Motorcycle Touring in Europe – Is the Travellers Time up here?

We are Riding our Honda Africa Twins Across Europe on our Home to Rome Tour. We are heading our way back up through Italy towards Lake Como and into the Swiss Alps. But Motorcycle Travel is No longer a cheap way to get around it seems! Since We last did this trip costs seem to be increasing so much that we will be looking to a different direction to travel in the Future. With the Costs of Toll Roads now costing as much as the inflated fuel costs or more we ask ourselves the Question…. Is Touring in Europe Dead?

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These guys here very un helpful indeed it’s all about getting money from you simple as that another €250 I tried asking the Mechanics for a 27 mil socket and stuff he Ming waving his hands walking away from me yeah they know what I want if they know what the problem is it’s just changing in the tube n tr2 just another €250 to transport me they know there’s

No money in changing the in the tube that’s what it is what can you do so I’m going to try me luck at this place I passed up here and if not I’m going to bend over and get by the Italians again how quickly things change here you

Give me the TOs straight away this man got no idea who I am don’t even speak the same language right I my chance to say good morning properly to you today I’ve been marching up and down through this little town here trying to sort the

Tire out but sort the tire out I have thank God for that so it turns out the company that uh rescued me yesterday obviously have a contract to um get people out the tunnels or whatever that’s fair enough they charged me €170 to take me a couple of Miles off

The motorway they then fetched us up to their M’s Hotel up here which is €75 so it sounds bit robing but it’s a top for what it is is it yeah especially in the village L this but all right but opposite where the garage is is another

Hotel but we were brought here we were told this is where we should go so but anyway it matters not so um yeah so I’ve been back down there this morning where they were sat waiting me waiting for me with the card machine another €250 sir and we’ll take you to Bologna another

Shop I don’t know where that is 45 minutes hour you for another 500 to change it a bloody Tire probably to another friend of theirs or something perhaps yeah who knows so anyway I had to walk around I found another garage up the road just a normal small place those

Guys couldn’t help me but he would give me the tools you know to help let me help myself um with the first garage he wouldn’t give me any Tire levers I asked him for a socket to remove the wheel no no no no no TOS can’t out be no no no no no

Nobody was interested um they were just walking around ignoring me you know a woman sat with a car machine waiting for me so I walked up to another garage up the other end and there’s a really helpful guy there after a bit of uh debate um and uh basically the lady in

The office said he convinced the mechanic to help then you know it’s on him and he did he was really good once I said I could take the wheel off myself and it was on a Senter I just need you to take the tire off so we can look at

The tube uh he agreed to do that so we jumping his little fat Uno or whatever it was rag out back down to the other garage where we removed the wheel put out in the back of his little car back up to his garage and um there the man

Set about taking the tire off and everything he removed the old inner tube which had a bit of gash in it so that was finished um so our plan then was to ride to a bike shop in the town so they can find another tube but this man he

Goes out the back as as a rum is around and he comes out with a Motocross in a tube which fits he’s repaired the tire and then the man gives me a lift back down to the uh original place and helps me refit the wheel back onto my bike you

Yeah yeah you know the guy couldn’t be more helpful so um and we did all that in front of the faces of the original garage who all stood around and didn’t communicate and was not interested at all so it goes to show you know there most people are good in this well most

People want to help you but there are some people that want to fleece you all right let’s get back on the road I’m so glad to be back on my bike we’ll pass our friends at that garage in a minute I’ll tell you what cannot thank that bloke enough that mechanic do you

Know what I don’t think he was even actually going to ask for money until I asked him how much I think he was doing it just to help me there’s these guys here a little car garriage yeah luckily I think he was a biker or something

Himself but yeah he didn’t ask for any money when I asked him how much how much he said give him 50 or give him 70 quid and told him put it in his pocket right quick stop in the supermarket grab some sis and some drinks and what have we

Else we can find and on our way 23 kilm range left H loads left loads left he’s cleaning up something over there so let’s go this side how much are we getting I don’t care anymore expensive trip this has turned into it yes so right on the board over there

Is the fuel prices of £198 a liter and we comeing in when I lift this 2228 a liter and apparently that is because it’s service so I fueled up our own bikes as you would expect and then the man shouts comes over and robs me because he says

He’s doing a service by taking the car do you know what we had a bit of a conversation with him and I said you know this would not fly in the UK mate just this is an absolute I don’t even when I used the words I used to him but

I said you know what absolutely ridiculous that is proper robbery he did not give a service he did not even fuel our bikes for us and even if you did you can’t charge another like thir p a ler so you’re basically saying if we went initially where we were going we would

Have paid 40p less correct for every leiter that you had yeah all right let’s just don’t piss me off anymore let’s go we are getting robbed a lot in Italy that’s all I can say about it every opportunity to pull your pants down that is what’s happening and we’re getting

We’re falling for it on every chance we get unbelievable can’t make this up can you honestly the way it’s gone on this trip and the expenses seem to be going up exponentially it is getting ridiculous there are definitely better places to go and better places to be and

Better ways to spend your money than doing this touring Europe is dead you consider the um additional cost of all of these TOS every 5 minutes and getting once you’re on the toll road as well you get flee at every service station and then on top of that got fleeced

Again for a service which we didn’t receive I think we knocked out about 250 km something like that from where we started this morning so it’s a good start I was just doing um checking the chains and better check the oil and uh it seems that EV is pretty damn low it’s

Not really showing on the dipstick at all with the bike’s up right so we’re going to a moto shop instead yay it’s a Honda dealer ship and hopefully it is open so that’s the plan uh on the same note so look at this L there is self is labeled 197 for petrol

And if you go in this side you’ll see it’s £222 so watch out for that if you’re traveling in Italy watch out for that all here we go again we it’s going to be this time sometimes it’s like 90 cents other times it’s like 50 Quid that’s something ridiculous 16 quid this is

Honestly it’s outrageous I reckon it costs more in toes than it does in petrol well I don’t know when he get scammed at the petrol Services as well yeah you’re B for my service what service like did me literally brought the cast car machine to me well that’s a comfy old thing is

It that must be the new uh Honda Gold wi little selection Africa twins over here there’s a mash 250 calabo rally 500 awesome thing that is you could just have a toy in a mu around on that would be a great choice C up and see the man get you some

Oil tell him you want the original Honda Africa twin oil they’ll give you the OEM stuff 10 w30 it is the CBS couple of Triumph triples there’s this the cat let’s go and have a look at this this is the dati desert X I really like those new modern looking headlights are great

But the problem is I mean da catti is always a bit of a worry for build quality but when it comes with cable tires right from the factory holding the plastic panels on that’s a bit of a worry isn’t it and uh this half here all looks a bit

Empty as does the other side but not to worry if you want to fill that space in toat will sell you the other half of the bike which has a longer range fuel tank and stuff that bolts in there personally I think it should either be there in the first place or

Not at all there you go these are an interesting thing these are the uh Honda advv scooters um twist and go jobby but I think it’s a 750 engine we saw a lot of these knocking around in Rome actually right let’s go help e buy some oil then ah perfect thank thank okay

I’ll bring it back in a minute yeah than so we’re going to screw him down again start the bike run the oil Let It Drop to the bottom check it and go got him passenger from the last Services who knows maybe he’s been with me longer there’s a lot of them a there

We saw a couple in the hotel he’s exploring with you thanks for fixing the oil no problem that’s all you need every now and again is it yeah yeah right we ready to go yeah so all good all done all good so I took the um the

Bottle back in with made his half a funnel oh I forgot my S knif didn’t I it’s always the same in it so I I walk back in with that funnel and that the guy gives me the old Italian wink he looks so pleased and happy like his

Faith has been restored that I returned his Alpha funnel you know really maybe they just like are really untrusting it or the Relentless tea leafes or something I don’t know I can’t grab anything on this bike your boyfriend pushes your bike around for oh yeah all the time what is [Laughter]

He yeah why don’t you push my bike we keep saying this in our videos because somebody once accused either of having a a big bike with the only reason she could have a big bike was because her boyfriend was moving it around for her no I assure you either moves her own

Bike round just fine it’s a pride thing for me I don’t want you to move my bike Absolutely I’ll help you if you need it but you’re perfectly capable yeah right 95 KMS to go well at least to the next way point anyway we don’t know

What happens when we get there just we just bite off small chunks at a time don’t we yep best way so we’ve arrived at the next toll what’s it going to be this time here it goes £620 this time never doing this again looks like we feed straight into a

Traffic jam careful we’re going to get sandwiched yeah look at these two idiots look just let them in point now trying to get past this Lor look look at this how dumb are you oh man I got knowwhere to go in a minute there two lorries fighting for the same Lane there

Behind so stupid right I’m going to come out in front of you a damn dangerous isn’t it no that that’s the problem is they’re they’re all trying to stop each other from getting in front of the next one rather than just just take your turn yeah you not saving any time at all

It is mental here is it oh traffic’s crazy yeah the view is getting better and the temperature’s getting colder for sure I need to put some layers on on the next St yeah yeah time to put the old Oxford heater grips on and lay up a little bit

Oh you look at that mountains ahead here we are next service station we’re now have mountains in the background I don’t know if you can see that probably not probably probably like nothing on the camera always on GoPro but things have just started getting cold so we just stopped for another tank

Of petrol and um and we’re in now way yeah get some jumpers on get the old neck things out yeah I changed into my thermals things changed very quickly into the mountains wo I can’t believe how quickly the temperature dropped and how quickly things are changing and I can feel a few

Drops of rain now as well so I suspect we might be in for a a drop of water so we’ll be coming into Leo very shortly and then we’re going going to follow the road that goes up the right side of Lake C oh no it’s actually raining it is actually

Raining so we made the uh tactical decision to stop and uh put a waterprof on the sky looks uh ominous I think it’s going to rain heavily very shortly so we got ahead of the game and put our gear on while it’s dry so we’re now approaching a little small town called

Colico and uh that’s the more Northern end of Lake K Lake K’s just over there but it’s not really been worth stopping really to try and show you anything is it it’s looking pretty bleak you can barely even see the mountains around us now I am properly expecting it

To rain proper proper heavy today I’ll be surprised if we get to accommodation dry uhoh So we’re riding in the dark now all right it’s all part of the adventure we found ourselves on I think it’s called splur pass heading up to the uh accommodation and we’re definitely going up cuz we’re going around hairpin after hairpin in the dark I forget how many turns there were

Coming up that uh Pass Road there but uh there a there’s a few few tight ones wer there yeah they were really tight some of them good evening you join us now in our hotel room above another Pizer thing but I got lucky tonight so I saw the

Menu I then had another breakdown because surprise surprise it is pizza and it is pasta again and nothing else and it didn’t look good it didn’t look good we saw someone else’s there yeah but they had um french fries as like a side this thing and then I joked that

She can make me am egg and chips and she said she would make me some fried eggs so the Englishman was happy had egg and chips for see yeah I had a disgusting Pizza which I didn’t eat um yeah yeah so there we go but Beggars can’t be choosers turns out

We’re on pass auger something like that something like that we are right on the border of Switzerland so we’re going to spend the night here and then tomorrow we we should be um doing some passes across Switzerland and uh making our way on home that way yeah and it’s raining all

Day tomorrow yeah so you know the plan is always is ever evolving and uh we’ll make it up according to the weather and what we feel like doing at the time um so yeah now we’re going to get our Reds down and you can join us again in the

Next one and follow us across Switzerland and see some amazing passes Switzerland never disappoint so join us with that one yeah see you tomorrow cheers