Back to the Alps, no Edleweiss!

[RBEmerson]

Life happens... We just found out my brother-in-law's summer vacation schedule has changed. While it doesn't directly affect my riding plans, the Munich tourist plan is in some jeopardy and/or his time in Lofer, where he knows his way around, is toast. Life happens...  

[Sport-Touring]

[bubba zanetti]

Kein Edelweiss !! Mein Gott ... Da Muss Sein Edelweiss !!



 

[RBEmerson]

 

You're almost as bad as Gene...

[Mrs. DantesDame]

I showed this thread to Dan and he said "After putting that much planning into a trip, I wouldn't want to go"

To each his own , of course. But we prefer to leave home with only a vague idea of a direction and what points of interest may be nearby. And because we prefer to travel where the crowds aren't, lodging is rarely an issue    

[bubba zanetti]

I have done minute detail trip planning and I have just winged it. In the end, I am somewhere in the middle and do like to learn lots about where I am going and what there is to see and do.

RB, all kidding aside, I look forward to your report and pictures.  

[RBEmerson]

"To each their own" said the old lady as she kissed her cow.  

Keep in mind, too, the bike is a fixed 7 day rental with no meaningful slack (except 0.82€/km for anything over 2100 km for the week), that this is two concurrent trips (mine and Chris & Co.), with part of the game plan including some common time. Toss in the "snow in July" nature of accommodations and there it is. Definitely not "And Then Came Bronson", as I initially wanted on the two week version, but there it is.  

[RBEmerson]

As I said to Mrs. Dante's Dame, I haven't started rolling and things have begun to change on their own.

Thanks for the good words, Bubba. I promise I won't write any late-night, near incoherent posts as I did last year. And, if the camera, etc. works as it has to date, I'll have tons of video to choose from when I get back and can edit it down to a 90 second summary.  

[Mrs. DantesDame]

RB, all kidding aside, I look forward to your report and pictures.  

Quoted so I can tease you for your thumb choice  

[RBEmerson]

I wondered about that, too. Maybe it's   if I don't contribute anything new?  

[bubba zanetti]

Quoted so I can tease you for your thumb choice  

I have big fingers. IPad. Them icons is too close together!  

For the record. Folks who post trip reports always get a  

[kendenton]

I've done Andermatt passes a couple times.  If you have any flexibility, I would HIGHLY recommend Klausen pass, about an hour north of Andermatt (starts around the town of Altdorf).  One of the highlights of our last trip.

The east and west sides of the pass have very different feel.



The West side is very narrow and a lot of it is on a ledge with huge dropoffs.



The East side is a more typical Swiss pass with perfect hairpins and billiard-ball smooth pavement.

[RBEmerson]

Klausenpass is on my secondary list, unfortunately. Given the time available, and a circuit probably already overloaded, it gets a "next time". But thanks for the pointer!  

[RBEmerson]

Having said the above, I remembered I'd laid out an additional day trip route out Andermatt that had Pragelpass, Klausenpass, Ibergereggpass and Satteleggpass in it. With a small bit of tweaking, I can have all four on the way to Andermatt. The big gotcha is that excursion adds 100 km to the trip. That, per se, isn't a bad thing, except I'm on a near fixed distance cap of 2450 km. The test will be how I'm doing for time/wx by the time I leave Ibergereggpass. (Will someone please explain why distance caps are so prevalent/needed for bike rentals???)

[Qbird66]

Will someone please explain why distance caps are so prevalent/needed for bike rentals???

Wife and I are doing a 17 day, ~4000 km trip in Italy in mid-June (low average km / day, as wife wants to base in Bologna area for a few days and do day trips). I received quotes from several rental agencies - most of them had 3 options: pay per mile, rent with a cap, or rent with unlimited miles. In each case, the breakeven point for all 3 options was 5000 km, so we're choosing the pay per km option. YMMV - you've certainly done this a lot more than we have (this will be our first trip out of North America - ride report to follow).

[RBEmerson]

Congratulations on making the trip! I'll be interested to hear how you're doing getting ready for the trip. If I can fill any blanks, let me know. And, of course, there are folks here who know a lot more than I do.

BTS want 0.82€ per km or about $3500 (assuming 1€ = $1.05).  

What are you renting, where are you getting it, and (if you don't mind) how much?


Admin Note: I think Mrs. Dante's Dame will shortly be moving this thread to the Euro group.

Note: corrected to replace E with €

[kendenton]

... (Will someone please explain why distance caps are so prevalent/needed for bike rentals???)

All our rentals have been unlimited kms - maybe because we rented in groups of 3-4 bikes

[RBEmerson]

I...um... labored with BTS on the subject. My primary argument was that weekender got more per diem km's (350) than a week long rental (300 km), and that I felt penalized for that. And of course I mentioned Hertz et al. Not impressed.

Unfortunately, they basically have me by the short and curlies, with few options given my circumstances.  

[PatM]

(Will someone please explain why distance caps are so prevalent/needed for bike rentals???)

You don't get rich renting bikes. It's not like renting cars. The cost per km is high, bikes are often abused and insurance is very expensive. And the renting season is short.
My friend, that rents us bikes in Europe, really makes a profit when he resells the bikes after three years.

Unlimited km on one bike for a single day isn't a problem. You can only ride so many km per day in the mountains.
Let's say you add an extra 1000 km to the bike after one week and multiply that by ten bikes.
That's 1000 km x .82€ x 10 bikes or 8200€ per week. Maybe their cost is a less but still, it's a lot of money!

[RBEmerson]

I guess, relative to Hertz, Sixt, et al., economies of scale do enter into it. OTOH, I know of a tour operator who has some sort of deal where BMW "loans" (I'm sure it's not 100% no cost) bikes to the operator and gets them back. Because the tour I was asking about was over BMW Days, certain models were "no way - can't get 'em". So assume these bikes are in the BMW demo/perks collection.  Agreed that floor-planning, for example, an HD bagger doesn't come cheap.

[RBEmerson]

Kein Edelweiss !! Mein Gott ... Da Muss Sein Edelweiss !!

[/video cut out with a vengeance!]

 

Curse ya, Bubba!! That damn video would not come off autoplay and became a song I couldn't get out of my  head.