Swiss National Mountain Biking Routes experience?

EnglishChris

Hi,

I'm planning a bit of a tour in the summer. Probably bike down to Switzerland to visit some friends and then head on down and around the Med coast to Barcelona to visit another friend. I'll be using a On-One Inbred built up as a tourer.

I've been looking at routes through Switzerland and have come across 3 National Mountain BIking Routes which essentially run the length of the country. I'd like to integrate one into my route.

Info here: http://www.mountainbikeland.ch/en/routen_list.cfm?tour=route&art=national

Route 1 (Alpine Bike) is the most difficult both in height and technicality and an account of the route by someone on the site in English suggests that it would be too difficult to do with a fully loaded bike and panniers etc.

Route 2 (Panorama Bike) looks more do-able and has the benefit that one end is virtually at my friends place in St Gallen. However, there are no accounts of this route in English, and the guide book is also only available in French or German (the Alpine guide book also come in English!).

Route 3 (Jura Bike) looks easier still but isn't in the best location. Guide books and accounts only in French and German again.

Does anyone have experience of doing the Panorama Bike or the Jura Bike Routes? Can you advise how difficult it is, both technically and fitness (height) wise, and whether its feasible to do on a touring mountain bike with panniers?

Many thanks, Chris

andymiller

Take a punt and buy the guidebook of the one that looks like the most likely prospect? You should be able to learn enough French to translate basic route instructions - and the maps and altitude profiles shouldn't need translation.

My basic rule of thumb is that 'sentiers' (footpaths) are often do-able with panniers downhill but may well not be do-able going uphill. 'Chemins d'expoitation' should be do-able in both directions.

cycladelic

My wife and I cycled from Chamonix to Switzeraland.. including a bit of Route 1. There's a short journal here...

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=R ... =6710&v=7c

I'm sure you'll find other journals on the Crazy Guy site if you do a search.

EnglishChris

andymiller wrote:

Take a punt and buy the guidebook of the one that looks like the most likely prospect? You should be able to learn enough French to translate basic route instructions - and the maps and altitude profiles shouldn't need translation.

My basic rule of thumb is that 'sentiers' (footpaths) are often do-able with panniers downhill but may well not be do-able going uphill. 'Chemins d'expoitation' should be do-able in both directions.

Thanks - I've got the French version of the Guide Book for the Panorama Route on its way. Just need to recall some schoolboy French lessons...!

My wife and I cycled from Chamonix to Switzeraland.. including a bit of Route 1. There's a short journal here...

http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/?o=R ... =6710&v=7c

I'm sure you'll find other journals on the Crazy Guy site if you do a search.

Great - I'll have a look. Thanks!

andreaBiker

Hi Chris,

I've been working on the same problem -- lack of english guide books for swiss routes. Through lots of searching, I found this great looking guidebook by Cicerone. It's available for 20$ on amazon.

http://www.cicerone.co.uk/product/detai ... witzerland

It should be arriving any day, I'll let you know what it's like,

Happy riding,

Andrea

EnglishChris

andreaBiker wrote:

Hi Chris,

I've been working on the same problem -- lack of english guide books for swiss routes. Through lots of searching, I found this great looking guidebook by Cicerone. It's available for 20$ on amazon.

http://www.cicerone.co.uk/product/detai ... witzerland

It should be arriving any day, I'll let you know what it's like,

Happy riding,

Andrea

Awesome. (How come I didn't come across that guide!?). Definitely let me know whether that guide is any good - it looks like exactly what I'm after - focussed on touring but includes the three alpine routes as well as the other more touring bike routes.

I got the French language guide to Panorama route and am going to have to get my Mum to read it to me to identify anything of interest / concern (quicker than trawling it with my French dictionary!).

Thanks for letting me know. When are you heading to Switzerland, and what kind of route do you think you'll be doing?

Chris

andymiller

While an English guidebook is always going to be useful (especially if it covers the routes you want) you can get a lot of information without having to trawl through a dictionary. Enough at least to give you an idea of whether the route is feasible with panniers.

Most 'roadbooks' have a fairly common format - there's usually a bit at the start of each section (called something like a 'fiche technique') that gives you the key information which is then followed by more detailed directions. To start with I'd focus on the first bit and if you can find your way around this then you're off to a good start. These parts of the roadbook usually tell you how long that section of the route is, how much climbing is involved, how much is on tarmac and how much on dirt/gravel (or alternatively how much is route/chemin/piste/sentier). It should also indicate how physically hard the section is and how technically difficult - and often how much is rideable.

As far as the detailed directions are concerned, you may need to spend some more time with a dictionary, but once you've learnt a few key phrases (eg à droit, à gauche, tout droit) you should be well on the way.

And of course any decent guidebook should have maps and altitude profiles which will give you a ton of information.