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[St] Ride Report (Edelweiss Tour of the Pyrenees) REALLY LONG!



In a nut shell: WOW!!!! You have got to try this!

 

Medium Detail:

Edelweiss "Tour of the Pyrenees", September '08.

This tour is first and foremost a RIDING tour! Don't sign up expecting
to dawdle along stopping every couple of miles to take pictures. These
people ride HARD!

The accommodations ranged from three star business type hotels (Nice,
semi-fancy, comfortable) to world class resort level (Pool, Spa, Tennis,
Hiking, View to die for, amazing food, etc etc) to Euro-weird (15th
century French chateau with the barn and stables turned into a pretty
nice restaurant.)

But this trip was about the roads. 

Let me rephrase that: this trip was about THE ROADS. There, that's
better. 

 

The Itinerary looks like this: (Michelin map 574 Spain, and 526 France)

 

Day 1: Barcelona to Peramola via Montserrat and Cardona:

Great warm up ride for the fun to come. Nice intro to European roads and
traffic. I started the trip on a Ducati Multistrada 1000s. Great ergos,
willing engine, brakes, and chassis. Not much bottom end grunt, but
strong midrange and a nice pull to a fairly abrupt rev limiter. 

These roads are mostly fast sweepers. 45 to 70 mph is typical. Perfect
road surface, clean, smooth, and grippy. After an hour or so of
"Strange bike, strange roads, strange traffic, not used to riding in a
group" jitters, I started to relax and enjoy myself. The group on this
tour is a mix of solo and two up on a real mixture of bikes GS650,
RT1200, GS1200, Duc ST3, V-strom, Wee-strom, CBF600, F800ST, 1250S
Bandit, etc.   

The pace was surprisingly quick, and a little uncomfortable until I
settled down and came to the realization that in the really tight stuff
the Duc is happiest in "attack mode": Get up forward right against the
tank to keep some weight on the front tire, keep the revs in the top
third of the tach, and use the brakes a lot deeper than you would in
cruise mode, hammer the throttle as you get mostly stood back up. Sight
lines on day 1 were usually pretty good, and you could generally stuff
it in pretty deep, slam it on its ear, whack the throttle open and
repeat. For hours. Really. 

 

Day 2: Peramola Rest Day, with loop options. On Day 2 things got
serious. The roads got twisty (think go-cart track twisty), narrow
(really tight for two cars...small ones), and the pace went up. I rode
the "short" route the entire trip. The "long" routes were just more of
the same kind of roads. The difference seemed to mostly be saddle time.
If the short route was five hours the long one went more like seven. Day
two's "short loop" was a 130ish mile ride on some insanely twisty and
almost completely deserted mountain roads. Lots of blind stuff,
decreasing radius switchbacks, almost no straights...really fun in kind
of a high pucker factor fashion. I used my Zumo 550 as an early warning
system: the detail was good enough and reliable enough that I could
"see" if the next bend was just a kink or a real switchback. With it
mounted on my tank bag mount the GPS did obscure the gauges on the bike
to an extent, but the screen was in a good place and I could keep an eye
on it between grabbing a handful of throttle and grabbing a handful of
brake. I touched the pegs down a number of times (my first experience
with that particular phenomenon), and ground the toes pretty well off of
my Sidi EVO boots (no plastic toe sliders). This is what motorcycles are
all about!  

 

Day 3: Peramola to Cavenac (Carcassonne) via Andorra, Ax-les-Thermes,
Quillan, Chalabre, and Limoux. A bad day personally; something the night
before didn't agree with my digestive system and I was too sick to enjoy
any of the ride. I did find that riding just a little harder than you
are really comfortable keeps enough adrenaline in the system to keep
secondary bodily functions at least marginally under control. Andorra
(the country...I didn't even know it existed) is tiny. We were through
it on THE road in a little over an hour even with a fuel/coffee stop in
the big town. (Andorra La Vella?)  Lots of bikes, lots of bike friendly
traffic, the whole country is a duty free zone, so retail shopping is
HUGE there. I broke off from the group shortly thereafter to make what I
thought was a Bee-line to Cavanac so I could get horizontal and work on
getting over what ever the bug was that was causing problems in my
plumbing. I let the Zumo do the navigation, but forgot to change the
default Nav setting to "Shortest time" from "Shortest distance". OOPS!
The roads I ended up on were fun, and beautiful, but they were not
SHORT! It took me right to Cavanac, via Ax-les-Thermes,Belcaire, Brenac,
Chalabre, Limoux, and Couffoulens. (I think...I managed to turn the trip
log off for this stretch too, so I'm making a best guess.) A LONG nights
sleep, and about a gallon of wonderful fresh squeezed orange juice, and
I was ready to do a little exploring on Day 4. I think that was maybe my
best ride of the trip. I know I was as focused as I've ever been, and
internal problems aside, really enjoyed the bike and the road.

 

Day 4: Cavanac rest day with loop options: Two of us (one hung over, the
other recovering from the bug) got a really late start, and just did a
short loop. We rode over to La Cite in Carcassone; a beautifully
restored medieval "walled city"/tourist trap, but didn't stop for long.
We left there and blasted down D 118 to Couiza, and then up over a
couple of really nice mountain pass roads via Arques,
Caunette-s-Lauquet, Greffeil, Villefloure, and back to the Chateau. (
Did I mention that the hotel in Cavanac is a fifteenth century Chateau?
Cool, and weird, but a fairly nice place.) On a grins per mile scale of
1 to 10 this short little ride was an 11!

 

Day 5: Cavanac to Olot via Abbaye Lagrasse, Gorges de Galamus, Orgues,
Montbolo, Arles-sur-Tech, Prats-de-Mollo-la-Preste, Oix, and
Castellfollit de la Roca. The day started with one of the guides
informing me that the chain on the Duc was shot, and that they didn't
have another one in the van. I was left with two choices: A wee-strom or
a 1200GS. I took the GS. Luckily the battery is easy to get at on the
GS, and swapping my powered tank bag over took only a few minutes. I'd
never been on one before and was kind of looking forward to it...till I
got it rolling. Not a bad bike, but skip down to the bottom for my
thoughts regarding the two bikes. Supper fun roads; the learning curve
on the GS is steeper than the Ducati's. By the time we got as far as the
Abbaye I was settled into synch with the beast, and starting to enjoy
myself. We flogged the bikes pretty hard from there to the entrance to
Gorges de Galamus. I had been enjoying my usual musical road trip mix of
jazz, blues, and rock, letting the MP-3s randomly shuffle themselves out
of my Zumo, but as we turned onto the D 10 at the north (upper) end of
the gorge I was startled to hear the only "classical" track on my play
list. Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor (the main theme from Phantom
of the Opera), played well on a really big pipe organ started just as
the big GS rolled into another world. The single most memorable
kilometer of motorcycle riding in my life; the beauty of the gorge and
the absolute appropriateness of the music literally brought tears to my
eyes. We stopped for pictures at the overlook at the bottom (does that
make it an underlook?). Then down to (I think) Le Vivier for a pretty
nice lunch, and on down the road. The rest of the roads that day were
some of the best of the trip. Clean, grippy and deserted; I learned to
trust the GS, let it do the work, and enjoy. 

Day 6: Olot to Barcelona via Banyoles, Girona, Sant Joan, La Bisbal
d'Emporda, Sant Feliu de Guixols, Lloret de Mar, and up onto the
superslab at Vidreres and back to Barcelona. Great fun, some of the
roads didn't even show up on the GPS. Tight and narrow, they were
nevertheless really fun. As we approached the coast at Sant Feliu,
traffic thickened considerably, which is to be expected. Through here
somewhere is the one spot I really had a "moment". Europeans have an
entirely different attitude to passing and being passed by vehicles
heading in the same direction they are than Americans. It is accepted,
expected and encouraged. 99.99% of the traffic we encountered graciously
moved over at appropriate spots and waved the bikes through. By this day
I was probably getting a little cavalier about picking off slow moving
traffic. At one point I looked down at the GPS and saw what appeared to
be a slight right hand kink. The gal on the bike in front of me blasted
around the car we were stuck behind and didn't brake very hard into the
right hand "kink" that was coming up. The GPS showed the road heading
off to the left along the valley wall, and I could see that it was clear
of traffic, so I went ahead and committed to passing the little sedan.
Here's where it got exciting. I had the GPS scaled out to show a little
more of the road that was coming up, and hadn't considered that the
motorcycle icon on the screen could hide what amounted to two hair pin
switch backs linked in quick succession.  Of course the switchbacks were
hiding a small sedan coming the other way. In the "lane" I was using.
Rapidly. OOPS! Thanks to the high level of situational awareness of the
average European driver and the antilock brakes of the big BMW, everyone
got slowed down and spread out enough that the only collision was my
eyeballs splattering all over the inside of my face shield (or what ever
euphemism you find appropriate in a situation like this where the
adrenaline level in your system spikes to previously unheard of levels.)
The next couple of kilometers were ridden at a pace best described as
sedate while my heart rate dropped slowly back to its normal level. The
coast road along here is one of the most spectacular of its kind
probably anywhere, and is really a playground for young Spanish GP star
wannabes on everything from 125cc Derbis to full blown superbike race
reps. I had one two stroke something go by me in one tight little bit so
fast that I only saw him for maybe five or six seconds before he
disappeared around the next bend. I just relaxed and rode my own pace.
We stopped for coffee on the beach at Lloret and then headed inland to
catch the freeway back to Barcelona. There was a nasty looking
thunderstorm rolling in out of the east and we decided that hustling
back to Barcelona was better than riding crowded costal secondary roads
and likely getting soaked. As it was we got sprinkled on just enough to
get a little chilled through the mesh jackets most of us were wearing.
This stretch of road brought out one of the things I really didn't like
about both of the bikes I rode: neither one is really good at speeds
much over 125 kph. Traffic on this road was running 130ish and the
buffeting off the GS's screen (which I had in its highest position, and
admittedly didn't take the time to experiment with) was shaking my head
around pretty uncomfortably. I could duck down behind it, but wasn't
really comfortable that way either. 

Bike Change Mid Tour: The biggest lesson I learned, and the thing that
blew me away is how much the bike doesn't have to do with going quickly.
It's all about the rider. I rode most of the tour with a young gentleman
and his wife from Innsbruck Austria. He owns a MotoGuzzi dealership (and
Honda and lots of scooter brands). They are both about five foot six or
seven. He weighs about a hundred fifty pounds, she's maybe a hundred
fifteen. They were two up on a 650 V-strom. He casually followed me
fifty feet or so back, plus or minus about six inches, the WHOLE TRIP!
Didn't matter how hard I pushed, how fast I felt like I was going, what
the road looked like, EVERY TIME I looked in the mirror, there was
Peter. Fifty feet back, usually with Bianca taking pictures from the
pillion seat. With that said I did learn that the bike makes A LOT of
difference to the kind of fun riding turns out to be.  I really enjoy
the Trumpet, and since returning from Europe, am bemoaning the quality
(or its lack) of the brakes and suspension. The powerplant completely
blows both the Multistrada and the GS into the weeds. Neither of them
holds a candle to the triple. Both chassis absolutely KICK the trupmet's
ass. I'm with Axel (one of the tour guides, and a really smooth / fast);
the Tiger 1050 might just be the nearest thing to a perfect general
purpose bike out there (he's working on buying one this winter).  I got
a huge kick out of following Axel on the last day. He was way relaxed
and every once and a while he'd really cut loose on the Bandit 1250s. At
about the point in a bend I'd be thinking I can go ahead and start
dialing up the power, he'd have the front wheel off the ground and be
looking for another gear. I REALLY wish I'd had the Duc that day. The GS
was (is) an awesome machine, and in every way a better bike than the
duc, but damn it the 'strada is just flat MORE FUN. I probably would
have stuffed it in a ditch, or tank slappered it into a "Houston, we
have a problem" high side or something. 

Like I've said, I started out on the Ducati Multistrada 1000S. It was my
first choice and the bike I signed up for when I signed on for the tour.
It really is the perfect bike for these tight little roads. It seems to
have one major drawback though: It really doesn't like to be ridden
gently. It wants you to ride in full attack mode or to park it. The
motor is only really happy in the top third of the tach, and I kept
banging it into the rev limiter. The chassis, though, ROCKS! Narrow,
light, nimble as hell, great ergos for pushing hard on strange tight
roads, strong brakes, well damped at both ends without being harsh. I
loved it. I wouldn't own one, but for that ride it was perfect. The
Tiger would have been great too. The ST would probably have worked, but
the suspension and brakes aren't nearly as good. 

I finished the ride on a GS 1200 BMW. How does Monty Python put it? "And
NOW, for something COMPLETELY different!" Forget everything you learned
about pushing the Ducati; it's absolutely wrong for the GS. It wants you
to clamp your knees to the tank and just sit there. Be smooth! It gets
all upset if you start to push it. It doesn't mind fast (and Axel told
me I was actually faster on the GS than I was on the Duc), but it wants
you to just relax and let it do the work. Decent Ergos (I didn't take
the time to move the shifter up a little to make getting my big foot
under it a little easier, and most of my complaints have to do with that
and the wind protection at extra legal freeway speeds.) and the motor
makes really useable power and the suspension is really comfortable
without wallowing too much. I made good use of the on the fly rear
preload adjuster, and finally found a good compromise between squatting
uncomfortably coming out of slow bends, and jarringly stiff if the road
got a little lumpy. I'm tempted to rig an extension on the Triumph so I
can more easily change it to suit the road and load. The brakes on both
bikes were stellar, and really make the binders on the ST feel wimpy.
Darn it, I was happy in my ignorance. Now I'm spending evenings surfing
the web researching upgrades... maybe 'busa calipers and m/c, different
pads, double brake lines to the m/c, etc... 

 

That's it from here. I'm happy to discuss any and all of the above
topics, and apologize for taking up so much space, but I hope at least a
few people enjoy this account.  

 

 

 

Mike 

'06 ST

Seattle

 


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