MotoWolff

Riding the Pyrenees

June 2024, I return to ride in Spain, this time with two of my riding friends Craig and Lynn. This year we are doing a self guided tour offered by IMT Motorbike Tours which begins and ends in Barcelona. They provide the motorbikes, a GPS unit programmed with each days route and accommodations at upscale hotels and Paradors. The rest, including gas, food and other cravings is up to us to sort out.

My last trip to Spain was in 2015 when Sara and I rented a moto from IMT Bike in Bilbao, where we used our hotel as a base camp and each day did trips around the Basque country. The limitation of base camp touring is that you often times have to spend a portion of each day just getting in and out of the city. On the upside is that you can travel light and don’t have to unpack your gear each day.

Our hotel was quite near the IMT office so after hauling our gear over, checking out the motos and getting them loaded we were on our way! Craig and I both rented new BMW 1300 GS bikes, which just came out this year. This trip will be a 2000 mile test ride for us on these new bikes.

The IMT guides know where all the best local riding is, so they incorporated these roads into our route. Each day we had a number of favorite moto roads to ride which were IMT approved. These were not always the most direct route but they were almost always good!

Day 1: Barecelona to Costa Brava

The first day was expected to be a pretty easy 220 km route to help us ease into tour mode and get used to navigating. Getting out of Barcelona was a challenge that we were almost not up to and we soon discovered that navigating by committee has some downsides. In the end (including some U-turns) we made our way to our first nights stop on the Costa Brava in Calonge.

The Costa Brava is a rugged section of coastline to the north-east of Barcelona. Many tourist and beach towns dot the coast and the rugged terrain requires many twists and turns to connect them.

Day 2: to Seu d’Urgell

This day would be a little longer at about 240 kms and took us away from the coast and into the Pyrenees proper. Once again following small local roads we rode the shores of Lake Banyoles and on through the towns of Besalu”, Olot and Ripoll before ending our day at our Parador in the picture postcard town of La Seu d’Urgell.

A Parador is an upscale lodging, normally located in an historic building such as a monastery or castle. The accommodations and services are usually superior in category and often include many modern amenities. These State run facilities, found throughout Spain in particularly desirable settings are operated to preserve the past and educate visitors on Spanish history and culture.

Day 3: to Monte Perdido

This day saw us cross our highest pass in the Pyrenees, the Bonaigua which is just under 7000 feet elevation. After having a nice lunch in the valley town of Vielha we climb up the Col de Portillion, a lower pass which leads us into France for a time. I’m not overly fond of French cuisine so we did not stop for snacks in France.

We next crossed over the Col du Peyresourde (1563 meters high) which is a well known pass used many times in the Tour de France bicycle race. It was good to see it in person to put a bit of scale to it! Onward to the villages of Arreau and St. Lary-Soulan after which we started climbing again to the Bielsa Tunnel which would bring us back into Spain.

Back in Spain we head down into the Pineta Valley which leads us to Monte Perdido National Park and our next overnight at Parador Nacional de Bielsa. This National Park is a Unesco World Heritage Site and from our Parador you can see dozens of waterfalls streaming over limestone cliffs. It is a spectacular location!

Day 4: to Tena Valley

The planned route for this day would have us returning to France through the Bielsa Tunnel to do a couple of major passes on the French side (including the Col de Tourmalet), but road construction and the likely major traffic delays forced IMT to re-route us down the Valley instead.

This detour led us into warmer conditions and some very lightly travelled back-roads. We were sorry to have missed the big passes but we did not miss any riding! We ended our 275 kilometer day in Sabinanigo at the Hotel Villa Virginia, a nicely appointed business hotel with our own garage for parking the bikes.

Day 5: to San Sebastion

After leaving our Hotel in the valley we start climbing again into the Navarra region on quiet and twisty roads up to the village of Roncevalles where we had lunch. We are closer now to the Cantabrian Sea and the coastal influence has us riding in the clouds for a time and visibility was only 20 meters or so for quite a few miles! Roncevalles is an important stop on the “Camino de Santiago” (the way of St. James) and we see many modern pilgrims here who are on the trek.

After lunch we cross back into France where we once again avoid the food and coffee. It is a short excursion into the country and then we are in the clouds one more time as we cross over the Col d’Ispeguy and down into the Basque region. You know when your in Basque-land when the language becomes incomprehensible!

We arrive in San Sebastian near the end of our 300+ kilometer day but we are not quite done. We first have to negotiate our way up Monte Igueldo to our Hotel at the top. The Hotel Mercure was quite nice with a lovely view from the our room and well away from the old city.

Day 6: Rest day

There was no need to get on the bikes to get into town since there was a funicular from the hotel down to the waterfront. We used this several times during our visit, not just for sightseeing but also to get to dinner!

Our rest day was one of the wettest that we had so far! The motos were parked outside the hotel without any cover and got rained on all day. We had taken our gear out of the side and top cases but when we checked on them that afternoon they all had leaked. To me it is a great embarrassment that BMW can not seem to make a waterproof case for an adventure bike!

Day 7: to Pamplona

It was a grey morning as we headed out of San Sebastian and everything was wet, but at least it wasn’t raining. We got an early start because we had heard that there was going to be a marathon held in the city and that many streets would be closed. We thought we could get ahead of the closures and we did. The only problem with the early start was that we needed to get some gas first! We finally found an open station with the help of the GPS units and headed back into the hills.

Narrow winding roads and obscure mountain passes gave way to more open river valleys as we headed inland. The weather began to warm up a little bit as well! We had a relatively short day (200 km) and got into Pamplona by early afternoon. Our Hotel Tres Reyes was quite nice with secure parking underground but it was a bit of a trek with our gear to the room. After getting settled in we strolled through the town looking for some Tapas!

Day 8: to Vall de Boi’

This would be our longest day on the bikes at 350 km to our next stop. We had some faster roads in the Pyrenean foothills and the weather was good so we covered more ground than most days.

Immediately after our lunch stop and returning to the bikes I found that mine wouldn’t start. After about 5 minutes of cycling the key and retrying it finally turned over, but all was not well. The bike would run alright but all of the electronics were out. No headlight, brake light, instruments, horn, gauges, windscreen or ABS. All dead!!! We continued on to our hotel in Caldes de Boi, where after getting the bikes unloaded and us checked in I tried some troubleshooting.

Modern bikes are all electronic, basically they are computers on wheels. When your PC crashes the first thing you try is to reboot it, so that’s what we did. Disconnecting the battery and waiting for a few minutes before reconnecting should reset the control module. Fortunately that worked and everything came back on line. WTH BMW?

Day 9: Peramola

This is where we start to work our way out of the Pyrenees and into the lesser hills to the south. There are still a few secondary passes to cross and plenty of twisty roads left to ride, and as we head southeast the weather starts to warm a little.

We knew that we were getting near the end when, from the viewpoint at Coll de Boixols we could see east all the way to Monserrat. Barcelona is just on the other side of these serrated peaks so literally the end was in sight.

Our last hotel in Peramola was magnificent. It was located on a country estate which had been the home of the Pallares family for 10 generations. Over the years it has evolved into a lovely and well appointed 4 star hotel.

Day 10: Barcelona

Our last day was supposed to be an easy 200 km on the bikes and although the distance was not that great we did encounter a few annoying delays which added extra time in the saddle, and not quality time. Road construction, a political protest, an emergency bathroom stop and navigational issues, along with bad luck trying to find lunch held us up along the way.

The final insult was that our GPS devices all were giving different directions back to the IMT office. After a couple of wrong turns and course corrections with the city traffic and the heat, we did manage to find our way back. We turned in the motorbikes and checked into our hotel, pretty much ready to be done and also ready for a cold drink!

Parting thoughts

On the positive side, this tour featured a great route, excellent hotels and near new motorcycles to ride. It is clear that IMT tries to offer riders on their self guided tours the best possible experience. The guides are knowledgeable and friendly with excellent English for those of us who don’t speak Spanish, or more importantly Catalan!

On the negative side, the provided Garmin Nav 5 units were glitchy and unreliable. If you missed a waypoint by even 100 meters it would try and route you back to it unless you realized what had happened and manually skipped to the next one. In congested areas with traffic and frequent turns it was sometimes hard to understand what was happening. Our hotels each night always had restaurants but sometimes the food selections were limited and usually quite pricey. Having more food choices nearby would have been a nice option. Then there were the issues with the motos as these new 1300’s had lots of quirks. This was a BMW problem but if I had known I would have reserved a different bike.

IMT Motorcycle Tours