Unfortunately we didn’t have time to get to know the city of Ravenna -I bet it would’ve been beautiful!
We took the big road to south and San Marino. The streets of San Marino are full with very expensive cars! We stopped on the “Other side of the mountain” when we saw some possible places to park the bikes. But there was no cafe or even a grocery store!
The roads on the westside of San Marino… OMG! They are nice! There’s a corner after corner, twist after twist and some very nice views all the time!
Ducati Monster went straight to Ducati service in Ravenna. They couldn’t fix the starter but they did fix the rear brake! (Not the brakedisc though…)
From motocaching we marked “as found” these: San Marino from southwest, Passo dei Mandrioli and SR70 Consuma
But the whole route from San Marino to Livorno is excellent riding!! There’s not much traffic, the scenery and views are great and you will certainly enjoy riding! I really recommend these roads!
The pink decorations are there because it was the 100th Giro d’Italia this may.
Video compilation of the day 5:
Now we’re getting in the business! We’re in the middle of the mountains and at least half of the days route is mountain passes! Videocamera was on many times. First time was already from the yard of our guesthouse… this was very narrow and twisty road down to Tristach village like this:
After few kilometers there was also police checking the speed before we were in Italy and one of us got the ticket (35€ for speeding 94@80)! Then after the country changed to Italy we had nothing but mountains ahaed!
Lake Misurina, Passo Tri Croci, Passo Giau… Here’s compilation of these rides:
Ducati Monster rearbrakes are getting quite hot… in 02:30 -Check it!
Finally in the top of Passo Giau we had some time to enjoy the views:
We still had some very nice rides to do! Passo Staulanza (it was raining while we’re riding this) and Passo Duran.
Up in Duran there was a bar with a fireplace inside… We could make ourselves cozy and warm!
The previous video ends in a roadwork that we couldn’t ride through. But after waiting few minutes the workingmen said that there is detour so we can continue without waiting… And we found this detour (or a shortcut)!
Then we had only the very beautiful route of Lago di Mis and then mountains were gone… and our day had just begun!
Couple hours later in the village of Castagnole the Ducati Monster didn’t start anymore!! The starter engine was broken! Also my BMW had problems with the temperature, it went easily over 105-107 degrees and that is not ok!!
We try to figure out what to do with Ducati and there was some local who called to some guy who had a mc-service. And finally Ducati was pushed to start it and it went alone to this service.
My BMW’s overheating was worse all the time since it was about 5 in the afternoon and the traffic in Italy is very slow! If you really don’t have to ride the small roads in the north side of Venice… it’s better to choose autostrada!!
Soon I said that lets go straight to autostrada so we will not waist more time… I also said that everyone can ride their own speed and tempo but I saw other bikes many times in the way to Ravenna (except the Monster wich was in the service).
Finally about 9pm I was in the hotel in Ravenna (about 12 hours of riding!) and in 5 minutes all the other bikes were there too! Also the Monster arrived because it had chosen the fastest possible route to Ravenna. After this evening we had to push to start the Monster everytime! (They couldn’t fix the starter in the service)
The route for the day was supposed to be like this… But depending on a bike it was probably different.
We had to start from our hotel in Regensburg in the rain. But luckily it was only about 1 hour of it and then it was suddenly quite hot day!
And after some Autobahn and boring German roads we were in the alps! This felt very good because it was only the second (or third!?) day of riding. The mountains gave us a little bit of welcoming shower!
But it was Zell Am See when it actually started raining a little bit more. But still the sky didn’t look too bad so we decided to ride to Großglockner.
When we reached the ticketselling gates there was a kind man who said “It’s nothing but rain! All 40 kilometers!! So we turned back and took a detour from Falbertauerntunnel. This road isn’t bad either! It’s mostly about riding down in the valley with views to the mountain walls. The tunnel costs 10€. In the southside of the tunnel there’s a spot with a great views down to south!!
And slowly the rain was about to stop… And when we reached our accomodation in Lienz the roads were allready dry. And this place was so damn beautiful! There was amazing mountainviews allaround! This guesthouse is in 1048m.
The route of the day was like this:
There was one more rider waiting for us in the Schwerin accomodation and then we were 5 riders to conquer the Europe! The last bike to the group is black Triumph Street Triple.
We checked the Schwerin castle already early in the morning!
This is the castle itself.
The day was about riding many kilometers and quite a lot about taking it in Autobahn. In the middle of the day there was some rain too -it surprised us and we got a little bit wet! The route was 650km’s to the southside of the Danube river in Regensburg. It was a nice sunset from the hotel window!
The route was like this:
It was monday the 26th of June when me and 3 friens of mine took the boat from Helsinki to Travemunde (Germany).
We had 4 red bikes (Ducati Monster 695, Ducati Streetfighter 1100, Yamaha MT-09 Tracer and BMW S1000XR) to ride with next three weeks.
The boat trip takes over 1 day and there’s nothing to do (except to eat!) And maybe go outside and take some pictures:
This was 4am in the morning when the sun was getting up from the northeast. One of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen! Tuesday 27th of June the boat was almost 1,5 hours late in the harbour of Travemunde and we had 70km’s to ride to our first destination. It was a beautiful city of Schwerin where we had a place to stay for the night. The route was like this:
Mostly they’re selling too short chains!! If anyone of you is thinking about buying new chains? And looking anything but the originals. Here’s a warning!
It seems that there is wrong information about the length of the XR’s chains! Quite many marketplace is selling 118-links chains and the XR has 128-links!! I was very lucky to find D.I.D. 525 chains that has 128 links but they are maybe too weak (X-ring).
As far as I know there’s not too many aftermarket chains that are long- and strong enough -I would prefer XW-rings not the X-ring.
And it starts in 7 days. I’ll try to add the text about each day soon after it’s done… But there can be some delays.
This year we’ll visit the Corse island!
This was a dream come true finally for me! I’ve been to Åland few times with a car (last time was 17 years ago!) but now I got there with my motorcycle. This is the 4 days trip to Åland (Swedish)/ Aland (English)/ Ahvenanmaa (Finnish). Åland is here and to get there with a motorcycle you need to take a ferry from Stockholm, Helsinki or Turku… Or a small ferry from Korppoo (Galtby) or from Kustavi (Vuosnainen). If you use these ferries the idea is to spend the night in some small islands before you go to the main island -and that’s what we did.
But before we took the boat from Korppoo we spent the night there in Faffas. They had a very nice cabin near the sea!
And then 10am it was time for a boat (ferry). This trip (to Föglö island) takes 4 hours!
In Föglö we had lot of time to get to know the island. It’s not very big! There’s actually only 1 road that goes through the island.
But there is also a very beautiful church and quite interesting hiking path in this island. Our accomodation in Föglö was Degerby Mat & Cafe.
Next morning the ferry to the main island left the Föglö at 9am. This was 30min trip.
And the first route was a detour from the mainroad to some villages in Högskär.
Then we rode to the southside of the “capitol of Åland” (Mariehamn), this was a beautiful road through islands.
After this road we rode to the eastside of the main island. First we had this very nice road with some nice bends and then we visited the fire station museum (but it was closed).
Then sun was shining so brightly and weather was too hot (about +13 celsius) so I had to go swimming! Did it here. Water was maybe +8… (You can also see a picture of me going swimming here!) We took a short break in Käringsund.
Then we visited Sålis Batteri, this is some fortifications that Russians built even they should not do it. Åland was a demilitarized already 50-60 years before!
From the east parts of the main island we moved to north with this road.
In the north we visited the Getaberget (and the tower), Havsvidden (with some nice views too) -this place had a great road!
And finally visited the Stallhagen Brewery and I bought 2 bottles of beer.
This was the first day on the main island of Åland, we spent the night is Strandnäs Hotel.
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Next morning I took a short tour in Mariehamn (This city has about 11500 inhabitants).
Then we started the ride of the day. First we rode to north (again) because there was still few places to visit. First there was Road of Tjudö -this is maybe the best road (for motorcycling) in Åland! It’s definately worth riding!
Then we rode to one small harbour again. This was Hamnsundet with small cafeteria (not yet open).
After this we took the most famous cafeteria in the island (Uffe På Berget). The altitude in the top of the tower is more than 50 meters above sealevel!
And then we went to the castle! There is only 1 middleage castle in Åland, it’s called Kastelholma.
This took about 1 hour to walk through the museum and there was some very interesting stories about the people who lived here (or were prisoners). After castle we rode this road: Road of Sund. This was with 2km’s of gravel.
And for the last place we visited Bomarsund fortress. This has very interesting story which ends with Ålands demilitarization in 1856 (In Treaty of Paris).
Then we took the ferry to Kumlinge island at 5pm and we stay the night in Kumlinge Stugor. Next morning we visited Kumlinge church, Kumlinge mountain (Vårholmsböte) and rode the best motorcycleroad in Kumlinge…
The ferry took us to Brändö islands (4-5 islands in group) and there you have to ride through these beautiful landscapes of the archipelago sea. What a road this is!
Our trip in Åland ended about 3pm when the ferry arrived in Vuosnainen in the north side of Turku. (But there is still 1 more ferry after this!).
You can ride the most beautiful places in the main island of Åland in 1 day. But I really recommend that you take your time at least in Kastelholma castle and in Bomarsund fortress. So it should be at least 2 days. And if you have the possibility to visit the small islands too… Then you’ll really know what is it all about! ********* (Gotta go there again some day!)
Thursday the 4th of May was finally the first actual spring-day here in southern Finland. I took some lining off from the jacket and pants ant took a short ride in very beautiful weather!
This is a small beach in Vihti (Otalampi). And because of very nice weather I took a swim also… The ice melted maybe 1 week ago so the water was freezing cold!
Little bit later I just stop the bike to take some photos. I am few meters away from the road and the sun is behind me… I love the photos that my new mobilephone (OnePlus 3T) is taking. The colours are very nice! This is also in Vihti (Tervalammentie).
I have this new red screen in my XR, I ordered it from powerbronze and it makes the bike look lighter and faster (I think). If I try to lean down behind that screen the road looks like this:
Soon I will be in my first tour for this year… We will take 5 days journey to Åland!!
This could be a first “big” bike for quite many riders in the future! It’s low and small, the riding position is very natural even for a big rider like me. And it’s very easy to ride!
It has 2 cylinder engine that gives some “vibes” around 4k rpm. It’s actually more like a tickle through the seat and when the seat is quite hard you really can feel it!
First thing I would change with this bike is the seat. It’s not very comfortable.
Honda makes the bikes feel like very good quality. I can imagine that if you buy this bike you can easily ride many many kilometers with it!
Throttle and engine responses slowly. There’s not too much power. But if you think about the possible first bike it’s only a good thing!
The biggest surprise is that even it’s a very small bike it didn’t feel small at all when I was sitting on it. So it can be a bike also for a tall guy like me. Suspension was working nicely with my weight on it (120kg’s).
GoZa Mite 