Ariel.Club Forum

http://forum.atomclub.com/index.php/topic,7437.0.html

Have a look at the pictures of the pass to Applecross 

Based on the recent AAOC Alpine Tour I think a very few people that went would disagree with the passes between Switzerland, France and italy. I think my four favorites are:

- The Petit Saint Bernard just for the slidey tarmac on the hairpins on the Italian side and the sheer exposure on the French.
- The Saint Bernadino in Switzerland for amazingly tight hairpins with good visibility that just beg for the back end to be swung out on.
- The Col du Pre in France for the amazing views of lakes and sweeping bends.
- The Stelvio (south side) because I had so much fun trying to follow Bruce down through the endless hairpins.

Clive

I must agree with you Clive that the passes were awesome and even my little incident with the sticking accelerator didn't dampen my enjoyment of them.

I had a really good time following both Tim and yourself as you set a good pace with something to aim at when I was held up passing something and had to catch up.

I agree too, I did a load of the passes on the bike in June with snow up high and snow banks and sunshine further down, It must have been great in the Atoms

I've spent some time in Scotland, and when the weather is good, the roads can be fantastic (and lightly traveled). Once my car arrives, I plan to explore the few thousand kilometers of roads through the various mountain ranges here, including the Rockies. The Rockies are great in the States... but they're 'wanna be's' compared to the Canadian Rockies and Alaska. Most of the secondary roads are very lightly traveled, especially outside summer tourist season. The police are almost non-existant, and civilization can get quite sparse, the further north you go. Road quality varies, but is reasonable at worst. With the scale of the land out here, you could set up a Nurburgring in any one of a thousand places... and no one would even know. In the Sates, the 'Going to the Sun Hwy' in Glacier national Park, is an amazing drive. This summer, we had four motorcyclists killed within one week, because of the challenging, unforgiving nature of that road. Very rewarding if driven reasonably and well.

The weekends venture reminded me of this thread and how lucky we are in New Zealand. Kilometer after kilometer of excellent driving roads that weave across our landscape. Plus the added bonus of almost no other traffic.

               

Living West of Birmingham we always head into Wales on our bikes.

Weekends can be busy and the Police presence is far more marked but midweek away from the main arterial routes you can play to your heart's content.

Some photos:



The road from Llandovery up to Llyn Brianne



At the top overlooking the lake



Same place, different bike



Further around the lake, different bike again



Mountain road from Rhyader from Aberystwyth above the top Elan Valley reservoir



Up towards the newest of the reservoirs, the Claerwen



Up above the Claerwen



Llanfynydd to Bala

As for the continental roads mentioned, we've ridden most of them over the last 6 years - you can see the photos here:

http://www.bbot.co.uk/

I see most people rave about the Stelvio. Whilst I think it's a pass you have to drive/ride just to say you ticked it off the list, from a driving/riding experience it is IMO greatly overrated - there are many more nicer roads out there. Still each to their own.

Great pics. Any particular Alps roads/passes you recommend ? I agree about Stelvio, and will avoid this trip but off to the Alps in 4 weeks in the Atom and although I think our itinerary is pretty sorted any suggestions would be great.

Trigger

[quote="Trigger"]
Great pics. Any particular Alps roads/passes you recommend ? I agree about Stelvio, and will avoid this trip but off to the Alps in 4 weeks in the Atom and although I think our itinerary is pretty sorted any suggestions would be great.

Trigger
[/quote]

Broadly, what is your route?

[quote="Trigger"]
Great pics. Any particular Alps roads/passes you recommend ? I agree about Stelvio, and will avoid this trip but off to the Alps in 4 weeks in the Atom and although I think our itinerary is pretty sorted any suggestions would be great.

Trigger
[/quote]

Do the triangle to your heart's content... Susten, Grimsel, Furka

Or try the saints passes: San Bernardino, St Gotthard, St Bernard (remembering Nufenen and Julier)

But do them early or late (not during the middle of the day - too much commercial traffic)

Oh, and yes, you have to do stelvio, and remember that some of the corners are too tight to do without letting the back come around a bit... Oh, what a shame!

[quote="Bruce Fielding"]
[quote="Trigger"]
Great pics. Any particular Alps roads/passes you recommend ? I agree about Stelvio, and will avoid this trip but off to the Alps in 4 weeks in the Atom and although I think our itinerary is pretty sorted any suggestions would be great.

Trigger
[/quote]

Do the triangle to your heart's content... Susten, Grimsel, Furka

Or try the saints passes: San Bernardino, St Gotthard, St Bernard (remembering Nufenen and Julier)

But do them early or late (not during the middle of the day - too much commercial traffic)
[/quote]

Andermatt is a great base for this. You can ride the Susten, Grimsel and Furka as a triangle, the StG, Nufenen and Furka as another triangle, or the Oberalp, Lukmanier and StG as another triangle. In fact you could do them all on the same day.

This page on the BBOT site gives you links to all the passes we've ridden, which is most of them:

http://www.bbot.co.uk/pass-reports/

We're aiming to fill in some of the gaps on this year's tour from 25th August to 3rd September.

Thanks guys thats great. Basic route is kind of sorted by one of the others coming but need to check what we are planning. I know we are doing some of what you suggest. I cant wait !

T

You will need to check whether the higher passes are open - some of them aren't guaranteed to be open as you can still get snow falls in June. We rode the Fluela in mid June in bright sunshine. 2 weeks later I drove over it in a blizzard!

Yeah so I gather. My mate has been checking the forecasts and seems snow free at the moment and most passes open but.....