A heavenly ride ends with wrist ache

For any of my Kudu friends you’ll know what I mean when I say that over the years I’ve become more ‘Greecer’ than ‘Tim’s Tours’ mainly due to the time restraints that I always seem to have. On this trip and now with a passenger it’s difficult to get away from that as nearly all of the intended destinations seem to require at least half a day to explore. Having seen Lake Como though, I rightly suspected that there was no rush to see Lake Garda and so set a seriously twisty route on my wonderful GPS towards and through the imposing Dolomite mountain range. And what followed was certainly in my top three riding experiences of all time. I’ve ridden similar passes over mountains before however these were always onboard Des which is a bit like having a massage from a bricklayer that suffers from eczema. Therefor as much as I’m still not a fan, my other two of my top three days of riding have come after not being on tarmac. To say though that Soul is perfect would not be correct. Having put some mileage on him now I can say that overall he’s decent for two up touring. Mirka seems very comfortable riding pillion and I’ll never tire of the growl that he puts out under acceleration. The big 1200cc V-twin makes you feel no difference in weight at all. In a straight line that is. As the bends started to tighten and the sports bikes overtook it was a reminder that this motorcycle is a roadster. This means it's heavier, has a different steering angle and power delivery that requires a different type of riding, certainly not the type to keep up with other lighter, racier bikes. Another thing that I’ve had to feel is how to keep right on the throttle and clutch points i.e. no sudden closing or opening. Doing so makes everything feel very agricultural but get it just right and you can’t help but smile.
The 200km route then was pretty special, so much so that I ended the day with proper (left) wrist ache which unlike for some guys is a good sign! Sheer drops of the mountain roads made the ride all the more thrilling and the views were of course breathtaking. Thankfully though the brakes on Soul are top notch which helped my confidence of riding so heavy. The last 50km or so was the fast slow winding type riding and like the gearbox my wrist was able to take some well earned rest.
After all that, Lake Garda was just a place to eat and sleep before heading south to see how it’s all done properly...