tucked in. It can cover distance quickly and (hopefully) reliably. I think it is a keeper and have got to know it better over this 2,700 mile trip.

I feel a trip to Spain will be in order......

[Polarbear]

Nice trip report. Nice pics too. Sorry the rain was with you for most of the trip, but sometimes that's just the way things go. Still beats staying home on the chesterfield watching the tube, don't it?

C

[Mattie660]

Many thanks. It only rained for two days of the two week trip, but it really did rain in those two days. Anyway at least it was not cold, and all part of the fun.

Mostly the weather was like this, sometimes with even less cloud !

[TNRabbit]

Wow.... beautiful! Thanks for the report!

[Lorne]

Thanks Mattie,

I'd love to take a ride through Europe sometime and your ride makes it even more attractive.

Btw, which ferry did you take?

[Guest]

Awesome trip and pics.

What is your tank pad?

[MarantzManiac]

Awesome Journey and nice bike too.... Did you see lots of Kabooms in Austria?

Tank pad looks like the a genuine Honda ST1300 2003-2010, 2012-2013 NT700V 2010-2011 Part #: 08P61-MCS-100 which incidentally also fits 5th gen...

[Mattie660]

Sorry everybody for taking so long to reply.

The Ferry was - Condor Ferries Vitesse - to St Malo in France. The ferry is a high speed catamaran type which does about 30 knots even full of cars.

You are right about the tank pad. I spent ages looking at some of the more fancy ones that were a bit like weird tattoo designs. Thought the basic Honda one suited the bike and does not really take any attention away from the bike itself. Otherwise the fancy tank pads get all the attention ! Anyway it is all personal taste.

Incidentally the tank shape is a bit strange, until you lay on it, then it makes sense !

[Switchblade]

The tank looks a lot higher then the 6th gen .

[wrestler]

Great Report. Thanks for sharing with us. I am glad to hear the bike is as worthy as so many of us hoped. My only criticism is cosmetic (I think). I wish they had kept the under seat exhaust. I will bet it comes back next year. Congrats on the maiden voyage. Maybe I will bring my 6th gen over on the Queen Mary 2 and do an epic ride with you. I will have to look into that.

[sedgett]

What, no Stelvio?

[V4 Rosso]

Nice pics, Grossglockner sure offers stunning views. Only te huge concrete building at the top next to the glacier looks a bit out of place.

I suppose mountainous regions are notorious for bad weather at any time of year,

Not realy. The weather can change quite dramatically over the course of a few hours but overall the weather is quite nice, especially during the summer. I have found the weather in that region to be very unpredictable as on most occasions when I asked a local about the forecast they got it completely wrong, sometimes for the better, sometimes for the worse.