Orson

Jim...you may want to check out www.mototouring.com. They're out of Milan. Last I heard, they rent Guzzi Le Mans as well as Ducatis, Benellis & Beemers.

The July issue of Cycle World claims "early 2005".

Also...the museum at the Guzzi factory is only open some odd hours like from 4:30 P.M. to 6:00 P.M. so, plan accordingly

I forgot to mention...the entire country of Italy goes on vacation in August. I've never been there at that time but, I know the bike shop I deal with in Parma closes in August. I take it Agostini will be open since they're renting you a bike. I'm guessing hotels should be open but, you may want to book ahead of time since you'll be competing with the local Italians for rooms. You may want to ask your Italian friend about what stays open in August.

That sounds great Jaap I'll pay for the beer maybe you can teach me some of those soccer songs the fans sing at the games. We can see how long it takes for us to make your girl friend leave the room

Thanks! I hope to be in Wales next year. Maybe you can give me a tour of your favourite roads

21,150 miles / 33,000 km...no breakage yet. rear wheel bearings seems to be my bugaboo. first bearing went at 10,900 miles / 17,000 km. second one went 10,250 miles / 16,000 km later.

I have Teknic saddlebags although, I'm wishing for some hard bags. I wish Guzzi would make them standard equipment like on Aprilia's Futura. Yah, I got to see Henry the Navigator's place on Cape Sagres in Portugal. In fact, it was one of the must see places for me. I've always been attracted to those land's end type places. Something about reaching the ends of the earth that make you stop and reflect on life. My tentative plan for next year is to visit my friend in the UK. I'm thinking about going up through some of the eastern European countries like Hungary & the Czech Republic. Maybe even visiting the Normandy coast of France if I have time. I'm a bit of a WW II history buff. Here's a picture I took of the lighthouse on Cape Sagres. It's built on the ruins of Henry the Navigators school for navigators.

The road along the lake, while scenic, is clogged with traffic & is so curvey that it's hard to find a place to pass. The town of Bellagio on the other side of the lake is very pretty. Best way to get there would be to take the ferry about 10 km. north of Mandello. Heading north will get you away from crowded streets and into the foothills of the Alps That would be my recommendation...head north.

That was last year's ride. I rode from Parma down into Tuscany. I was near the seaport for Livorno when I saw signs for the ferry to Corsica. I went,"Corsica...hmmm". Jumped on the ferry & was glad I did. Corsica is pretty much a mountain jutting out of the Mediterranean making for some wonderful motorcycling roads. From Corsica, I took another ferry to the south of France & from there I made my way to my friend's house in Portugal where the bike spent the winter in their garage. I chose Dubrovnik cuz of a car magazine article I read years ago that declared the road along the coast of Croatia was similar to California's Highway 1. Since Highway 1 is my all time favorite road, I was keen to see the comparison myself. Dubrovnik just happened to be at the end of the route. No, I didn't keep records. I'm a terrible record keeper. Some days I don't even know which route I'm gonna take until I get on the bike & I'm forced to decide. It's no problem finding places to sleep each night. Europe is just like North America. They have hotels & B&Bs all over the place. I'd usually pass a great looking hotel around midday then, around 5 P.M. when I really needed a place, all the hotels looked like dumps. It's all the luck of the draw. Some nights I'd luck out & find a great hotel...other nights I'd be sleeping in a dump. I'm not much for camping. I like my hot shower at night & strong coffee in the morning. Here's a pic from last year's ride. This is the rugged west coast of Corsica.

I bought the bike in Parma, Italy from Moto Guareschi, a mom & pop shop. Mom runs the office, dad is chief mechanic & his two sons help out as mechanics. I told them I wasn't an EU resident & if there was any problem getting the bike registered in Italy. After a lot of head scratching & talking in Italian (I don't speak Italian) they came up with some kind of arrangement. I'm still not sure how they did it. I got Italian plates & they even arranged my Insurance. Friends in the UK have told me it would be impossible to get insurance in the UK as a non resident. Anyways, they even offered to store the bike for me for free while I'm at work in Saudi. I have friends in Portugal & UK who also let me keep the bike in their garages so, it works out pretty good. I manage to get up to Europe about 6 or 7 weeks a year to do some riding. Saudi is just a 6 hour flight from Amsterdam. I don't ride in Saudi cuz the Saudi drivers are plain nuts. Riding in southern Europe is a blast. Bikes rule. Police, more often than not, turn a blind eye. Best part is all the great roads & scenery. Worst parts are, you get lost at least once a day. You learn to live with it. It's just part of the adventure. I speak Spanish so, I can understand a bit of Italian & French. I ride alone. It's pretty hard to find someone else who has 5 weeks to take a trip across Europe.

speaking of luggage... I'm really getting tired of getting my clothes wet inside the Teknic saddlebags. Even wrapping the clothes in plastic garbage bags doesn't help. Guzzi makes hard luggage for their touring bikes. How hard can it be to whip up some hard bags for the Le Mans? On top of that, you have to stick the key inside the bag to lock it in place. Kind of a pain when your clothes are already packed. I hope they're reading this...not holding my breath though.

I reached the Istrian Peninsula & followed the coast down to the city of Pula. Heading north from Pula along the west side of the peninsula, I ran into tourist trap hell & the traffic that goes with it. I gave up on following the coast & headed inland. Much nicer. This fertile peninsula was a major olive oil growing region during Roman times & so has some neat Roman ruins including an almost intact coliseum in Pula. I re-entered Slovenia, spent a couple days in the Julian Alps. I found that I still had 4 days left so, that left me a few days to play in the Italian Dolomites. I couldn't believe how many bikes I saw in the Dolomites considering it was the middle of the week. The place was crawling with German & Austrian bikers. On my second to last day, I spent rampaging through the passes around Cortina de Ampezzo. At around 4 P.M. I was passing through the town of Corvara when I felt a sudden shudder from the rear end. My first thought was that I had a rear flat. Upon dismounting, I found the tire to be fine. Hmmm. Seems the rampaging through all the passes had wasted my rear wheel bearing I made a call to my bike shop in Parma & we devised a plan. I would leave my bike at one of his friend's house nearby then catch a train to Milan to catch my flight to Saudi. He would drive up later & pick it up. soooo, I wuz robbed of my last day of riding. I really can't complain though. After a month on the road, I was well & truly spent. I was extremely fortunate the bearings gave out while I was going thru a town. It would have sucked to have broken down high up a mountain pass as the sun was going down. This was my second rear wheel bearing failure. Both going out at about the 17,000 kilometer mark. Other than that, the Guzzi performed like an Abrahams M1 tank. Never missing a beat during the whole adventure. Here's a shot from the last day in the Dolomites. I hope you enjoy the pictures as much as I enjoyed taking them. Jaap, let me know if I surpassed my bandwidth limit & I'll delete them after a while.

Continuing north along the coast, the sun finally made its entrance & boy, what a difference! The sun made a world of difference, increasing the contrast between the sky, the islands, the coastline & the sea. By golly, it *did* kinda resemble the California coast! While the road is pretty rough, there are spots where you think..."yah, I can see California".

Heading back north, I began island hopping along the chain of coastal islands. The coastal islands are served by a whole fleet of ferrys making it easy to go from one island to the next. My favorite was the Island of Brac. A little gem of a rock full of sleepy little fishing villages. Oh...and great twisty roads made it seem like my own little Isle of Man...uhm until the local gendarme flashed his blue lights at me. oopsie Here is a pic from Brac overlooking the little village of Povlja.

I thought it would take about 5 days to reach Dubrovnik. It only took 2. Ooops...so much for good planning. Oh well, this provided me with more time to explore the coastal island chain. Dubrovnik was shelled by the Serbians during the recent war but, the Croatians have done a great job repairing the damage. The place was full of vacationing Europeans. I saw buses from Poland, Hungary, Estonia and about a bazillion Germans. It seems the Croatia is the next south of Spain. The coastline is still wonderfully undeveloped. The Croatians are sitting on a gold mine. I just hope they plan well & don't end up ruining it as they have the south of Spain. In this pic, the mighty mighty goose surveys the fortress city of Dubrovnik

I entered Croatia after a cursory passport check. No problems getting in. Croatia lies but 15 hours from Germany so, they are used to German bikers vacationing there. Making my way down the coast, the clouds seemed to be following me so, this clouded my perception of any comparisons with Highway 1. Here is a shot of the town of Rogoznica, totally covering a tiny peninsula. Lots of towns with strange sounding names like Zog seem to be places that might be ruled by Ming the Merciless. Oh yah, the Goose sits in the foreground impatiently sitting through another photo session. Does this look like a bike that likes to sit around all day? No siree, Bob. She's straining at the bit, raring to get going Right after this picture was taken, I suffered my biggest scare of the trip. A baseball sized rock materialized before me as I was waiting to pass a car. It glanced off my front tire & whacked my oil pan. I pulled over to check the damage. To my horror, the oil pan had a big chunk knocked out of it & it was dripping oil on the ground. I had remembered seeing an Aprilia sign a few miles back so, I turned around & headed back. The Aprilia shop couldn't help me but, they knew a mechanic who could. I left the bike with him & took a hotel room. The next morning, he came & picked me up & took me back to the shop. He'd done a good job & patched the Tenni back up. Total lost time- 24 hours. Not bad. The roads in Croatia were pretty rough & uneven. My arm/shoulder sockets ached so bad by the time I got to Dubrovnik, I had trouble sleeping one night. All in all though, I'm glad I went.

When I got near Italy, I felt I had to choose between the Alps or Croatia. I sat at the fork in the road for about 20 minutes studying the map, pondering my options & arguing with myself I finally chose Croatia. Years ago, I had read an article in a car magazine that likened the coastal road in Croatia to California's Highway 1. Seeing that Highway 1 is my all time favorite road, I was keen to sample the comparison. I blasted across northern Italy via the autostrada in a bid to save some time but, after a half day of droning, I'd had enough. I veered north towards the Dolomites. In Merano, I took a well deserved day off to plan my attack of the Balkans. I crossed over into Austria briefly before entering Slovenia via the Wurzenpass through the Julian Alps. Slovenia is a wonderful little country totally covered with mountains & with friendly people. The women seem to be an exquisite blend of German & Italian. The men...well, they looked like men to me Here is a picture taken near the town of Bovec, Slovenia

From Los Picos De Europa, I hugged the coastline along the Costa Verde towards the Pyrennes. I see what they mean by Costa Verde. I saw some spots greener than green. Every tree, shrub, bush & blade of grass was the exact same hue of green creating a "green out" effect. I crossed the Pyrennes at the Col du Somport. The weather was damp & foggy so...sorry, no pictures of the Pyrennes this time I crossed the south of France using all the back roads. I saw one road on the map that followed a river so, it seemed like a good choice. It ran between Montauban & Rodez. I've mentioned before that I believe the French have some of the best motorcycling roads around. This road had some sweepers like I've never seen before. Lean right for 20 seconds, lean right for 20 seconds & on & on. It seemed surreal. I exited that section just shaking my head. The French road engineers are true artisans. Here is another picture from the south of France. Mind blowing billiard table smooth constant radius 3rd & 4th gear sweepers. Just take this picture & multiply it by miles & miles. You get the idea

Whereas last year, I enjoyed picture perfect weather, this year was spent under the threat of rain. While I probably actually rode in the rain less than 10% of the trip, the ominous presence of dark clouds cast it's shadow over the first 2 weeks. Here is another shot of threatening skies in los Picos.

Another shot of the tasty asphalt in the Picos De Europa

From the Sierra de Gredos, I turned north, towards los Picos De Europa. Across the Principality of Leon, the land turns flat & featureless. This terrain along the Duero was where the border between the Moors & the Christians stabilized for about 100 years. As such, the region is chock full of castles & fortresses as both sides sought to fortify their positions. After passing through the city of Leon, the terrain started getting interesting again as I approached los Picos De Europa. I enjoyed Los Picos so much, I ended up staying a couple days in Riano. Here is a pic approaching Riano

I've just finished my excellent adventure. Starting out at my friend's house near Porto, Portugal where my bike spent the winter months, I traversed southern Europe to reach the fortress city of Dubrovnik, Croatia. Whatta trip! 5600 miles / 9000 kilometers. 26 riding days, 3 rest days. I left Porto & headed east following the Duoro River. The road hugs the river & meanders through Portugal's famous port wine growing region. It reminds me a lot of the road along the Mossel River in Germany. It definitely merits mentioning as one of the most scenic drives in Europe. I followed the river as far east as possible, almost to the Spanish border before turning south to check out the Sierra de Gredo. A smallish mountain range near Madrid. Here is a shot along the Duoro...

Nice looking roads Thanks for the ride report!

Al, When I was in the U.S. over Thanksgiving, I talked to the Aprilia Dealer in Round Rock, just north of Austin & asked him if he would start selling Guzzis. He said that Aprilia had asked him to sell Guzzis but, he just doesn't have the floor space at the moment.