Minutes of a Motorcycle Addict

Of couse we were there. Wife won the Best Looking Bike prize. Well deserved. I got a prize too. As the Youngest Rider...

Let me get back to the prizes. There were several of them, but first things first.

Wife Sølvi, daughter Oda and myself was this year's contingent from our family. Sølvi was looking forward to displaying her revamped Breva 750 to the crowd, while I was supposed to take the old T5 sidecar rig with Oda in the tub. A rather clumsy tire changer guy put an end to that by making a hole in the new tire when he put it on. I noticed it the very same morning we were supposed to depart. The T5 was strangely heavy to push out of the garage. When checking I saw the flat rear tire. Everything was closed due to public holiday this Thursday so I couldn't get the rear tire mended.

The T5 stayed in the garage this time. 

Naturally this bred some heavy cursing in ways only a guy born in the North of Norway can curse. This exercise has a soothing effect so I calmed down rather quickly and saddled up the Quota 1000. It's not that comfortable for my daughter, but we had no option. I like to ride the Quota so after a while I decided it was ok to have a flat rear tire on the T5.

Me and my beloved Quota 1000. A perfect tourer!

 
Oda and bikes at the ferry quay waiting to cross the Oslo fjord
from Moss to Horten.

We started Thursday 21 May to have time enough to have short legs so Oda wouldn't go tired. We wanted to go over Dalen and take the magnificent Suleskar Road, but due to poor weather forecast we just took the E18 down to Kristiansand where we stayed the night at a good NMCU friend's place. Bent and his family are always very hospitable, so it was a nice stay.

Friday we decided to do some sightseeing as the distance to Stavanger and the rally venue was only some 3 hrs. We rode to Lindesnes lighthouse, which marks the southernmost point in Norway. Neither of us had been there before, surprisingly enough, so it was good to finally have seen the sights. I'm planning on a winter ride from Lindesnes to Nordkapp, which is the Northernmost point in Europe, next February so it was good for me to see where I'm supposed to start.

Finally we got to visit Lindesnes lighthouse, which marks the southermost point in Norway. The sign shows the way and distance to the northernmost.

The weather Gods stood by our side. Whereas we got reports from other Guzzisti who were literally struggeling through the rain squalls we were pretty much dry all the time. It was a bit cold though, so we got our act together and rode straight for Nærbø, or Nærlandsparken as the site is called. 

We're finally there, at Nærbø, or Nærlandsparken.

The place used to be an institution for the mentally retared, built back in the Fifties. It also housed tuberculosis victims and even German soldiers during the Occupation in WWII. A suitable venue today, though, even if the tent camp was a bit off site to the guest house where most of us stayed.

I'm a tent guy myself, but bringing Oda and Sølvi along I must provide roofed shelter. They're getting spoilt, I think... Anyway, the place was great and the ride-out on Saturday, lunches, dinners and all the socializing was even better.

Then came the prize awards ceremony. A Guzzi friend's daughter, Sunniva, got the prize for youngest participant at her 7 years. Arve got a prize for oldest Guzzi at the rally. Then I got a prize for being the Youngest Guzzi rider at the rally. At 40! There where some of us who took this sign very seriously. So beside fond memories some of us started to talk about how to attract younger - at least more in the early 30's - to the club. 

Sølvi stayed in Stavanger where she'd work, whereas Oda and me took the Quota back home. I dropped off Oda at a school camp in Arendal northeast of Kristiansand, where she'll be with her class until end of this week. The Quota performed flawlessly, the Breva too, and we are already looking forward to seeing all the Guzzisti again in Rindal further North in the autumn.

Some of the early birds in the beer tent. These are the Danes.

 
Fellow Guzzisti Torgeir (850 T3 Cali - right) and his brother
(whom I don't remember the name of).

 
Our Danish friends Kenneth (V65 Lario) and Anette (V65 Florida).

Finally we got more Quotas in the club! Asbjørn from Rokken Guzzilag got his V11 Quota ES only a couple of months before the rally. With his, we believe we are five Quotas in Norway whereof three in the Guzzi club.

 
Doesn't it look good towards the background colour?

 
The Spring Rally is for all Italian makes (and any other bike as we believe that within, we are all Guzzisti ;-). This is a classic Moto Morini 3 1/2 Sport.

 
A nice T5. This bike is also aestethically challenging, but nevertheless a great bike. Very underrated. I want one (more).

 
A V11 Sport in the foreground, and a classic 1967 V7 Ambassador in the background. Decades apart, but the recemblance is there.

Another and closer view of the 1967 V7 Ambassador. It was this model that sparked the Guzzi V-twin frenzy. Before it, single 500's dominated the Guzzi line-up. Design: Giulio Cesare Carcano himself.

This became the Golden Row of the rally: Two red Le Mans I with a 750 S farthest to the left. All Danish.

No proper rally without the Centauro. It's so odd it's beautiful.

 
Audun had a small problem with his 1973 Nuovo Falcone Civile. It was only a corrugated fuse though.

 

 
Sunniva (7), daughter of fellow Guzzisti Bjørn and Mona,
got her prize for being the youngest participant.

 
Wife Sølvi mighty proud after getting her prize for
having the nicest looking bike. 

 
Oda and I rounded off the weekend by going to the movies. That movie poster is priceless!