wspollack
Active member
Edelweiss "Ultimate Alps Tour," July 2023
I got home a couple of weeks ago from having completed this tour:
www.edelweissbike.com
This is an eight-riding-day (or nine-riding-day, in my case*) romp through the Alps, with only a tiny bit of duplication with the five-riding-days Touring Center Alps tour (Touring Center Alps | Edelweiss Bike Travel). I did that one four years ago, on a Niken, with my local riding buddy (on an RT); this time, I went solo.
Here's Edelweiss's simplified map of the Ultimate ... :
In addition to the overview map, I made maps of each day's actual travels (courtesy of my GoPro and some third-party software).
This is the blog page put up by the two Edelweiss guides (who would alternate each day, one driving the luggage van on a direct route to the next hotel, and the other leading the group):
(You have to click on each "Riding Day ... " rectangle to see that day's pics and comments.)
And here's the page I put up on my site, with maps, videos, and pics:
(This is a work in progress, as I add highlight-reel videos every couple of days. I think I have 17 up now, varying from about 10 to 40 minutes.)
I had a wonderful time. No surprise there, as this was my fifth Edelweiss tour over the course of 25 years:
- 1998: Best of Europe, with my wife as passenger, on an R 850 R.
- 2019: the aforementioned Touring Center Alps, with my friend.
- 2022: Tuscany by Scooter, with my wife as passenger, on a C 400 X.
- 2022: Vienna by Scooter, with my wife as passenger, on a C 400 X.
(The good experience of those last two tours, along with my wife's speaking highly of the ergonomics of the C 400 X, resulted in my ordering a C 400 GT the day after we got home last year.)
You won't find the C 400 X in the 30 or so bikes that Edelweiss lists at The Ultimate Alps Tour | Edelweiss Bike Travel (click on the "Tour prices & motorcycles 2023" rectangle to see the official list). That scooter is normally available at Edelweiss (along with the 300 Vespa) only on their few scooter tours. However, last fall, I whined to the powers that be at Edelweiss in a series of emails, and eventually they relented and agreed to let me use that scooter on the Ultimate Alps (or five other of their many tours, due to, they asserted, logistical issues).
I never held anyone up, and most of the time was at the sharp end of the stick, i.e., typically third or fourth customer bike out of ten (seven two-up couples, mostly on RTs, and three of us solo riders). We basically sorted ourselves out after a day or two, based on who liked to ride faster vs. slower in the really twisty bits.
If you want a typical video from the trip, and not overly long, you might like this one, going up Furka Pass (day 3):
And here's a shorter one from day 5:
This was a chase-van, multi-hotel, tour, which is also what my wife and I did for that Best of Europe tour, back in 1998. The days went something like this on this most recent tour: 7am, breakfast; suitcase packed and dropped off in the lobby by 8am; daily briefing c. 8:15am; ride off c. 8:30am; mid-morning coffee, pastry, etc., break; lunch break; afternoon break; gas fill-up not far from the next hotel; check-in c. 6pm; dinner c. 7:30pm; rinse and repeat.
The Touring Center Alps four years ago and the two scooter tours that I did with my wife last year were all five-day base-camp tours. That is, you loop out and back from one hotel each day, doing different loops. There's something to be said for not having to (re)pack each day, but you don't get to roam the same way. (Although note that on the Touring Center Alps, we did still manage to ride in parts of Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, as well as the base-camp country of Austria, so it isn't all that limiting.)
Note that the roaming tours such as the Ultimate Alps also generally mean that there is little highway travel involved, since you're moving about and within the region, as opposed to having to take a morning's ride just to get to the really interesting parts. So, the actual top speed of the little scooter never really came into play, anyway. I mean, it's not as if you're doing 140 km/h while bending around a hairpin.
* I signed up this time -- unlike four years ago -- for the optional Alps Prep Course. I decided that this would be useful for un-jet-lagging, as you get another dinner and another night's stay at the first hotel. And the bike warm-up couldn't hurt. I was expecting maybe half a day of parking lot stuff, but one of the guides lead me to a vast parking lot and had me do tight turns and figure-eights for maybe 20 or 30 minutes. I did some experimenting with dragging the rear brake -- I don't get to do, or even emulate, a lot of hairpins at home -- and found that useful. Then he pronounced me fit, and the two of us -- I was the only one who signed up -- went and bagged some passes somewhat local to the Innsbruck area for the rest of the day.
That's all I have. Stuff comes and goes, but memories are forever (well, until my mind goes or I die, whichever comes first). If anyone has any questions, feel free to post them, and I'll do my best to provide answers.
I got home a couple of weeks ago from having completed this tour:
The Ultimate Alps Tour | Edelweiss Bike Travel
Enjoy the highest mountains, the most beautiful lakes and the many passes of the Alps.
This is an eight-riding-day (or nine-riding-day, in my case*) romp through the Alps, with only a tiny bit of duplication with the five-riding-days Touring Center Alps tour (Touring Center Alps | Edelweiss Bike Travel). I did that one four years ago, on a Niken, with my local riding buddy (on an RT); this time, I went solo.
Here's Edelweiss's simplified map of the Ultimate ... :
In addition to the overview map, I made maps of each day's actual travels (courtesy of my GoPro and some third-party software).
This is the blog page put up by the two Edelweiss guides (who would alternate each day, one driving the luggage van on a direct route to the next hotel, and the other leading the group):
(You have to click on each "Riding Day ... " rectangle to see that day's pics and comments.)
And here's the page I put up on my site, with maps, videos, and pics:
Edelweiss Ultimate Alps Tour, July 2023
billanddot.com
(This is a work in progress, as I add highlight-reel videos every couple of days. I think I have 17 up now, varying from about 10 to 40 minutes.)
I had a wonderful time. No surprise there, as this was my fifth Edelweiss tour over the course of 25 years:
- 1998: Best of Europe, with my wife as passenger, on an R 850 R.
- 2019: the aforementioned Touring Center Alps, with my friend.
- 2022: Tuscany by Scooter, with my wife as passenger, on a C 400 X.
- 2022: Vienna by Scooter, with my wife as passenger, on a C 400 X.
(The good experience of those last two tours, along with my wife's speaking highly of the ergonomics of the C 400 X, resulted in my ordering a C 400 GT the day after we got home last year.)
You won't find the C 400 X in the 30 or so bikes that Edelweiss lists at The Ultimate Alps Tour | Edelweiss Bike Travel (click on the "Tour prices & motorcycles 2023" rectangle to see the official list). That scooter is normally available at Edelweiss (along with the 300 Vespa) only on their few scooter tours. However, last fall, I whined to the powers that be at Edelweiss in a series of emails, and eventually they relented and agreed to let me use that scooter on the Ultimate Alps (or five other of their many tours, due to, they asserted, logistical issues).
I never held anyone up, and most of the time was at the sharp end of the stick, i.e., typically third or fourth customer bike out of ten (seven two-up couples, mostly on RTs, and three of us solo riders). We basically sorted ourselves out after a day or two, based on who liked to ride faster vs. slower in the really twisty bits.
If you want a typical video from the trip, and not overly long, you might like this one, going up Furka Pass (day 3):
And here's a shorter one from day 5:
This was a chase-van, multi-hotel, tour, which is also what my wife and I did for that Best of Europe tour, back in 1998. The days went something like this on this most recent tour: 7am, breakfast; suitcase packed and dropped off in the lobby by 8am; daily briefing c. 8:15am; ride off c. 8:30am; mid-morning coffee, pastry, etc., break; lunch break; afternoon break; gas fill-up not far from the next hotel; check-in c. 6pm; dinner c. 7:30pm; rinse and repeat.
The Touring Center Alps four years ago and the two scooter tours that I did with my wife last year were all five-day base-camp tours. That is, you loop out and back from one hotel each day, doing different loops. There's something to be said for not having to (re)pack each day, but you don't get to roam the same way. (Although note that on the Touring Center Alps, we did still manage to ride in parts of Italy, Switzerland, and Germany, as well as the base-camp country of Austria, so it isn't all that limiting.)
Note that the roaming tours such as the Ultimate Alps also generally mean that there is little highway travel involved, since you're moving about and within the region, as opposed to having to take a morning's ride just to get to the really interesting parts. So, the actual top speed of the little scooter never really came into play, anyway. I mean, it's not as if you're doing 140 km/h while bending around a hairpin.
* I signed up this time -- unlike four years ago -- for the optional Alps Prep Course. I decided that this would be useful for un-jet-lagging, as you get another dinner and another night's stay at the first hotel. And the bike warm-up couldn't hurt. I was expecting maybe half a day of parking lot stuff, but one of the guides lead me to a vast parking lot and had me do tight turns and figure-eights for maybe 20 or 30 minutes. I did some experimenting with dragging the rear brake -- I don't get to do, or even emulate, a lot of hairpins at home -- and found that useful. Then he pronounced me fit, and the two of us -- I was the only one who signed up -- went and bagged some passes somewhat local to the Innsbruck area for the rest of the day.
That's all I have. Stuff comes and goes, but memories are forever (well, until my mind goes or I die, whichever comes first). If anyone has any questions, feel free to post them, and I'll do my best to provide answers.
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