Tag Archives: travel

Everything and the Kitchen Sink on a Sports Bike (on a budget)

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At least twice now I’ve been asked how I manage to pack up my S1000RR, so I feel that warrants a blog post. How do you load up a sports bike for weeks or months of travel? I have limited knowledge but hopefully with what I do know, I can point you in the right direction and can say with confidence that it is possible to get what you need on a sports bike and you don’t need a GS to enjoy tent life. 

My first experience with sports bike touring (with tent, I need a name for this… sports bike tent life?) was fairly early into my motorcycle journey, I had my Ninja 300 and went to France for a long weekend with some new friends, to camp and attend a classic motorcycle event. I was left to my own devices to purchase a tent, camping equipment and a method of getting the lot onto my little green bike. I went running to J&S to purchase the cheapest throw over panniers I could get my hands on, and then to SportsDirect for a tent that packed small enough to sit on my pillion seat. With an obscene amount of bungee cords I was able to secure everything I thought I needed onto the bike, fairly neatly. 

It wouldn’t be particularly exciting to tell you that my £50 canvas panniers lasted nearly 10 years, went onto every bike I made them fit to (bungee cords, brute force, whatever it took…) and kept safe their contents, until a mysterious hole appeared in one after a long weekend on an SV650 of all things. You’d expect me to tell you that cheap panniers are useless, and follow that up with expensive recommendations, but deep down you want the budget friendly option to work – good news, it does. I took an R1 across Wales in endless rain, with a bin bag and bungees instead of proper luggage, and although it was a royal nightmare to access my belongings and it looked stupid, it worked.

So my first piece of advice – don’t Klarna your luggage* – you don’t need to. Buy what you can afford, work your way up.

The first most important thing about your luggage – it needs to stay on the bike. Ideally it shouldn’t wobble, it should be visibly level, about the same weight on either side, it shouldn’t touch your exhaust or cover your tail lights and indicators. Once loaded up, there should be enough room left on the bike for your to squeeze your butt on the seat and maybe even move around a little. With a sports bike, there is usually only a small pillion seat, and very rarely is there any anchor points. What sports bike owners usually do at the first opportunity upon purchasing said bike, is remove precious anchor points. Pillion pegs and massive tail tidies are extremely useful for touring, together they create the perfect set of anchor points for securing bungee cords, straps, anything – and you already hate the way they look, so it doesn’t matter if they get scratched up.

(Speaking of scratching up your poor bike, before you put anything on it, best protect its shiny delicate surfaces. There are several products you can purchase to put over sensitive spots – spongy luggage mesh/web is the best and can be bought cheaply, as can some soft foam postal packaging. Electrical tape can be wrapped round subframes, exhaust hangers etc.)

I’m going to mention bungee/rok straps a few times. I started with bungee cords and ended up with rok straps after many, many people told me I should be using rok straps instead of bungee cords. Both are great, bungee cords are simple, cheap and easy to get hold of, rok straps are more secure and effective for holding luggage in place.

The second most important thing about your luggage – the things inside it shouldn’t get wet. That doesn’t mean your luggage needs to be waterproof, but it does help. Lots of luggage products out there aren’t waterproof, some come with waterproof outer covers, but what is probably more effective (than a bag cover flapping around in the wind…) is putting your belongings into a waterproof bag and putting that bag inside your outer luggage. Dry bags are a good investment, supermarket plastic carrier bags also work. A budget conscious motorcyclist knows that plastic carriers bags are a gift directly from God. If something gets wet, keep it away from your dry things, carry spare bags. 

So, with these two things in mind, you need to find a set of panniers, or luggage solution that’ll fit most of your kit inside. Side panniers are fantastic because as well as providing a lot of storage, they widen your pillion seat so you can pile more stuff on top of it. Most manufacturers now produce bike-specific panniers, and so the panniers you see on my RR are straight from BMW. SW Motech make a very similar product, both brands fit the bike beautifully, are durable, and well designed. They aren’t cheap – around £350-£400, I imaging they’ll be a similar price for all bikes and it does mean if you buy a new bike you’ll have to buy new panniers. If you don’t want to fork out for this, or can’t find a specific product for your bike, there are a lot of generic options to choose from. Throw over panniers are exactly that, two bags connected by straps that you throw over your back seat, half straps go under the pillion seat fixture stopping it from shifting, half go over the top to pull them tight to the bike, and then you secure it firmly with additional straps/bungees – this works on everything with a back seat/cowl, a bit fiddly to fit but won’t give you any problems once it’s on. You can spend £50 to hundreds on throw over panniers and as I mentioned earlier, they can last years, just don’t let them hang near your exhaust.

Once you have panniers, you have a much wider base for the rest of your luggage. I used my panniers for cooking equipment, half my clothes, and things I wouldn’t need regularly, or that I’d only need once I’d removed the things stored on top. Now you can fit a tail bag, roll bag, or – if you’ve got a massive tent – your tent. With a wider base you now have freedom to be creative with what you pack and how. Previously, when I used a much larger tent, I’d go for a pyramid shape – lie my tent across the back seat, put my clothes in a gym bag, and build a pyramid of these items along with sleeping bag and mattress, throw a tarp over the lot, and secure it with bungee straps and/or rok straps. This is a relatively easy and fail safe system, it’s also free. The downside of piling everything up like this is it can be awkward for one person to both balance the items onto the back seat while reaching about to secure it; if you’re in a group you can obviously help each other, if not, it can be frustrating but eventually will become a part of life – just make sure you carry plenty of spare straps/bungees because you’ll find things never go onto the bike the same way twice.

Currently, I use a Kreiga luggage system. My products of choice are the 30 litre dry bag, and two 10 litre dry bags attached to each side, which – once full – come out no wider than my panniers and fit beautifully. I can squeeze my tent and sleeping equipment into the 30ltr central bag, and my clothing into each 10ltr bags. The Kreiga US dry bags fit to any bike, including sports bikes, using a hook and loop system – you secure four loops under your pillion seat, and the bags attach to these hoops and tighten up so the bags don’t wobble and can’t fall off. The Kreiga bags are also completely waterproof. A system like this makes life much easier, you can remove your luggage from your bike and put it back on in one piece and pull items out without disturbing the rest of your belongings. 

By this point, you should have been able to find a home on your bike for your large essential items – tent, sleeping bag, clothing, cook set, tools. I haven’t given any recommendations for tent/sleeping equipment yet. I started out with a tent from SportsDirect, this was a £35 tent, not awful, but it was big, it packed down big, and one year it was flattened by the wind, but it did a good job until then, so I wouldn’t want to discourage someone just starting out by saying you need to go out and spend £100 on a tent. If you can make your cheap festival tent fit on your bike – that’s an ok place to start. 

For those curious – I currently have three tents, all from OEX which is a decent fairly budget friendly outdoor brand. My favourite tent at the moment is my OEX Phoxx ii vii, this is a two man tent – but they’d have to be two very skinny men. It’s perfect for one person, and their stuff. It packs down small enough to fit inside and take up only half of my Kreiga 30 Litre dry bag, and so it goes inside my luggage instead of on top. I also have a Phoxx i – the one man version, this packs even smaller but is extremely small to live in, and really only suitable for dry weather when they only time you need to be inside the tent is to sleep. My third tent is the OEX Jackal ii – this is much bigger, and my favourite tent to live in, it has room to sit up properly and spread out, and it has a porch so you can cook outside with a bit of shelter. Unfortunately the Jackal doesn’t pack up small enough to go inside my luggage, but it balances on the back seat nicely if I don’t use my Kriega system and instead revert to the pyramid. These are three good tents that cost from £80.00 to £200.00 depending on outlet and deals at the time – I’ve never paid full price for any – they’re always on offer somewhere. 

There are better and more suitable tents out there, for a price, or maybe even cheaper if you do some digging. The one thing I will say, avoid paying hundreds for a tent that’s marketed towards motorcyclists – a lot of it is just that – marketing. Do a bit of research and buy a tent that packs small, goes up and down easily, and keeps water and moisture out. Your bike does not need its own tent garage (unless it’s constantly breaking and you need a home-from-home workshop in the evenings), you’ll end up carrying around twice as much tent so that an outdoor vehicle can have its own house. But if that appeals, go for it, I notice a lot of them and don’t understand why you’d want the extra faff. I would also feel very uncomfortable sleeping within falling distance of my bike. 

I carry a cheap tarpaulin, and lay this down on the ground first and put my tent on top it it. It keeps the bottom of the tent clean and dry, provides a bit of insulation and cushion, and you can pull a bit out from under the tent and sit on it if you tent doesn’t have a porch. Normally I roll this up and wedge it above my number plate – or I use it to keep my luggage pyramid dry.

Sleeping bags, like tents, are subject to budget first, then space. I am currently using two sleeping bags, because two small bags pack up in a better shape than one big one – it fits my system perfectly, but what works for me won’t always work for someone else. My recommendation here is to measure how much space you can afford to give to a sleeping bag once everything else is on the bike, and get the best you can that fits into that space. You can purchase stuff sacks, so if your sleeping bag packs short and wide and your remaining space is long and thin – look to purchase a long thin stuff sack and keep your sleeping bag in that instead. Similarly, sleeping mats come in many sizes, see how much room you have left and get something compact. Pillows are a final thought, generally I just use my jacket and pants as a pillow – since they take up space anyway, I might as well use them.

I don’t have recommendations at all for cooking equipment, I spent less than £50.00 on my camping cook set and stove – Decathlon or a similar physical shop is your friend. Take your panniers to the shop with you and make sure it’ll all fit. If you’re traveling with friends, collaborate to save space. If you’re planning to cook and eat outside, the very minimum you need is a stove and gas, a cooking tin – preferably a deep one that you can also eat out of, a knife and fork, mug or cup, a tiny bottle of washing up liquid and sponge, and a lighter. There’s a lot of fancy products out there but actually a pair of mess tins for £7.00 will do the job while you find your feet. You can attach a bungee net over the top of your tail luggage and wedge groceries in this on your way to your evening stop if you want to cook, but you might not have the room to carry ingredients around all the time, and when traveling alone it’s difficult to buy ingredients for one person for one meal – if you can, keep some space in your luggage and carry tupperware containers so you can keep leftovers to reheat (keep food items in their own plastic bag, or they’ll leak everywhere).

This should be your essentials, now loaded onto your bike! You have a few more places on a sports bike where you can store things. A tank bag is a great tool to keep items you need to access quickly, and there’s a lot of good options out there for tank bags. It used to be that you’d have a magnetic tank bag and one side fits basically everything, then, tanks were made out of plastic, or metal that magnets don’t stick to, and magnetic tank bags became useless (I should I know, I had the cutest little one that I had to stop using). The current popular tank bag solution is a bike specific tank ring, and bag that attaches to the ring. SW Motech and Givi do great products and there’s loads of bags to choose from – it is confusing though trying to figure out what fits what, if I were shopping, I’d go to a store and ask someone to work it all out for me. I had an SW Motech tank bag and fitting for my RR but swapped after a year for a Kreiga tank adapter and small dry bag. I swapped for several reasons – I liked the way to Kriega products looked, particularly matching the rest of my luggage, but also because I didn’t like the magnetic locking mechanism on the SW Motech product and worried that if it broke somehow, I wouldn’t be able to access my fuel cap. So the Kreiga one makes me feel a lot happier, because the whole thing comes away with the snap of a plastic clip when I need to fill up, it was also a good bit cheaper, and the bag is waterproof.

Finally, you may be tempted to wear a backpack. I use a waterproof backpack but I’m very strict about what goes in there – my passport, my phone charger and camera, that’s it. If you put too much in it you won’t be able to sit up and stretch your back out when you’ve got all your luggage on the back. 

For power, and this is a problem specific to sports bikes, you’ll probably need a power bank. Yes you can fit a charger port to your bike, but sports bikes have itty bitty batteries so when you’re not riding you should avoid using it to charge your electronics. Amazon offers a wealth of power banks and for £30-£50 you can get a nice one that’ll charge your phone for about a week and fit into a backpack.

That’s it, that’s everything! It’s an unusual situation, to be touring with a sports bike, but it can be done, and it’s possible to do it cheaply until you find products you love that you want to invest in. We live in irritatingly expensive times, so resorting to plastic bags and bungees is an absolutely ok way to dip your toe into something new. I hope this blog has inspired or encouraged someone to give it a go, and think twice about swapping their beloved sports bike for a touring machine under the assumption that they need one to travel. 

* don’t Klarna your luggage – unless you want to ❤ no judgement. This blog is for the budget conscious or for those wanting to try something without investing.

S1000RR to Nordkapp 2023

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This is a bit late, but I wanted to write a blog about my trip to Norway in 2023 (for all of you who read). 

Norway has been on my list for so long, and there’s not a very inspiring reason for me wanting to go. I worked in J&S Accessories for a while back in 2018 and we sold a pair of waterproof trousers called ’Tromso’, I thought that was a daft name for a pair of pants so I googled what it meant and learned about the town in the north of Norway. It looked other worldly – bleak and cold but fascinating at the same time, and I thought it’d be interesting to see if you could ride there. The thought stuck with me, and eventually I had a proper look on Google Maps and decided I wanted to go – for a bit of a joke. After yet more googling I found that the road kept going North and you would eventually get to Nordkapp – the most northern point in Europe reachable without needing a boat or plane, I decided if I was going to go for Tromso I might as well get to Nordkapp, so Nordkapp became the goal for this weird little fantasy I had. Fast forward to 2020 and I got serious about it, and started trying to teach myself Norwegian and spent hours amounting to days – pouring through Google Maps learning the routes and obsessing over the scenery, imagining myself riding there. Each year I told myself I’d do it, but it was an outlandish idea to me – I’d need more than two weeks, I’d have go on my own, it’d be scary and expensive. When 2023 rolled round I had to give myself a proper kick and after half a year of worrying about how I’d feel if I didn’t go, I asked for 3 weeks holiday from my job, and I booked a boat.

Solo travel requires as much or as little planning as you want, apparently. I had saved enough money to get me up and down if I was relatively careful, and the trip was booked for September the 8th. I chose September for a couple of reasons – it felt like the most considerate time to take 3 weeks away from my job, and gave me the notice I needed to scrape together enough money. I budgeted £3,000 for the trip which would include any kit I needed to buy and everything I needed to spend while I was there. The RR also needed its 12k mile service, and assuming I’d do 6,000 miles while away it’d need its 18k mile service as soon as we got back, so two bookings were made at Bahnstormer BMW, and when all was said and done I probably spent £2,000 on the bike in the months surrounding the trip. I already had luggage ready to go from Kriega, plenty of space to store camping equipment, warm layers and some cheap packet noodles. The bike got some fresh Pirelli Angel GT II tyres which are my go to tyre, they last through anything, and are brilliant in bad road conditions. I was sent a new Klim Artemis suit – reliable waterproof kit was absolutely crucial and I’ve heard nothing but amazing reviews for Klim. The only few bits of actual planning I did included booking the boat from the UK to France, booking two nights accommodation – my first night in Germany, my second night at the top of Denmark, and then my boat from the top of Denmark to the bottom of Norway. I’d been told that while in Norway you can easily get away with booking a night’s stay a few hours before you arrive, or in some cases you can simply show up to a campsite and ask to stay. 

There’s no easy route to Norway unless you want to get on a plane. I believe there’s a boat that goes from the Netherlands somewhere to Bergen, but it’s expensive and slow. There are two bike friendly ways to get there once you’ve crossed from the UK into France, one is to ride through Sweden, the other is to get the boat from the top of Denmark to Kristiansand at the bottom of Norway. I took the boat (I do like boats), which meant 950 miles of riding the motorways through France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany and Denmark. After taking the overnight ferry from the south coast of England to the north coast of France, I rode 500 miles to Germany, then the following day, 400 miles to the top of Denmark where I spent another night close to the ferry port to get on the morning boat crossing to Norway. This was my first time riding alone out of the UK, but not my first time riding abroad, and not my first time crossing a border alone, so although I was nervous, I have done bits of this before, just not both together. I had to remind myself that getting on boats is easy and there’s absolutely no reason why my passport would be rejected. On my first experience riding through France nearly 10 years ago I got off the ferry and found that my phone and my cards stopped working, and the group I was with had to help me for the entire journey, even though that doesn’t happen any more, I was still worried it’d happen this time, and so the first thing I did on arrival to France was find a petrol station and make sure everything worked. It did, so I could relax. (When you travel abroad you have to tell your insurance company, and travel insurance that includes cover for motorcyclists is recommended, you no longer have to inform your bank or your phone company.) The language barrier is a minor cause for concern. I can manage the smallest amount of German and I thought my Norwegian was getting pretty good, as it turns out, everyone speaks English. Still, I tried my best to use my languages and it felt great when I was able to fool people into thinking I was competent.

I spent my first night in Norway in my tent. As expected, I exited the boat to a miserable rainy day that was quickly coming to an end, I fuelled the bike up, checked that my cards and phone still worked, and found an open campsite a few hundred miles away. The campsite wasn’t very inspiring, it was flat, mostly empty of life, and close to the road so you could hear traffic. I was happy enough that I’d made it to Norway and everything worked. Finding accommodation in Norway turned out to be easy, there’s phone signal everywhere, you can find campsites on Google Maps and phone them to check they’re open and have space. In September, lots of campsites are closed or only take bookings online with keyless access and this doesn’t include camping with a tent, so calling ahead is recommended. I ended up using Air BnB a lot, the average cost for a good place to stay is £50.00 and I could book easily the day I needed to turn up. Norway is full of little cabins that you can use, most are £50.00-£150.00 for a cabin with a few beds and basic facilities but in busier areas they are usually fully booked. Campsites, whether you’re camping or using a cabin, have good facilities with toilet and shower blocks, laundry rooms, wifi and in many cases an onsite restaurant and shop. 

The Norwegian roads were everything I’d dreamed they’d be. The stunning views kept coming at me, there was little traffic. The biggest thing I had to adjust to was the boats, because so much of Norway is water there are endless tunnels, bridges and boat crossings. Across the whole country, particularly the south coast and the north, there are ferries that carry people and vehicles across water, the road comes to a stop and you have to wait for the boat which goes back and forth or sometimes over three stops. On some days I’d have to get on four different boats! These, as it turned out, were very easy to navigate, I set up ‘FerryPay’ on my phone, so I wouldn’t need to pay each time and could go and use the facilities on the boat and my credit card would be charged overnight for the crossings I used. Each boat took between 10 and 30 minutes, and they had indoor seating, toilets, power sockets and a cafeteria serving drinks and foods like waffles and hotdogs. I grew to look forward to the boat crossings for a little break from riding, although if it was windy I’d have to sit outside with my bike to make sure it wouldn’t fall over. As well as (probably) hundreds of different boats in Norway, there are hundreds more tunnels. Some have fees, but motorcycles don’t pay tolls in Norway. Some of the tunnels are unbelievably long, like with the boats, I’d be happy to sit in a long tunnel to get a break from the weather, particularly tunnels going under water which would be quite warm, although at one point I was in a tunnel for so long without any traffic that I started to wonder if it’d ever end or if I’d got trapped in some kind of time loop. 

In Norway the speed limits are pretty low, for most good roads the limit is 80kph which is about 50mph, once you’re North of Trondheim the maximum is 90kph if you’re lucky, some of the southern motorways allow 110kpm. Through villages and towns you have to do 50 or even 30kph. Speed cameras are usually front facing so your motorcycle is safe, although on a bright pink bike there isn’t much hiding even if they don’t catch your number plates, and fines for speeding are very punishing in Norway – I was warned that police would also hide and catch people out. Poor Pinky was kept on a tight leash for the duration of the trip. In many areas you’re forced to slow down by roadworks. There are 6 good months each year for road repairs to be carried out and so roadworks are extremely common, instead of a diversion a temporary road is put in alongside the roadworks and you ride on some gravel and dirt to go round it – hitting that in the rain at any speed would mot be clever. So maybe the RR was not the best bike for the job, I had no problems with the bike but can admit that an adventure specific bike might have been more suitable.

My main problem with the RR was that my chain was reaching the end of its life and I didn’t have the tools or capability to tighten it. I had forgotten about this until halfway up the country I noticed it was dangling dangerously, and had a minor meltdown while trying to decide what to do to get it fixed. This was a learning experience for me, some friends on the internet helped me find a local garage who were happy to tighten the chain for me (while I stood there, crying from the stress of it all, and one of the mechanics made me a coffee and the whole thing was very awkward) and after this I made mental note to find a garage every few thousand miles and get the chain fixed. This wasn’t difficult, even in the far north there are car garages that also deal with snow mobiles and ATVs and are able to fix a motorcycle chain for a small fee, there are also locals that will help you if you ask.

The people in Norway are friendly, but won’t initiate a conversation. It took a bit of getting used to but once accustomed to it it was quite nice – no need to feel rude if you didn’t want to speak to someone or smile and make eye contact like you have to in England. I saw very few motorcycles, presumably because it was so late in the year, but this was disappointing and a bit lonely. When I did meet people I was surprised at how many didn’t recognise the RR – they were amazed that it was even a BMW! One nice man said Pinky looked like a Chinese rice cooker and told me how he was staying in the campsite to visit a sick relative – that was probably the most in depth conversation I had with anyone for about a week.

It’s worth mentioning the food in Norway, I’m forcing the subject in. I had hoped to remain on a vegan diet as was my goal for 2023 but that quickly went out the window once I’d left the UK, and by day 2 in Norway I was tentatively eating meat again. Outside of cities, everything has meat in it or at the very least dairy, and I wasn’t invested enough in my veganism to start carrying raw ingredients around and making everything from scratch. I’m not convinced that the traditional food of Norway isn’t hotdogs. Hotdogs are delicious and available everywhere, so they soon became my daily roadside breakfast. Hotdogs cost £3-5 and they come in bread with potato salad and cheese (or just in bread, but I will always recommend potato salad). If you Google Norwegian foods you’ll also see brown cheese which is equally readily available from most service stations and cafes served in a waffle or pancake and usually with cream cheese. Brown cheese is sweet and soft and the waffles make a good breakfast. I had my packet noodles for the nights where I wasn’t able to get to a shop or carry other foods, so for 3 weeks I lived predominantly on noodles and hot dogs, which kept the cost of my trip down and also, apparently, my weight.

The purpose of my trip was to get myself and the RR up to Nordkapp, the most northern point on mainland Europe. Of course I looked to see if there was a boat up to Svalbard but unfortunately there isn’t and you can’t take a vehicle up there. So that makes Nordkapp the northest destination in Europe possible on a bike. I worked out my plan for Nordkapp, the weather was starting to turn cold, there was more snow on the hills which was starting to get concerning. I stopped in Alta for a night in a cute Air BnB next to the main road (which by this point was one lane each way with not much traffic) opposite a supermarket and close to a car garage for my chain maintenance. For dinner I snacked on a packet of mini cinnamon rolls and set off in the morning to sort out my chain and head to the top of the country. 

Nordkapp is on an island which is accessible by a long underwater tunnel. There was a visible difference as we travelled north for the final few hundred miles, somewhere we’d crossed a tree line and the scenery changed from autumn forrest to desolate scrubland, the wind picked up making it unpleasant to be riding, the weather alternated between windy and raining and just windy, and we started seeing small moving dots in the distance – reindeer! As we climbed north the reindeer became common, I honestly wasn’t expecting to see one despite the road signs, and yet they were everywhere, in the roads, in the distance, not particularly worried about traffic or people. I had booked a night in a cabin as a treat, in the most northern little village close to the Nordkapp visitor centre. I arrived fairly early, got my keys, used the opportunity of a porch to dry my tent out, and went for a long walk over a big hill in search of reindeer. As it got dark and a bit risky on the hill I turned round and went back, to see the reindeer hanging out on the next hill over. For dinner there weren’t many choices, in fact there was one choice and it was to eat at the campsite restaurant which serviced fish soup and reindeer meat. Of course I had to try the reindeer meat, which was served in a creamy sauce with mashed potatoes and vegetables, it was ok, I’m glad I tried it, I wouldn’t choose it again. When I went to walk back to my cabin I was treated to the herd of reindeer crossing the road right in front of me! Up close they are quite terrifying, with huge antlers and big feet, but other than getting a bit close they didn’t pay me any attention and it was magical to see them.

The following morning I was up early to go to the Nordkapp visitor centre, my plan was to get there before the tourists and then head back south. What I didn’t anticipate was the road being covered in snow and ice, with no traffic to melt it, the last 5 miles of the journey was slow and careful and by some luck I made it to the Nordkapp carpark without incident. This is where I should have done some research earlier – the visitor centre wasn’t open until 11 and I had arrived at 8, it was extremely windy and exposed, and I needed a wee. I took the opportunity while it was quiet to take my photos with the Nordkapp globe sculpture, and look around a bit, then went to hide next to my bike. The minutes ticked by, I wasn’t sure I could wait until 11, and I didn’t want to ride back down the icy road and miss the opportunity to buy a magnet from the gift shop. It started to snow. As I sat there wondering what to do with myself, a lady came up to me from a parked camper van and asked if I wanted a coffee, I said yes. She came back out with a steaming mug and asked if I wanted to sit in the van with her husband and their dog, trying to hide literal tears of gratitude (I well up now just remembering it) I said ‘yes please I’d love that’. This wonderful couple from Belgium, Ian and Denise let me sit in their van for 3 hours and drink their coffee (and use their toilet), and I could bury my cold hands in their spaniel. When the centre finally opened I went in with Denise, had a brief look around and spent £100 on gift shop tat. Having spent longer than originally planned at Nordkapp, knowing the road must have defrosted by now, I got on the poor RR and headed back the way I’d come. Thankfully the snow wasn’t too persistent and after a few hours and some miles south the weather cheered up again.

The weather in Norway, at least in September, lives by its own irritating rules. The forecasts don’t seem to matter so I quickly stopped bothering to look. Within a stretch of 10 miles I would experience torrential downpour and warm sun, on many occasions I would be riding through rain and be able to see in the sky where the rain would stop, or vice versa. If an area was flat and exposed I could often see circular patches of rain in the distance. Even though it was annoying, I knew I’d never be stuck in the rain for long, even if it was really awful, 50 miles later I could safely expect some sun.

After getting safely back to the mainland I stopped in a restaurant and ordered a cheeseburger and mozzarella sticks to try and feel some normality, and booked a night stay in the same house in Alta that I’d just left. Even right now as I write this up, I miss that house and its atmosphere and I’d love to be sat in the window next to the radiator watching the world go by. I know where to book if I go there again. So I was excited to be heading back there so I could curl up and process the previous few days and get some more mini cinnamon rolls. Once I’d seen Nordkapp, I needed to head home. The weather was closing in, and I was receiving warnings from people I knew that were in the area, that the snow was coming. I was told to avoid Sweden – my original plan, and to stick to the coast. So I felt a bit of urgency to get south as quickly as possible instead of exploring the north, so after a cosy night in Alta and not really wanting to leave, I got back on the main road south through Norway. It’s a strange experience, wanting to go home and realising it’s going to take longer than a week. I avoided working out which date I’d be able to get home and just took it day by day, continuing my proven routine of riding for several hours and then picking a place to stay. My chain was re-adjusted by a lovely neighbour in Mo i Rana, and I booked to have the whole thing replaced at BMW in Trondheim. To time my visit to BMW I stayed for two nights at a campsite near Steinkjer – just 100 miles from the garage, which was a lonely time but it gave my body a chance to recover from hours in the saddle, and I watched a lot of Netflix. 

After my chain was replaced and the worry was taken away, I booked to stay in Alesund in a Air BnB which took me past a road that was on my to do list – the 64 across Skarvoya. This section of road is famous for its huge wonky bridge that sticks out into the sky at an odd angle. The road crosses over lots of tiny islands and is absolutely stunning. I was tempted to go back and forth to do it a few times, but it’ll be there for another year. The stay that night was educational, I found out the reason I wasn’t able to find food delivery is because in Norway they have a different app, finally I was able to order a pizza delivery and it was fantastic. My night in Alesund was also a nice treat for the RR as she got to sleep in a cosy garage for the first time in weeks.

The following night I planned to stay in Bergen, for convenience. This turned out to be a mistake and was the only time Air BnB went wrong, when the place I booked did not give me the code to get in and wouldn’t reply to my messages or calls, it started getting late and even the local coffee shop was closed so I had nowhere to sit and panic. Thankfully Air BnB customer service refunded me quickly and I booked another place further south in the guest bedroom of a small family home. The weather turned bad, and a full blown storm came in with lightning and thunder. I wanted to be on the move again as quickly as possible despite the storm going into the following morning, I slept in my clothes and left before it got light.

By this point I was able to work out how long I’d have left before getting home. From Bergen to the ferry crossing it was two days of riding, and from there it was two or three days riding before I’d be on my last boat back to England. After the stress of Bergen, which really wasn’t that bad thinking back, I wanted to have a chill day getting south, so I booked another Air BnB early so I wouldn’t have to worry about it, about 100 miles from the ferry terminal, it meant a long day of riding but I had started early. This turned out to be a beautiful day, once I’d left Bergen the sky cleared and the sun came out. I stopped at another BMW dealership and they kindly checked my bike out for me – Pinky was making some concerning brake noises and I wanted to make sure she was still safe. At a petrol station I met a lovely friend Nancy who had been talking to me online, she brought her dog with her and we sat and had hot dogs and chatted for an hour – I am so grateful for this as it’d been a while since I’d had a in-person conversation with someone and it was so wonderful. I stopped further south to look at boat crossings, I’d left it a little too late to book the same boat back to Denmark but luckily there are two ferry companies that do the same crossing and so I was able to book the correct boat back to Denmark on a slightly earlier schedule. My Air BnB for my last night in Norway was a beautiful cosy apartment in an old couples traditional country house, away from the main road surrounded by rivers and hills, I spent my last evening in Norway going for a scenic walk, phoning my family and then going to sleep early.

Getting home from here was easy and pleasant. The boat from Kristiansand Norway to Hirtshals Denmark is 4 hours, it dropped me off at around 11am and I rode 350 miles to Germany to stay in a nice families house, the following day I rode to the Netherlands to spent the night with my friend Bob who lives and runs his business in Amsterdam, and then I rode to France to catch my original ferry home to the UK.

I spent exactly 3 weeks travelling, and covered 5,500 miles. The trip cost me around £2,400 (I worked this out and it was less that I was expecting, I’ve since forgotten the exact amount), plus £380 for a new chain. My overall confidence has been improved so much after doing this, which has opened a lot of doors to do similar journeys. The RR was entirely capable, completely reliable and the perfect bike, for me, for the trip. I’m glad I chose September, despite the weather closing in, I got to see the autumn colours and avoided the busy tourist season. The challenge of the weather is something I’ll look back on with gratitude because it’s improved my confidence going into to winter in the UK, and I got the unique experience of riding in the snow on an RR in the Arctic Circle, which sucked at the time, but it funny to remember from the comfort of my home. 

If I were to do the trip again, which I think I probably will, I’d like to see more of the south inland, and try some of the well known roads like the trolls pass and Lysebotn. On this trip I missed one of my goals which was the Lofoten islands, this was because I didn’t plan it and the boat out was on an awkward schedule, if I went again I’d work on timing my visit so that I could get that boat. It would be nice to have some friends from the journey to split accommodation costs, Norway has a reputation for being expensive but compared the the current cost of living in England I found it reasonable. If 3 bed cabins can be split with three people, a lot of money can be saved. 

Back home, the RR went straight in for its 18k service, and I spent a week unwinding with my family in Somerset before returning to work. Once back from its service, the RR ejected its fork oil and had to go back to BMW so maybe the journey had traumatised it slightly, 3 months later its back to normal enjoying being used in winter, covered in mud. The plan now is to save up and go to Iceland, which seems like a natural progression from Norway. Still with the pink RR and my tent, but with a lot less fear of the unknown.