Day 6 - The last day of driving back to the starting hotel
The original plan was to ride over the Gavia Pass towards the Stelvio Pass. We'd take a break there at the Tibet Hut and then continue over the Umbrail Pass into the Vinschgau Valley to the Reschen Pass.
That was the theory. Unfortunately, the Gavia Pass wasn't scheduled to open until a week later, so this proved as not possible. And after all the beautiful weather we'd had, it was supposed to rain in the afternoon.
So, we decided to take the route over the Hofmahdjoch and further into the Vinschgau from Merano.
We’d also taken the Hofmahdjoch in 2024 on the way to Breganze with Hamish, Luigi, Jürgen, and Manni, traveling north/south, but this time in the opposite direction.
We started north via Riva and past lakes Tenno and Molveno. It was Monday, all the tourists were back home, and we found empty roads that gave us big fun and allowed us to make good progress.
We refueled again near Cles, view north still shows nice weather:
My BMW friend always makes a comment about the Norton's "shot glass tank" when we stop at a gas station every 150 km just in case. It was roughly the same spot where Luigi's 2024 Jota broke down on the way to Breganze.
Driving down from the Hofmadjoch pass into the Ulten Valley, the Norton suddenly disappeared from my rearview mirror. As it turned out, the flange nut on the left manifold had come loose (again).
As for the header flange nuts discussed above:
My friend had installed high-quality CNC-machined aluminum flange nuts on his Norton. He believed they would cope better with the cylinder heads than the original steel flange nuts due to their similar expansion coefficient. Although he’d reduced his luggage to the bare essentials, he even had a suitable wrench with him, see photo from day 5.
However, we secured the nut with lock-wire this time, and were able to continue our journey:
Before we reached Kastelbell, it finally started to rain. Since there was a nice café there, we took the opportunity to take a break and then put on our rain gear.
We drove in the rain for the last hour and a half of the return trip, which really isn't much on a six-day trip.
Eventually, we arrived safe and sound at our start/finish hotel:
First, I got us three beers ...
... before we loaded the three Graces onto the trailer:
Done and ready for dinner!
The next morning, we set off back to the Rhineland:
So, that's it from my side. Thank you for your interest and your comments, much appreciated!
Jo
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