2024-05-10 07:11:05
MERANO. It is becoming very popular online YouTube channel of the Lombard couple “The Moon Riders” that with a series of videos mostly shot on the Stelvio in the summer seasons explains the situation in their own way motorcycle overcrowding on the SS38 and a series of behaviors contrary to the highway code of bikers such as risky overtaking, lane invasions and falls on the hairpin bends of the state road. State road which, barring surprises, will reopen to transit starting from June 1st and will close again on November 3rd.
The pass.
A road, the SS38, which from the town of Gomagoi leads to the 2757 meters of the Stelvio Pass, considered by all bikers to be particularly “difficult” as it is narrow in the last stretch and dotted with U-shaped hairpin bends with differences in height of even more than two metres. Difficulties that often lead motorcyclists to disastrous falls – filmed by our couple – in particular at the height of the curves where for some years there have even been photojournalists available who immortalize the centaurs on the Stelvio roads and then sell them the photos taken.
«Widen it and tighten it at the exit of the curve. It’s a life lesson!”, explains the social couple in the videos available on YouTube but which can be seen on practically all the main social networks. Tens of thousands of views on the well-made contributions from a technical point of view but often commented on very heavily by users, so much so as to push the couple to clarify the intent of their action: «We want to give the best possible example , especially to the younger ones, making it clear that you can also have fun with motorbike touring, without risking killing yourself every time you get on a motorbike. We are, unfortunately, also aware of the fact that if not even the photos of cancer on cigarette packets are a strong enough deterrent to stop smoking, then we will certainly not be the ones to change the mentality of the so-called pace geeks”, their words.
Violations.
Having made this clarification, the two in their videos explore the two roads that allow you to reach the Stelvio, the one on the Lombard side is wider and more drivable, the one on the South Tyrolean side is narrow and tortuous. Videos that show a series of driving behaviors that are borderline reckless or completely contrary to the highway code such as overtaking despite the presence of a continuous line even near curves.
«If I don’t see, do you think I risk an overtaking with the possibility of a truck coming from the other side?», the comment of one of the authors of the videos in relation to a crazy overtaking video filmed using a GoPro on board on the helmet. Extremely dangerous overtaking documented by the couple on the Lombard side, even in the tunnel and a few meters before a blind curve. “They are crazy! Here we need to make the sign of the cross”, the live comment of Luna, one of the two Moon Riders, upon yet another thrilling overtaking by a motorcyclist to say the least. A comment that did not fail to trigger adverse reactions: “How dare you judge the driving of others”, a user’s comment against the two authors of the video. Not only undisciplined driving but also many falls by evidently impractical motorcyclists among the narrow hairpin bends of the South Tyrolean side, fatally filmed by the two videomakers.
Traffic.
Instead, in a comment on one of the various videos, a user wisely broadens his gaze to the extreme traffic situation on the pass, especially with the arrival of summer, on weekends: «The Stelvio is a very beautiful and very technical panoramic pass, for many it is an amusement park and for many it is a simple destination. On weekends you can normally find packs of racers everywhere but here on the Stelvio the cocktail is much more elaborate: cars, motorbikes, bicycles, some buses”, the user clarifies.
Then, a comment from another self-critical user towards the biker category: «There are roads that on weekends are literally exchanged for open and free slopes and the Stelvio is one of these but dozens could be mentioned throughout Italy such as the Cisa , the Raticosa or the Futa. We should have the coherence and objectivity to admit it and to tell ourselves that a change of attitude is really needed. Then – continues the user – the discussion is transversal because there are also cars that create enormous danger situations, even if we on two wheels represent the weak part. I don’t care about being right after I’ve had an accident and find myself with a broken femur, a dislocated shoulder and a fractured collarbone”, the motorcyclist’s bitter conclusion on which it would be worth raising a reflection.
2024-05-10 07:11:05