Edelweiss High Alpine tour 2008 - Ducati.ms

Craig in Texas · Apr 7th, 2011, 4:04 pm

My wife and I took the Edelweiss High Alpine Tour back in the summer of 2008. I was working in England at the time so it was quite a bit cheaper than travelling from the US. I chose a 2007 ST3 because I was considering buying one when I returned to the US (I did buy a 2007 ST3 last November, almost just like the one I had on the tour). Edelweiss Tours is top notch, not cheap but a fair price for the services provided.

These links are a couple of videos that my wife took from the back of the ST3. I think this was in northern Italy. There's a lot of wind noise but the scenery is pretty awesome. The tour was about a week of similar riding. I was the only Ducati the rest were on BMW's, RT1200's and K1200S's.

Anyway I hope this may inspire some of you to take the plunge and do one of these if you can swing it.

YouTube - High Alpine Tour #2

YouTube - High Alpine Tour Aug 2008

DuckMan · Apr 7th, 2011, 5:45 pm

I'd love to do that one. The wife and I did the Rome to Sicily a couple of years ago. Like you said, expensive, but the best vacation we've ever had.

Those switchbacks reminded me, I'd never ridden anything that tight and the first couple of days I felt like an idiot. After a few days I started getting the feel for it though. It's a totally different world from Texas.

Craig, you need to join us next month for the ride to the Dragon. The roads there are just as good, maybe better!

Craig in Texas · Apr 8th, 2011, 11:26 am

Yeah, those switchbacks were something. It was bad at first for me because I had been in England for over a year and hadn't ridden at all in close to 2 years so I was pretty rusty.

Another funny/dumb thing I did was that I had been riding a full fairing bike for several years prior and on that bike I rode with an open face helmet, no shield. So when I got the wife to bring my helmet over to Europe for the tour I didn't think about the fact that on the Duc I would be in the windstream. So of course the first thing all the Americans want to do is get on the Autoban (we started in Munich) and go 120mph. Well I tried it and just about ripped the helmet off my head and i couldn't see squat! All the other riders thought i was a real squid. Ended up buying a new helmet the next day in Italy and things were good. After a couple of days getting my M/C legs back and getting used to the Duc it was great. I had the wife on back and could keep the pace with the others. She was great, we were riding pretty fast on a lot of mountain roads with no gaurdrails and she never complained.

So are you all riding over to NC? I'm sure I can't make the trip but it sounds great.

DuckMan · Apr 8th, 2011, 12:10 pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Craig in Texas

Yeah, those switchbacks were something. It was bad at first for me because I had been in England for over a year and hadn't ridden at all in close to 2 years so I was pretty rusty.

Another funny/dumb thing I did was that I had been riding a full fairing bike for several years prior and on that bike I rode with an open face helmet, no shield. So when I got the wife to bring my helmet over to Europe for the tour I didn't think about the fact that on the Duc I would be in the windstream. So of course the first thing all the Americans want to do is get on the Autoban (we started in Munich) and go 120mph. Well I tried it and just about ripped the helmet off my head and i couldn't see squat! All the other riders thought i was a real squid. Ended up buying a new helmet the next day in Italy and things were good. After a couple of days getting my M/C legs back and getting used to the Duc it was great. I had the wife on back and could keep the pace with the others. She was great, we were riding pretty fast on a lot of mountain roads with no gaurdrails and she never complained.

So are you all riding over to NC? I'm sure I can't make the trip but it sounds great.

That's pretty funny.

Another thing that got me were all the pitch black tunnels with no lights. I'd go storming into them with sunglasses on and be near blind. Some even had curves in them.

We are riding for sure. dmrst from La Vernia is meeting me here and we will meet up with TheLumox from Orlando near Birmingham. It's going to be fun. Too bad you can't make it.