To get back to Spain I took a ferry at Rome, that in 20 hours took me to Barcelona, just 350 kms from home. I was lucky that I was not going to be on my own on it, because Ulrich and Kristen, a German couple I really enjoy being with, was also on the same boat. Actually, it was a real luck to have them on board, because thanks to them I could sleep on a real bed (their cabin had an extra bed), instead of on the seat I had reserved. We also met Tex and Anibal, two Spanish rat-bikers also on their way back home after a nice ride around Europe, so the night got a little longer than expected, sharing stories of our respective tours.

We got to Barcelona late in the afternoon, at 18:50, and I hit the road again, this time on the highway, to get home as fast as I could. Everything was going fine, the bike running smooth, and the temperature was much nicer than the steaming temperatures we had in Italy, but Spain has a surprise welcome party organized for me, and at just 100 kms from home suddenly the rain started to fall in massive quantities, lightnings iluminating the road and thunders being the only music I could hear. Quick stop at the first gas station, let the storm pass for 10 mins, rain gear on, and on the road again. I’m stronger than the rain !!

Finally, close to 23:00 I arrived home after 6.103 kms of pure joy. The EPR is officially over for me. Untill 2012. I’ll be there again. Wherever it is.

Today is Saturday. Only 5 days later, and I already miss my partners in crime. I’m feeling the EPR down, missing all the good moments we had on the open road, the great countries we visited, and the fun we had. At least I can see the pictures and smile again remembering our adventures.

Take care out there my friends

See you on the road !!

Anyhow, we’ve had fun on the road, as we always do. Today three of us felt a little more adventurous, and decide to ride on our own, not in the groups. We wanted to have the chance to ride in Italy at our own pace, stopping whenever we felt like doing it, and we also wanted to navigate our route on the GPS and the road-book. The run from Florence to Sienna is really beautiful, nice curves, mostly nice pavement, and amazing landscape. Once we got to Sienna, we parked our bikes and went to visit the city. It’s really amazing. I went there 20 years ago, but I promise that I didn’t remember Sienna that beautiful.

We had lunch there, and hit the road again afterwards. From Sienna, most of the groups took the highway, to be early at the hotel, but we wanted to do the original plan, so we went again on our own onto secondary roads. The countryside and the roads  were really nice, although the land changed, and there were no more vineyards, but mainly cereal fields. The heat was the main problem, because riding at 40º or more, the risk of dehydration is really high, so I ended up putting a bottle of water into my vest, so I could take sips of water every now and then.

So, it’s been a hot day, a little more tiring than a normal day, but riding our Harley-Davidson in a country like Italy, among friends, is always a good day on the road.

Tomorrow we’ll do the final stage of this II European Posse Ride, from Perugia to Rome, and we’ll stay at Rome for the weekend, so it’ll sure going to be a fun.

I’ll keep you posted on our adventures.

Take care out there, my friend.

See you on the road !!

The local chapters have organized for us a special tour around the area of Chianti, a beautiful and scenic route. Some people stayed on the hotel, but most of us went for a ride. The problem is that is so hot now in here, that is almost unbearable. The thermometers are around 40ºC, and that’s way more than what you would consider reasonable.

So myself and a small group of riders decided to quit the tour at the lunch stop, and headed back to the hotel, because we were hearing the call of the pool…

In an hour or so, when the sun is a little lower, we’ll go for a walk into the city, and hopefully have some pasta or some pizza for dinner.

Tomorrow we’ll start our way down Italy, direction Rome, our final destination.

Take care out there, my friends.

See you on the road !!

Empezemos por el principio. Ayer fue un dia de madrugar, porque ibamos a hacer lo que aquí llamamos la “Monster Ride”. O lo que es lo mismo, un dia largo, largo en carretera. El despertador sonaba a las 05:45, preparé todo, metí la bolsa en el camión de los equipajes, desayuno, y de nuevo al asiento de la Harley. Listo para salir a las 07:00

Salimos de Bolzano en un solo grupo, y empezamos a subir lo que sería uno de los puntos guapos de la jornada: el “Passo Rolle”, a 1984 mts. Una forma perfecta de empezar el dia. Es una carretera preciosa, que sube hasta la parte alta de la montaña, entre pinos y bosques de árboles enormes, donde puedes rodar oliendo a madera y sintiendo el aire fresco de la mañana. Realmente una gozada. En la parte de arriba hay una estación de esquí, un hotel y una cafeteria, o sea que paramos y nos tomamos un auténtico café italiano, sentados en unas mesas de madera, mirando al valle. Una pasada !!

Tras la parada, reanudamos la marcha en los 3 grupos habituales. Menuda diferencia los 5 cms extra (y me refiero a la suspensión de la moto !!) Ahora la FatBoy se comporta de forma completamente distinta con la nueva suspensión. Está más fea, pero al estar más alta, puedo ir mucho más rápido en curvas, sin miedo a rozar por ningún sitio. Y aprovechando esto, la bajada al valle fue una gozada, disfrutando todas las curvas como un enano, de lado a lado, dirección Bassana del Grappa y San Giorgio in Bosco, donde paramos a comer. Pasta, por supuesto.

Después de comer venía la parte fea de la jornada, 100 kms de autopista, pero merecía la pena, porque haciendo eso, nos daba tiempo a meternos a disfrutar de una carretera que ya está entre mi top 25. Estoy convencido que quién diseñó la carretera tiene que ser motero, y quería tener un sitio donde divertirse cerca de casa. Es eso, o es que es el abuelo de Valentino Rossi. Se trata de la P65, y es una carretera que todos deberíais conocer antes de morir. Te lleva por todo Tuscani, que ya de por sí es una zona preciosa, y la carretera es una sucesión interminable de curvas enlazadas hasta Florencia. Es una mezcla perfecta de curvas cerradas y curvas suaves, donde poder meterte casi sin tocar los frenos, sólo bajando una marcha y tumbando la moto como si estuvieras bailando un vals. Un vals que dura algo más de 100 kms…

Pero incluso las cosas buenas se terminan en algún momento, y eso nos pasó cuando entramos en Florencia. Alguna vez te has planteado cómo sería conducir  en el infierno? No te lo plantees. Vente a alguna ciudad italiana y descúbrelo. Miles de coches y “motorinos” por todos los sitios, sin ningún orden y a unas velocidad de asustar. Nos costó bastante llegar al hotel (nos pasamos un giro de los que marcaba el GPS, y nos tuvimos que meter en el centro..). Para cuando llegábamos al hotel eran las 7 de la tarde…y un autobús nos venía a recoger a las 19:30 para irnos al concesionario Harley de la ciudad, porque nos habían preparado una fiesta. Qué dura es la vida del motero…

O sea que, después del día duro de carretera, una ducha rápida y a las calles de nuevo !! Puede que los italianos no sean los mejores conductores del mundo, pero saben divertirse !! El Chianti Chapter y el Firenze Chapter estaban allí esperándonos. El concesionario estaba abierto, para que la gente pudiera comprar camisetas (algo que viene muy bien tras 3 semanas de carretera…) y tenian preparada una BBQ impresionante. Toneladas de comida, y millones de litros de bebida. Hubo un suministro sin fin de vino y cerveza, y al rato empezaron con los chupitos de ron y pera….de verdad, esas cosas son mortales !! Y esta gente bebía como si no hubiera un mañana…Obviamente, esa combinación mortal (chapter, comida, alcohol, Harleys…) acabó con los típicos burnouts, cortes de encendido, y todas las macarradas nocturnas que puedas imaginar. Fue una fiesta salvaje, pero lo pasamos DE LUJO !!

Por suerte, el dia después era día libre, para que la gente se pudiera recuperar de los excesos…

Tened cuidado ahí fuera, amigos.

Nos vemos en la carretera !!

Let’s start from the beginning. Yesterday was an early rise, because we were doing what we call here a Monster Ride. A long, long day on the road. So the alarm sounded at 05:45, got everything ready, had a shower, put the luggage on the truck, had breakfast, and back on the bike, ready to leave at 07:00.

We left Bolzano in one big group and soon started to climb to first highlight of the journey: “Passo Rolle”, at 1.984 mts. An amazing starter. It’s a beautiful road that climbs to the top of the mountains, so you are riding among pines and big trees, smelling the wood, and feeling the morning breeze. Really nice. On top of the mountain is a ski resort, a cafeteria and a hotel. So we had a real italian coffee on top of the mountain, overlooking the valley. An amazing experience, believe me. After the coffee break, we split the big group in the usual three groups, and off we went. What a difference 5 cms can make (and I’m talking about my bike !!). The FatBoy feels completely different with the new suspension. Is much higher, and now I can go way faster in the turns, with no fear of any part of the bike touching the ground. So we went down the mountain pass on the other side, enjoying turn after turn, and kept going direction Bassana del Grappa and San Giorgio in Bosco,where we stopped for lunch. Pasta, obviously.

After lunch we had a boring stage of 100 kms on the motorway, but it was well worth it because that way we had have time to enjoy a road that is now directly on my top 25 roads. I’m sure that the person who draw the road between Bologna and Firenze is a biker who lives nearby, and decided to create his own playground. Is either this or he is Valentino Rossi’s grandfather. It’s the P65, and is a road that you have to ride before you die. It takes you into Tuscany, a really nice area, and the road goes zigzaging all the way to Firenze. Nice smooth curves that you can normally take without touching the brakes, just playing with the gears and moving your bike one side to the other in a joyful dance….What a road !! And you get 100 kms of that dance…

But even the best things have to finish eventually, so we went into Firenze. Have you ever imagined how could be driving at hell? Don’t have to. Just come to an italian city and you’ll experience it. Damn !! Cars and “motorinos” everywhere, going on every direction with no aparent order. It took us a while to get to the hotel (we missed one turn of the route on the GPS, and that forced us to go downtown…hell in earth !!). By the time we got to the hotel it was almost 19:00….and a bus was coming to the hotel to pick us up at 19:30 to take us to Firenze’s HD dealer, because they have organized us a party. Tough life a biker’s life….

So, we had a quick shower, and off we went again !! Italians might not be the best drivers of the world, but they do know how to party !! The Chianti Chapter, and the Firenze Chapter were there for us. The dealer was open, so people can buy T-shirts (something handy after 3 weeks on the road…), and they had a big BBQ going on. Tons of food, and even more liquids….. We had a never ending supply of wine and beer, and a bit later they started with shoots of rum and peach….man, that thing can kill anyone !! And they were drinking it as if there were no tomorrow….Obviously that deadly combination (chapters, food, alcohol, Harleys…) led to the typical burnouts, pipes breaking the silence of the night and all that standard late night stunts you can think of. It was a crazy party, and we had REAL fun !!!!!

Fortunatly, the day after was a day off, so people can rest and recovered from the excesses…

Take care out there, my friends

See you on the road !!

Today has been a day full of experiences. Good experiences, and bad experiences. The day started very nice, sunny and warm, and looked like another perfect day on the road. We started riding on a very nice road, with good tarmac and nice and smooth curves, with plenty of green areas all around us. Everything were going smooth and that “stupid” smile were again starting to appear on our faces. Then we got to the Croatian border, and the whole group pass through quite fast and with no problems. At Slovakia we had wonderful roads, specially one little small road that wasn’t on the roadbook, but that we took to connect with the road we were looking for. It was great. So small that I doubt that we could have shared the road with a car. It climbed up to a mountain, crossing small villages of 3 or 4 houses. Really beautiful. And then we arrived to what must be something similar to biker’s paradise. Beautiful roads, plenty of nice curves, and very nice tarmac. So far, so good. We’ve seen thousand of bikes today on this roads (today is Sunday…) and I can really understand why. If I’d lived there, I’d be on the road everyday too !! But then, just before lunch, I suddenly noticed that something was wrong. I was sitting a bit too low on my bike. Lower than normal. On the first roundabout, came the confirmation. At the very moment I started to lean the bike, I was dragging the pipes. And this is not normal. Not that early. Fortunately, right after the roundabout, we stopped for lunch, and I could check my bike. And yes, something was wrong: the suspension was broken. One of the shock absorbers were loose, and the bike was without suspension, and at the lowest possible position. So now my softail is a hardtail, and my pipes are now so low that they touch the floor at every corner, even at the slowest possible speed. So no more mountains for me. I can ride it (carefully) on bigger roads, but not on tight corners.

I tried to find a garage that could weld the piece back, but it was Sunday, so the only thing that I could do was to try to get to Lienz (Austria), our destination for today. So I separate myself from the group (together with Don, a.k.a The Kiwi King, a guy from New Zealand), and kept riding at a safe rhythm. Once off the mountains, I could ride faster, and I thought that everything was going to be fine. But then we changed from one valley to the other, and a familiar smell got to my nose. Oh, shit, that smells like….rain !! And you bet it was !! 10 minutes after it was raining cats&dogs !! We looked for shelter at a café, met with all the other riders of the group, put on the rain gear….and hit the road again !! We never said it was going to be easy…

So, tomorrow I’ll try to get to Bolzano (Italy), using only main roads, and bring the bike to the local dealer to have my suspension fixed. I hope the bike can be ready by the end of the day, so I can finish the tour. I’ll keep you posted !!

Take care out there, my friends

See you on the road !!