Minutes of a Motorcycle Addict

The fattest, best burnouts are usually found at the MC Rally Norway.
This guy smogged the whole northern part of the camp. Great! :-)
More pictures under the main text.

28 - 31 May 2009 is going down the Norwegian motorcycle rally history as the date for one of the greatest MC Rally Norway (Norgestreffet) ever arranged. At least in modern time. It was top class all the way from weather to whisky.

The MC Rally Norway, or "Norgestreffet" as us locals call it, is the largest rally in Norway. It's an annual event and is arranged on different places each year. This year Road Runners MCC of Evje in Aust-Agder stood at the helms for the giant party for more than 2500 riders from all over the country and even several from abroad. I know, 2500 is hardly that many compared to the massive rallies further south in Europe, but in Norwegian terms this is huge.

Veteran riders

Road Runners MCC consist of some fairly veteran riders who've been around the scene for a while. They throw an annual rally in April each year (a rally I visited for the first time this year btw) so they're a pretty experienced crew. They also arranged the MC Rally Norway ten years ago and set the attendee record with close to 3000 riders.

Co-riding

I had agreed with two buddies of mine, Jørn and Gunnar, to join them for the ride to Evje. Evje sits in the inland southern parts of Norway, some 4 hours ride from where I live. I had just got rid of a fever and sore throat that had been bugging me for the last couple of days, and with the weather forecast for the weekend this was something I really couldn't miss.

Quota trouble

We chose to cross the Oslo fjord by the Moss - Horten ferry. Just a couple of miles from the ferry quay on the Horten side, the Quota suddenly started to splutter and stutter. I had to pull over to see if I could fix it, it felt really bad. I asked the rest of the crew, now also counting a couple on a older Suzuki, to carry on in case I was forced to make a return to get the sidecar rig.

Roadside repair

The Quota wouldn't be fixed. After a swift phone call to Ole Johnny over at Askim MC - the only workshop I allow to touch my bikes - I checked the suspected culprit, a sensor in the left cylinder cover, but to no avail. The Quota still did the jerky moves and I decided to get back. Just before the Horten quay the Quota died totally. No electricity. I ripped off all luggage, swore and sweated and brought out the tools and started digging into the matter.

Embarrasment...

The bike behaved just like it did last year when I had to succumb and hand it in to the Ole Johnny's workshop. But no fault was found. Suddenly I discovered a loose cable connection to the battery. It was sort of obvious but we never saw that one. Embarrasingly enough. So I fastened the cable and off I went to the rally. I arrived one and a half hour later than the rest of the crew, found my spot, put up the tent and went on partying.

Perfect!

The weather had been nothing short of perfect since Friday, and Saturday came with even warmer and better weather. Jon, a buddy from the UK working in Oslo for the moment, joined in on Saturday and we had a great time all of us. Many great people, good food, good drinks, and fantastic live bands! Everybody just had a good time in the perfect, warm weather (even if the night to Sunday actually saw below zero temperatures! There were ice on the bikes when we went to our tents that night...)

I'll be back!

The tour back went through the extremely nice back road from Evje over Åmli and Drangedal to Porsgrunn and home. It was really a rally to remember, and I do believe I'll come to more of Road Runner's rallies. They really are that good.

The tyre post-burnout. The grass sticked to the warm tyre
almost dripping with rubber.

A lady from Asker MCC trying out the bike of her life, a Yamaha FZ1N

Bent from Hemoriders MCC, Vice President of NMCU and a good friend of mine

Not sure if all would agree, but a funny T-shirt text nevertheless :-)

Testing the revving limiter of a Ducati 1098...

This is one of the nicest original Honda CBX 1000 I ever saw.
Even the carbs were chrome coated.

A new friend of mine, Jon from Nottingham. He's currently working in Oslo and had brought his Honda XRV 750 Africa Twin to go touring in Norway before moving back to UK. And he brought some tax free Bacardi Oro for us to sample ;-)

Harald from Asker MCC with a lady whom I don't know. He's been active in the motorcycle arena for many years and have been to more than 250 rallies all in all. He's also been active with NMCU for a number of years.

Jørn, a fellow member from Ski MCC, was on his way to the Swedish Rock Festival with our fellow buddy Gunnar and dropped by the MC Rally Norway en route. They are both also members of the Mobile Dicks MCC.

Jon (right) and I chillin' out. His Africa Twin, which he rode in Sahara with, in the background. His was probably the only AT at the rally
that actually had been to Africa.