Notes From the Alps

Notes from the Alps

UP FRONT

David Edwards

MISCELLANEOUS RAMBLINGS, HAVING just returned from the second-annual Cycle World GP Euro-Tour...This year’s tour started in Munich, ended in Hockenheim, home of the German Grand Prix. In between were five days and 1000 hard miles of riding in the Alps. Countries visited: Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Italy...This year 30 readers joined Managing Editor Matthew Miles and me for the tour, organized by Edelweiss Bike Travel...As last year, our tour guides were “The Two Josefs,” Messrs. Hackl and Vielhaber, each long-time Edelweiss guides...Vielhaber’s full-time job is running a sport shop that caters to skiers in the winter, bicyclists and enduro riders in the summer. A KTM

dealer, most of his non-tour riding is off-road. Hackl is an award-winning chef whose current motorcycles include a new Moto Guzzi Daytona and an old Laverda 1000 that features

fiberglass bodywork he designed and laid-up himself...Hackl is one of the best street riders I’ve ever followed; I managed to keep up the day we rode together, but then I had a new BMW R1100GS while he was running a bagged-out, five-year-old 1000GS and toting a passenger. Very smooth, very impressive-20 years of riding in the Alps will do that for you...We met tour participants at the Welcome Dinner Monday night. An interesting, diverse mix from all across the U.S. Three rid-

ers-friends David Knox and Tony Shanks, and Norm Rizzo-were on the inaugural GP Euro-Tour to the Austrian GP, and re-upped this year. “We had to come,” said Knox, “these are the best roads and the best riding in the world.”...Knox, who gives real-estate seminars and owns both a Honda

CBR900RR and a Harley Softail, set an Edelweiss record last year by nabbing three speeding tickets in five days-“It’s only Monopoly money, anyway. You open your wallet, they go away; just the way it should be.” This year, no one was issued a citation, not even Knox, who insisted on running his rented Suzuki RF900 up to 220 kph (135 mph) whenever he got on the autobahn, blissfully ignoring the infrequent speed-limit signs the Germans put up on congested areas of the roadway. ...Phil Bowmon, a psychiatrist/ psychologist from South Carolina, took the tour “because I thought you people could use my professional help.” This coming from a man who owns an H-D Super Glide, an old Norton, a CBR900RR and a new Ducati 900SS Su-

perlight, and is quitting a lucrative private practice so he has more time for riding...Five couples joined us this year, including California desert rider Larry Larsen and his 13-year-old daughter Kimberly, on her first big out-of-state trip...Bob Hamilton and Sue Kennedy were initially a little disappointed with their BMW K1100RT tour bike-it didn’t pop the front wheel off the ground with the same vigor as their trusty old Suzuki GS1000. By the end of the week, though, they were reeling off admirable two-gear wheelies...Ohio residents Tim and Nancy Montgomery, whose holidays have included rafting down the Colorado, came because, “We’re action people, we like to experience things when we go on vacation.” For Clark Rupp, a California electronics-industry executive, this was a second Euro odyssey; 17 years ago as a student he had ridden 20,000 miles from Ireland to Istanbul.

Now he was back with his wife Susan, a free-spirit who, along with Nancy Montgomery, entertained the troops by among other things buying a Germanedition Play girl at a gas stop. “It’s the only time we let our wives look at naked Aryans named Hans,” deadpanned Tim...Two tour members came from far afield: Raphael Kelmprer joined us from Venezuela, Paolo Santin flew in from Peru...Gregg Kirby, an exroadracer from Pittsburgh with numerous 24 Hours of Nelson Ledges endurance races to his credit, became the unofficial leader of a small group I called “The Speed Boys From Hell,” who broke off from the main group every day and rode as many twisty miles as possible, often missing lunch and arriving at the hotel just before dinner. I spent a very entertaining rainy afternoon chasing Gregg through the Black Forest...David Knox was part of the SBFH group (of course). Asked by a local what he liked best about Ger-

many, Dave replied, “Your roads.” “Well, where have you been?” the local continued. “Dunno-a whole lot of towns that started with W,” came the reply...For sporting riders, Alpine roads may indeed be the best thing since disc brakes. Mile after mile of switchbacks, high-speed sweepers and mountain passes, all laid down over lush, green, picture-postcard scenery-the whole damn region is one big Kodak Moment...But these are also working roads, narrow and at times crowded. Norm Rizzo, an ex-Indian dealer in his 60s, was rudely made aware of this one morning when he entered one of the many tunnels along the route and came headlight-to-headlight with a bus swinging wide around a bend. Norm did a good job of swerving, but ended up scraping himself and his VX800 along the tunnel wall (goodbye $650 insurance deductible). Norm’s a trooper, though, and after bending the Suzuki back into shape-sort of-we were on our way...Rolling hazards aside, you gotta love how they do things in the Alps. Roads are in good repair, doubleyellow lines are at an absolute minimum. They expect you to operate a vehicle that is insured and passes inspection. They expect you to use your turnsignals when passing, and stay the hell out of the way when you’re not. They expect you to obey speed limits in town. Other than that, ride hard, ride

fast and have fun. Before radon, second-hand smoke, trans-fatty acid or an obsessed ex-husband claims you, try to make the trip...Next year, it looks like Cycle World's GP Euro-Tour III will take in the western Alps on the way to Brno, Czechoslovakia, to join 200,000 other crazies for the Czech GP. Hope to see you there. □