FTAGH: ex VFR luggage

Too lazy for ebay.

Kappa 40 litre top box, scruffy but serviceable, with keys.

2 Nonfango 840 panniers, both very scruffy, one actually broken but
the lid is serviceable, with keys.

Collect, UR or could bring to BOSM. Orderly queue...

 

Does that mean the VFR never got repatriated.

 

Correct. They'd have flown me out to ride it back, but there would
have been a 250 euro repair bill, plus cost of fuel, hotel, ferry etc,
amounting to more than the bike was worth, so it's been sold over
there.

 

Using the patented Mavis Beacon "Hunt&Peck" Technique, platypus

<stands, head bowed, as The Last Post plays gently in the background>

 

Heh. So the Elefant claimed my Tenere last year, and your VFR this.

Sort of bodes ill for 2011, doesn't it?

 

I'm not convinced there'll be much enthusiasm for the Elefant next
year. I still fancy doing something a bit more 'challenging' and I
suspect that this years carnage will probably put off any new
interest.

I'll be going again at some point in the future but I've done it in
hard conditions now and it's time for something new. If we don't head
north then I think it might be time to do this one.

http://motorang.com/tauerntreffen/index_english.htm

ykims.

 

Tauern? TAUERN???

There's a ski resort at Obertauern - I've skied there. Got to be the
same place. Or nearby, anyway.

<reads further>

"some years ago there was a ski lift there, but it was destroyed by
avalanches two times"

Oh, triffic.

I might be up for this.

 

Krystal Rally would be a step up, I guess. With pretty much guaranteed
snow:

http://www.krystallrally.no/history_en.shtml

 

....but there's no camping so it automatically qualifies as gay. IYSWIM.

 

Primustreff is better, but I don't think there is any information in
English as yet.



You have to use a primus though.

http://no.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primus (page is in Norwegian)

 

Fucking lunatics.

 

Too far south...

 

Good God.

 

what a surprise. A bunch of beardy old beer-drinking men, sidecars
teepees and no women.

These "I've done the x-en-festen" are the motorcycling equivalent of
"I'm mad, me" office wankers.

 

The trouble with going to Norway is that it's fucking expensive and
time consuming compared to the German or Austrian rallies so if I want
to do a rally I doubt if it'll be in Norway.

The only reason for me to go is to see how far north I can get before
plod confiscates my bike or the roads are completely blocked rather
than simply shut. I know it's a tired old cliche but it really is
about the journey rather than the destination.

 

Men in different interests from women shocker !

Are you a part time journalist for the Sunday Sport ?

"We asked some of the UK's top porn stars what they wanted to be when
they were little, you'd be amazed at what some of them said..."
http://www.sundaysport.com/view.asp?ID=2504

No idea what you're talking about... where do I sign up ?

 

I don't think they would confiscate your bike, but they would put you
in front of a judge and put you away for three months to several years
if you were going much too fast. If less than 40 % above the posted
limit they might let you get away with a fine and then escort you to
the nearest border with a clear warning about not coming back for a
year or two.

It should be physically possible to get within 10 to 15 kms of the
North Cape, but that last bit might be difficult to get a bike across
because they do not plow that road in winter. On the average the snow
would be between two to four meters deep and in those conditions it is
hard to know where the road is supposed to be. That last bit would
require a snowscooter or cross country skis. AIUI the people living in
that area go skiing/scootering to the North Cape regularly.

But as you say Norway is fucking expensive and it would be very time
consuming to go that far north in winter.

 

I've been told that if you persist in traveling on roads that are
officially closed they'll confiscate your bike until the roads are
open but how true that is I haven't a clue. It sounds plausible but
until it happens I'll ignore the possibility.

According to one website the E69 is shut for up to 8 months of the
year and we'd need that to get the last 100 miles but it's been done
on a bike in winter before so given a bit of luck it can be done
again.

I can cover the cost by working overtime through the summer but time
will be an issue.

 

Up in the north it is more a matter of them leaving it where it is
until the snow goes away sometime before the middle of July and they
can pick it up with a normal truck.

Some roads are temporarily closed while they are clearing the snow
away, and going onto these is for the terminally suicidal. To clear the
snow they use great snowblowers, one of these can also grind a medium
sized car to coarse gravel. A bike and biker would not be noticed.

According to my sources the part of E69 that is closed in winter is the
last bit from the branching of Fv171 from E69 to Skarsvåg.
Approximately 12.5 km. The road to Skarsvåg is kept open in winter
because people live there, and the road from the south to Honningsvåg
is kept open for the same reason, so the southernmost 116.5 km of E69
is open in winter except when they have to close it temporarily because
of heavy snow/avalanches...that sort of thing. (E69 is a grand total of
129 km long.)

 

Ah well, fortune favours the brave and nobody likes a quitter...