Nordkapp in September, on a '95 BMW F650.

[Thijs_B]

I explained in the beginning of this RR I like my numbers, and to keep track of them. I didn't go as far as to track the number of buns I ate or something silly like that, but I did try to keep the kilometers and time in the seat (and these are recorded by the TomTom, so it's easy).

So here is the round up and the overall stats :

According to the TomTom I traveled 7680 km in total, with 102 hours on the bike, and averaging 75 km/h. This is as exact as the device recorded it. It is not completely accurate; some of the ferries are included in there, and some are not. I also don't know if this number includes the tunnels (where there was no signal), which would also be a significant amount of kilometers missed. And at some days I forgot switch the tracking back on in the morning, so these kilometers and a couple of hours are also not included.

According to the bike's odometer the grand total was 8132 km. I know my speedo is a bit off, so the same if probably true for the odometer.

So I think the actual amount is somewhere between these figures. I'll just keep it at 8000 for easy reference.

[jmcg]

Great report.

Thanks,

JM.

[miepiechief]

Fantastische reportage, ik heb er van genoten.

Fantastic RR, I enjoyed it very much.

[nomadwarmachine]

Great report! Thanks! What kind of DSLR & lens did you use?

[Thijs_B]

Originally Posted by stefan.

Great report and pics!
Must have been cold in the evenings/nights this late in the season, what kind of sleeping bag did you use?

It is a Mammut sleeping bag, don't know exactly which model. It was definitely cold at night, but inside the sleeping bag I was very comfy. Especially later on the trip I felt the cold in the air, but it wasn't as bad as I expected before I left.

Originally Posted by nomadwarmachine

Great report! Thanks! What kind of DSLR & lens did you use?

Check this post on page 4

Thank you everyone for your kind comments!

[Simplyred]

You are not off the hook yet .....

As you said this trip was a dream come true for you, and by taking your efforts to write this wonderful report you also made us a part of that. As you have seen, a lot of colleague drivers have appreciated this A LOT.

Some last questions that I hope you want to answer:

On the ferries, how exactly did you tie down your bike? Did you always do it yourself, or was there personnel of the ferry involved? Did they ask you on how they should tie down your bike? On which stand was your bike when tied down? Did you leave the luggage at the bike? If so, was it locked? How?

When camping in wild, how did that go during rain? Does your tent set-up inside tent first, and then the outside tent? Or do you hang your inside tent in the outside tent when it is already set-up? How are your experiences with that during rain? Or did you always take a cabin when it rained?

So, in the end, how did you solve the thread problem of your sparkplug port?

What are you planning next, now you have tasted the free life of the adventurer?

Will you keep your funduro, or will you go save money for a heavier bike?

It's a pity it is now all over, but I suspect you will feel the same. It is nice to be on a trip, but after a while it is also nice to come back home. Not only to conclude the endeavour, but also to see the family back. Did you think about having a SPOT or similar? Could your home folks follow you where you were (maybe through apps like Google Lattitude) ?

Thanks again.

[Slim-Line Tonic]

Well done!!

Never doubt a beema is what they say... i guess its true!

[Thijs_B]

Originally Posted by Simplyred

You are not off the hook yet .....

As you said this trip was a dream come true for you, and by taking your efforts to write this wonderful report you also made us a part of that. As you have seen, a lot of colleague drivers have appreciated this A LOT.
[...]
Thanks again.

The traveling and exploring bug was always there, but ADVrider is what really sparked it with all the excellent RRs up here. It only seems natural that I should add my own (not that I don't enjoy it of course )

Lots of questions there . So you want answers, here they are:

On the ferries, how exactly did you tie down your bike? Did you always do it yourself, or was there personnel of the ferry involved? Did they ask you on how they should tie down your bike? On which stand was your bike when tied down? Did you leave the luggage at the bike? If so, was it locked? How?

I was never the last person on the ferry, so most of the times they pointed me to the 'bike corner' with the loops on the floor, and they continued 'receiving' the passengers (ie making them pay). By the time they got around to me I would have already tied the bike down with one of ropes which were hanging on the wall. They always came back to see if I needed help, but I preferred to do it myself just to be sure the bike is secured properly. I put the bike on the center stand, and used only one rope over the seat to really tie it down, the bike was virtually immovable that way. The panniers could be locked with a key, and I could take my tank bag with me (it's detachable by the pull of a small cord). The only thing a casual thief could possibly take would be my luggage roll, but that only contained my sleeping bag and pillow cover.

When camping in wild, how did that go during rain? Does your tent set-up inside tent first, and then the outside tent? Or do you hang your inside tent in the outside tent when it is already set-up? How are your experiences with that during rain? Or did you always take a cabin when it rained?

The weather decided mostly if I would camp, and only if it had been raining enough over the day that my boots and gloves were soaked I would find cabin to get them dry again. I ended up camping exactly half of the time.
The tent is a Eureka Spitfire Duo. The inner tent goes up first, it is helt up by two rods and two pegs only. The outer tent is basically optional (for warmer climates) and folds over the inner one, resting on the same rods, and pulls tight towards the bottom of the same rods. If it rained I would normally wait a bit for the rain to give me a small window, and then rushed to get the inner tent up and covered as soon as possible. After that, the only water that got into the tent would come from wet clothes, the tent itself was absolutely waterproof and very comfortable in the rain. Had to use the storm lines a couple of times to prevent puddles from forming though.

So, in the end, how did you solve the thread problem of your sparkplug port?

I only orderred a helicoil set to fix the spark plug port just two days ago. To be honest I spent my energy over the last couple of weeks getting back to the working life and writing this report with all the photography there as well. I left the bike in the garage, just as it was when I came home for a couple of weeks. I plan to make another post with the minor repairs I did after I got back, I will probably post that somewhere next week.

Will you keep your funduro, or will you go save money for a heavier bike?

I will probably sell the Funduro, I would like more leg room while riding, and more power on the highways (for a comfortable daily commute). The F650 just isn't enough for me in these areas.

What are you planning next, now you have tasted the free life of the adventurer?

I very much like traveling like this, so there's plenty of trips on the wish list. For next year probably some smaller trip(s), maybe a week away or a couple of weekends spread over the year to save money. Possibilities are Ireland and Scotland, or maybe the Alps and northern Italy. I would also like to go back to Norway, but I don't know if I'll do this next year or in 2014. For 'big trips', Iceland is definitely high on there, but also the 'usual' destinations like Russia, Africa, USA, Australia... (I can dream right?)

Did you think about having a SPOT or similar?

I did have a SPOT tracker with me, my family persuaded me to use it. I was happy I took it with me, it provided just a bit reassurance while in the 'wild of the north', both for me and for my family since they were able to track me.

Off the hook now?

[Simplyred]

You are officially "off-the-hook" now

Thank you for your extensive and valuable answers! That all really helps preparing for such a trip myself.

Not that I do not have experience, but some things have a tendency to change rapidly and it always comes in handy to learn from recent experiences from others.

It is my belief, that "adventure" is not something that is related to "distance". You can have a pretty nice adventure just around the corner. "Adventure" lives between your ears. The urge to discover, the interest in meeting people, go places.
For me, the vast forests of Sweden always were attractive. Nature at it's best I think. I remember driving there for a full day and night and not meeting any living soul. Great experience that has the tendency to get you back with your feet on the ground and line up with nature a little bit more.

[Klay]

Thanks for the enjoyable story. I've been dreaming about a trip like yours.

[panzerrocket]

Thanks for a nice report, well done
Very nice pictures and a good story-line.
Coming from an island nation - ferry crossings - I've learned always to put the bike in 1.st gear and on the sidestand, before strapping it down. I've seen bikes on centerstands falling over in rough seas, even though they were strapped down!
Whenever I park the bike, I put it in 1.st gear and on the sidestand. This way you've got a "handbrake" and the bike won't suddently start moving.
That was just my 5 cents of advice.

[roadruns]

Excellent report and great photos. Well done

[MuddySump]

Excellent, cant wait to ride Norway. Hoping the ferry will go direct from Newcastle again soon

Would you say 20 days was long enough or was it a bit of a rush?

[Thijs_B]

Originally Posted by panzerrocket

[...]
Whenever I park the bike, I put it in 1.st gear and on the sidestand. This way you've got a "handbrake" and the bike won't suddently start moving.
That was just my 5 cents of advice.

I think that is probably different between bikes. I've found that the F650 is very unstable on the sidestand. I've seen people sit or lean on their bikes being parked that way, but no way that's possible with mine, not even close. However I couldn't even pull the bike down when it was on the centerstand (in 1st gear to be sure) with one strap very tight across the seat, so I felt more comfortable leaving it like that ;-)

Originally Posted by MuddySump

Excellent, cant wait to ride Norway. Hoping the ferry will go direct from Newcastle again soon

Would you say 20 days was long enough or was it a bit of a rush?

It wasn't really a rush, but I skipped parts of my original planning because of the weather. I originally planned to take around 25 days.
For planning it's a good idea to see what mileage you're comfortable with riding in one day, and use that with google maps to see what's possible (you need to half that number for ferry-heavy sections, especially route 17). This worked great for me, and as I got used to riding I even got ahead of schedule as early as Finland.




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[MuddySump]

How do you get the 'gps track of the day'? its not using the tomtom is it?