The Swiss Trinity Ride: Grimsel • Furka • Susten

Day 3 · Meiringen

What. An. Insane. Day. Of. Riding.

I woke up early to get on the road early for a day hitting some iconic and famous motorcycling roads. After a brief tire pressure scare just away from the last lakefront town (fortunately I brought my pump with me, and it was just the TPMS from the drop in temperature), I started to see bikes and the road got very interesting, very quickly.

All in all, this was probably the most intense and beautiful day of riding in my life. The Grimsel Pass, the Furka Pass, a stop in Andermatt for lunch, and Susten Pass to close out the ride. And after that loop I’m basically 30 minutes away from where I woke up this morning for the night, in a remote hotel about 20 minute above town (so…a picturesque middle of nowhere).

I’m exhausted! 100ish miles of nonstop twisties. I probably saw 1000 bikes out today (motorized and pedal powered – those maniacs were out in force today), and more supercars than I have ever seen in a single day before.

I’ve ridden some crazy and beautiful alpine and mountain roads before (Beartooth Highway, Lolo Pass, Icefields Parkway to name a few) – but this trifecta of passes is iconic for a reason. Honestly I think this section here where you come down from the high point at Grimsel and then head back up from the low point of the valley to the high point of Furka is the best argument for never building bridges I’ve ever seen. Though – the glacial geography of this particular location would probably prevent a reliable bridge anyway.

I filmed most of it, and those videos will be added to my GoPro Album as they upload. Though, admittedly, I didn’t have my angle right after some of my battery changes and you see a lot of my cockpit. Lo siento to both you, and also future me.

And I guess I’m continuing my unwitting discovery of James Bond filming locations – Furka Pass was used in an iconic car chase scene in Goldfinger and I did all those cable car rides yesterday (though – not the exact one shown in Moonraker).

I also had a few opportunities to curse the combination of my stature, the bike height, and the careless slopes of European street parking today. This bike is largely the same as the one I ride at home, except it’s at least an inch taller, and the luggage is weighted to the kickstand side. More stable for parking, but it’s … a heavy lift for my tippy toes on the left side if I park at anything but the perfect angle. A lesson I have now learned multiple times when I couldn’t get the bike back off the kickstand without wrestling it to a new angle from the ground. I had to ask a very nice man enjoying his mid-ride lunch with his wife in Andermatt to push me out of a parking spot, because I was 100% going to dump the bike when my foot started to dangle over a concave drainage grate. At least he was happy to help me out!

After getting to my hotel, I took a break and then asked the gal at the counter where I should go for a little walk. She directed me to a local swimming hole, which was nauseatingly picturesque. Then I headed back for dinner on the patio with another unreal view to keep me company. She insisted I make a reservation for dinner, but there were only 3 other people there so I’m not really sure why.

That’s it for me today – off to bed with a plan to get up early and ride another 180 miles to St. Moritz.

Also if you saw all that grass and wondered if I did it – I did.