Home again

[TravisZack]

Got back from a 3000 mile Eurotrip the other day.
Germany first, bit of sight seeing and a lap of the Nurburgring then spent a few days heading toward the Sachsenring GP, managed to get a decent spot and saw Cal's overtake for 2nd place :thumb:
Then it was down through Germany and across Austria, into Italy (Stelvio Pass), across Switzerland (Furka, Grimsel, Fluela... etc!), into France (Vosges region), back to Germany (Black Forest), couple of nights in Bruges and then home.

Was 18 days with only 2 of them off the bike, saw all sorts of incredible scenery, hit some fantastic roads, now we're in England and it's back to work and expensive beer!

It was fantastic though, generally good weather, one puncture that caused a bit of a headache and an exhaust nut fell off so the bike was loud(er) for a while. Otherwise, the VTR hauled us round, two-up with full luggage, no worries!

Slight case of holiday blues, but at least I don't have to individually pay for everything anymore! Plus, after being loaded up for so long, the bike now feels twice as powerful with race-bike handling when riding solo on familiar roads

[sirch345]

An amazing trip you've done there, well done for making it happen, it sounds fantastic. Glad to hear the Storm performed well two up

Chris.

[AMCQ46]

sounds like fun, get some photos posted up so we can see the highlights

3000 miles in 18 days.......... you were taking it easy!!!!!! I just did 1200 in 4 days, mind you if I had my better half on the back she might have killed me after day 2!

[adyf]

Nice one mate , the roads are fantastic , was in Garmish not long ago did the stelvio pass ,brennen pass and grassen pass went Holland Germany Austria Italy Switzerland and back 1900 miles in a week can't wait to go back , the roads are terrible when you get back to uk

[Mav617]

Quality mate, would love to do that. Enjoy before the kids come along!

[agentpineapple]

next time come visit me in spain.....

[TravisZack]

Cheers guys, yeah it was fantastic. We tried not to spend too much time on the bike each day, made that mistake before and it was just going from place to place without seeing much at either end. This trip was more about the scenery and the journeys, but we still wanted time to relax each day!

And yes, kids can certainly wait! We got married earlier this year so I'm not due a major life event for a while... anyway, won't flood you all with selfies and random crap but here's a few pics.

The bike loaded up, I always like how it looks when ready to go on a big trip...


At the Nürb, we had a lot of miles to go and it was still damp in places so I didn't exactly want to push it.


That said...


Austria


Italy, this is the church tower at the sunken town of Reschensee.


I obviously didn't get the Multistrada memo.


Looking down the popular side of the Stelvio. The other is just as twisty but this is the one you see in all the pics.


Top of the Furka Pass, it was like riding up a river that day!


Top of the Grimsel, this was an interesting one with the stepped reservoirs. It was a more rideable road as well rather than being constant hairpins


Somewhere in the Black Forest


And doing what we do best in Bruges

[AMCQ46]

great photos, you get the bike well loaded, what do you do to stop the tail fairing snapping its mounting lugs?

[agentpineapple]

great pictures mate....

[Pete.L]

Oh Wow!
That brings back some memories. So glad you had a successful trip. Thanks for sharing and Kudo's to the Mrs for putting up with that seat for all those miles

Pete.l

[bigtwinthing]

well done, and no sports tourer bike, We did a trip like that in 1980, spain, Andorra, France Italy, Austria Germany France then home. It was superb and on an XS1100 Yam

[sirch345]

Thanks for sharing your photo's, brilliant, they're making me a tad envious

Chris.

[TravisZack]

...what do you do to stop the tail fairing snapping its mounting lugs?

I mostly worry about it and hope it doesn't happen. The shape of the tail unit isn't ideal for throwovers, they can end up sitting a bit funny and putting the weight in the wrong place, as well as getting a little close to the exhausts... high mounts would be out of the question without some sort of frame.

I was actually bidding on that Renntec touring frame that appeared on the e-bay thread, to use on this trip, but someone else got it.

My wife is usually ok for a couple of hours to begin with, then more frequent stops are needed. We stuck to around 4 hours riding a day though, sometimes more, and it's nice to get off for a drink every now and then. Plus the range of the bike means fuel stops are quite frequent anyway! It's a comfy bike for distance though, and the torque made everything easy