June 30 - Lake Day

Today we went on 2 different rides.  The first ride left at 9:15 with 6 of 9 bikes.  Alan, Martin, and Patrick (and Alex) decided not to do the morning ride.  As we headed north from our hotel, the city is in the valley with mountains on both sides.  It is obviously the right weather to grow many crops including grapes, fruits trees of various types, corn (sweet corn I am assuming), strawberries, potatoes, cabbage and others.  On some of the grapevines and some of the fruit trees, you could see the produce developing but not nearly ripe yet.  One interesting thing was there are no wineries in the area.  Either the grapes are for eating or must be shipped somewhere else for processing into wine.

The ride continued until 12:00.  We went over several passes and also did several more high valley roads.  Some of the roads were only one lane wide.  You had to be careful if even 2 motorcycles met going in opposite directions.  Needless to say, we were very cautious on these roads and took our time.

During recent blogs I have talked about the people and the gear I am wearing.  Today I will talk about the bikes people have rented on this trip.  I will talk about them in the general order in which we ride as a group.

Charlie, our leader, is riding a BMW F700 GS.  Charlie prefers a smaller bike on these trips for a couple of reasons: 1) to keep the cost down as he is here a few more days than we are and 2) he has a shoulder injury from a motorcycle crash he had some time ago.

Typically I am following Charlie on my BMW R1200RT.  Initially I was hoping to get a smaller bike as well but as I was the last person to sign up for the tour, all the smaller bikes were already taken. Charlie says each tour is different, sometimes the big bikes go first, on other tours the smaller bikes go first.  As the RT is similar in size and style to my FJR I ride at home, I selected it.  With the traffic and the passing we need to do, I am glad I have the extra power the 1200RT provides.  I guess things worked out well.

Joe, Dave, and Craig switch between who rides where in the group (typically positions 3, 4, and 5) and also who is riding which bike.  I have learned who has which helmets to know who is actually riding behind me.

Joe's assigned bike is the BMW F800GS.

Dave's assigned bike is the BMW R1200R.

Craig's assigned bike is the BMW F800GT.  In this photo, Dave is behind the bike.

Alan is riding a Honda Deauville - it is the only non BMW in the bunch.  Alan has had an intermittent problem with the bike where it doesn't start.  There doesn't appear to be any rhyme or reason to when it does and does not start.  If it doesn't start it, he can "bump start" it by pushing it down a hill a letting the clutch out.  Fortunately, it does start as it should most of the time.

Martin is riding a BMW F800R.  So far (knock on wood), Martin is the only one that has tipped his bike over.  It was while we were parking at the top of one of the passes.  Not sure exactly what happened when it went over.  It looks like the only damage is some scratches on the end of the front brake lever.  Pretty lucky!

Mark is riding a BMW R1200RT similar to mine (that is Mark in the photo with the bike).  One difference is that I have a key fob where I only need to have the key near the bike to start it and lock it.  Mark needs put his key in the ignition to start the bike. 

 Patrick and Alex are riding a BMW K1600LT.  This is the biggest bike in the group and very nice for 2 up riding.

The second ride was for lunch.  We drove part way down the lake and then took a mountain road (mostly single lane) up the side of the mountain to eat at a restaurant that had a great view of the lake and the surrounding area.  It also had a platform that went over the edge of the mountain that you could look over.  The views from here were amazing.  The first 4 photos are from the platform looking in different directions.  The last photo was taken after we left the restaurant near the bottom of the mountain looking back up at the platform (I have circled it).

Tomorrow we start our trek back towards Switzerland.  It is hard to believe we only have 4 days of riding left; the time has gone so quickly.  However, I know there are many great roads still to be conquered on this trip!