Jan 12 2005
Its alright, I’ve got a cunning plan!
Thats right. And very cunning it is!
This summer I’m planning to follow in my dads footsteps. Or is that wheel tracks? Anyway, once upon a time, whilst he was at college in England, he rode his motorbike up to the north or Norway to work on a small fram for the summer. And to cut a long story short he ended up marrying the farmers daughter, my mother.
So this June is my Grans 85th birthday. All of my family here in Guernsey is heading up there so I thought I’d go too. Only I’ll be riding up there on my GSX-R750.
My planned route is to take a ferry from Guernsey to Portsmouth (UK), the ride up to Newcastle. Take a ferry across the North Sea to Bergen (Norway) and the ride to Hamsund (my grans home village). The route is about a 4000 mile round trip and I am planning take about three weeks - one week each way and a weeks holiday in the middle.
Obviously there is a lot of planning to be done. Here is my initial list of things to do:
- Plan route
- Buy Guernsey->UK tickets
- Buy UK->Norway tickets
Buy new motorcycle helmetBuy intercom unit- Buy bike luguage
- Service bike
- Install intercom unit & bike alarm
- Locate possible over-night stops
This is just an initial list. I have got a larger list of things to do but I don’t have it on me at the moment so I’ll have to update this list when I get home.
Addition list items:
Aquire tent for emergencies- Purchase riding clothing (trousers & new gloves)
- Find & buy cigarette lighter for motorbike (to charge phone & iPod)
- Buy iPod (either Mini or Shuffle)
Sounds like a really good plan!! I cant think of many better places to travel on a bike!! Bergen alone is nice but the rest of the trip will be excellent… you can borrow my very small/light tent if you need it!!!
Use of that tent would be most appreciated. As I’ll be travelling over the largest mountain plateau in Europe it would be good to have shelter should a storm happen upon me.
Why a small iPod? You’ll probably appreciate the bigger 40GB one more….
And what are you using for navigation? Maps? GPS? Both? And don’t forget to pad out your tool kit with gaffer tape, a torch, maybe a small first aid kit just in case. And good rain gear. I’ve been reading about Norway motorbike trips other people have done, and rain gear sounds necessary. And maybe put heating coils under the handgrips to keep the hands warm?
What’s the intercom for?
I was planning on getting the small iPod simply for money reasons, but having read the latest MacRumors I might wait a couple of weeks before I make my move on that front.
I’ll be navigating use maps and a good old-fashioned tank-top map case. I can’t really justify the expense of buying a GPS as I wont be using it that much really. I might have if I was living in the UK but not for Guernsey!
As for waterproofs… I’ve got a Dainese all season jacket thats been more than adequet for year-round commuting in Guernsey and I’m going to be investing in some all season trousers (Spada probably).
Finally, the intercom serves a multitude of purposes. Firstly it will allow me to listen to my iPod whilst riding - I’ve tried riding with in-ear plug and I don’t find it comfortable. Secondly I’ll be able to use my phone - very useful as I’ll be travelling though Norway with my sister and dad (in my sisters car) so I’ll be able to keep in tough with them). Thirdly, it will allow for expansion in the future to have a second headset, GPS navigation, bike-to-bike communication,etc.
I’ve still got to sort out the tool kit so I’ll make sure I pack some gaffer tape and probably some cable-ties as well. A torch is an absolute must as I’ll be camping whilst travelling and I’ll take your advice and look into some handgrip warmers.
[...] writing the previous post I came across my list of stuff to do for my holiday to Norway. So lets see how I’m doing so [...]