So I know this trip has been done many times before but I could do with some advice

Will roads be clear all the way north, or if not at what point will they turn to snow/ice roads?

I want to head up to nordkapp for NYE for something a little different

I will be travelling from the uk on a bmw x challenge, I quite fancy camping because I'm stupid and like the challenge

Should I run studded tires past a certain point or will dirt tyres with minimal air in be ok?

Any hints or tips would be greatly appreciated!

Nice winter trip Riding in Norway requires studded winter tyres. Major roads in the South may be clear at times, but do not count on it. If you are winter camping, I hope you know what you are doing. We are talking potentially very low temps. Be also aware of the 24h darkness in the north, so bring light. More tips for winter riding in Norway at ridenorway.com.

__________________
HansP
All you wanted to know
about riding in Norway

Hi,
I thought I am so stupid cause I am planning the same trip but in the beginning of February!
You definitely will need studs or chains. Also good light, maybe LEDs, cause you will ride in darkness most of the time. Make sure your coolant is prepared for minus temperature. Take thin engine oil 5W-40 or thiner. Maybe some heating gadgets. A good batterie would be nice, maybe an e-starter like 20000mAh as well, because your better might drain during the night. If you gonna camp, I would recommend a good down sleeping bag to -40c I am still not sure about a gas stove, I probably will use my multi fuel stove. And if you are very
thoroughful, than I would recommend to change the fork oil to something thiner as well.

Have a bread trip

But how cold is it really in Nordkapp in the winter? When I was there a couple of summers ago, I asked a waitress at the restaurant in the campground, expecting to hear -40, etc, but she said that it was rarely colder than about -7.

That surprised me, because I was living in Moscow at the time, where it much colder in the winter, and I'd just ridden a couple of thousand kilometers north from there. But apparently the Gulf Stream helps keep things a bit warmer.

This though is second hand. Has anyone been to Nordkapp in winter to say for sure?

Would be temperatures away from the coast that you need to handle and they will be considerably colder without the moderating influence of the sea. At Kautokeino not far south the winter temperatures average around -15C and then wind chill on the bike or camping on top of that.

__________________
Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

Tony is right. The coast is not necessarily *that* cold (however, often windy), but the inland can be VERY cold in February. We are talking below -30, and too often for comfort below -40. You will also go over mountain passes that are both cold AND windy. You must be prepared for closed mountain roads due to bad weather. I was born and raised in the far North of Norway. Take my word for it. It can be blistering cold, and you most definitely do not want to get caught unprepared.

__________________
HansP
All you wanted to know
about riding in Norway

Well, even if the temperature stays round -7 or -15, the humidity is still quite high compared to Russia. You want to sleep warm and cosy

That is the problem with riding bikes, May be sunny or raining, but it is ALWAYS windy

Say -30C and 85kmph is wind chill equivalent of -52C or -63F. Better have NO exposed skin or you will lose it. Lowest I've been in was -25C at Harbin with a very light breeze and a minute with skin exposed was painful.

__________________
Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

I don't mean to be difficult, but am interested in some of these issues (even though I never intend to ride to Nordkapp in winter):

1) If someone were riding to Nordkapp in Winter, wouldn't it be possible to stick to the coast and thus avoid brutally cold (and thus encounter only really really cold) conditions?

2) At -7 or -15, is humidity really a factor any more? I would have guessed (perhaps incorrectly) that at such temperatures the moisture would have been frozen out of the air?

Again, these are genuine questions...

-15C at 85kmph is -31C and dissipates nearly 2000 watts per square metre of exposed surface area.

Add in darkness for 20 to 24 hours per day

Still not fun, but one of those "because it is there" achievements.

__________________
Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

I will actually be trying to go to the North Cape on my Yamaha Tricity scoot, riding along the coast to avoid the mountain passes. I suspect the temps to be milder, but in February I will most lightly encounter pretty foul weather. Going along the coast, I am bound to use a lot of ferries, especially along the Nordland county coast (Road 17, which in summer is one of those spectacular tourist roads). However, on my route I will need to go over at least two mountain ranges, and the one from Alta to Skaidi in Finnmark - Sennalandet - is notorious for its foul weather, being more closed than open in the winter. Plus, of course, the road to the North Cape plateau itself.

With regard to temps and humidity, here's what I found: From -15 or thereabouts, humidity is getting negligible. At 0 degrees, air can contain max ca 4 g water pr kg air. At -10, ca max 2 g water pr kg air (@-10 degrees, 1.6 g/kg air = 80% humidity), while at -20 degrees, max ca 1 g water pr kg air (for comparison: At +20, air can contain 16 g water pr kg air).

As water/moisty air sucks the heat out of you more efficiently, you may (in winter) actually be colder in "higher" temps with high humidity (e.g. along the coast) than in dryer but cooler inland temps - at least down to a certain point. -25 is in any case very cold on a bike. I have ridden in -30, and that was pretty fresh, I'd say. I have a buddy from the UK who rode his C90 in -40 during his winter trip to Norway. But he's extremely tough.

__________________
HansP
All you wanted to know
about riding in Norway

Relative humidity is the capacity of the air to carry moisture, and it is the measure of humidity which the human body feels (though mostly in hot conditions as it effects the ability of the body to lose heat by perspiration). In cold humid conditions, your body needs to expend more energy heating the water vapour in the air and clothing between your body and the ambient surroundings.

As temperature decreases, the amount of moisture required to have high relative humidity decreases, meaning it is easy to have high relative humidities at very low temperatures.

So if you are an electric thermometer or a concrete post at Nordkapp, -7º C will feel like -7º C. But as a warm-bodied creature, with high relative humidity, and most likely a bit of a breeze and cloud cover, you will feel like it is a lot colder. For us, temperature is only one of several factors (humidity, air speed, intensity of solar radiation etc) which dictate how we perceive ambient 'temperature'.

For example, for me, a sunny clear, still day at -25 in Siberia was pretty nice, whereas a damp, slightly windy day in St P at -11 was miserable, in the same gear.

So my recommendation for gear to take would be thickly insulated mid-layers, with a high quality outer windproof layer.

Having fun in very low temperatures is all about good gear. I have a -40º C Rab sleeping bag and I wouldn't go anywhere cold without it. Lying on the ground in -20º C in Mongolia on nothing but a 2 cm Thermarest (no tent) was wonderful.

My only worry would be riding a motorcycle on ice. I am not a biker, but I know it's a steep learning curve in a 4x4 to master ice... a motorcycle is far less forgiving of mistakes.

__________________
EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.

Thanks guys for the interesting info re humidity at low temps, very interesting.

I've recently moved from Moscow to Berlin and definitely noticed last winter that "-5" is much colder in Berlin than in Moscow, because Berlin is so damp.

There is Heat index or Humidex where relative humidity IS a major factor, but I doubt whether this is a factor for temperatures less than 25C or RH below 40%. Wind chill, which is the problem at temperatures below about 15C and is wind speed related has no factor in the equation accounting for relative humidity. Iwould have though apparent temperature was entirely due to the cooling effect of being blasted with air rather than ant third or fourth order effect due to specific heats of air at different RH.

__________________
Tony
Click here for Travel Photos & Travel Map

I partially agree with your argument; certainly when temperatures are getting very low, the air's capacity to hold water vapor becomes negligible and wind speed takes over.

However, the effect of relative humidity will remain important until the specific heat capacity of ambient air becomes close to that of dry air, which from the following graph, I would say is at about 0º C. As someone who lives somewhere where morning temperatures hover between 0º C and 5º C for several months, I can certainly say that humidity has a big effect on perceived temperatures:



So, for the purpose of this example, I guess indeed, the effects of humidity will be pretty negligible, so long as you are in a windproof breathable shell. If not, I suspect moisture can build up in your clothing (form the air) and make you feel colder as your body needs to warm this water in order to make use of the insulating properties of your clothing.

__________________
EurasiaOverland a memoir of one quarter of a million kilometres by road through all of the Former USSR, Western and Southern Asia.