Europes best biking roads

[Global Rider]

Front left. Disintegrated. Gave me the opportunity to explore Avezzano. A very nice Yamaha mechanic dropped everything to get me on the road again.

What, on an almost new, ultra reliable FJR...whats this world coming to. 

I had the same thing happen in the town of Santa Maria Maggiore, except the original rear bearing was 21 years old; damn BMW quality. I was expecting at least 30 years out of that sucker! By the way, the 337 from Locarno into Domodossola is nice and twisty.

You know how English speaking people get so worried about travelling outside of English speaking areas. You've read about those concerns on my Euro touring thread in this folder. Well back then, I spoke a whole 5 words of Italian...maybe.

That was late afternoon when that happened. By 10 the next morning, I was rolling up the Simplon Pass.

So much for language issues and worries.

[FJR-UK]

What, on an almost new, ultra reliable FJR...whats this world coming to.  

My sentiments exactly.

I had been in a 20 mph collision with a van several months previously. I don't know if that had any impact on the bearing condition. (Pun intended.) The left front was fractured in several places, the right was fine. The mechanic got the thing dismantled only to find out he had no replacement. Some would have told me to wait a day or two for delivery. This gentleman hopped in his van, drove to another dealer (I'm guessing here – he went somewhere) and had the bike back on the road in three hours.

The main hiccup was the Italian lunch hour. We arrived at his dealership at noon. The place was shut for lunch until 1600. So, although he had me back on the road, same day, we took a hotel room for the night. Not much to recommend in Avezzano besides the dealer and a steak house we found.