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It was in September 1998 on a friends Party when Philip came to me and
asked if I would join him for the winter party at RAMS MC in Trondheim, Norway. I
thought why the hell not and said YES.
The point was that he was thinking about riding up to Trondheim on the
bike!!
We immediately started to plan our trip, because there is a lot to do if
you want to drive a Panhead in the winter from Switzerland to Norway. We had to think
about chains for the bikes, heating system for hands and feet and the carburetor,
something to heat up the engine in the morning when it is 30°C below zero.....and so on.
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February 1st we rode to Lörrach in Germany close to the Swiss
border to pull the two Panheads on the train to Hamburg, entered the sleeping cabins with
a couple of beer cans in every pocket and did not sleep a lot.
Phil's face proves that we had quite a bit of fun instead of sleeping hours! |
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Hamburg February 2nd: off the
train, starting the bikes and on the highway to Kiel to enter the ferry to Oslo. |
| In the morning when we woke up with some headache... and
looked outside the windows of the cabin we were not so sure anymore if it was so
intelligent what we were doing: THE FUCKING SEA WAS FROZEN!! So it was probably pretty
cold outside. |
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Nevertheless the weather was
not so bad and in fact it was only 8°C below zero. On that day we made it till
Lillehammer where Philip after a stop on a gas-station had troubles with his kick-stand
and couldn't kick his bike anymore. Well...no problem we thought and pulled his bike with
mine with a rope to get to the main road because there was no snow. On the first try to
release the clutch Philip went down to the asphalt and we realized that there was no snow
on the road but PURE ICE! We decided to stay in Lillehammer the night and repair the
kick-stand. |
| The next day we were more carefully on the road knowing that
we were riding on a ice-field. This is like trying to ride over an egg without braking
it....you have no chance but you try it again and again. The further North we got, the
more snow was falling and soon there was enough snow on the roads to put the chains on our
bikes! |
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The most difficult part of the trip was the Dovre Pass. It is
not a very high mountain but the weather was so bad that you couldn’t see the hand in
front of you face. It was a record snow storm the day we passed the mountain. We passed
a Truck which trailer was blown off the road and we knew we have to be crazy to be here on
our HD's. |
Only 3 hours after we arrived in Oppdal the road over the
Pass was closed. It was too dangerous!
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In Oppdal we could stay at the clubhouse of the Mountain Rider
MC which is very nice and has a perfect guestroom.
Everything was organized, beer, dinner, site seeing tour and the visit of the local bars!!
We really felt like home. |
| The rest of the trip to Trondheim was a lot of fun. The
weather was pretty good and we got used to drive with the chains and could go faster and
faster. You have to give the bike the main direction and she finds the way through the
snow itself, dancing and sliding. |
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We stayed for 2 wonderful days and 3 even better nights at the
clubhouse of the RAMS MC in Trondheim and had a lot of beer, spriit and fun!
The way home was colder (27°C below zero) but nice weather and again we met all our
friends that we met on our way up: The Mountain Riders in Oppdal, Foreman in Vinstra,
Jarle in Lillehammer and the Post MC in Oslo.
Many Thanks to all this people that supported us!! |
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