Touring Europe on the KTM 890 SMT – Part One
Mattighofen to Grindelwald
With Wayne Vickers
See the KTM 890 SMT Review here (link)
It’s funny how things can come together sometimes. I was going to be in Romania for a short time and figured it would be an ideal opportunity to do a bit of riding while I was over there. To take a few days riding some of Europe’s best roads and scenery. And with it being pretty close to a full 24-hour journey just to get there, I wanted to make it count.
We’d already been given a green light from KTM to make use of the lovely new 890 SMT that I’ve reviewed in more detail here, and I had a window of a month.
So I started planning a route based around doing some of the Dolomites and Austrian Alps. Just a few days. Then one thing led to another and the itinerary of a few days grew. And grew. With lots of ‘well if I’m going there I can’t not go that little bit further and do that bit’…
So I included ducking into Switzerland because that had always been a bucket list destination. And it was going to be around the same time as the San Marino MotoGP in Misano… So surely I had to find a way to get down there… and I may as well taste some Tuscan roads while I was down there too eh?
By the time I was settled it had extended out to an 11 day plan. One that would extend to covering 3500 kays and have me in the saddle for almost 60 hours. To KTMs credit, they were nearly as excited as I was. Nearly…
The final plan looked like roughly like this:
- Mattighofen – Zell Am See – Grossglockner High Pass – San Candido – Lake Misurina
- Map (~300 km, five hours)
- Lake Misurina – Giau Pass – Lake Kararsee – Bolzano – Stelvio Pass – Livigno
- Map (~300 km, six and a half hours)
- Livigno – Albula Pass – Andermatt – Susten Pass – Grindelwald
- Map (~300 km, six hours)
- Grindelwald – Lauterbrunnen – Susten Pass – Locarno – Como – Bellagio – Sarnico
- Map (~400 km, seven and a half hours)
- Sarnico – Desenzano del Garuda – Sirmione – Bologna – Rimini
- Map (~350 km, five hours)
- Rimini – Misano MotoGP – San Marino
- Map (~100 km, one and a half hours)
- San Marino – Urbino – Arezzo – Siena – San Gimignano
- Map (~300 km, five hours)
- San Gimignano – Castellina – Greve – Florence – Santa Lucia – Ratticosa Pass – Monzuno – Pianoro – Verona
- Map (~400 km, six and a half hours)
- Verona – Riva Del Gardo – Tyrol Castle – Innsbruck
- Map (~350 km, six hours)
- Innsbruck – Zell Am See – Hallstatt
- Map (~250 km, four hours)
- Hallstatt – St Gilgen – Mattighofen
- Map (~100 km, two hours)
And so it all came together. My time in Romania was brilliant. Great people. Super hospitable. A quick Buna Ziua and Multumesc to my Romanian friends for looking after me.
I heartily recommend going there if you’re able. Can also recommend the Papanasi donuts, Palinka… and singing ‘Down Under’ at silly hours of the night with a crew full of said Palinka. Da. Good times.
From Romania I flew to Austria to Vienna, staying a couple of nights in what is arguably one of the world’s most beautiful cities. Stunning. Ordered. Ornate. The museum district is simply incredible.
Take the missus if you need some brownie points. Sorry Love, think of this one as me doing a reccie… next time for sure. Leaving Vienna I took the three hour train ride through Austria to Salzburg, getting my first views of the Austrian countryside.
Old town Salzburg is next level charming with narrow, intimate streets and tunnelled pathways through buildings to access the next piazza. The Benedictine Ministry was built in 696 and the impressive Hohensalzburg Fortress came later in the eleventh century. I also had to grab some pics of the Schloss Leopoldskron Hotel made most famous from the Sound of Music movie filmed in the area.
Lots of walking in the days prior to picking up the bike. I think I was averaging 30 km per day the prior three days. Not ideal prep for a bike journey, but I’m not expecting to be back there anytime soon so I was damn sure to make the most of it.
And then the day dawned to kick it off. Excitement overload.
Day One
Mattighofen – Zell Am See – Grossglockner High Pass – San Candido – Lake Misurina
Map link (~300 km, five hours)
The first task was of course figuring out just how much gear I could take with me. The SMT had lockable side cases fitted so I had a bit of an idea, but you can never be 100% certain it’ll all fit! In the end it was no problem. I prefer to travel light so I ended up going for the following setup:
My trusty Kriega R22 waterproof backpack with my paperwork, laptop, GoPro gear, sunglasses, drink bottle, any snacks I had for the day, some rags and a mini bottle of cleaner for tidying up visors and GoPros.
Side case 1 (the big one on the left without the cutout for the muffler) – All of the gear I was hoping not to use that frequently. My Textile pants and waterproof liners for both the pants and my jacket. I had additional GoPro gear in here (I was running two) as well as the power adapter and cables for my laptop, some more cleaning products, a cap (or two by the end of the trip), and a bevy of chargers and plug adapters.
The latter proving useful where in some places even in Italy you could have two different types of power outlets in your room. Or one. Glad I had some options.
Side case 2 had my daily used stuff – An extra pair of jeans, and shorts. Two extra t-shirts, three sets of underwear and toiletries and my runners. And that’s about it! I had a little room left over for any must have souvenirs. But not a lot.
I also deliberately didn’t take an SLR camera this trip. For a couple of reasons. Firstly, I didn’t think I’d actually have time to stop and take a lot of high quality SLR detail photos with my schedule, I was hoping the iPhone would suffice and I’d focus on GoPro to bring it to life and secondly I was keen to minimise the baggage. I could have run a top bag with it, but then I’d have had to lug it with me for fear of it walking off anytime I parked the bike for a lunch stop. So hopefully the iPhone pics suffice.
Departing from KTM HQ which is just under an hour North of Salzburg, I turned back South and made aim for Zell Am See. Quite the transition out of Salzburg as you head towards the Alps and the countryside gets more extreme. Dozens of beautiful little villages dotted along the mountains.
Zell Am See itself is one such little lakeside town and would make a nice stopover if you had time. Coffee, snack and stroll was enough for me before I jumped back on the bike and into even more stunning scenery. The Grossglockner and the whole run into Lake Misurina and the Dolomites was frankly a jaw dropping way to start the journey.
There was also quite a bit of swearing on my part which proved to be a bit of a theme for the trip. I’d turn a corner, see a postcard view and let out an involuntary ‘Jesus Christ’ or ‘holy crap’, only to soak it up and repeat again a kilometre down the road at the next corner. Potty mouth.
Grossglockner pass was superb. One of the top three or four passes of the trip. More flowy than both Giau and Stevio, smooth, wide and in great condition. The road up to Lake Misurina was also a ripper. Unfortunately the camera stabilisers in my Quadlock mounted iPhone cried enough on this section. I had chosen to run the mag charger head for easy on and off instead of the antivibration head and that proved to be not a great choice.
Dolomites eh? Yeah. Just like the Grampians.. only. More.
Not sure if repeated front wheel lofting shenanigans played a part, or if it was just time (that phone had done a lot of work!). Either way it meant that I couldn’t take phone pics of the Lake when I got there. Stunning Lake though. Plenty of hiking opportunities here too. And some of the cleanest air in the world apparently.
The Lake itself is only five metres at its deepest and freezes over in Winter. Turns out that they held the last ever Olympic Speed Skating events held on natural outdoor ice there in the Winter games of 1956.
No skating for me though, I made do with a lovely simple pizza on the lake edge soaking up the views and I was done. All of the walking of the past couple of days had definitely caught up with me and I was ready for an early one.
Day Two
Lake Misurina – Giau Pass – Lake Kararsee – Bolzano – Stelvio Pass – Livigno
Map Link (~300 km, 6.5 hours)
First order of business on day two was finding somewhere to buy a new iPhone… which just happened to be the first decent sized town on my itinerary anyway. The road I was going to take out of here was closed for repairs so I had to backtrack the way I came for 10 or so kays, which was just fine by me. Lovely bit of road so I did not mind at all doing it a second time.
I then made my way into Cortina d-Ampezzo which even though it’s a relatively small town happens to have an Apple Store. Luck was smiling on me. New phone in hand to use as a camera, I now figured I’d leave the phone with the broken camera mounted as my GPS and leave the new one in my pocket…
Just as we got near the bottom of the Giau Pass and I was starting to wick things up enjoying some backroads, one of the mirrors came loose. Those mirrors were power parts accessories so they must have just not been tightened properly. No biggie, I’ll just whip out the toolkit that’ll be under the seat and sort that out. Ahh. No toolkit. A medical kit which is great, but no toolkit.
In the end I managed to remove the mirror and throw it in my backpack. I grabbed an Allen key set in the next town and sorted it without any fuss. I now have yet another Allen key cluster to add to my collection. Incidentally those roads around there were more flowy and open than the Giau Pass and bloody good fun – worth a detour.
Giau was still very good, but in full cloud at the top so no pics from what would have been a spectacular view – in truth one of the ones I was most looking forward to. Quite the collection of riders at the top.
I may have said something about too much cloud for pictures and had a response in German that included ‘Schizer’. I told him that I didn’t speak much German but I knew what that one was much to his amusement.
A little further down the road, Lake Carezza at Kararsee was worth stopping at. Arguably one of the prettiest little lakes you’ll ever see with the clearest aqua-tinged water.
Legend has it the coloured water is from a rainbow that was put into the lake by a sorcerer in an unsuccessful attempt to woo his love. Not sure how accurate that is, but I can confirm that the gift shop does have some nice gelato…
From there it was on to Bolzano and into apple country. Lots of orchards around that area and I must have been through there at the start of picking season. Plenty of tractors on the roads towing fruit laden trailers. And not a lot of passing opportunities. It struck me on this section why getting anywhere over there takes so long.
Roads are windier being based more on centuries old horse and cart routes and your average speed is noticeably lower. So whereas in Australia you might easily belt out a 600 km day because you’re averaging over 80 km/h, over there your average can drop into the 40s.
And then we came to Stelvio which was nothing short of epic. Not in a ‘real rider’s road’ kinda-way as it is not flowy at all, but in a ‘this is just remarkable’ way. Switchback after switchback. 75 in total, 48 of those on the northern side.
You do have to keep an eye out on traffic though. A lot of folks like to start the corner pretty wide even in their little Fiat 500s… And they run buses up a chunk of the way too – in the tightest section!
Full size buses in sections where cars have to stop to let oncoming traffic past. Are they unaware that mini-buses exist elsewhere? Bizarre. The run down the other side was slightly more open and, more enjoyable.
At one point I was sat in behind a fella out for a fang in his classic late, ’70s model at a guess, 911. After some gentle encouragement from me, he was having a proper go. Very cool. Grazie Signore.
From there the run down into Livigno was much more open. Livigno itself is a ski resort town with some of the best skiing and boarding in the region. Over 110 km of runs for all abilities and it was suitably busy and touristed in summer.
It’s actually a tax free zone, so makes use of that by having plenty of big brand shops for tourists to head out to for the day and lay down their coin. Lots of chair lifts running for walkers and mountain bike riders too.
Day Three
Livigno – Albula Pass – Andermatt – Susten Pass – Grindelwald
Map Link (~300 km, six hours)
Arguably one of my favourite days of the trip. Livigno is not too far on the Italian side of the Swiss border, and I was either going up a mountain, around a mountain or down a mountain for most of the day.
I met up with a mate I worked with years ago who’s been in the US for quite a while. He and his mate had come over for a ride on rented bikes. Turns out they’d been running late the day before and had made it to and up Stelvio in the dark! That would have been something else.
We headed off as a group and made our way towards Albula Pass which was one of my favourites. Good visibility, great surface, nice mix of flowing sections with some switchbacks – and it just went on forever.
We came into heavy cloud near the top and then broke through just at the top, stopping just on the other side of the mountain for some pics down the next stunning valley. Superb. Put it on your list.
We stopped for lunch and then I peeled off towards Andermatt and on to the Susten Pass. The Susten was more of the same. Very similar in feel to Albula. Near perfect conditions in both, practically empty mountain passes, the SMT performing flawlessly. Both of these sections were as good as it’s ever going to get, with stunning scenery the whole way.
I was getting to know the bike pretty well by now and having a good play in some sections. Super confidence inspiring; even after nearly a full day, you’re still fresh enough to get stuck into some corners for a giggle.
And then I made my way into Grindelwald which turned the scenery up to eleven. The whole Grindelwald area, including Lauterbrunnen that I would visit the next morning, are possibly the most beautiful places I’ve ever seen.
Probably why they’ve filmed things like James Bond and Star Wars movies around there… Truth is I was frustrated that I couldn’t take pics that seemed to do it justice. I just couldn’t seem to capture the sheer scale of it all, so you’ll just have to take my word for it. Utterly jaw dropping in almost every direction.
When I go back (not if), I will make a point of basing myself out of there for a few days and having a proper explore. Loads of amazing scenery and hikes to do.
I was sad to leave that area behind the next morning. But I had the biggest day of the trip that following day. More on that in the next instalment.
Days One to Three Gallery:
Mattighofen to Grindelwald
