Day 2: Continued...
Passing through the dense clouds during our descent, Megan spots a heard of sheep.
Getting under the clouds again visibility improves enough to get some more shots in.
Looking back between the valley.
Stopping in the heavy rain for more sheep pics!
Looking towards the next climb ahead, the Fedaia Pass.
Stopping at Lake Fedaia to take in the scene.
From here we'd ride on through the ever narrowing roads, and tighter corners of the italian mountains. The roads would get more and more remote and constantly transition between wet and dry, and just when we're getting into a brisk and steady rhythm… disaster strikes!
Wrapping one of the winding corners, the road is partially wet, but nothing serious… out of nowhere my front begins to wash out and I get on the gas to throttle out, countering the nose dive and evening the bike out. The bike goes into a full drift - the longest drift I've ever been on in my 12 years of street riding (and I ride a superbike back home with my share of drifts!). Megan's screaming as the bike's weaving in and out of the drift, passing an oncoming car in the process!
The bike straightens out and I can hear Megan's sigh of relief that it's all over and we've managed to kept the bike rubber side down. I hit the Sena headset to warn my dad who's following behind us, and just as I do I look in the rear-view mirror and see him on the ground sliding across the asphalt! It's almost surreal, I can't believe it just happened! We jump off the bike and run to his aid. His foot is in a lot of pain as he gets up and hobbles towards the bike. We get the bike upright as quick as possible and off to the side of the road to avoid another accident with oncoming vehicles coming around the blind, slippery corner.
As we lift the bike up, there's a big oil spill around the bike on the asphalt. We weren't sure if it was coming from the bike, but fortunately it wasn't. Looking through the bend the entire corner was smothered in a heavy coat of oil. How Megan and I managed to stay on two wheels, I have no clue!
None of it was caught on video, and with our adrenaline going, I didn't get any pics in either. The damage is relatively minimal - the side-case took the brunt of the damage, but the front brake lever broke clean off… which was not a good scenario. My dad would get back on and ride through the the wet mountain roads with only a rear brake… Thank God for our Sena headsets, I'd travel a good distance ahead of him and give him a heads up when he needs to slow down well in advance.
We had another 50-60km or so originally planned for the day, but we desperately needed to find the first hotel we could. We were in such a secluded area of the mountains it felt like it would be a good while until we passed by anything. Fortunately it wasn't too long before we passed by a hotel and restaurant about 10 km's in… the parking lot filled to the brim with motorcycles - perfect!
We stop and find out there's no rooms available at the Mondschein hotel, but there's a small pension close-by that has a shuttle service to and from this hotel for dinner. Perfect timing, the shuttle driver is at the restaurant and he generously offers for us to follow his van to his Pension - Pensione Villa Mahlknecht.
We arrive at Mahlknect and there's no room large enough to sleep 3, so two fellow riders were generous enough to give up their room for us (given the situation).
Arriving back at the Mondschein hotel for dinner in Nova Ponente, via the shuttle.
A feast awaits us after a looooong day. Lots of wine was consumed that night, most of it going to dad of course.
Everyone is in good spirits considering. Despite the mishap, and the rain, the Dolomites were incredible. The priority for tomorrow (besides the hospital, which dad refused) was to find the closest Triumph dealership to get a replacement brake lever. Over dinner, I found that Bolzano had the part in stock, so instead of heading south as previously planned, we'd make a detour and head north to Bolzano first thing in the morning.
Day 2 riding video:
A wet, but awesome ride through the Italian Dolomites.
[video=vimeo;97660510]http://vimeo.com/97660510[/video]