Indu: Thanks for the link. Looks interesting though expensive. The thought of having lodging taken care of every day is tempting.
I have a 1200cc Suzuki Bandit but wonder if a smaller bike of about 650cc might not be better for the mountains and narrow roads there.
What type of bikes do residents find well-suited?

I would go trail, I allways do but you might have other preferences, anything will be okay, though I´d say that trail offers more freedom on the swedish backtracks, in the north, pavement can be a rarity.
The northern territory of scandinavia is qualified as the last real wildlife of Europe and it sure is the most scenic part.
Its also easier to hit the forest tracks with a trailbike, even if you just intend doing a few kilometers to find a quiet camping spot.
Read the "allemansrätten".

Matt

Residents are using everything from 1800 Gold Wings to 400 motards, including supersport bikes and 1200 Bandits. (The Bandit is actually a real gem on our twisty roads.) Dual sports and motards are becoming increasingly popular due to horrific insurance premiums on sport bikes...

You'd have no problem at all with road oriented bikes. You can go all the way to North Cape on paved roads. If you CHOOSE to do some gravel, a dual sport is handy. BMW 650GS, Transalp, or even larger displaced bikes such as 11XX/1200GS, Varadero, Tiger or CapoNord are fine. Speed limits in Norway are somewhat low, so you don't have to worry about not keeping up with the (very light) traffic, even with smaller displaced bikes. Personally, I'd opt for comfort. That's why I recently bought myself a '03 Varadero :-).

Regarding the link: Yes, it is expensive. And lodging is no problem anyway, so you could easily take care of that yourself. Depends on you budget, but you'd come through with less than stated on the site I linked to.

Listen: I'd be happy to guide you the first couple of days, just to give you an easy start (not that Norway is hard to travel in), depending on when you're coming over. Just bring your stuff, and I'd meet you at the airport to bring you along to the bike rental.

Rx
Hans

__________________
HansP
All you wanted to know
about riding in Norway

Hans: Thank you for your kind offer. If I can find your email address on in this forum I can include you among my contacts. IMHO, any trip is about meeting people.
At this stage of the planning I am thinking of renting something like a F650 and turning myself loose on the roads with a very loose itinerary - my usual method of motorcycle travel.
The Beech tour sounds like it could be fun but if I just want to hang with Americans I can stay home and save thousands of dollars.

No problem at all, Bobo. You'll find my e-mail address by clicking the letter sign just above this message.

I'll check F650 renting prices in Norway for you in the meantime. (It might be cheaper in Sweden, though.)

Rx
Hans

__________________
HansP
All you wanted to know
about riding in Norway

Hi,
If you need any help/advise/repairs/whatever feel free to contact me. I live on Stord nearby Bergen in western Norway. If you like I can mail you my phonenr. in case of anything..

Yngve
Ktm adv640

Thanks for your offer, Yngve. I'll get into contact with you as I get closer to travel.
My map tells me that you live south of Bergen but I can't tell if it's an island or a part of the coast, looks beautiful, though.

Bobo,

www.viamichelin.com will give you the answer instantly. Isn't the Internet great?

------------------
Salut from Southern France, the bikers' paradise,

Peter.

__________________
Cheers,
Peter.

Europe to NZ 2006-10

Hi there, I have been in Norway twice from the UK (Newcastle to Bergen) then north to Narvik and west to the Lofoten Islands on a BMW K1100RS it is a bikers dream. You will be absolutely fine, the Norwegians are great people, friendly, all speak English and their population is spread right up into the far north so there will always be petrol stations and good camp sites and cabins. I will e-mail you a story of my trip that I hope you will find of some help. There are a lot of ferry crossings on the west coast so set aside a few hundred dollars for that and be careful getting on and off the ferries as a mixture of diesel and sea water can make it very slippery for bikers. If you take care, no problem. If you decide to take your bandit it will be no problem as the the excellent roads will take you through endless mind blowing scenery. I originate from Scotland which is a bit special when it comes to scenery and Norway is a very big version of Scotland.

[This message has been edited by DuncanH (edited 16 February 2005).]

Hi DuncanH, I would be interested in that story too. Is it possible for you to post the story here on the HUBB, or do you have a link to a website? If neither of these possible, then could you email it to me too?

john_skillo at yahoo dot com dot au
(put it together in usual way)

Thanks
Skillo

[This message has been edited by SKILLO (edited 16 February 2005).]