TRAVEL Q & A
Q We’re planning to do our first European trip next year, based on your Guide
To Europe. Lots of options, but which is best for novice tourists? We’ll be two-up and would like to see mountains. A To an extent it depends on how much time you have. The Tour of the Doubs and Vosges is a great introduction to mountain riding, building up to the higher stuff — and it’s a five-day trip. If you have more time and are confident, we’d suggest the Tour of the Dolomites — it’s three days in the Italian mountains, but we’d allow three days to get to the start (Vipiteno) and back from the end point (Riva del Garda), making it a nine-day trip in total. The riding and scenery is out of this world. Q Will I need one of the French Crit-air stickers to get to Route Napoleon next July? A Grenoble is one of the cities that has introduced the scheme to charge vehicles on the basis of how polluting they are, to discourage traffic and improve air quality — and the area affected does include the A48/A480 motorways most people will take to get to the start of Route Napoleon. However, the sticker is compulsory for Grenoble only when the air quality is poor — and it tends to be bad in winter but fine in the summer. So you should be okay. But keep an eye on it a www.crit-air.fr/en Q How do I get used to traffic filtering two-up and with my new hard luggage? I’m finding the bike massively unwieldy at low speed. A Momentum is your friend… but don’t trust it (it’s not a good friend). Going too fast between cars is reckless and dangerous, but you need to use just enough speed to keep the bike stable. Look well ahead, but keep checking the road surface in front to avoid riding over cats’ eyes or holes that could deflect the front tyre, and keep checking the cars. Keep your feet up and manage speed on the back brake, slipping the clutch if necessary. Ask your pillion to let you practise riding slowly before you set off to get comfortable doing it.