Background: A few months ago, my brother-in-law (and
lifelong friend) Alex mentioned his company,
All Balls Racing, was sending him
to
EICMA in Milan, the largest motorcycle trade show in the world. I gushed in envy, in response to which he
asked me to join him. I can still recall
distinctly his exclamation, “It would be totally crazy to rent bikes in the
middle of November, right…?”
“Yes-“ I logically replied, as riding around in a foreign country
in the middle of the winter just sounded dumb, not to mention incredibly
uncomfortable. But I made inquiries to
friends, which turned into correspondence with companies, and as September
turned to October, and October into November, the temperatures in Northern
Italy were hovering in the high 60’s / low 70’s, perfect for motorcycle riding.
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| Most of our routes... |
I had reached out to HP Motorad, and MotoTouring.com, but I
received a rather lackluster response from both outfits, with unenthusiastic
email responses coming around 48 hours after my inquiries.
Originally we had wanted Italian bikes,
ideally Ducati Scramblers, but as the forecast for the week after EICMA loomed
in the mid 40’s we decided heated grips would be necessary.
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| Milano's famous Duomo |
I was worried we had left our reservations too late, but the
last day of EICMA I managed to get in contact with Claudio of CIMT.IT, who had
two brand new 2015 BMWs for us, an F800GT and a F800GS, and the heated grips
would prove to be the saving grace of the trip.
Our costs were about $230 for three-ish days, and $0.20 / per km after
that. Including insurance, we paid about $400 each for one of the most
incredible experiences of our lifetimes.
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| Milano Centrale Station |
© 2015 Tigh Loughhead
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