Here I am, back in NYC, reflecting on my recent annual moto pilgrimage to Europe and so I decided to give my writing muscles their annual stretch. So many things happened in a year!
If you read last year’s piece, I came back from my trip to live a bikeless life for the foreseeable future given my accident and its multi-dimensional aftermath. Happy to report, as of May this year I’m back to motorcycle ownership. Tariff scares, supply constraints and luckily my wife’s support all aligned and allowed me to replace my ’22 Hypermotard SP with…. drumroll… a ’24 Hypermotard SP! I could write a very long controversial piece as to why the Hypermotard is the best bike ever, some would agree, most wouldn’t. It’s a preference and I just can’t think of not having one, there are a bunch of other bikes I would love to add to the Hyper in the future though!
Now that we got the prologue out of the way, let’s move onto the trip. This year’s MotoGP calendar lined up perfectly, the Austrian and Hungarian races were on back-to-back weekends which naturally lends itself to starting in Spielberg, riding the Alps, and ending the adventure at the inaugural race at Balaton Park in Hungary.
Day 0 – Budapest (HU) to Nagykanizsa (HU)
One thing we learned last year is that we did not enjoy the highway legs, and we managed to get all our speeding tickets on said stretches as well. So, this year, my father opted to get a trailer, pick me up at the airport with the two bikes in tow (what a sight at the tight Hungarian airport!) and we headed down to the south west border of Hungary to one of his frequented moto jump off points at a hotel.
Day 1 – Nagykanizsa (HU) – Spielberg (A) – Vorfusch (A) (495km)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/pJP4PVySw2nkaYci8
Kicked the day off early and we were already enjoying the long fast sweepers on RT69 in Austria when the need for coffee hit. Unlike last year, we rolled in with time to spare and caught the Moto 2 race and the awesome airshow. With Redbull’s strong involvement I can’t think of any other race that has an airshow so ridiculous and extensive as the Austrian GP. We both stared at the sky mesmerized watching a helo doing backflips and then later two glider planes dancing in sync in the sky for classical music before landing infield betweenT3 and T4.
This year we opted to sit at the T2 chicane and I was very happy with our seats, watching the bikes hit the braking zone hard, completing the chicane and disappearing up the hill was insane. We also got a nice view of the long turn combinations of T5 through T8 from our seats. I was hoping that Bez could hold on but there was no stopping MM93.
After the race we had a nice warm up jaunt to the town Vorfush, the only significance and why we opted for an overnight here is that we would be at the foothills of the Großglockner the next morning.
Day 2 – Vorfusch (A) – Ponte di Legno (IT) (476km)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/M3y2NPeUn265t9959
We were up and, on the road, around 8 in the morning. You could feel the warmish rays of sun in the cool air hinting that it will be a beautiful day. A little rain the night before had folks kick their days off late or not at all, so we practically had no traffic to the north gate of the dub G and had a tremendous ride up in perfect conditions to the Edelweiss Spitze lookout. This was an opportunity to give my new-to-me drone (thanks Lukas!) a nice little test flight. As this trip progressed I’ve gotten more and more daring and get some pretty neat pics and footage. This was our only day of minor hiccups, when we were getting coffee at the glacier lookout my father realized he forgot his small bag with his wallet, bike papers, passport etc. at the hotel. Could’ve been annoyed but this meant we got to ride the good part again back down to our origin. We were back at the hotel by 10:30 am, not a big deal.
On the way back down, we noticed traffic picking up and due to the hefty toll at the gate we opted to take the next pass to the west (RT 108) over that’s more of a high speed sweepers and tunnels situation instead of the technical turns of the ‘glockner but still a fun ride. We soon crossed over to Italy and headed towards Vipiteno where one of our favorite passes, the Jaufenpass (Passo Giovo), connects to Merano. I was pleased to find that my Catskills Moto sticker from last year was still intact! From there we headed south on SP86 through small mountain towns before turning westward and riding over the Tonale Pass into the town of Ponte di Legno for the night.
Photos of Edelweiss Spitze and the road leading up–
Day 3 – Ponte Di Legno (IT) – Andeer (CH) (230km)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/TPBajkMbZGSxqnqm9
Another on-time start in the morning and we dove straight into the Gavia Pass under low hanging clouds and fog but no rain. As our luck would have it, things cleared up again as we navigated the narrow alpine pass. I actually found the Gavia to be more technical and dangerous with its blind corners and lack of safety barriers than some of the more notorious passes (e.g. Stelvio). Our early/on-time start again meant virtually no traffic and we were sipping our coffees in Bormio by 10 am. Quick fuel stop, then up and over we went the Stelvio to Trafoi where we turned around, rode the Prato (the fun side) back up and took the Umbrail pass down to Switzerland. I was happy to find yet a few other 2024 edition Catskills Moto Club stickers fully intact and promptly updated my LinkedIn to include my innate ability to stick a sticker on an object!
We had lunch at our “usual spot” in Val Müstair then 28 to Zerez before turning southwest on 27 and jumping onto the Albula Pass towards Andeer. We opted for a relatively low mileage high reward day because we wanted to get to town at a reasonable time to hang out with my cousin who recently moved there and was nice enough to host us for the next two nights!
Day 4 – Andeer (CH) – Andeer (CH) (420km)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/15shKvVqFHiwBwxHA
My cousin joined as a passenger for the day, we planned to ride some of the most famous Swiss passes. She also got her first taste of wet weather riding, though we got pretty lucky playing cat and mouse with the rain clouds until late afternoon where we had to dig in for and hour stretch of pouring rain. We rode out of town relatively early again since we had an ambitious plan for the day: Furka/Grimsel/Susten and Gotthard Passes. We plotted a route north and west since my cousin hasn’t explored this area yet in the few months she’s been there. I lack the words and photographic ability to explain the experience, every rider should ride this loop at least once. I thoroughly enjoyed it regardless of less than perfect weather conditions. My cousin also loved it and if all goes well she’ll be riding her own bike next year when I visit again! I look forward to riding with her, I am always very excited to chat with new riders experiencing and exploring motorcycling!
More good sticker action-
Day 5 – Andeer (CH) – Hopfgarten in Defereggen (A) (382km)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Yu1Kg5z1a3EfbwhAA
We essentially did a combination of day 2 and 3 in reverse through Umbrail and the Stelvio to Hopfgarten in Austria. For the second half of the day we got stuck in constant rain that climaxed with a 23 minute wait at the bottom of the one directional pass between Italy and Austria where we had to navigate and split through herd of cows in the wet darkness under the instruction of their shepherd. We reached the hotel wet and frozen with the kitchen closing so it was a mad dash to ensure we get there on time for dinner. Weather aside, still a top day as we got most of our technical riding done in dry and clear conditions and only caught the rain for the last two hours.
Day 5 –Hopfgarten in Defereggen (A) – Bled (SLO) (266km)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/2UJapF5fW8LZf7ii6
This was our last full day of scenic riding; my father explored this particular route a month before our trip on his “old boys” tour. We headed south east through Austria and dipped back into Italy through the Nassfeld pass to grab a brew in Ponteabba then hopped over Sella Nevea (both of these were very fun, narrow and technical passes that I really enjoyed) before we made a run up the toll road on the Mangart in Slovenia. Once we regained our composure after admiring the size and scale of Mangart we descended into the Soča valley and followed the crystal-clear waters towards the Vrsic pass into Kranjska Gora before turning east and wrapping up our day on the shore of Lake Bled. We made it to town to catch some sunset photos of the famous church in Lake Bled and have a nice dinner.
Day 6 – Bled (SLO) – Nagykanizsa (HU) (323km)
https://maps.app.goo.gl/Xb1GEnM1TwxYRHvb7
We made our way into Austria and rode the reverse route of day 1 on Rt69. As one might imagine this was the point where we were both started to feel tired and some saddle soreness on our behinds. After a week in the alpine, riding the hills and flatlands was less than stimulating and went by uneventfully. We made it back to our jump off hotel in Hungary, unloaded the bikes and packed our gear. We didn’t load the bikes on the trailer yet as we ended up riding them to the race the next day (wisely) to be able to cut through the traffic.
We ended our trip watching the Hungarian MotoGP race at the new track at Balaton Park. Again, there was a small hope that someone would take the fight to Marc but it again didn’t materialize, in fact, he went on an absolute monster of a run until the main event at Catalunya where his younger brother was finally able to break his massively dominant winning streak. I think the event needs to mature and a few infrastructure related items, especially the crowd management has to catch up to some of the long-standing venues (e.g. Austria), but overall it was a great experience and I’m glad we went!
As I sit home fighting my jetlag, reflecting on the trip and my week after visiting family in Hungary, I can’t think of a single thing I’d do differently. We got lucky again with the weather for the most part, the roads and accommodations were also great. Unlike last year, my father’s mailbox wasn’t full of Austrian speeding tickets when we got home, so overall solid trip. It was almost too perfect… No roadside wheel bearing change in 100 degree weather? No broken side cases to be hacked? No faulty ignition switch in the middle of no man’s land between two borders? No boiling brake fluid in the beemer? Is this how normal people tour? We had an impressive arsenal of tools and spare parts that were unused.
In all seriousness, these trips seem to come at the perfect time when life is pushing its relentless challenges to new heights. It was a great time to unplug and reconnect, to shift focus on something as immersive as riding, to see new and old places, and meet loved ones in new settings. I feel very lucky to have a wife at home that supports these trips even if she doesn’t fully understand the appeal of it. I hope I can keep this going for the foreseeable future, now onto planning next year’s trip! Thanks for reading, ride on!
