Off the beaten track

Five great unpaved routes in Europe to put the capabilities of your Pan America^™ (and you!) to the test…

Croatia: Mali Alan Pass
Croatia’s Mali Alan Pass is a 34km stretch of mainly unpaved road set high in the southern part of the Velebit range of the Dinaric Alps. The pass runs south-north from the D54, east of Zaton Obrovački to Sveti Rok, starting as a narrow, paved road but quickly becoming a challenging dirt and gravel surface running through a landscape of scrub and rock spires as it winds up the mountain, with stunning views of the mountain ranges along the Adriatic coast.

The Mali Alan Pass is ideally suited to big off-road bikes like the Pan America™, but don’t let the views take too much of your attention – there are steep sections where the gradient reaches 11 per cent, narrow parts and severe drop-offs to look out for. The entire run should take you two to three hours to reach the peak.

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UK: Fosse Way
The Fosse Way is an ancient Roman road, at one time marking the extent of the western edge of the Roman Empire, running from Lincoln in the north to Exeter in the south. The Fosse Way is a deservedly popular route for off-road bikes with a combination of road surfaces from green lanes to dual carriageways, much of it unpaved, particularly the section from south Gloucestershire into Wiltshire, making it perfect territory for a bike like the Pan America.

The section from Kemble airfield to Sapperton, west of Cirencester in Gloucestershire, will give you a taste of what the Fosse Way has to offer, with eight miles of green lanes, wooded sections and challenging narrow trails allowing you to decide whether to tackle a little more, or even the entirety, of the ancient trail.

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Spain and Andorra: Pic Negre
The Pic Negre is the highest mountain road in the Pyrenees, rising to 2,600m on the boundary between the Escaldes-Engordany and Sant Julià de Lòria parishes of Andorra and the province of Lleida, in the northwestern part of Catalonia in Spain.

The road to the summit is totally unpaved, making it unsuitable for road bikes and the ideal playground of the Pan America. Look out for the famous long-deserted Volkswagen T1, a classic van that has been a landmark of the trail since the 1970s. The Pic Negre is usually open from May to November, but make sure you check current weather conditions before attempting it.  

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Italy: Colle Sommeiller
The 26km Col de Sommeiller is a 2,990m-high mountain pass above Bardonecchia in the Cottian Alps between the Italian and French borders. The road has lakes, hairpins and incredible views and starts off paved as you leave Bardenocchia then, after six kilometres of asphalt, becomes unpaved and far more challenging as it rises and twists past the Lago di Rochemolles reservoir and into the high valley. Make sure you check that the Col is open before attempting it as avalanches, ice and snowfalls are frequent.

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Europe: The Trans Euro Trail
The Trans Euro Trail (TET) is a truly epic off-road motorcycle journey through some of Europe’s most remote landscapes, from the Arctic Circle to the edge of Africa. The trail is a community initiative run by volunteers known as linesmen who chart and manage the network of tracks criss-crossing almost 40 countries and 100,000km.

The Eastern route of the TET passes through Finland, the Baltic states, Poland, Ukraine, Romania, Serbia and Bulgaria then loops to the Bosphorus in Turkey before entering Greece and running up through the Balkans, Italy and into France where it joins the Western arm which has crossed Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, the Low Countries, the UK and France. After meeting in Southern France, the Trans Euro Trail passes through Andorra, Spain and Portugal to reach Tarifa on the Straits of Gibraltar.

The TET website at transeurotrail.org splits the entire 100,000km of the route into more manageable portions which can be downloaded as GPX tracks to a SatNav and followed individually – although a truly adventurous Pan America rider could in theory tackle the entire route.

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