Minutes of a Motorcycle Addict

Some Danish winter riders putting up their camp for the weekend. The Danes are frequent visitors in significant numbers to the Primus Rally. (All photos: HansP)

The Primus Winter Motorcycle Rally 2009 was held from 20 - 22 February at the same place where it has been arranged since 1972. Me and my Danish buddy Lars went there in my trusty old Moto Guzzi T5 sidecar rig, with Lars riding in the tub. Remember to check out the video!

I invited Lars to the Primus Rally when I met him at a rally in Denmark in 2007. He came by plane to Oslo airport where I picked him up and together we packed my trusty old Guzzi T5 on Thursday evening. Another friend of mine, Lasse, whom I joined at the Wood Gatherer Rally in October last year and whom is also a fellow Guzzi club member, was supposed to join in but fell sick from the flu so he had to pass.

Bikes coming to the Primus Rally are in all shapes and any brand. The nearest one,
seing only the spare wheel, is one of the newer Urals.

We started in beautiful weather on Friday at noon and made good pace up towards Bjoneroa. At Vik we made a small tank stop before heading to Jevnaker, where we stopped at a small grocery store to get all the essentials. Which by and large is beer, to be frank. We had borrowed a large lavvo - the sami version of a tipi - to make sure we had plenty of room for our Primus Luxus tour, comprising beds, air mattresses, reindeer skin, tables and whatnot. The Guzzi pulled it all.

Also an Ural, probably of an older year. Although it's kind of hard to say for sure. They haven't been that much altered in the years since it was called BMW R71 back in 1939.
Beach umbrellas are popular shelter to heavy snowing, btw.

Just after taking off from Jevnaker the right cylinder of my Guzzi suddenly died. It was, as you may imagine, a most noticable loss of power. However, the Guzzi pulled so well we decided to try to reach the camp site before trying to fix it. I made sure it wasn't carb iceing, though.  

Some Danes that camped in our neighbourhood. Their large HD Camp igloo tent seen behind the bikes was impressive with plenty of room. But very awkward to put up it seemed. 

We met a couple of friends from Sandefjord MCC, whom I got to know at the New Year's Rally earlier this year. A great band of bikers. They ushered us passed them where they stood beside the road. Ulf, it became clear later on, had hit the snow beside the roads with his sidecar and flown with his bike some eight metres into the snowy fields beside the road. The bike had even turned upside down, and missed a tree by a mere metre. Ulf was ok, and his bike had got a cracked windshield. They managed to pull it up from the field and it fired up right away. So he came to Primus with the rest of the crew - amazingly enough!

The same Danes readying up for a small trip on Saturday noon. It had snowed pretty much during the night from Friday, and even more came down on Saturday. 

Another in Sandefjord MCC's crew, Johannes, wasn't that lucky. He fell with his two wheeled bike only 100 metres from the camp and broke his leg in two places. He was fetched by an ambulance helicopter and flown to a hospital where he was under surgery the very same evening. He will be ok but it was naturally a poor start for him on this year's riding.

Ole and Vegard's camp. They suddenly became tired, it seems,
on Friday night, abandoning everything on the spot...

Lars and I found a camp spot on the far fringes of the camp area, which is not a camp area as such but more a strech of road where everyone just puts up their tent wherever there is room. You only have to make sure people can pass with their sidecars. We made a really comfy camp with our stuff, and the Guzzi managed to pull us all the way to Bjoneroa at the decent speed of 60-70 km/h - on one cylinder! It's an amazing piece of machinery, no doubt about that!

As we can imagine, Ole and Vegard had a lot of visitors during the evening.
They had put up a really nice camp that attracted visitors around their bonfire.

The great thing about the Primus Rally is that you see many familiar faces, but - fortunately - also newer and younger faces too. It seems like the rally is growing in number again. And everbody is in such a good mood. The snow came pouring down nearly all the weekend, but that doesn't stop people from having a good time, obviously. The temperature wasn't that bad either, between -5 and -1 centigrades.

Strolling and talking along the Primus Main Street. Some 130
participants found their way up to Bjoneroa this weekend.

On Saturday another friend from the Guzzi Club, Eigil, came with his Le Mans and sidecar. We offered him a place in our large lavvo where he stayed for the rest of weekend. Fortunately he also brought with him a car battery so I could have some extra power to start my Guzzi if the right cylinder didn't want to fire. Which it didn't. I checked for spark, which was ok, and the gas flowed - but still no action. We managed to start it on Sunday morning and even rode it back home. It took some time and I needed to be careful not to overstrain it, but it got me and Lars back home in one piece.

Proper clothing on one of the Primus veterans.

It's stating the obvious but anyway: The Primus Winter Motorcycle Rally was great! It was three years since I last visited it, but the good mood and great band of people was still there, as I imagine it has since 1972. Lars was delighted and wants to come again another year. Perhaps on his own Jawa with sidecar.

There is no wonder: Winter Motorcycle Rallies attracts a special kind of motorcyclists. It's something you need to experience to understand it. I, for one, is totally hooked and will go again. And again. Perhaps I'll see you too there?

Putting up a tent in the deep snow can be hard work as you have to shovel the snow away to reach solid ground. This is from the "Kola Peninsula", named after the Russian
peninsula in the north, where the Ural riders tend to camp.

A former military tent. Plenty of room. It's made of canvas, thus
keeping the warmth from the inside woodburning oven better.

 
Yet another version of a sidecar bike.

Packing up: Veteran Primus attendees packing up for the weekend and heading home.