Alpine Riding Hazards

The Alps are filled with spectacular scenery on small, winding, heavily trafficked country roads with few guardrails. How many hazards did you spot in that last sentence? Here’s a list of common hazards, which is by no means complete:

1. Tractors, sometimes very large ones, which on occasion can be found towing machinery so large that they take up both lanes. This is fun when you round a bend at speed only to find you’ve nowhere to go.
2. Large chunks of mud which fell off the tractor’s wheels.
3. Grass and hay which fell off the tractor.
4. Cow sh*t, “road apples,” and other unidendifiable deposits.
5. Actual cows, horses, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, etc.
6. Gravel – applied liberally during the icy season (November – May).
7. Beautiful scenery which takes your eyes off the road.
8. Sightseeing drivers whose eyes are not on the road.
9. Buses – sightseeing or not, they often take up more than 50% of the road.
10. Motorcycles which suddenly overtake you (Yes, Speedy, it does happen, so keep an eye in the mirror).
11. Cars and motorcycles which must be overtaken (or you’ll get so bored following that you fall asleep).
12. Reckless young men on race-replicas who just watched MotoGP on TV.
13. Bicyclists galore, huffing their way uphill they tend to swerve around a lot.
14. Hikers galore, crossing the road to where they parked without looking.
15. Austrian and Italian roads under repair all summer (German roads are perfect – ha!).
16. The beautiful Biergarten waitress in the low-cut dirndl carrying four steins of cold beer (Ja!).

I hope this list will inspire you to a rational riding style if you don’t already have one. With thousands of motorcycles out and about on any given day, it’s easy to think there’s some competition factor to the riding. There’s not. The only contest is to see how much fun you can have and to arrive at the Biergarten at the end of the day without an incident, accident, or violation.

On the topic of violations, the Swiss and Austrians (esp. the Swiss) are very strict about speed limits and impose heavy fines. In Switzerland you must pay the fine at the roadside or your bike will be impounded. Speeding through a village may incur a fine in the neighborhood of €350. They take credit cards.

All signs and speedometers are in kilometers. To get it clear in your head you can multiply by .6 to get mph. This 50 kph x .6 = 30 mph. Villages and towns automatically have a speed limit of 50kph unless posted lower, often 30 kph where the road is tight. Outside of towns the speed limit is 100 kph in Germany and Austria, 90 kph in Italy, and 80kph in Switzerland.

It’s fair to say that you can speed a bit outside the towns without too much risk. For example, I’m willing to go 120 (and occasionally more) everywhere but Switzerland, where I hardly ever go more than 90 because of the high fines.

Radar speed traps are common everywhere. Friendly riders coming the other way almost always warn you by flashing their lights and waving, and so far I’ve never had a ticket (knock wood). A fine for getting caught doing 10-20 over-the-limit in Germany would be about €40 and no points. I can afford that, so that’s my personal “speed limit,” with occasional riskier exceptions.