Searching For the Perfect Motorcycle Adventure: A Scout's Life Part 1

Look back on the motorcycles offered in the 1980s, and they can be remembered as very good, very fun machines. But they hardly compare to what's on the market now. Likewise, when my wife and I traveled overseas for our first packaged motorcycle tour about three decades ago, that trip was great fun. But the riding adventures now offered all around the globe have multiplied tremendously in choice and advanced in sophistication. In fact, sorting through the huge variety of motorcycle tours available will just about plunge you into a travel-fantasy coma. Yet growing demands push tour companies to keep working up new two-wheel destinations and itineraries.

I thoroughly enjoyed a new-for-2015 ride introduced by Edelweiss Bike Travel, their Mediterranean Alps Extreme Tour that packs in nine or 10 hours of riding every day on super-tight, super-twisty two-laners—the perfect match for me. Guide Michael Göbel set a fast and fun pace that had me literally laughing and howling inside my helmet. That prompted me to pepper him with questions: How do you find such great roads? How do you pick the best road in one area? Do you ever scout a road and it doesn't work out? How do you remember where to transition from one road to another? How do you find great hotels, restaurants and coffee stops on these routes? After shunting aside his full set of pat answers, in time I wore Michael down. Finally he said, "Why don't you come along on a scouting trip for a new 2016 tour? Then you can see for yourself how it's done."

Following a flurry of emails, November of 2015 found me in Catania, on the eastern side of Sicily, to do just that. Michael had other assignments to tend to, so Edelweiss paired me with Manuel Marabese, a 30-something, very affable and experienced guide charged with scouting two new rides for the 2016 season: Around Mount Etna and a revised Tour of Sicily catering to Harley-Davidson riders exclusively.

I arrived in Sicily ahead of Manuel, and Edelweiss allowed me early use of a BMW F 700 GS. There were a few sites I wanted to visit before we got down to business, but more importantly, I also wanted to navigate on my own for a few days to establish a baseline experience.

I’m an experienced world traveler, and I’ve planned and led countless group rides for motorcycle-industry comparison tests, photo shoots, press intros, and yes, even fun trips. But it’s work to do all that, and doubly so in a foreign country. Bottom line: I eventually arrived at all the places in Sicily I planned to see on my own. But the process was not smooth—filled with hassles, wrong-way turns, language barriers, closed restaurants and more. Much wasted time.

All those headaches evaporated the instant Manuel took over. No longer glued to my map and GPS, I just followed Manuel worry-free and enjoyed the roads and scenery. The smoldering volcano of Mount Etna—one of the most active in the world—sits only a short distance north of Catania, and soon we entered the cold, cloudy gloom sheathing its 11,000-foot upper slopes. Slick roads still wetted by runoff from torrential rains that had soaked the island earlier slowed our pace, but the vistas had my head on a swivel anyhow.

Temperatures rose as we swooped downward to sun-drenched rolling hills dotted with farms; fine riding country. Lava rock walls fenced off front yards and demarcated parcels, evidence of fields cleared of nature’s building blocks over centuries of toil. Fruit stands/trucks sat just off the road to offer their freshest wares, and as we rolled through a succession of tiny villages Manuel stopped often to mark waypoints and intersections on his GPS.

After checking his map in one town, he then nodded toward a little courtyard and suggested a stop. “This is a good spot for coffee with a group since there’s plenty of parking for 10 bikes,” he said as we knocked back quick cappuccinos. “But I think I need to go back to that last junction and find a better route into town. Do you mind going back?”

“Look,” I told him, “I know it’s hard for you, but please remember that you’re not a tour guide on this trip. You have scout work to do and I’m just tagging along. You don’t have to ask me about anything; I’m game for everything.” Highly unlikely that his guide instincts would be quashed so easily, but Manuel gave a grin and a nod, and we set off for more.

Along with the wealth of spectacular seaside spots we scouted, Sicily’s interior holds scattered flat plains, always hemmed in by panoramic hills and mountains. Archeological remains indicate people living on the island as early as 12,000 BC, and recorded history began about 750 BC when Phoenicians and Greeks first established colonies. In those ancient times, people often built villages on high ground: better views of the surrounding countryside for advanced warning of attack, and they also served as strong defensive positions to fend off invaders. Therefore, nearly all towns in Sicily’s interior sit on hilltops, and old walls, towers and castles—fortifications for battle—abound.

These hill towns expanded over the years but the central, oldest portions still incorporate the original main road, usually paved with cobblestones and originally designed for oxcart traffic. Hence their narrow size and cramped quarters, typically single-lane streets. If you travel by four wheels that vehicle better be small; we watched a woman piloting a big Land Rover SUV contemplate one narrow lane only to back off because the fit was impossible.

In the town of Castelbuono, we stumbled on an amazing sight: garbage donkeys! The compressed neighborhoods barely admit one-way traffic, and on garbage collection days even the smallest vehicles would clog a road over its entire length during pick-ups. But a garbage collector on foot can easily pile bags of refuse into pannier boxes mounted on a donkey, and the animal can be shoved to one side to let vehicles pass by. Amazing, ingenious, and certainly a sight we’ll never see back home!

You can find Part 2 to Ken Lee's adventure here