Am I deluded?

AndyB_11

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I've been idly looking at google maps and would I be making a bad mistake if I thought I could get to Oslo in 2 days riding from the Hook of Holland late February?

It'd be on a rather gutless outfit so 60mph maximum realistic cruising speed but I'm fairly focussed when it comes to getting the miles done so only stop when I need petrol then neck a coffee, smoke 2 tabs and crack on again. I'm relying heavily on the road up through Sweden being kept clear of snow and only needing to worry about ice after I've left Oslo but that's another subject that can be addressed later :D

In a lot of ways I'd prefer to camp on the middle night though that means stopping earlier when I could be pressing on and getting another 100-150 miles out of the way but would I be able to find somewhere to bung a tent up or would I need to lose time going off route to find a quiet area?

Amuse yourselves and encourage me to do it so you can laugh later :thumb2
 
The outfit will have a second battery plus lights on the chair because I've tried riding in the gutter with a chair outside me after dark before and it's very disconcerting.

Apart from that you get about 10 hours of so called daylight up there by the end of February which should allow 450-500 miles to be covered before it gets dark. That's should, not will...
 
I go to Sweden (Stockholm) a lot in January / February each year.

This year there was zero snow, sometimes lots.

Winter tyres are compulsary, irrespective.
 
I have never been, ever, so consider myself to be an expert.

Google maps imagines it to be 14 h 8 min (1,339.5 km) via E45

As you say, notional day length of c. 10 hours (sunrise 07:20 ↑ (105°) sunset 17:40 )

Average temps Oslo late Feb 2015 hi 0c low -5c

Max 60 mph = running average of 40 mph so daily run time of 12 hours

Helped by last weeks MCN up your jumper and a carrier bag in each boot, should be all quite doable.

Enjoy.

Deluded? no. Confident? perhaps.

Looking forward to the RR and photos, esp pics of the 4000 calories per day required in these conditions.

:thumb
 
It's certainly possible but doesn't sound much fun!
I'd forget camping and stop overnight on the Kiel-Gothenburg ferry. Proper rest and miles done at the same time!
 
I've been to Norway in winter before and it ended miserably about 40 miles short of the arctic circle with frost nip in most fingers and a target not reached so this time I'm taking an outfit to reduce the fear level and not setting the bar very high.

What I won't be taking is old copies of MCN because I want something interesting to read before using it as bog paper and MCN fails miserably on that count.
 
Let me get a grip on this: You want to ride 1600 km in two days in Scandinavia in February, and you want to know if you're bonkers? :)

There is no way to know what kind of conditions you will meet in Norway. It can be relatively mild, it can be really cold. It can be sunny, ormyou could find yoirself in a blizzard. The E6 to Oslo is always heavily salted, quickly turning any snow into a grey, disgusting slush. I would not ride in winter without studded tires. They are illegal in Germany, but I don't know how strict they are with bikes. Bon voyage.
 
I don't know anything about riding in Scandinavia, but I do know not to trust Google maps whatsoever when estimating riding time. Google told me it would take me 19 hours of riding to get from Cologne to Dublin...it took me five days. Granted, I wasn't trying to cover the distance as quickly as I could and I could have done it a bit quicker, but it took me 11 hours to cross England alone, and that was trying as hard as I could.

As mentioned already, 40mph/60kph is a realistic average speed. 1600km/60kph = 26.667hours. That's over 13 hours each day, excluding petrol and food stops. I'd be allowing an hour for fuel and food when you stop, unless you just cram stuff into your mouth and get going again, in which case, I'd make it 30 minutes, but fuel stops are a lot more time consuming than people often realise. You'd easily lose an hour.

I'd forget about camping if you're stuck for time. As you said yourself, you'd cover a lot of extra distance while looking for a patch of grass for your tent and putting up your gear etc. Either book a room somewhere around your halfway point, or what I usually do when travelling alone is book something online at about 4 or 5 in the evening, when I have an idea of how much more distance I can cover that day. That could take another hour to do, so booking in advance is probably a better option for you.

I'd say it's perfectly doable, but will require a bit of luck with weather and traffic etc.
 
Right, time to resurrect this topic :D

I've finally got the outfit sorted out and it's sitting in the garage waiting to be used. I'm short of holidays (mine run April - April) so the trip needs to be a bit of a flyer rather than a leisurely tour of Scandinavia and my plan is to use the Harwich to the Hook of Holland ferry so I'm in place for a sharpish start in the morning, steady ride of about 480 miles to Middelfart (has to be done) then stop there for the night. Second day as far north into Sweden as I can get with about 450 miles getting me to Frederikstad. If I can do that then it's 120 miles to the Primus treffet which is doable even if the roads are bad.

Friday and Saturday nights at the rally then try and get as many miles as possible Sunday after packing up and then hop on the Tuesday night ferry home. If things look grim I'd even consider leaving the rally Saturday afternoon because it's all about the ride rather than the rally as far as I'm concerned.

The outfit is nice and stable at 65-70mph though that might not be the case when riding in Europe where the road camber works against a bike set up for this country though if that was causing a major problem I'd tweak the position in a hotel car park by torch light if I had to. I've got a mug who wants to come along as passenger/co-pilot so that reduces the strain of riding a long way on an outfit that's going to be fairly heavy to steer and also means I've got someone to sit and get pissed with if it all goes to rat shit :beer:
 
Are you going to the Krystallrally in Røros? Let's hope they don't break their record this year. (–50,4 °C, 13. January 1914.)

You're a tough and dedicated one, opting to ride the world's most boring piece of road in crap, cold weather, when you could get to Oslo in a soft, warm bed — probably at a lower cost. I rode it in the summer, and swore to never to do it again. Now you make me feel like such a whimp. Enjoy your trip! :)
 
The plan is to go to the Primus rally which is a lot closer to Oslo than the Krystall. I'd have gone further but due to a family illness meaning I've had to use some of my spare holiday allocation I'm short on time.

I know it's a boring ride up through Sweden but the ferry schedules from Frederikshavn don't work for me and there's no ferry direct from the UK to Scandinavia apart from the freight route out of Immingham so this is really my only option. I'm treating this as a test ride for the outfit more than anything else and I could have gone anywhere but it's nice to have a vague idea of a destination because it gives me a target to get the miles done each day rather than stopping early if it gets a bit tough.
 


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