Trip to Stelvios pass on a Yamaha Tracer 900

Hi everyone,

If you are reading this, then probably just like you.. I am addicted... to motorcycles. 
One of the things on my bucket list was to go on a motorcycle tour with my wife, since we decided to do it, then why not go to the destination I always wanted to go Passo Stelvio, yep that's right, don't think too much just start preparing!

Motorbike: 2015 Yamaha Tracer 900 (MT09 Tracer)
KM's done: around 2500kms
Total trip time: 7days
Total Countries visited: 5
Gas Tanks: 10

Accessories used

- GPS - TOMTOM 40 Rider. - very easy to use, the usual stupidity in terms of pairing multiple bluetooth devices all together (iPhone, Tom Tom, Scala rider)

- Top/Side Cases - Top - Hepco and Becker Gobi Top case 42liters / Sidecases OEM SW MOTECH Soft side cases (these were enough to handle all our clothes and necessary items)

- Tank Bag Givi - Perfect to have all necessary items such has wallet, mobile phone, extra pair gloves, balaklava etc..

- Taller Windscreen - Fabri - Gen X The original seat has a sort of invedrted triangle shape which causes wind turbulence noise on your helmet and provides very small wind protection, so as I upgraded to the Fabbri it worked out great, it removed most of wind turbulence and provided, very good aerodynamic protection.

- Seat - remained the OEM, let me tell you something about this seat, In my case, using this seat for more than 1 hour in a row is impossible, the lower support for your bottom is not cushioned enough, causing your bottom to become numb, this in turn for me resulted in having to do stand ups while my wife is behind me. On her side of the spectrum, it was even worse, the passenger position is ok, however the way the seat is made is contradictory to what your body would normally do in that situation, also causing then insuficient seating padding and in result she got the same troublesome numb bottom with the added factor of not been able to stand up for herself. So in conclusion, on this motorcycle the worst part is without a doubt the seat design and the bad materials its made of.


Rider and Passenger Gear

- Protection
-Textile riding Gear with water protection and double inner layers for lower temperatures
- Boots 
- Gloves
- inner shell
- Communication - we both have Cardo Scala Q1 Duo
- Hydration - we forgot the camel bag so we just stored a fresh bottle of water in the tankbag
- First Aid Kit 
- Flat Tire Kit 
- Set of Tools - Comes with the bike, added a Hex set of keys.
- Recording - Gopro 3 Silver
- Documentation - Hotels booked for the first 4 days going down and around, and returning to Holland will be random.

Day 1 - Zaandam Netherlands -> Michelstadt Germany (around 530kms)



We left on a Friday morning around 10H30 ..the morning was misty, the air was cool and moist, the excitement, anxiety and the coffee took over our brains.. so we started to pack the motorcycle with the pre packed luggage we had tested before.. We did it as if we had done this numerous times. Going for it, we left the house, after 10 kms I remembered: Did we check if the doors were locked? So we had to come back.. typical me!

As we arrived home again we remembered, maybe it would be nice to take a picture before leaving? tip: there are a lot of things to consider and remember before leaving the nest on a motorcycle journey, DO a LIST!!, keep that in mind if you are planing a long motorcycle trip, specially if you plan to camp.




OK! Ready to go, and it obviously started to rain, to remind us of the amazing weather we have in the place we live in.

We did around one hour of travelling in the most boring and secure highway of the Netherlands A1, these HW's have 5 lanes and have a max speed of 100kms/h with Traject Control (meaning average of a traject measured, not a fun thing and should be illegal in my opinion, anyways ..) after around an hour and a half we finally left the boredom of the Dutch roads and entered the Autobahn, for me Highway Paradise and therefore gas twisted until the agreed max speed ( we both agreed on 130 - 160 more than that would be dangerous with the bike loaded etc..) , or so we thought.. Eventually on that day we did around 250kms without traffic jams, the Autobahn is constantly being refurbished and when the Germans say the speed limit is 80kms/h, trust me ! you should drive at that speed..

Stops, we estimated to stop every 150kms however, the traffic was getting so dense and the weather turned into a beautiful summer sunny day. 

The Friday traffic was starting to be noticable, so after a lot of (apparently illegal lane splitting ) we were getting close to Cologne, we followed some British bikers for a couple of Kms, until we got separated somewhere in Koblenz, Unfortunately, there was an accident and as we missed the last possible exit of that highway, we realised we would be stranded in a massive line of cars. We should have stopped to take a rest before, we wanted to push a bit, so that was a rookie mistake (always trust your gut feeling).

At this point we had done around 250kms, with some stops in between. The sun was shining in top of us, we where all gear'd up and stopped in the middle of a highway with two lanes under construction and no where to avoid this traffic, I turned the motorcycle off as the hot air moved from the radiator fan was boiling my legs, after that, was jackets out, the sun was starting to take his toll on us, we had some water, but not much, so we shared and saved it as much as possible. Thirty minutes passed and the traffic was not moving at all, suddenly a sound of a distant Ambulance comes rushing from behind and we can see clearly that some cars are starting to move to the extremities of the Highway, to create room for the emergency vehicle, my brain got a flash.. idea, - the cars are moving for the ambulance, that means we can go, but it must be now!! 

My wife jumped quickly on the back of the Tracer and off we went trying to inform people an Ambulance wanted to pass, needless to say people were with doors open seating on the road, not paying attention at all. The worst was yet to come!

As we reached a clogged part of the highway we stopped to say: Ambulance! Emergency ! Medic! of course the Germans waved at us and I believe most of them didn't even understood any of it, I stopped and was explaining to a person on my right side that an Ambulance was coming, when a kid on my left side over heard me and wanted to put is car as back as possible to allow the passage of the ambulance, the only bad thing was that, when he turned his wheels to the right and drove the car forward in order to maneuver, well he didn't see me there, so he's Right wheel stepped on my Left boot and against my heavy loaded Tracer 900, which ultimately almost made me fall, what helped me was the fact that the tire was stepping on my boot, nothing happened and we managed to continue, just to find out that the cause of this massive traffic jam was a motorcycle accident. 

The person had been put in a tourist van with a fluid bag. There was an emergency first aid officer attempting to make traffic move.. we got angry of how everyone was just ignoring the situation and so basically we got a reality check! on the first day to remind us of the dangerous involved in this fun trip. On that same day we hit 180km/h on the Autobahn, to compensate for lost time in Traffic (there goes the agreed max speed :D ) 



We arrived to Michelstadt at ferienwohnung-wingertshaus around 16:30 and the place we booked was amazing, it had a beautiful view and the construction was of an amazing craftsmanship , needles to say the arrival to the B&B was for us a micro preparation to steep hills, remember we live in Holland where Mountains only exist in pictures. 

We got a room that was based on a circus carriage, It was all made of wood and the insulation was sheep wool, In general that B&B that was overseeing Michelstadt was very nice, except we didn't had a Bathroom on the room, we had to go to the main house for showering and number 1&2 necessities. There was also no Breakfast included but the room had a Kitchnet and the owners offered us a small bottle of refreshing wine and sparkly water, it was a really nice gesture.

Check it out here:
http://www.booking.com/hotel/de/ferienwohnung-wingertshaus.html

(by the way we booked our hotels/ B&B etc.. through booking.com, just because it was easy and accessible, later on I will explain why we will not use Booking again)

All sweaty and tired we had to get out of these biker cloths. So we took a nice long shower and we decided it was too much motorcycle for one day already, so we walked down to the Center of Michelstadt...





Completely naive about the place where we were, we continued storming down the not so steep hill, until we reached the city center, in there everything seemed to have stopped since the 1400's. We had a dinner at a typical Restaurant, we got some German beer and some Sausage and Pretzl. We met a really nice family that asked if they could join us at the huge table we were occupying, we obviously agreed. (picture below)

They were very friendly and wanted to know more about our destinations, so we ended up talking for hours and in the end we also exchanged contact information, my back was feeling sored and because we still had to go back walking around 2kms (uphill) to the B&B we decided to leave and go to bed, well I tried to sleep but I was too excited with what would come next, so I dropped down the small Portugoise (Rose) wine with the help of a Moods cigarette, that set the trend and before I knew, I was snoring.





On the next day we woke up around 9h00 , we attempted to do some cofee (the old school way) had a small bite, a shower, got mentally ready, loaded the motorcycle, re checked everything and off we went on our way to the unknow... 

what is there in Lichtenstein ? 
do we go through Switzerland ? 
will we get traffic jams ? 

should we do Highways or should we just go with the flow and see where the GPS takes us..

More to come...

Day 2 - Michelstadt Germany - Lindau - Malbum Lichtenstein

One of the most exciting days of the Tour, during this trip we did all kinds of road types, this day spanned from small regional roads in the middle of the mountains, to tunnels crossing mountains going down hill, short bursts of highway madness in Switzerland where water as clean and transparent as glass accompanied us through the bursting mountain vegetation, I will never forget the extremely beautiful tunnels that passed below waterfalls, the massive amount of bikers crossing us and just relaxing on the streets, all the beautiful German Castles that pair with the constantly changing scenery around us.

The beautiful scenery made this day pass by extremely fast, The places we discovered and the roads we had been on left us with an utter feeling of adventure! When we arrived to the city of Manaus we were received by a massive Zepplin and a beautiful Lake beach that looked something that came out of a James Bond movie. For me to be honest the best feeling of all was to not know if we were in Switzerland, Austria, Lichtenstein or Germany.


I think we crossed the Swiss border on that day around 3 times without even noticing, the reason for it was that i asked the GPS to avoid Tolls so we were sent out to the middle of the mountains and secondary roads, which ultimately provokes a smile on your face, the adventure of going to the unknown is what makes it all worth it, trusting one another and supporting one another on the small tasks of the day gave us a great sense of team work. 

I love ridding a motorcycle with my wife, I would love if she would get the license and got a blade so we can got together but on independent bikes... Anyway we finally arrived to Lichtenstein wich to us was presented with a Bridge "type of Border" as we cross the bridge, below is a man fishing on a island of rolled rocks, the sound the water did hitting these rocks was fantastic, the water was completely transparent and I just couldn't believe how pure the environment looked around us, the people that live here must be very happy!


As I looked at the GPS it said 15kms to destination, those were for us the most scary 15 kms on the whole trip. The gps sent us to Malbum via a secondary road that had around 20% inclination, with space for one lane and a half. As we start to climb up the firast 90 degree elbow corner is presented with traditional stone floor (medieval road type) so the front tyre immediatly started to jump and slip, I controlled the bike in a very calm manner, took all my back pain and all the fear, placed them on a small box in my brain and ignored all the dangerous that the road presented us, plus this was happening at the end of the day with the sunset in our faces to keep it extra complicated :D



So we finally arrive to Malbum and we are in shock with the view up there, the road we did, the pure air and the entire place is so extremelly beautiful I couldn't go out of the bike.

We went to the room, got Internet, called my parents through Facetime, posted some stuff for my friends to see we were alive and kicking and then we went for dinner, we were tired but we just could not stop staring at that amazing view, some pictures to help you understand.

Next day we woke up early, we went for a little stroll around town, I got some stickers for the bike, you know you need to do it when you feel you accomplished something! and belive us, the day before we did acomplish something those 15kms ascent were insane! going down was easier and more relaxed, we did some amazing roads leaving Lichtenstein in Direction to Italy - Trafoi.

Words cannot describe what we have seen, and unfortunately my gopro also can't because I was more concerned with my experience of our trip than capturing video for the reader.. sorry!

Day 3 - Malbum Lichtenstein - Switzerland (Fluela Pass - Ofen Pass) - Trafoi/Stelvio Italy
 

This was by far the best day of the whole trip, amazing weather, beautiful roads! no stress, just the calmness of the mountains and an amazing sense of adventure. I definitely want to
get back there! enjoy the pictures, more story below...







 

At a certain point we went through so many passes I was getting a bit concerned, as the roads were getting extremely bad, we eventually arrived to the Italian border, where the lazy Carabinneri just told us to go through, no checks needed, we are on a bike! and then more fun begun, twist and dented roads, crazy Italian motorcycle drivers, no signalization (ah this reminds me of home - Portugal I mean !) It was a great feeling of excitment when we started to see the Dolomites on the horizon. We had (or I had) a small stress moment as the GPS was saying the Hotel was in the middle of the mountain and there were no roads leading to it, It was in fact 500 meters away from where we stopped to check the GPS, my wife bared with me and as soon as we arrived to the Madatsch Hotel life was good!









Motorbike in a Garage, a Perfect Room and the best of all, the Hotel had a internal Swimming Pool, Sauna, Turkish Bath, Aromatic Therapeutic Showers you name it !





After we did all the possible relaxing "activities" we decided to go for a beer in the Hotel terrace, as I walked out I met a really cool old German rider, he just came out of the Garage where I parked my bike next to his, looking at him you could definitely tell he was full of experiences to share, amazing stories and great Tips for the Stelvios pass crossing, Hans was super confident guy with 69 years old he was still going strong with his wife as a passenger, she was also an adventurer, later on she would tell us the technique to check if cars were coming down Stelvios pass extreme 90degree turns, as soon as the motorbike conversation started Hans picked up his maps and charts to show me some nice destinations! He is ridding a Beemer 700 gs with the wife as a passenger and his son was riding his old Beemer 1000.





As a celebration to arriving to Stelvio, we had the 6 way meal, this was just before we watched our team Portugal beatup France in the EURO 2016.

Check out the awesome Madatsch hotel here:

LINK

Day 4 - Stelvio Italy - Alpbach Austria (the day we went up there!)

 

This was an amazing day, we went up to Passo dello Stelvio via Stelvio and the ascend is glorious, the roads are a mix of safe and tricky corners, some of the corners you couldn't see if cars were coming down or not, I met in the previous day Frank, a 69 year old rider, he went up Stelvios at least 15 times and he said to me it is an adventure every time, even though it normally takes between 15 to 20 minutes to do the ascend (believe me it felt like an hour) you will always find something new, or you will always be tested in a different way, let's say mid corner SR's, cars not looking at bikers, pedestrians suddenly moving to the middle of the road, difference in air pressure and density, the amazing view that keeps your sight distracted all the time!





All and all I went up with my wife on the Tracer with full luggage, I had a go-pro filming with the excitement I forgot to put the safety strap and the inevitable happened, with the vibration and dirt on my bike, the gopro suction cup didn't hold on, so mid way up we had to stop and my wife had to pick it up, a few scratches and a bit of stress for the rest of the uphill snake. Arriving at around middle way up you think you are arriving an then a massive wall emerges on your right side, which left me completely humble and dropped the spotlight on me. It was now that my mind had started to question it self, thoughts like: Is it safe for both of us to do this? will the Tracer handle ? how is my wife going to handle up there?





Needless to say we managed to arrive without a scratch and the view up there just leaves you utterly mesmerized and to be honest, I felt a bit dissoriented, a couple of pictures to give you an idea of how the vibe is up there. There is a sense of accomplishment when you arrive up there and feel that you climbed to the top of the world with your wife and all the crap on the motorcycle at least for the "greener" ones like us. You could distinguish who was there before and who had just arrived, the faces were priceless, even experienced riders in Stelvios get a smile on their face when they arrive up there and know that after that its time for the Umbrail Pass. Looking at other peoples motorcycles you can surely see who is experienced and who isn't, it goes from luggage amount, equipment used to the massive amount of Passes stickers on the back cases :D



When on the road to Passo delo Stelvio you will most likely be photographed by fotostelvio.com the guy is there almost every day taking pictures of everyone, you can check the pictures at the website and if you desire you can have a hard copy made.
Some Pictures made by the photographer from fotostelvio.com

going up to STELVIOS PASS

coming down STELVIOS PASS



After we dealt with all the high altitude euphoria and the fact that we had just completed a great objective of our trip we were much more relaxed and decided to go our way torwards Austria, to our final destination Alpbach, which looked amazing on the pictures.

When we left Italy we were complimented by sweet tarmac roads extended long side rivers with pure crystalline water. We went to Tunnels that took a bit more than getting used to the cold that we felt inside, tunnels that would spawn for kms and kms going down a mountain base, we crossed beautiful places were waterfalls ended up next to a tunnel wall and so you could see the watersplash with a green alpine background of the purity of the Nature that surrounded us. 



I need to be fair and say that we didn't spend much time investigating Austria, due to the fact that when we arrived to Alpbach around 16:30 the weather turned in, all the elements became extremelly agressive and suddenly we were extremelly lucky we didn't stay an extra 10 minutes on the previous stop because all Hell broke loose. gusting winds and crossed rain coming from over the mountain, transformed that day into a nightmare..

Day 5 - Alpbach Austria - Bad Kissingen Germany

Leaving Austria, it felt like it was a short stay, we definitely need to come back as the general sense was of this was just a place for us to rest. From the beginning we arrived the day before around 16:30 and 5 minutes later a cataclysm jsut came down the mountain. We were extremely lucky as the winds were very highspeed and the rain very very intense. The weather didn't allow us to explore the area.

We decided to take the rest of this day to rest in the Hotel. That didn't happen, babies crying on the next door, room was extremelly hot, bad isolation, anxiety and we had to select our next destination, since this was the last pre booked hotel we had done. So we quickly checked a place to stay (preferably with SPA and Swimming Pool) somewhere in a range of 400kms around and going upwords via Germany on our way to the Netherlands. We found a really interesting place called Bad Kissingen in Germany, this was a place we knew nothing about. We agreed and booked the hotel, the next day we left as soon as possible, believe me Gappen Hotel was the worst hotel experience we had until now .. To compliment our leaving from Austria the weather was going to turn on us... and it did.



We armed the Tracer with Luggage, digested the poor breakfast served, try'd to forget the "charismatic" place and the weather.. We left in direction of Munich, in resume we took Highways until we got near Nuremberg, from then on it was again twisty roads! AWESOME!!

We went "full retard" max speed possible for us on the Autobahn on our way to Bad Kissingen, with the sole objective of:  relaxation, discovery and most important of all enjoying vacations together. 

The moral was up and the weather was changing, we arrived to Bad Kissingen and as we stop in the middle of city town, with the GPS telling us to continue to go through a street where only pedestrians were allowed, we were in a dead end and without asking indications, this guy comes along side teh bike, talsk with Paola and tells her, he will gladly guide us through the town to the Hotel, and so we went after him, we didnt get his name, he never left the car to tell us

Day 6 - Rest Day in Bad Kissingen Germany

Just like the name says, we decided to take a rest for one day, as our backs were sored and our bums felt like a plank of wood, if there is one down side to the motorcycle I got its the seat.. Anyway let me explain you something about Booking.com, we booked the room in Badkissingen the previous day while we were at Austria in Alpbach. So we checked and it said the room we booked was available for one day, so we booked it, we arrived to Badkissingen and we liked the place so much we would like to stay one more day, so we checked Booking.com, what happened then, the room was booked, or so we thought.. at the last minute after having the bike loaded up we were all equiped, helmets on, I said to my wife: just for the heck of it, let me go ask them if the room is still available, and it was.. and so we stayed one more day chilling among an older population.





 





Badkissingen is a city that is based on Ancient Water terms, there are some mineral properties on the water that made this town florish around a SPA based business. It is beautiful, safe and extremely relaxing. the Hotel where we stayed, had a SPA, Sauna, Turkish bath, Interior Pool etc.. It was a great place to rest before tackling the last 600kms to the Netherlands.

The beautiful SPA Residence we stayed in, we totally recommend:

LINK

Day 7 - Bad Kissingen Germany - Zaandam Netherlands

The day started foggy and rainy, and as I check the weather on my phone I had an anxiety feeling on my stomach, my brain kept thinking, how are we going to do 600kms on the rain, we took breakfast at the hotel, did some last minute double check, packed our stuff again and left the place with a smile on our faces.

It was finally time to go home, the last days where great but the thought of arriving home to our Kittens was a beautiful thing, so we went on our way to Fulda and long story short: we managed to avoid all the heavy grey clouds, somehow our timing was great, we drove around the bad weather, it just looked like St.Peter was helping us a bit, we stopped a couple of times around 4 to 5 times (so every 120kms or so) we where doing a good average on speed, beautiful Autobahn with small traffic, made us drive at a average speed of 150km/h, we arrived to Holland and everything came down, wind gusts, rain, storm, stupid driver attitudes, 100kms/h speed limit in a 5 lane highway, Traject Control, Flat country no curves, the Cherry on top of the cake was the extreme Traffic in the Amsterdam Ring on a Friday at 17:00 after hours on the bike..

Hey.. we arrived home and the only time where I scratched the bike in any manner was arriving home I went to fast into the sidewalk inclination and hit the bike ehxaust pan from below, nothing serious, actually very funny :D considering I had cars on top of my foot, going down Passes of mountains in construction with gravel rocks the size of tennis balls, did some insane uphill roads to Malbun and survived Stelvios pass.



My cat Jack from the next day on wards, he started to seat on my bike, every morning , as if he meant: You are not doing this again ;)


..sorry buddy but we are doing this again for sure!!!