Planning a 20 Year Reunion

[flying_hun]

No, not high school, nor college, nor graduate school. No, instead planning a reunion of friends made during the 2006 Centopassi! Centopassi, you say? Yeah, Italian for "100 passes". It was an event Ducati put on to promote the original aircooled Multistrada. It was a 4 day time/speed/distance rally with a roadbook, checkpoints, and special tests, and in 2006 I signed up to ride in the competition class.

I'll save the details of the story for a later post, but for now I'll say that I spent those 4 days riding with the team from the UK, and having the greatest vacation I've ever had in my life, even with my life passing before my eyes several times per day. It's not hyperbole to say that riding that event changed my life. It also led to some lifelong friendships. I keep a bike in the UK because of that trip. I've ridden in Europe a bunch of times because of that trip, including several EuroBARF rallies.

Twenty years have passed, and my friend Dom is organizing several of us to go back with our old roadbooks and ride it again. The plan is to take the chunnel from the UK to France in late June, ride the Route du Napoleon down to Nice (the start), then spend 4 days hooning around southeastern France and northwestern Italy.

Then for me comes the bittersweet part. Since I'll be riding the bike I shipped to Europe in 2011, and since I imported it for personal use, I eventually have to bring it home, and I've decided 2026 is the year. So, after we complete the 4 day route, they'll be heading back to England, and I'll be taking my bike back to the shipper who's based in Heidelberg. As of now, I'm thinking to recreate a ride I did in 2011 where I rode the 10 highest paved passes in the Alps, plus as many more as I could bag in seven days (37 total). I won't push to ride so many passes, but there are some of them I really want to ride again. Stelvio, Passo di Gavia, the Dolomites, Grosglockner, and Staller Sattel are all on the list. Last time it took me a couple of days to get from Heidelberg to Grosglockner, and I expect it will take about as long in reverse. Last time I rode the legendary B500 in Germany, but rumor has it that it's been closed to motos since then. :-(

The purpose of this post is to create a thread documenting my prep. Stay tuned for more posts and pics. In the meantime, here's some Centopassi pics.

 

[Marcoose]

That sounds terrific, Hun. Have fun !

 

[budman]

Most awesome Hun.

I am sure you will have a blast!!

 

[flying_hun]

Ran into the limit on attached photos, so here's a few more, including the roadbook, and the fate of one of the Team UK riders

 

[flying_hun]

I'm sure this is looking like a Moto Photos thread, but I think that will pass. Having said that, here's some more photos! Of me!

 

[budman]

I love how your head is so properly turned in those pics. I can see the focus.

 

[Marcoose]

What’s the story of the bike parked in the hole ? It looks cozy in there.

 

[EZ Rider]

Yikes!
Yeah, that one looked serious....hope the rider was able to jump clear & not land in there with the bike.
That doesnt look like the kind of crash were you could bend a few things back into place & ride home.....

 

[flying_hun]

I love how your head is so properly turned in those pics. I can see the focus.

Thank you very much! It was kind or focus of die! I had completed California Superbike school (coached by our own Andy!) just a few months before as a tune up. It helped.

 

[flying_hun]

What’s the story of the bike parked in the hole ? It looks cozy in there.

Yikes!
Yeah, that one looked serious....hope the rider was able to jump clear & not land in there with the bike.
That doesnt look like the kind of crash were you could bend a few things back into place & ride home.....

Okay, here goes.

It was the afternoon of the 4th day of the event, and everyone was tired. We had a fairly disastrous day on day 3. We got lost several times, which included riding through the ruins of one of Charlemagne's castles outside of Susa, Italy. I also crashed on a diesel spill that day coming down the Col de Mont Cenis, so we had "houred out". Meaning that we got to the last check of the day more than an hour after we should have arrived. That was the rally for us, and we could no longer place, though if we kept going we could still be classified as finishers, so on day 4 we were taking it easy.

In the afternoon we were descending into a valley on a road through an area that is a ski resort in the winter and a hay field in the summer. We were descending through switchbacks cutting their way through chalets. The hillside was very steep, meaning that there were lots of switchbacks, and that the French had done some clever road and hydrological engineering in order to keep the road from washing down the hill every spring, and that concrete vault you see in the photo was part of that system. It also meant that the hill was too steep to operate farm machinery on it. Instead, the hay is cut with scythes, then forked down onto the road where there was a parked hay baler.

Coming down that hill I was riding in the fourth spot in our group behind the rider in question. I shall refer to him by the nickname he got that day, Stormdrain. From the photos you can see that my number was 35, so that if everyone was on time, I would theoretically be the 35th rider to pass any point. By the time we got here, lots of competitors had passed by, and because the farmer had that baler just around a blind L/H turn, he'd gotten strafed multiple times already. The guys and I had just rounded a R/H turn when the farmer came running up the hill waving his arms to warn us. Stormdrain saw the farmer and got totally distracted, and it the process his line drifted to the right. The right side of the road had a paved channel about a 10" deep that guided the water towards that vault, and there was a matching hole in the side of the vault to let it in so that it could go under the road.

When Stormdrain looked back where he was going he totally target fixated on the side of the vault, hammered the brakes, and dropped into the channel. There was no room to get stopped and no way steer out, so he hit the side of the vault at a pretty good clip. The bike flipped into the air, catapulting Stormdrain into the air and beyond the vault, landing him flat on his back in the road. In the meantime, the bike executed a perfect front one and a half, dropping straight down the culvert.

Keep in mind, I was immediately behind Stormdrain as all this happened. I stopped beside his immobile form as the farmer got there. The farmer's wife was screaming, and the rest of the team was already gone around the bend and past the baler. The farmer reached for Stormdrain's helmet as I was yelling at him not to touch him. Just then, Stormdrain's eyes fluttered open while we tried to figure out if anything was broken.

There was no way to get that heavy bike out of there without mechanical assistance. Even if we could have, it was a write-off. Lots of bent bits. We had to contact the organizers to get them to rescue us, and because of general fatigue and thundershowers causing lots of crashes, we waited a long time for rescue. By the time they go there, we decided that since we had blown it the day before that we would all come in together. Stormdrain in the recovery van and the rest of us riding. We were credited as finishers, except poor Stromdrain.

 

[Marcoose]

Aïe-aïe-aïe. That’s gnarly, Kurt. Is Stormdrain fully recovered ? Poor chap.

 

[flying_hun]

Aïe-aïe-aïe. That’s gnarly, Kurt. Is Stormdrain fully recovered ? Poor chap.

He had some bruising on his back from where he pancaked. No lasting harm.

 

[BillSmith]

Aïe-aïe-aïe. That’s gnarly, Kurt. Is Stormdrain fully recovered ? Poor chap.

He had some bruising on his back from where he pancaked. No lasting harm.

That certainly explains it! Helluva story.

I have a phrase I use for times like this,

Bruises fade; YouTube is forever.

Started with Kodak in lieu of YouTube. Y'all get the picture.

 

[CDONA]

Another "stuck in an easy spot", with a side of "Oh $ it", well documented for posterity

 

[tuxumino]

love seeing all those first gen MultiStradas

 

[flying_hun]

love seeing all those first gen MultiStradas

There's one in my garage again. . Contrary to almost everyone else, I love the air-cooled ones.

 

[flying_hun]

Update: Flying out two weeks from today. Shit is getting real. The bike is in a shop over there getting prepped. I just sent off my insurance application today. The issuer requires special dispensation from the Pope (or your personal physician) once one achieves my level of superannuation, and pulling that out of Kaiser was a chore. I've booked several nights of lodging in the UK prior to our Chunnel departure. Arrangements made to hang out with some UK friends have been made, including arranging to ride the Lake District with the legendary Stuart Flack (IYKYK), and spending a day at Oulton Park with another friend who's contesting the Porsche Boxster Cup series. Things are looking good!

 

[budman]

Hearing about the ride over the weekend was coolness.
Living well IMO.!!!

 

[N4teTheGreat]

Riding this part of the world is on my bucket list for sure.

 

[flying_hun]

My friend, Dom has brought the he bike is back from the shop where it was being prepped for the trip. A week from today I'll be riding it in the Lake District with Stuart. Two weeks from today we'll be riding in the Haute Alpes. Getting excited!