August 24, 2021
Day 6
Seiser Alm on a rented eMTB
First, calling this a ride is questionable. We’ll get to why over the course of the journal.
I rented an ebike for the day over the internet a coupes days ago. The weather looked favorable and it was the first day I could get access to a rental eMountain Bike. Riding on the Alm is no place for my folding touring bike and really wouldn’t be suited to any of the bikes I own so renting was the only option outside of hiking. The Seiser Alm has extensive MTB routes so I decided to try something different.
To get to the Seiser Alm I took the 170 route bus from the bus station directly across from the youth hostel. I wanted to make the 8:40am bus so I had as much time as possible to ride on the alm, but I never get going quickly in the morning and ended up on the 9:10 instead. The ride cost €3.50 each way and takes you up a long windy road cut into the side of the mountain. The drivers must have to go through some serious training to drive there. A bus is not exactly nimble and the road is not exactly straight or wide. When a bus meets a bus going through other way it creates a temporary traffic jam as they negotiate past each other. I sat far enough back that I couldn’t see the screen showing which stop we were at and the bus driver did not announce anything (I’ll bet German bus drivers would announce each stop....) I ended up consulting Google maps to figure out where we were. Good thing, too, or I would have missed the stop for the Panorama Seilbahn station.
There was a bit of a lineup for the Seilbahn, both for tickets, and to get into the gondolas. That was my first clue as to what was to come for the day. I was hoping for my own gondola, but some other hikers jumped in before the doors closed. 2 of them properly wore their masks. The third seemed to think his nose was immune from spreading germs. They all spoke Italian so any complaints from me likely would have been ignored. I don’t speak Italian. Speaking of speaking Italian, I’d say 2/3 to 3/4 of what I hear here is Italian. I think even in Europe people are vacationing near their home. The rest of what I hear is German. Very different from most years. I have yet to encounter a single American or Asian which is very unusual.
Once arrived at the Seiser Alm, I acquired my rental bike. I have not ridden anything but a recumbent in easily a decade. It took me a few minutes to get the handling down. And then I sat on the seat. Wow. Why do people ride diamond frame bikes?? That seat was hard as a rock. I’m not sure padded shorts would have even helped had I thought to bring them with. It was awful. The frame was a bit on the small size for me too so I had to raise the seat all the way. Getting on and off was an adventure too. The top crossbar was fairly high and I am not used to doing ballet moves to get my leg over a cross bar. The shifting wasn’t particularly crisp either. My bikes shift like butter. This one shifted like a rental bike, probably because it WAS a rental bike. It also felt weird having the pedals feel like they were slightly behind the seat. It was just a weird setup overall. Definitely not something I would ever buy. It did have one feature I liked though: the eAssist was quite handy. You didn’t have to do much to get it moving. I started out all in eco mode, but since I wasn’t burning through any battery I kicked it into tour mode and then the thing REALLY took off when you pedaled.
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So enough whining about the bike. Let’s talk about the actual ride. I had some initial directional issues. My gps sometimes get confused and claims I’m off route when I make a quick detour and then takes a bit to sort itself out. That happened to me this morning. Multiple times. The 213 route is signed, but when you’re trying not to run over hikers while being passed by other bikers and navigating with a powerful machine you are not familiar with, navigation tends to go by the wayside. Fortunately I had my phone with me and could consult better maps there than what I have on my gps. That proved very helpful today on multiple occasions.
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The ride is an interesting mix of surfaces. It started out with pretty good pavement. Then as it turned off and headed closer to the mountains on the south the surface turned to mediocre pavement and then to dirt and rock followed by loose rock with washed out sections. I was very glad to have big fat mtb treaded tires. I did not rent a bike with rear suspension though so I ended up standing up most of the ride during the extended coasting sections to try and cushion the ride and give my poor butt a break. I had thought there would be a fair amount of elevation gain during the ride, but I found the majority of the time was downhill, sometimes ridiculously steep downhill for long periods on washed out surfaces with loose gravel. I am also happy to say that the disc brakes I had worked so very nicely and were a great change from yesterday with rim brakes. Most of the braking got down with the front brake since the rear wheel will wander around in the gravel if you brake too hard. Fortunately I’m used to that from riding recumbent and was able to keep good control of the bike the whole time. I also enjoyed not having to worry about popping a tube. Despite the lengthy steep descents I had no problems with loosing braking power. It’s a mountain bike. This is what it’s built for.
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The first half of the ride I had to contend with an incredible number of hikers and bikers. Families, friends out for a ride, a large group ride, just people everywhere. Usually when I head up on the mountain I encounter a few hikers at most. This was more like a theme park. I get it. The scenery is great here, but this is classic over tourism and to me it detracted from the experience. I don’t know if there are routes here with fewer people or not. I only rode the 213.
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I wanted to eat lunch at one of the many refuges along the route. Usually they serve traditional dishes and I wanted to have Knödel. It took me several aborted attempts to find someplace that wasn’t overrun. The two I tried first had no seats free and the waitresses didn’t seem too interested in seating any potential customers. I finally found a place around 2:30. I got my Knödel and a Fanta and paid close to €20 for it. Theme park food prices even. The Knödel were a bit dry for my tastes and were shaped like a log rather than a ball like I’m used to seeing in Germany and Austria. They were okay, but not at all worth what I paid. Now that I’ve had my Knödel I’ll go back to raiding bakeries for lunch or stop at a grocery store. I have yet to have a meal here that I'm impressed with. I’m starting to think Italians in the mountains are bad at cooking.
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The ride after lunch was quite different. First, clouds moved in along with some wind and it got chilly with the occasional minor sprinkle. It provided a different and more dramatic backdrop to the ride. It also justified in my mine returning the bike before the 6:30 deadline (it ended up being around 5 or so when I finished.) This portion of the ride on the north side of the Alm leads through two more substantial towns, Wolkenstien and St Ulrich. Both are clearly resort towns overflowing with tourists. You’d think that would mean a good bakery, but I searched around St Ulrich and never found one. So I gave up and took the cable car up the mountain. If I thought lunch was a ripoff, the cable car was just as bad. Nearly €20 for me and the bike to get to the top. It appears on maps that there is an unpaved trail to the top. It must be a terrible surface if the official route doesn’t recommend it. That, or the cable car company paid off the route planners so they could make more money off unsuspecting bikers. I certainly had ample battery to have ridden up the mountain and given that I never went beyond the 2nd of 4 assist levels, I’m sure the bike could ab made it up the mountain without straining.
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The route back from the Seilbahn station was back up on the Seiser Alm. By now it really was chilly and windy and sprinkly so I did my best to cut back on pictures and ride. There were no significant hills and most of it was mediocre pavement. With the change in the weather it also cut down on cyclists and hikers so that was an added bonus. My butt was pretty sore by this point and that added to the motivation to finish up the ride. This part was probably about the quickest I rode the whole day.
The Seilbahn ride back down was uneventful. This time I got a gondola all to myself. I’ve had enough of these rides now that I no longer feel the need to video everything I see on the ah up or down. The bus ride back was largely uneventful as well, though I did spot a small brown snake near the bus stop that I kept a watchful eye on to make sure he did not come INTO the bus stop.
After the financial outlay of the day I opted to stop in to a local grocery store where, for half what I spent on lunch, I got a big salad, a large container of European plums, a Ritter Sport bar of coconut chocolate, and a 3 pack of Knoppers Nussriegel. The salad had no dressing, but it was healthy and finally some fruit and vegetables which have been in short supply lately.
Tomorrow I’ve got a reasonable length ride down to the Kalterer See, a lake south of here. Before I head down there I will swap my front and rear tire and attend to the rubbing rear derailleur. I’ll also do a thorough once over on the bike to make sure there are no other loose bits before I do any further riding. Then I will do my 30 miler which should avoid any long descents or evil climbs and revel in the glory of a comfortable seat with a nice padded neck rest.
In summary, I can now say I’ve been to the highest Alm in europe. I have my pictures, I’ve tried out an ebike, and now I don’t feel obligated to do any of those things again.
And finally, my thoughts on ebikes. I get the draw. Having that amount of easy power is definitely addicting. I can see the use of you commute by bike or live in a hilly area. For me it doesn’t make sense at this point. First, I prefer riding slow when going up and down hill. I like to marinate in the scenery. Second, there is a legal size limit on batteries on international flights which would preclude the transportation of an ebike. Where I live I don’t need an ebike. Maybe in my velomobile one could come in handy for help accelerating and going uphill if I were to use it for commuting, but otherwise I don’t have a reason to go electric. I do know that it has helped a lot of people get back into biking or just plain start biking period and for that I’m glad. It was amusing to pedal with zero effort up the hills today though.
Today's ride: 23 miles (37 km)
Total: 140 miles (225 km)
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2 years ago
2 years ago
To improve the performance of your rim brakes you could try softer pads like Koolstop salmon. They wear a bit faster but are kinder to your rims not wearing them down as fast as harder pads.
An alternative to your continous braking to hold your speed down to 20 mph is to just let the bike go on the straight bits then brake hard before each corner. I have no problem descending on our tandem with a crew weight of 125kg about 275 pounds plus 25kg of luggage using Shimano XT V brakes.
YMMV
Mike
2 years ago
2 years ago
2 years ago