The Born To Lose Motorcycle Network

Norway 2003

Well, off we were once again to the brotherland of Norway. Me and Calle went last year (2002) on a marvelous trip which lasted about five days.

This year, Chrille and Stefan wanted to go too (after having seen the photos from last year!), and who are we to let them down?? Of course we went again! Krister was supposed to go to, but his Yamaha totally collapsed a week before… Jörgen had some gigs to do with his band, and Hasse who by the way got his license and bought himself a brand new Triumph Bonneville America went on his own for a month on the british isles.

The trip began with Calle leaving Gothenburg for Linköping on his brand new Sportster 1200 Custom (his new pride and joy to say the least!). Trouble number one during this trip – one of Calles rear view mirrors came off on the highway… It didn´t just unscrew itself – it broke clean off?! Anyway, with some tape Calle fixed it temporarily and continued to Linköping. At the arrival we also noticed that some bolts were missing (they obviously vibrated off – and some say that Sportster isn´t a real Harley??).

A meal later, Calle and Claes left Claes house and met up with Stefan at a gas station. And off we were to Dalarna! What a beautiful evening for riding our trusty bikes! What we didn´t know was that Chrille had decided to meet us, which he did just south of Ludvika. By now the sun was long gone, and our glasses/goggles had been the last resort for a million tiny flies for hours, so we didn´t see much… In the last second, Claes discovered the frantic waving of Chrille from the side of the road. We hardly saw him , but he heard us – for miles… ”Now I know what an air raid in world war two must´ve sounded like” was Chrilles words… Loud pipes save lives they say, and three Harleys going fast in the middle of the night WILL be heard!

 
 
We got into bed and started pretty early the next day. A clear blue sky accompanied us on the way towards Värmland. After a couple of miles Calle and I (Claes) swapped bikes – I had never ridden a Sportster and Calle had never tried ape-hangers! The Sportster proved to be a fun bike to say the least! Unfortunately, we didn´t get very far until the asphalt turned into boulders the size of tennis-balls… The Sportster flew over the rocks, but the Softail did not… After some miles on this gravel, we swapped back. Hey, it was fun as long it lasted!

 
 
We cooked lunch in Sysslebäck down by the Klarälven-river. Still really nice weather! But when we reached Flisa on the norwegian side of the border, it was just if like someone had poured bathtubbs of water over us. It didn´t last very long (an hour??), but it was enough to make sure we had to face trouble number two: electrical failure on the 1949 Panhead… It turned out that the battery somehow had short circuited. After having jumpstarted the bike with electrical aid from the Sportster, there was no turning back – we had to keep going until we reached our first stop for the night in Lillehammer. Stefan kept revving the old Pan and that meant that Claes and Stefan outran Calle and Chrille. Before that we luckily decided to meet at a gas statin Calle knew of in Lillehammer if we would get separated.

 
 
After having reached Lillehammer, we got a little cottage, bought some food and beer and the evening was saved! The next day Stefan bought a new battery, and everything was fine (except that Stefan from now on didn´t dare to ride with the lights on…). Before we left Lillehammer, we hooked up with three friends of Calle from Gothenburg who had decided to see Trollstigen. Really nice guys!

We didn´t ride very long this day due to meeting with the new friends and due to battery-shopping, so we concentrated on buying more beer and food and looking for a new place to sleep. We decided to start climbing the mountain the next day, which gave us more time do drink and prepare for the barbecue!

Trollstigen was just as fascinating this year as it was last year! This year the weather wasn´t as good as it can be, but it was OK. Just when we reached the top of Trollstigen, a cloud swept in and surounded us, so we decided to to outrun it and set for Geiranger. On our way there, we stopped in Valldal for an icecream – a really nice little village just beside a fjord!

We had to cross the fjord on a ferry, and now we stumbled upon trouble number three: when reaching the opposite shore, everyone took off… but Claes… It turned out that me as well as Stefan was to be a victim of the magic electricity… The electric starter was dead silent, but fortunately my precious Softail is the last model that also came with a kickstarter. After a couple of minutes of kicking, I was alone on the ferry except for the ones working there – suddenly the bike came to life and off I took! Fortunatly Calle was waiting for me, so we headed for the others. As it turned out, this problem was too get worse… Anyway, after the handlebars started to burn (!), we located the problem – some sort of short circuit between the electric starter and the stop button. We cut the wires and fixed it with with a loose wire from the ignition. And now we were ready again!

When we arrived at Geiranger we were somewhat tired, so we once again decided to call it a night. However, the three friends of Calle hit for the road again since they were supposed to go to Bergen. We said good bye and started looking for a cottage. It turned out it wasn´t easy to find a cottage at this hour, but it worked out with some help from the local tourist-information (we got the last cottage available in the Geiranger surroundings – thanks!). But, what was worse, we couldn´t get any beer since the stores apparently aren´t allowed to sell beer after six o clock in the evening… Disaster strucks once again was what we thought, until we discovered that at the location of our cottage, there was a little pub, and mind you, this is in the middle of nowhere! Someone was definately looking out for us!

The next day we hit the road pretty early again, and decided that we ought to get to Dalsnibba, which is the highest mountain around here. Only gravel roads climbing the mountain, but we decided to get there anyway even though Stefan was somewhat dubious about climbing the mountain with his Panhead chopper equipped with hand-gear and suicide-clutch.

Trouble number four: Chrille went first on his brand new Triumph Speedmaster, me as second, Stefan as third and Calle as the last bike. On the first corner up the mountain, I saw below me that Stefan had stopped. Well, he didn´t make it around the first sharp corner in the loose gravel was my thought. Calle stopped, so Chrille and I continued up the mountain. After a while, we here the distinct roaring of a couple of big twins, and yes, there´s Stefan and Calle! Stefan stopped in the hill not due to sharp corners as I thought, but due to having no clutch! The clutch-arm came off, and let me tell you about Dalsnibba – loose gravel and absolutely no fence to keep you from falling off the mountain… Anyway, everything went well as Calle had a bolt that fitted on Stefans bike. There you go!

 
 
We hit the road once again, and amongst other obstacles passed a number of tunnels, of which the longest on was about seven km´s. Intriguing… Our plan was to get all the way to Oslo this day, so we (I… since my wife and daughter was waiting in Oslo at my mother in laws house) stepped on it!

Trouble number five: during heavy rain up in the mountain, Claes became separated from the others due to longing for his family, and of course the fact that the Softail can be driven fast and hard! In Hemsedal, Claes decided to stop and wait for the others – that never showed up… After a while we got in contact via our cellular phones, and disaster had struck again since Stefans front tire exploded doing about 100 km/h… Fortunately he had just come out of the rain, and fortunately it was on a straight part of the road, so everything went well due to the circumstances.

After some arguing (erh… I wasn´t in the best of moods…) we decided to leave the chopper at an old man who lent us his garage, and head for Oslo which was some 200 km´s away. We placed Stefans front wheel on Chrilles Triumph and Stefan rode with Calle, and off we were. Some four or five hours later we reached Oslo about 2.30 in the morning. We were cold (rain…) and not in the best of moods (Chrille suffered from a vicious allergy and Calle from starving!), but was met by my wife and a BIG platter of food which my mother in law had prepared!

We hit the sack, and the morning after I, my wife and Stefan went into the city trying to find a new tire. Everything went well, so later on we took our car and borrowed my father in laws trailer and went back up to Hemsedal. We mounted the tire, put the bike on the trailer and headed back to Oslo.

 
 
The next day Chrille left early for Sweden as he too was suffering from a bad case of longing for his family. Stefan, Calle and Claes went into Oslo city for a coffee at the Karl Johann-street. Nice weather to begin with, and Stefan utters the words ”ahhh… back in the civilization!”.

When the rain came, we decided to head back home to Sweden. We stopped and got some lunch in Årjäng at Calles grandfathers house. Really nice! After that, me and Stefan hit the road for Linköping and Calle decided to stay in Årjäng for a bit.

We got home, and what can we say - This was the adventure of adventures! And, as any reader of this can notice, some of the bikes had… well, some minor problems. But, Chrille became so convinced of the fine quality of Harley-Davidson that he sold the Triumph in favor of a Road King when he came home. There you go!

Well, Sommen runt is next!