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Another European here (for the time being). I have ridden all over the UK and much of Europe and enjoyed almost all of it.
As other have said, big cities can be a pain in the ***, and motorways can be boring. So I avoid both of those where possible.
Both the UK and continental Europe have many fantastic twisty roads with superb scenery. My personal favourite is riding the Swiss and Italian Alps. The roads are just built for motorcycles with many hairpin turns and climbs and descents. It's breathtaking climbing up the high mountain passes where there can be snow in July, then descending and ending the day with a beer in the 30C sun at an Italian lake!
I spent 8 days riding through the Swiss, Austrian and Italian Alps and Dolomites starting and ending in Milan. I found that drivers are a bit more pro and that bikes were expected to lane split, ride to the front at a light and generally most drivers were courteous when we want to pass and would allow space for us to get by. Splugen Pass, the silvretta, Stelvio , fernpass and the Hopenjoch were all gnarly pass roads with a kajillion curves!
I have ride my Harleys in Sweden last 27years.I guess the bike and club culture is still large and alive.
Like the Harley davidson club sweden (not HOG) started in 1970 and is today one of the worlds largest Harley club. Thats what they brag at least http://hdcs.se/about-h-dcs/
I am No club member just ride my king
One of the hazards of the Alpine passes, as well as similar passes in the other mountain regions around Europe, are the cyclists! We rode over one of the passes from Slovenia to Austria and almost all the traffic we encountered was cyclists climbing to the top, where they met up with their motorised companions. I imagine they have bucket lists of passes to tick off, but then motorcyclists and motorists probably do too.
We were riding up the one side, all of the adventure bikes riding past us.
Next time we saw them they were in a tunnel putting waterproofs over their textile clothing.
We rolled passed, open faced helmets, jeans and hoodies oblivious to the rain or the snow on either side of the road
:-) Yes indeed. And a lot more of them besides. The scariest one was the Fluela Pass last July. It was freezing rain on the way up, snowing hard at the top, and slippery as hell on the way down!
Here's a couple of Stelvio photos (with better weather!):
Those sorts of roads are where an intercom and wife come into their own! Mrs B can see our satnav from the pillion and give me a running commentary on those bends. Some are so tight that positioning just right on the road feels like the difference between success and failure! On one stretch, riding into Austria, we had a sheer vertical rock wall on the left and a sheer drop on the right, fortunately with a wall to keep us on the straight and narrow. The drop was so far I couldn't actually see the bottom - nor risk taking my eyes off the road for more than a brief moment. There's nowhere to stop and take photos where the scenes are most 'arresting'!
I must admit leading a group through some of the mountain passes gets hairy, looking at sat nav to judge the corners when you are the first one through it
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