Horizons Unlimited - The HUBB - 2 old Airheads on an Alpine tour...

hi guys,

I did this trip last year - here is the report. this is a shortend version...more photos etc are on my website:
My Motorbikes - 2008-Austria (Mops&Lars)

I left on Friday, 4th of July from England and head into Germany and stay overnight. I found a perfect Pension in Leimen (Pfalz).
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/austria.jpg
Mops will leave on his new and very nice BMW R100 also on the Friday to stay in the same Pension in Leimen.

I will ride my R75/6.
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/CIMG6290.JPG
So that we dont get lost I have my old Garmin Quest mounted on my Bike:

here now the trip report:
I left at 6am on Friday, 4th of July, from my home to head for the ferry port in Dover.

Once I had breakfast on board and enjoyed the ride we arrived in Calais and I set off on my 591km towards the first nights stay in Leimen in the Pfalz near Karlsruhe (Germany). After a very long 7 hours I finally got to Leimen having stopped only twice for fuel.
Mops set off on Friday morning too from Leipzig in order to met with me in Leimen. He arrived just 5 minutes after I got there having done just under 600km himself. its fair to say we were both a little bit tired and our behinds a bit sore!
We derseved a few beers to get us back on track!

The "Pension Arnold" was perfect and there were other bikers staying too, to whom we got chatting too. Whilst we had dinner Michael from the http://www.2-ventiler.de/ joined us for dinner and we had some great chat about the old bikes etc. After the dinner Michael set off back home as he had still around 80km to ride.
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/u...em%20Forum.JPG
After a good nights sleep we had breakfast and than prepared our bikes for the next 500km to get to our destination for the following 7 nights - Nauders (Austria). During the pre-ride checks I noticed that my engine oil level had dropped and I needed to top it up. Maybe the 120-130km/h were a bit much for my 34 year old bike. We decided to dropped the speed a little and rode most of the way at round the 100km/h mark. Our first stop was Siebenrock Airhead Specialist shop in Wendlingen near Stuttgart. We got there by lunchtime and bought some more oil and other little spare parts. We both liked the bikes they had for sale but managed to get out of it without buying new metal.
At Kempten we left the Motorway and finally decided to do the rest of kilometers on minor roads. We crossed into Austria via Fuessen and than used the "Fernpass" to head further south. This pass is surrounded by the Zugspitzmassiv.
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/a...Zugspitze).JPG

We stopped a few time to take some pictures and finally got to Nauders at around 6pm.
Our B&B was perfect and the owner showed us the Garage where we could always park, clean & service our bikes. here is foto of the B&B.

Once arrived we gave the bikes a quick clean and oil top-up in order to prepare for the BMW Motorrad Days meeting in Garmisch.
Sunday after breakfast we headed off towards Garmisch (120km on way). The closer we got to Garmisch the more BMW we noticed on the roads. 9 out of 10 bikes where Beemers and 7 out of 10 were GS's.... we both gave up greeting all the bikes as there were just too many. I only wave at old 2 valve BMW's.

being the final day of the BMW meeting most people had left or were in the process of packing / leaving. This was good for us as it was not as crowded as we expected.
Mops burnt his arm on my exhaust whilst trying to lock our lids together - very painful and he had to be treated by some nice young nurse.

we than had a good look over the old bikes on show...here are a few of the best fotos and some from the oldie parade.

http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/e...es%20paar!.JPG
We also watched the stunt show from Christian Pfeiffer. what he does with a bike is amazing:

http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/IMG_0151.JPG
We had large Thunderstorm disrupting the meeting for about half an hour. I got some new Tyres fitted to my bike as my old ones were gone. The mechanics were happy to work on the old girl and did a great job. We left Garmisch at around 4pm and headed towards Mittenwald for some Coffee & cake. After that we rode a different way back towards Nauders. The weather had turned and we need for the first time our waterproofs. We made it back to Nauders by 7pm and than cleaned bikes & us and headed out for dinner.
Monday morning we awoke to rain hanging over the mountains and us. We decided to take it easy for the morning as the rain was forecasted to stop at lunchtime. by 1pm we headed off south towards Italy and the Stelvio Pass. Our first stop was at the lake Resia (you can see the thunderclouds in the back)
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/A...ilfserjoch.JPG
We than headed up the Umbrailpass toward the Stelvio. The Umbrail has a 5km section of gravel track.

http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/IMG_0172.JPG
Once we got up to the Stelvio we noticed the weather closing in on us.
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/IMG_0181.JPG
After a short stay on top we started our decent down the Stelvio. The heavens opened and we rode into the Thunderstorm. The water was running down the road in part faster than we rode our bikes. Funny that we were the only bikes on the pass that day decending. We got completely soaked and rode back to Nauders to dry off. Our host showed us his heating room where we could dry our clothes.
On Tuesday the weather was better and we started riding north into Austria and the Swiss Alps. Our first stop was at the Piller Hoehe - where I took this photo looking back down.

From there we headed further north towards Landeck and than twards Ischgl and the Silvretta Hochalpenstrasse - which is very nice.

It reminded me a bit of Wales, just with higher mountains and cattle instead of sheep.
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/2...1%20Ochse!.JPG
a few Kilometers further up the mountain we reached the Bieler Hoehe. There is an artificial lake and loads of snow topped mountains.

http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/bieler%203.JPG

On Wednesday the weather finally got very nice and we have blue sky and no rain! We decided to head towards the Stelvio again and this time ride it up. To our surprise the pass was closed! Apparently a large rockfall has happend and that closed the road. We were both not happy, but we headed back toward the Umbrailpass to do the ascent. once we reach the top the view was breathtaking.
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/d...ilfserjoch.JPG http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/S...och%20pass.JPG

this time we rode down the western side of the Stelvio - also very nice.
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/u...ngstrassen.JPG
We than rode up and down the Passo di Foscagno and the Passo di Eira. Mops was happy about the nice view and beautiful landscape.

The next pass was the Passo di Bernina.

We took some more fotos along the way.
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/2...20ventiler.JPG
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/R75%20am%20berg.JPG
After a lunch stop we headed west towards St. Moritz. We stopped at the Sailing Club for Coffee & Cakes.

Our route back lead us over the Arlberpass.

Thursday we went toward the Oetztal and the Timmeljoch. First stop was the Oetztaler Glacier at 2800m.

i had to check my ignition quickly as it was pinging! (nice place to work on the bike)

http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/IMG_0360.JPG
Than we headed up the Timmelsjoch.
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/T...talien_329.jpg
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/T...talien_350.jpg

Friday, we decided not to ride and instead we went for a walk up the local mountain. The plan was to go for an hour or two, but instead we went for 7 hours.
First we had to walk through Nauders and than climb up a local road.
http://www.freewebs.com/bmwrideruk/IMG_0406.JPG

We came across a herd of cows - which looked at us in a strange way!

The top of the mountain was at 2729m... only Mops made it up there,. i stayed at 2500m and had a rest!
On our way down we had lunch at the Laubaumalm...nice people and good food.

Saturday, we finally left Nauders to head back home. Near Imst Mops and I said our good byes as we headed in different directions. I stopped again in Leimen and Mops rode all the way home.
Sunday I left Leimen at 7am and headed to Calais to catch the 3.50pm ferry back to England.
Total milage for the trip: 3935,6km or 2445,5mls.
Both bikes work well. My R75/6 used about 1.5 litres of oil. The gearbox became more and more stiff and the shaft drive made a few noises, but otherwise she ran fine. Mops's R100R is great and just used a little bit of Oil. Both bikes ran very economical - allowing us to ride 350km before filling up,
Anyway, next destination - Nordkap! (maybe in 2009 or 2010)