Cycling UK Forum

In July and August, 2024, I rode in Italy and Switzerland. My route took me through and up and over several river valleys: Piave, Brenta, Adige, Brembo in Italy and the Inn in Switzerland. To get from the Adige bike path to the Inn River Valley (Engaden), I had to climb the Resia Pass into Austria. I've written a detailed daily journal of this ride, for those interested. Here are some selected photos from the ride (posted previously).

Some trip highlights:

Riding with 2 different sets of friends for the first time.
Creating a front fork tension solution that stabilized my Bike Friday
Following the Adige River bike Path all the way from Trento to its end on the Resia Pass
A mountain top sojourn and Festival Day in Scuol
The lakes west of St. Moritz and the Maloja Pass
Getting to the source of the pretty blue Inn River
Riding down the northeast edge of Lake Como
The hard climb over the Passo culmine di San Pietro
The short, narrow Val Taleggio
The long rail-trail down the Brembo River
Spending several hours drinking Aperol spritzes and resting on the shores of Lake Garda.

Low/Scary times

Hiding under a rock ledge from a passing lightning storm
Riding past a landslide on a closed road
Unending up and down on dirt tracks
Walking up steep gravel paths to get to Barzio
Making many wrong turns through the urbanscape between Bergamo and Brescia

In July, 2023, I did an 18 day tour of Northern Italy and Switzerland. Of the over 1250 photos I took, I've selected about 55. I rode through several river valleys (Piave, Brenta, Adige, Inn, Brembo, and others), so there are lots of water pictures.

It was a good tour. Switzerland is always beautiful. In Italy it was hot and humid, even in the higher altitudes. In Switzerland, it was rain and thunderstorms, though enough sun to not be too problematic. An interesting combination.

One highlight was the Engaden (Inn River) Valley in southeast Switzerland. The milky blue Inn river starts near the Maloja Pass, which separates Italy and Switzerland west of St. Moritz, an area full of very pretty lakes and flows to Innsbruck and beyond.

The bike paths along the rivers in Italy are an inspiration and I saw dozens, if not hundreds, of bike riders on them. Some places I saw for the second time. The Valsugana (Brenta River Valley) is as beautiful as ever, though in July very busy. There are now Bici Grills (bike oriented restaurants/rest stops) right on these bike paths that offer food, drink, shade, toilets and even showers which make biking on these piste ciclabile even better!

The Adige Bike Path (which also has several Bici Grills) starts in Verona (I got on in Trento) and goes all the way up and over the Passo di Resia (and up to Norway). It was easy to follow, had lots of services, many wild sections, wasn't too steep until the last 10 miles, and was a great route.

I am planning a ride in Italy that includes time at Lake Como. I could ride from Colico down to Bellano on the lakeside road or take either a ferry or train there (I plan to ride up into the hills after Bellano).

I see there is an autostrada that takes most of the north-south traffic. But, streetview suggests the road along the lake is narrow and has a fair amount of traffic, not to mention the tunnels.

Has any ridden this stretch of road recently? Is it safe enough to ride?

In September, 2022 I spent 2 weeks riding part of the Wild Atlantic Way. I actually started in Pembrokeshire, rode to Fishguard, took the ferry to Rosslare, rode to Wexford and to save time took the bus to Cork. I rode from Cork, down to Kinsale and followed the WAW on a couple peninsulas to Killarney, where I took a but to Galway for some riding up there. I wrote a detailed journal of this trip with lots of photos and tracks of my routes, if you are interested.

Some comments:

Ireland is not flat. Like some parts of the UK, there are lots of short, steep hills followed by a quick down and another steep hill. The first long day's ride in Ireland (Kinsale to Skibbereen) was 3400 feet of climbing without getting over 400 feet in elevation!

Parts of the WAW are on busy roads. I found the Irish drivers courteous as there is a law that drivers have to give cyclist 1 meter of clearance. There are signs on roads part of the bike routes that state this. That said, there is very little space on the side of the road for bikes on such roads. Very much like the UK roads.

After a couple days of following bike routes into the hills, I began riding the flatter, busier main roads instead of endless climbing over hills.

I found the Irish people to be one of the trip's highlights. They are friendly and helpful. They often will start conversations with strangers, which helps on a solo bike tour.

Connemarra is worth the effort to get to and ride around.

I greatly enjoyed the Ring of Beara and riding from Kenmare (a cute, but touristy village) to Killarney over Moll's Gap and the Black Valley. I would have liked to ride the Ring of Kerry, but that would have involved either skipping the Black Valley or spending a day in Killarney. It might be worth an extra day in Killarney to do that ride.

Riding from Galway up to Clifden requires some planning. I found someone to host me for the night and rode from Galway to her house and then to Leenane and then to Clifden. These 2 days were the best on the bike, even though there was hard rain one of the days.

Avoid the main roads out of Galway, if you can. There is a lot of water north of Galway and getting over them usually requires riding on the narrow, truck-filled main roads. While the drivers are courteous, it was a harrowing experience for me.

The rural roads in Ireland tend to be lined with high hedges that are hard to see over. Every now and then there are opening in these hedges where one can see the scenery, but much of the time one's view is of hedge-lined roads.

I found many of the ocean/bay views underwhelming as the land gently runs to the water where there are few waves. That said, the views from the hilltops was often stunning.

I had a great time in Ireland. I'm sure you will too!

I am planning a trip from Trento, Italy north over the Alps. The obvious choice is the Brenner Pass. But, in searching for routes, I discovered the Timmelsjoch pass. It is much higher than the Brenner Pass (2500 meters), doesn't have a bike path, has tunnels and is quite steep (7.5% average). An idea of the route I'm planning: https://cycle.travel/map/journey/391933

There is also the Reschen Pass. Though, this greatly shortens the tour I am planning and I'd like a bit more distance.

The Brenner pass has a bike path on the Italian Side. But, on the Austrian side, it is best to take a train down, due to there only being a narrow road and no bike path.

I'd like to avoid the train ride, though it looks like they are well prepared for bikes on that train. Also, I've been to Innsbruck before.

Has anyone here ridden over the Timmelsjoch pass from the Italian side? My current idea is to go from Merano to Imst in 3 days with a stop about halfway up the Pass.

Richard Fairhurst wrote: ↑4 Dec 2022, 4:21pm Out of interest, you mention "a carrier bag specially designed to hold a Bike Friday" - what's the bag?

Not sure you know, but the Bike Friday is a folding bike. It has bigger wheels than and doesn't fold down like a Brompton, but the same concept. I was planning a ride in Montenegro (that I still hope to do some day) pre-pandemic and part of that route required me to take my bike onto a train that might not take bikes. I figured I could take the bike on the train if no one knew it was a bike.

So, I searched for a bag that would hold the folded bike and found this: https://bikefriday.com/bike-bag4 . I've had this bag for a couple years but the bike lives in the UK and I live in the US, so I didn't have the opportunity to use this bag until this trip.

I discovered there is a bit of learning curve when putting a bike in a bag designed for being carried by hand. First, a bike is heavy and awkward to carry using only strap handles. When I used the shoulder strap, it was more manageable but it hurt my shoulder and I had to stop fairly often due to the effort. I was also sweating pretty good while doing so. Second, I had to remove things off the bike to get it to fit into the bag, such as, a large front bag and the "shelf" it sits on. I also found removing the rear rack made getting the bag zipped closed much easier. This kind of put a lie to the idea of "folding bike." I was able to put these into the bag so I didn't need an extra hand to carry my panniers, the bike in the bag, and extra stuff.

While I now know the bike can be put into this bag and carried on a train, the bag is large, doesn't fit into any luggage racks, and doesn't offer much in the way of advantage. I will take it with me on future tours, but will pay to take my bike as a bicycle first before resorting to the bag.

I have completed my detailed journal of a recent bike trip on the west coast of Ireland. It has hundreds of photos, links to routes ridden, and lots of details of my days.

Oddly, my experience of the trip was less enjoyable than my memory of it. In all, I liked riding in Ireland. It isn't the Alps, but it isn't Texas, either.

The folding bike I have is not a Brompton. It is a Bike Friday, a bike made in Oregon. It uses larger (20 inch) wheels and is made with common bicycle parts. Unlike my other touring bike, which is a full sized bike but is coupled together with S&S couplers, the folding bike only takes about 30 minutes to both assemble and disassemble. The other bike takes 90+ minutes for each operation.

The Bike Friday rides like a regular bike but its geometry is very low to the ground, so is a bit "twichy." But, I have ridden up to 60 miles in a day on it, so long distances (for me) are not a problem. The ability to quickly fold it up and into a large sack gives me a few more travel options.

All that said, I prefer touring on the full-sized bike.

At the end of April, 2018, I took the ferry from south Istria (the peninsula in northwest Croatia) to Cres, spent the night, and the next day took the ferry to Krk, which is connected to the mainland via a high bridge. You can read about these 2 days in my detailed journal. I had planned a (steep and) hilly route down to Senj to avoid the coast before heading inland to Plitvice NP (don't miss this place).

While I had heard all the horror stories of riding on the coast road, when I actually got to it (May 1), there was very little traffic, so I simply continued riding down it. On the section I was on, there was a bit of shoulder/verge (wide enough for my bike and panniers) but the traffic pattern was huge lorry followed by several cars every couple of minutes. When I saw them coming (ride with a mirror), I simply pulled over and let them pass. If this was a steady stream of traffic day after day, it would be unpleasant/unsafe. But, for the 20 miles I rode, it was a nice ride with interesting views of close islands. By the way, don't assume the coast road is either flat or an easy ride. It is quite lumpy and steep in some sections.

Note that the coastal hills of Croatia are right behind the coast and steep. If you plan to ride down the mainland and avoid the coast road, be careful what route you select.

I will also second a comment above that mentioned that it isn't really possible to simply go from one island to the next by ferry. The logic of which islands are connected by ferry escapes me. When I planned a separate (covid cancelled) trip, I found that some riding on the coast road was required to get to various ferry ports.

Tiggertoo wrote: ↑20 Sep 2022, 4:02pm Ray, You talk about 'picking up' your bike, did you have it shipped to the UK?

I live in San Francisco. I have in-laws that live very close to Heathrow. To save myself the hassle of flying with a bike from SF, I bought a folding bike that I leave at their house and pick it up on my way to any touring destination in Europe or the UK. I also do a fair amount of riding in Norfolk, where my mother-in-law lives and where my wife and I spend time when we are in England. So, the bike moves from one in-laws house to another on a fairly regular basis.

In August and September, 2022, I spent 3 weeks using a bike/train/bus/ferry on Ireland's west coast along the Wild Atlantic Way. I took close to 1,000 photos and have selected 69 of them. You can see them here.

Some observations.

The Irish are very friendly and one of the things I most enjoyed.

Ireland is very hilly making route planning critical.

The established Ireland bike routes are well marked.

Irish drivers are very courteous and both give cyclists room when passing and will wait to do so until it is safe.

I saw red fuchsia growing wild everyday I rode in Ireland.

Getting to/from Dublin is easy. Doing so between other Irish cities, not so much.

I am planning a ride in the west of Ireland (from Cork up to Sligo) but have a limited amount of time. I'm taking the ferry to Rosslare (from Fishguard) and then a bus to Cork in order to get west as soon as possible.

It looks like 3 days of riding between Killarney and Galway. Another option is to combine a rest day with a bus trip up to Galway. Note that I've been to the Cliffs of Moher and driven through the Burren on a previous (car) trip in Ireland.

If I take the bus(es), I get 2 more days up north.

Is skipping the part between Killarney and Galway a worthwhile trade-off to spend more time up north (Westport to Sligo)?

I have an opportunity to spend some time riding in Ireland. I don't have long enough to do the entire island, so I have to pick and choose my spots.

I will be taking the ferry from Fishguard to Rosslare. Riding from Rosslare to Cork, will take me 3 days. I can take a bus there in 1 day. Note that the ferry arrives at 4:30 pm and the only bus left that day leaves late at night, so I would take one the next morning.

My main interest is the western part of the island, where I plan to spend most of my time before taking a bus or train to Dublin and then returning to England.

For anyone who has ridden this route, is it worth it to ride to Cork or is it better to spend the extra days elsewhere?

I've ridden between Croatia and Slovenia. They each have a border check, maybe 50 feet apart. There was no border check between Italy and either Slovenia or Croatia.

Be aware that some border crossings might be on major highways that don't allow bikes. I had to re-route to find an "official" crossing because the one I wanted was on a highway that didn't allow bikes.

I rode in the opposite direction from Plitvice National Park (an amazing world heritage site) up to Slovenia and then over to Italy. While following the Sava is one option, this is an area with many beautiful sites that you might consider seeing. First on that list is the Soca Valley and Mt. Triglev. This follows the Piscina River, which meets up with the Sava near Kransjka Gora. Don't miss Lake Bohinj, either, assuming the road between there and Lake Bled isn't too busy (not a weekend?).

I'm not a fan of riding along rivers. The ride along the Sava from Ljubljana to Lake Bled wasn't a trip highlight. Your mileage may vary.

I wrote a detailed journal of my ride in the Balkans that started in Venice, rode through Croatia, some islands, to Plitvice, to Slovenia, and then into the Dolomites before coming back to Venice. The ride north from Plitvice starts on day 12.

The area around Slovenia is beautiful. Take full advantage!

I am considering a ride through the Alps from Nauders west toward Lake Como (it would a loop route from Trento).

Questions:

I see there are bike routes along the south side of the river (I am assuming they are gravel/dirt). Has anyone ridden on these. On the map, it looks like it is number 6 (Swiss bike route?).

Near the town of Scuol the bike route heads up and over a steep pass. To avoid this climbing, is it safe to ride on the highway 27?