We began to make plans for this 33-day motorcycle tour in October 2023. To ensure choice and availability all our hotel and hostel accommodations were booked before the end of November. The P&O Hull/Europort Rotterdam and Fjord Line Hirtshals/Kristiansand ferry crossings were also booked at the same time.

Riding all the way up the west coast of Norway was a tour we had always wanted to do, but prior to my retirement at Christmas 2023 obtaining extended time off work was virtually impossible. Now in 2024 we could be away from home as long as we wanted.

I first visited Norway in 1981 on my Honda CB900. This was a short 4-day solo tour and although I’ve ridden in many countries since, it is the one region that made the biggest impression on me. Norway is a motorcyclist’s paradise. If you’re lucky enough to have good weather, in my opinion there’s no better place to ride.

Together with my wife Jane, subsequent motorcycle tours in Scandinavia were in May 2011 when we visited the Norwegian Arctic Circle Centre (E6) and June/July 2015 when we visited the Nordkapp. For both of these tours we used our Moto Guzzi 2006 Breva 750 and Buell 2008 XB12X Ulysses. We sold the Buell XB12X in April 2024 after it had covered over 74,000 miles. Jane still has her Breva 750, which has now covered over 150,000 miles.

For this years extended tour we used our Moto Guzzi 2014 V7-750 and Moto Guzzi 2019 V85TT.

During initial planning we anticipated covering 4,500 miles over 33 days but, in the end, we did 5,521 miles. This was due in part to the unexpected, good weather and other than scheduled overnight stops we didn’t have a firm daily itinerary. We could choose which routes to take between points A and B and it didn’t matter if it took a bit longer to complete the daily mileage.

We can safely say we got to see the ‘real’ Norway. Away from the main tourist routes there’s a great selection of minor roads that traverse through river valleys, over hills and mountains. Some sections are like riding in the Alps with many variations in gradients and hairpin bends. Most of these roads are very quiet but you must be aware of local traffic suddenly appearing in your rear-view mirror impatient to get past.

During the past 30 years or so the Norwegians have invested heavily in modern tunnels and bridges which replace the many small ferries that used to operate on the west coast routes. Having said that we still had to use some ferries. The cost per motorcycle varied from GBP 2 to GBP 5 depending on the length of the crossing.

The ferry network is run by private companies which are part funded by the Norwegian government. They run a frequent service, and we didn’t have to wait too long for the next available if we’d just missed one.

Some routes in Norway have toll sections. These are usually where tunnels or bridges have been built. To collect the tolls, they use overhead ANPR cameras mounted on gantries over the road. Motorcycles can travel on all these routes free of charge.

Some of the modern tunnels are amazing major feats of engineering. They are well lit with a good road surface. The longest tunnel we travelled through was over 8 miles long. Some even featured roundabouts. These are illuminated by blue and white LED lights around a white conical shape in a massive cavern. They look like something from a science fiction film. There are over 900 tunnels in Norway.

Understandably due to bad weather in winter some of the roads in the remote Arctic region are in a poor condition. Tarmac can be badly rutted and broken in places. They have renewed some sections, but you must be ready for the sudden transition from modern super smooth surfaces to not very two-wheel friendly lumps and bumps. Also, not very two-wheel friendly is the way the Norwegians remove whole sections of tarmac and leave the road covered in small stones and grit prior to relaying a new surface. Unless they have put warning signs out, and sometimes there weren’t any, these sections can be lethal for two-wheel traffic. They weren’t always easy to spot because there wasn’t a discernible difference in road surface colour. If there was traffic ahead of us, we always looked out for the telltale clouds of dust that would suddenly erupt in the distance.

In the Arctic region reindeer roam freely and these are another road hazard to be aware of. They can be very hard to spot ahead being the same colour as the usual road surface. There are plenty of warning signs for reindeer and other four-legged wildlife, but it can be very disconcerting to be suddenly confronted by groups of them stood in or near the road. Open road speed limits in the Arctic range from 80km/h to 100km/h (50 to 60 mph) but local traffic often travelled at speeds far greater than this. Other than in some towns and villages we didn’t see any police patrols. Fixed speed cameras are used widely, even in some remote areas.

South of the Arctic sheep replace reindeer as the main road hazard on unfenced country roads. They like to lie in the road either singly or in groups and are just as stubborn to move as their British cousins.

In Norway fuel is readily available even in the Arctic region. Most pumps are switched on 24/7 and use card payments only. You never feel that you would run out of fuel in the middle of nowhere. Contrast that with northern Sweden where fuel and refreshment stops are few and far between. That was a noticeable difference to Norway where most towns had a card payment fuel pump. Fuel is more expensive particularly in the Arctic. That far north it was typically around GBP 2.30 per litre for E10 grade. E5 isn’t widely available, only a few pumps on the tour offered this grade.

In our experience most accommodation prices in Norway were on a par with what we pay in the UK. Food and drink were slightly dearer. Alcoholic drinks were much more expensive than the UK. We took plenty of Norwegian Krone with us for incidentals but in hindsight we could have used debit card payments for almost everything.

As mentioned earlier we unexpectedly enjoyed good weather for most of the tour. Out of 33 days there were only 6 with heavy rain. We took some extra layers of clothing for the Arctic region expecting colder conditions, but we never needed them. Northern Norway was experiencing a heatwave while we were there. Daytime temperatures ranged from 20 to 27 degrees centigrade. It was 24 degrees at the Nordkapp and 19 degrees at the Arctic Circle Centre. The excerpts taken from our travel journal detail what each day was like.

Our 1,800+ mile route from Kristiansand up the west coast to the Nordkapp took us through the most scenic areas of Norway. It is a simply stunning country. From the Fjord region in the south west to the majestic towering mountains, glaciers and fjords in the north west, we were blown away by the sheer beauty of it all.

One of our most abiding memories of this tour was the carpets of Geiterams* which were in full bloom everywhere we went, with the largest concentrations found in the Arctic region. These rosy, pink flowers looked beautiful and could usually be seen on road verges, in meadows and in forest clearances. *Fireweed (USA) *Rosebay Willowherb (UK) 

Our Moto Guzzis performed very well, and we didn’t have any major problems. The left rear aftermarket indicator stem broke on Jane’s V7-750 in the Arctic and my V85TT’s ‘sealed’ left front LED indicator misted up during a torrential downpour in Sweden. I fixed the indicator in place on Jane’s bike with cable ties. It lasted the rest of the tour, and all four indicators have now been replaced by Breva 750 style units. My V85TT LED indicator, although still working, never cleared and remained stubbornly misted up. I’ve now fitted a new indicator. We took 2 litres of 10W-60 engine oil with us for top ups but only used a total of 600ml for both bikes. Jane’s 51,500-mile V7-750 used the most over the 5,521 miles. The V85TT hardly used any oil at all.