So a bit of background- both I and my OH love Italy above pretty much all other European countries, most things Italian too, and particularly ( I know I’m generalising here) the Italian outlook and attitude to life.
I’ve taken my boys there a few times on holiday, and Isabella’s been to various Italian places in her previous life, but we’d never to anywhere in Italy together so it was definitely on the list, and with her enjoying our little trip across to Belgium on the bike for her birthday last year so much, the plan was to do a similar thing this year, but make it northern Italy on the bike and visit some places there that neither of us have before.
My immediate thought was to do the same sort of thing I did on my eastern European bike trip back in 2018/19 which was basically hop across the channel, ride to Dusseldorf, and put us and the bike on the overnight train to Innsbruck, cutting out a fair bit of not particularly exciting saddle time, getting us very close to the Italian border, and adding an extra little bit to the adventure.
Feck knows why, but it doesn’t look like it’s really an option now- as far as I could see, the service is greatly reduced with just one autotrain a week, and rather than a round trip cost of 400ish euros , it was now €2.5k, so that killed that idea, and I decided we’d do a @gremlin - fly and rent a bike out there, which is what we did.
So- all we had to decide now was where exactly in Italy we wanted to go.
As I mentioned, I’ve been there with my boys previously, but we stayed in Bologna, Rimini, and Misano and our holidays were spent either in the pools, the sea, or on a go-cart, minimoto proper racetracks which wasn’t what this trip was really going to be about, so we came up with a little list of places we wanted to spend our time and good old gremmers came up with some top suggestions too based on his previous jaunts over there, so two or three months ago a rough plan was hatched, I booked us a couple of flights to Bologna and a left-hand drive V4 MultiStrada for the week and we were sorted
The rough plan was this
- Basically Bologna, Florence, Azurro, Siena, San Gimigano, and then spend a bit of time on the Cinque Terre.
And that’s pretty much what we did, just missing out Azurro, mainly due to my wonderful TomTom getting us a bit lost.....
This was never going to be big miles on the bike, as although it’s a bike trip, it’s not all about the bike, and lovely as riding through the Italian countryside is, there are other things to enjoy too- it ended up being 700ish in total.
It started well with sunshine and temps of 25-30 degrees for the first day or two, but unfortunately, the week we picked had some of the strangest ( and shittiest) weather they’d seen in that region for a long time- along with the sunny days, we also had rain of absolutely biblical proportions on one day ( which was also the day we had to do 250-ish k on the bike
) , and a lot of rain and hailstones the size of golfballs on the last day when we were traveling back- thankfully, although we got rained on then on the dash back from the Cinque Terre to Florence, the hail didn’t start until 30 mins after we’d dropped the bike back and were on the way to the airport.In terms of kit, I wore my old Dianese leather jacket, Bullit denims, and HD Steinman boots ( I left the matching chaps at home
) , with my now pretty ancient Oxford Rainseal over jacket and trousers when needed- kept me 99.9% dry with just a slight seep on one bit of the trouser seams, probably one of the best £25(ish) I’ve ever spent.And those Harley boots- still completely waterproof, comfy on and off the bike, I think they are OK style-wise and surprisingly weren’t too hot in 25-30 degree temps either, definitely recommended.
Isabella wore her Furygan textile jacket (it leaked), with a sort of pacamac thing over the top when needed (it leaked too) and some cheapo Millets-type waterproof trousers ( they didn’t) over her armoured Jegging things.
We both wore summer gloves, which of course got absolutely sodden wet, although it didn't really matter to for me with heated grips that could take your skin off
And the bike itself, now that I was looking forward to, and it was going to be an interesting aspect for me in terms of comparison with my own 2012 1200S Multi.
The bike we got was a 2021 in tip-top condition with what looked like new Conti TrailAttack tyres.
It was the council-spec non “S” model , which basically means it has manual rather than electronically adjustable Marzocchi suspension, the cruise control isn’t adaptive, lights don’t go around corners and it’s missing one or two other bits of frippery, but it’s got the same engine, up and down QS, TC, cruise control , and heated grips and seat etc, so still fairly well specced for a “basic” version, and in summary, it was a decent choice for the trip
Things I liked about it:
- The engine- Much smoother low down than the 1200, and without doubt a stronger top end (as you would expect with a claimed 170 v 150 hp)
- The light clutch- much lighter than on mine, and was much appreciated in some heavy traffic in Florence and Pisa, and means mine will be getting an Oberon, like I have on the Tuono.
- The QS- yeah, I know, they are as much use as an ashtray on a bike according to some (well one
) on here, and they really aren’t a “ must have” for me on a tourer, but definitely a nice to have, and the one on this bike was a good one.
- The Instrument dash- spot on I thought- all the info you want, easy to navigate menus on the move if you want to, and very easy to read
- Weight, or at least the feeling of weight- I haven’t looked it’s weight up yet, and I’m guessing they are probably very similar, but the V4 felt a good bit heavier than mine to move around and manoeuvrer at low speed, even without the luggage fitted.
It may be psychological as when in the saddle it seemed wider at the front with no view at all of the road or front wheel and reminded me of riding @2xtwins Niken in that respect so maybe that was a contributory factor- The 1200 isn’t that much different but you can see the road and a bit of the wheel through the fairing , but either way, I prefer the feel of it in that respect. I’m not sure whether the 19” front wheel of the V4 contributed to this feeling, but I have just got back from taking my 1200 for it’s MOT this afternoon, and it’s reinforced my view,- mine feels like a sportsbike with high bars and a screen, whereas to me the V4 felt much more tourer with sportsbike engine, if that makes sense
- Suspension and handling- when I picked it up, preload was set approx halfway and it was frightenly soft and bouncy once you wanted to get a move on or hit big bumps- I whacked it up to max but it was still was too soft for us fully loaded, so much so that I never really took it anywhere near flat out- If I had one of these it would need to be re-sprung as a minimum.
In contrast, my 1200 even when fully loaded feels very planted and secure at any speed, and lovely over the bumps with the suspension set to the two-up with luggage setting.
- Engine- yep I know this is in the likes too, but this is a relatively minor dislike- when on a fast road or motorway I kept reaching for another gear. it felt to me as though the V4 was revving higher than it actually was- 6k in top was 145kmh so I guess it’s not that high, but on my 1200 it’s completely different where I never even use 6th below approx 70-80mph, and the V4 motor felt like the complete opposite of the Yam CP4 (MT10 & current R1) engine which due to it’s nature feels like it’s revving lower than it actually is , and it’s easy to bump into the rev-limiter on those if you’re jumping straight off a traditional firing order IL4
For the pillion the feel and comfort level was apparently pretty much identical to the 1200, but with a less slippy seat.
As you’ve probably guessed by now, overall I wasn’t as wowed by it as I was expecting to be. There is no doubt it’s a great bike, and one or two aspects I preferred to my 1200 (or wished the 1200 had, and it likely will get them now) but they weren’t the most important bits .
It sort of left me a bit cold, and all things considered, I can honestly say out of these particular two examples I prefer the 1200- maybe the V4S Sport variant would change my mind, but I’ll probably never know as I’m not enthused enough to try and get a go on one.
As for the trip itself, we had fun. I know Bologna and Florence fairly well from previous visits, but this was a very different trip and we did different things, and I saw a fair bit of Florence that I hadn’t previously, and found this in a little back street Pharmacy-
brought back very fond memories of an advert from a time when I’d just hit puberty I think – I bought it back then because of that ad, and couldn’t resist this time either, especially at only € 4.50
We also traveled through a lot of the countryside that I’d never seen previously, there are some absolutely stunning roads and views in both Tuscany and Liguria, and when it wasn’t pissing down, or covered in low cloud it was beautiful.
Neither of us had visited San Gimignano before, we were there for Isabella’s birthday last week and stayed at one of @gremlin 's recommendations which I have to say was fabulous in every way- Gabriella the owner really couldn’t do enough for us, remembered you, your broken key and Gremlinette fondly and asked me to say Ciao
I’m glad to have been to the Cinque Terre now too- we stayed on the outskirts of Manarola and got a little local minibus in to town and the train and boat between the four towns.
Again, the scenery is stunning in places, all very clean, albeit it’s not the sort of area you go to if you want any form of lively nightlife- on our first night there we didn’t bother with the last minibus (no traffic allowed in the Cinque towns, and the last bus up the mountain left at just after 9 pm) , foolishly thinking there would be taxis available, or even some local Italian barry-boi wanting to earn a few euros for running us up the mountain in his old banger but nope, it was dead.
So although the journey from Manarola to our hotel was only 5 mins in a car/ on a bike, our hotel was 900m above sea level, and we were at sea level in the town, so it ended up as over an hour’s hike back to the hotel up what seemed near vertical cliff paths in the dark, which resulted in a quite severe sense-of-humour failure for one of us, but we made it back without injury, and was all better after a good night’s sleep, and we had a lovely couple of days on the coast.
One thing that really struck us both there was the mix of tourists there- 90% of the people we met or heard talking were either American or French, with a few Germans- didn’t encounter another Brit there, which did suprise me- maybe it was just the time of year.
Anyway, I’ve woffled on a bit there I think but suffice to say, was a great little trip, the rain hasn’t put Isabella off and we’re already planning our next trip for a few weeks time- this one will be France on our own bike - a few more pics that sum up this trip for me below
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