lanes with trees forming canopies over the road. It was a -even with the language barrier they went out of their way to
biker’s paradise and great riding!
assist. The only negative experience I had was when I came
The next few days were very similar to each other with a flying into an old medieval town square and noticed a one way
lot of rain coming down making the riding interesting when do not enter sign ahead so I pulled over to stop and assess the
we had to climb the narrow and slick cobblestones into the situation. At that point an arrogant local policeman came over
center of the small towns that had the timing tables set up. I and started reading me the riot act in Italian. Since he didn’t
have ridden observed trials, and enduros but never had all my understand a word of English and my working Italian was pretty
skills so tested as I did on this trip. Sharp switchbacks in the limited (where is the bathroom, I need a beer) I had no clue what
mountains with steep climb-outs challenged me constantly he wanted. He proceeded to thump his ticket book apparently
and doing 200-300+ km a day had me sweating under my trying to intimidate me but I could not figure it out. Finally I
guessed that he wanted me to back up the 1,000 lb missile and
rain gear.
of course it was an uphill pitch behind me. Eventually, I had to
On one occasion, I had to choose between two roads ride entirely around the whole town square to reach the street I
that showed up on the GPS after we lost the arrow trail. needed that was only ten feet away. Cleary this “Barney Fife”
Unfortunately, I found out that the refresh rate on the GPS had his only bit of power as the lord of the town square and
there had a distinct lag between the position shown and your intended to show the locals how he handled the American Biker.
actual position on the ground. As a result I missed quite a After a lot of effort (and no help from Barney) I was able to get
few turns. On this occasion, I had two roads both turning off the bike headed in the right direction and get out of town. With
the main road that were about 20 feet apart. Since there was that single exception I loved the people, particularly the old men
not anything else to do, I picked one at random and prayed. who would flock out to examine the bikes whenever we stopped
Well, it started off ok with a single lane of blacktop heading and ask all kinds of questions, usually through the most English
up at a rather steep angle that required I stay on the throttle fluent member of their group.
since there was no place to turn to go back down and
By the last day, a broken bike and a couple crashes had
reconsider (did I mention the K1600 has a huge turning radius taken the Lucky Bastards out of the race and since they
and if you get off balance it goes down like a punch drunk needed to leave earlier than anticipated to take care of the
fighter). The blacktop turned to gravel and then into dirt, I walking wounded we were the last Americans standing and
think it was a goat path, and then just ended point at a locked make it back to the finish for the gala farewell banquet the last
gate. At this point I was pointed uphill with a 160 hp, 1,000 night. This year, competitors went a total of just under 1,700
lb missile at a dead stop with no way to turn around under km in six days and with four days of heavy rain and a few
control. I tried a backing maneuver but finally lost the fight accidents, only 55 of the 102 starters completed the event.
with gravity and down we went again. Fortunately there was
I have been asked if I would do it again in 2016. My answer
a young couple working in their
is
a definite maybe. If I can find a lighter, more agile bike and
garden nearby and the young guy
then
mortgage the farm to gather up the cash to pay for it; I
came over and helped me wrestle
might. It was a great
the bike upright and get it turned
life experience and I
around so we could go back down
am glad I didn’t miss it.
and try the other road. Next time
I am riding something a lot smaller
Go to http://www.
and more nimble!
motogiroditalia.it/en/
for more photos and
The
Italian
people
we
video.
encountered on this adventure
were pretty awesome. More than
once I was in need of some help
and people jumped right in to help-
Carpe Diem,
Whiskyman
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August 2015
Thunder Roads Magazine® Colorado 15