Switzerland

[adeejaysdelight]

I was planning my 20014 Euro tour with my mate last night, and somehow we have managed to get 18 days away on our own!!! No idea how, but we did. So, we are traveling through 10 countries (including Scotland and England) and breaking the trip up with a few nights in one place followed by a couple of days on the road.


We have decided to stop in Switzerland for 3 nights and will be travelling to there from my friend's (and his brother) house in Bagni di Lucca in Italy. We will be heading on from there to Picardy in France.


I know some of you guys have been to Switzerland before and I was looking for some info as to the best area, roads and so on.


I will start a new thread nearer the time with the specifics of our trip, but right now Switzerland is my focus.


As usual, thanks in advance for your help foccers 

[bigralphie]

To be honest its not a great place for bikes ,cops are very hot on speeding and its expensive JMO

[Tefer]

When you off? We are in Switzerland in June.

[richfzs]

We're in Austria in June :-)

(which has nothing to do with the OP, I just wanted to share :-)

[locksmith]

Only visited Switzerland on a bike for a day trip from France, as said not the best place for ripping it up on a bike.
We had a guide for the day and was very bored with lots of slow riding!

No doubt there must be somewhere you can have fun but it's finding where and when.

[Stradaman]

I would advise against Switzerland. The police and locals strongly enforce the speed  and noise limits, The fines are very expensive, its just not worth the risk, if you are in the area try the lakes in the North of Italy, i.e. Como and the rest its a good substitute.

[adeejaysdelight]

Its not sounding very good guys, is it. When we are talking about "enforcing speed limits", are we talking about 30kph everywhere? Or are the speeds normal for Europe and you guys are all elbow down loons?

[slimwilly]

Not true,,we loved riding in Switzerland,,good roads , lmotorways if needed,fantastic veiws.


We stayed in a b an b pub near lake Zug,look it up ,,landlord,Big Joe  ,,rides a bike ,and his daughter,


he says you can stay at his joint and use it as a base to travel over 6 mountain passes ,,we came across it on the way up from lake Luzerne,


Goldau is the town,,good prices compared to the tourist spots,,


We spent 200 euros on digs for 1 night 4 of us,,,and spent more than that on his best steaks and beer :rolleyes ,,shall be going there again.


I have him on facebook if you want contact,or phone

[richfzs]

Got to agree, and say Switzerland is fantastic. I love it.

[Millietant]

I'm with Slimwilly on this, there are lots of fantastic roads in Switzerland (and many to the south of Lucerne/Luzern) not least the Sustenpass.
But......... A must in Switzerland is to take a day and do the Pilatus Kulm round-trip........... Start with a Gondola ride from the Pilatus station in Lucerne, to the foot of the mountain (and the summer toboggan run - great fun), then cable car over huge drop and on up to the top of the mountain (at +7,000ft). Sight-see and climb at the top - scary cliff edge paths and open staircases across the rock face. Have lunch in the mountain-top hotel, watching para gliders jump over the edge, Then journey down the other side on the worlds steepest railway (carriages are built with stepped seating as it travels down on a 45 degree slope). At the bottom of the mountain, the train stops by the lakeside where you transfer onto the ship for a cruise around Lake Lucerne and back to the start in Lucerne town itself.
Look here for details    www.pilatus.ch/en/railway-cableways/golden-round-trip/

Totally memorable awesome trip, well worth the price.

[DekF]

landlord,Big Joe  ,,rides a bike ,and his daughter,

That's disgusting

[richfzs]

:rollin :rollin

Gutter minds, the best sort :-)

[adeejaysdelight]

That looks like a good day out. I will pencil it in  .


We are spending 3 days at the Nurburgring, so should be able to rip a hole in it there, speed wise.


Spending 3 days pottering about a beautiful country seems fine to me, even at 50mph. We have Holland, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Italy, France and Belgium to blast in. Not to mention Scotland and England at the beginning and end.


It is certainly provoking some mixed reactions though. But I remember someone (maybe you Willy?) posting some wonderful pictures last summer of your trip there. I decided then that I had to have a slice of it for myself.


Slim - I don't have Fudgebook. I ditched it last year. If you could maybe pm me his hotel details, and his daughter...

[Millietant]

Do you know the Nurburgring Nordschleife track well then, if you're going to rip a hole in it there, speed wise ?


If not - do you have a guide/instructor ?


Forgive me for asking - I don't know anything about your riding history, but I always worry when Brit riders when they post about going to the Ring and mention how they're going to push themselves and their bikes.


It's 18 years since my first visit there and I've seen lots of people come a cropper (or baulked regular riders/drivers) because they don't know the track, the rules, or how to get round in a decent (but not stupidly fast), safe and fun manner.

[slimwilly]

Here is the hotel details
[smg id=1872 type=preview align=center caption="joes garage"]
[smg id=1873 type=preview align=center caption="joes van"]


We used the lock up garages too.

[nick crisp]

I've been following this discussion about how bad policing of speeding and fines can be in Switzerland on another forum for some time. Some of the guys on that forum are regular visitors to the Alps, one even runs a biker's hotel in Austria, and even among this experienced crowd, there seems to be some disagreement about how bad things really are in this regard.

The general consensus seems to be that if you stick rigidly to speed limits in and on the approaches to towns and villages, you won't have problems. Things seem to be a little less rigorous in the mountains, but from what I can gather there are plenty of places where you'd be lucky, even suicidal, to be able to break the limits anyway, simply due to the nature of the mountain roads.

I have, however, heard that they are rigorous about tyre condition, and stop checks on this are quite common, with on the spot fines, even carried out by border police.

Fines, when they are imposed, seem to be quite draconian in Switzerland, but Austria seems to be less so, with drivers virtually ignoring the limits as the fines are so low.

On the popular mountain roads in the summer, people have said that because there are so many bikers around, you tend to get good warning of speed traps anyway.

If my court date doesn't fall slap bang in the middle of mine and Neil's planned holiday (and I'll feel like a proper c**t if it does, to let Neil down like that), then I guess we'll find out for ourselves, although we don't plan this to be a hooning trip, more about enjoying the scenery.

[adeejaysdelight]

Do you know the Nurburgring Nordschleife track well then, if you're going to rip a hole in it there, speed wise ?


If not - do you have a guide/instructor ?


Forgive me for asking - I don't know anything about your riding history, but I always worry when Brit riders when they post about going to the Ring and mention how they're going to push themselves and their bikes.


It's 18 years since my first visit there and I've seen lots of people come a cropper (or baulked regular riders/drivers) because they don't know the track, the rules, or how to get round in a decent (but not stupidly fast), safe and fun manner.

Thanks for your concern. It's not my first visit to the ring, and I won't be setting any lap times I can assure you  :lol . I was more getting at the fact that I can get my fast (for me) riding done on a one way road rather that terrorize the quiet villages of Switzerland. We are on holiday, not trying to set our bikes up for the lightweight TT!!!