The real Norway (day 19-24)
Day 19-24 (31st Aug - 5th Sept)
2,708 miles
Verdal - Trones - Bodo
It wasn't a great night's sleep.
I had started to let people know what had happened on Friday evening so spent a few hours before bed explaining everything to quite a few people asking after me and worried for how I am. I feel very loved and cared for, I am lucky in so many ways. Socially in Britain it's not that common that people are compelled to say openly how much they care for someone else without it sounding a bit odd, but actually - there is no negative to come from telling someone how much you care for or love them.
My brain was spinning until 2am, and when I did sleep I kept waking unable to find a position that was comfortable on my shoulder. I couldn't do anything with the bike as I couldn't get to it but I could start writing down lists of equipment that were broken, look back through the photographs and think through all the parts I might need. I had breakfast with bits from my luggage and met a neighbouring camper called Daniel from France who semi-permanently lives at Soira Moira 8 months of the year, tending to the golf course as groundsman and helps around the campsite too. An hour or so passed when a car pulled up and a smiley chap suggested I must be the sad biker - I laughed, I was indeed the sad biker.
Ragnar helps look after things at the campsite for his newphew, and he very warmly showed me around. He spotted I had my tent, tarp and hammock airing in the cabin and suggested I use the reception building with more space to air it better with the heating on. I was offered the free use of the main kitchen, fridge, and facilities of the campsite which was quiet toward the end of the season. Thinking about my next moves I thought I'd spend a bit of time at a bakery a few kilometers away and do some writing or research or something so asked what it was like, Ragnar was heading that way anyway and offered to give me a lift so I hopped in his car. Sat with a coffee and some lunch, Ragnar chatted to a friend at the bakery and mentioned my predicament, his friend was a biker too and wanted to help - Vegard came and sat opposite to introduce himself.
I'm not going to be able to explain with enough words how kind and supportive everyone I have met from this point onwards has been, and how much difference it has made to me, to my adventure, but more deeply to my perspective of strangers and the willingness to help just because you can. But, I'm going to try.
I mentioned my bike was at the Verdal Bat Scooter & MC workshop which he knew and had bought a couple of Indian motorcycles from previously. He had access to a storage space that was mine if I wanted it and made a few phone calls to clear the access for it with the people who owned the space, and mentioned his brother is good mechanically and would be able to help too. I had no other plans so asked whether it would be okay to go look at the space thinking that it would be useful if I could start to line up somewhere I wasn't limited to the working hours of 8-4 then I'd be able to progress repairs quicker and this lockup was 24hr access. We hopped in his car and went to see it, there were multiple American muscle cars there with various spaces people set up to work on project cars, and the perfect dry space I could get my bike moved to, but no tools and only intermittently people there so it wasn't quite what I needed as I knew I'd need a few tools, a vice, bench, welding kit that I didn't have and wasn't there.
We drove to meet Geir, Vegard's brother in a neighbouring village, in the 'man-cave' attached to his workshop. Vegard explained a little of my predicament in Norweigan as I looked around at the log burner, trinkets on the walls, the three stainless brewing vessels behind me, the four tap head on the fridge, taking in the room. We chatted for an hour or so about what happened, as Geir thought about ways through with the mechanical challenges I was facing, people he knew, kit he has, ways he could help. I had a couple of pints of homebrewed beer which were incredibly welcome as a more robust plan of repair and support was building. Vegard dropped me back off at the campsite and asked what my plans were that evening. It had been 24 hours since I left hospital, so I was fairly low on energy and probably needed rest but I had no plans. He was going to the pub later on and asked if I wanted to join, he would collect and return - good offer, I went for it. I had a couple of hours to have dinner and tidy some bits up then got picked up at 18:30 by Vegard and his sister Hilda and went back to Geir's house. I realise - the pub is Geir's man-cave. More accurately its called Yeti Bua, after the Colorado Yeti beer. After a few hours of chatting and premier league football we were joined by a neighbour Geir. The night was relaxed and comfortable, Vegard's brother had built a boat in the workshop portion of the garage and offered to take me fishing in the downtime whilst I was in Verdal. The parting arragement that evening was that I would be picked up at 15:00 tomorrow to go fishing as the weather was calm, a friend of Vegard's picked us up and I was back at the campsite for midnight, what a difference a day makes.
I didn't sleep that well again, no hangover though - the beer is good! The discussions of how to progress had given me a boost with moving forward, I spent the morning sorting out the rest of my kit, I took everything out and looked at it, assessed it, worked out what was broken, what was okay, cleaned things that needed it, starting to square everything up. Vegard collected me and we got to Geir in his boat, hopped aboard and set off into the fjord. The aluminium hull 130bhp fishing boat took us out around the bay and I realised I could see the crash site from the water. I had my drone with me so I flew it from the sea to shore and took photos and video of where the crash had happened, strange to virtually return to the scene. The fish scanners aboard the boat suggested there were a few below us but not enough. We spent the next few hours tracking the bays and open water of the fjord looking for fish on the scanner, occasionally casting out when it looked viable, spotting porpoise, meeting other fishermen Geir knew working their nets and tickling the local fish but ultimately returned 4 hours later without, having had a really peaceful and interesting afternoon.
I set off the next morning on a borrowed bicycle to the workshop. I needed to speak to the insurance company at 10:00 when they opened, having gotten the details from the driver who had nudged me to the floor. I spent the first few hours photographing and documenting the damage to the bike as mechanics in the workshop helped set up a space for me with tools and bench access. The chap on the phone from the Norweigan insurance company was less helpful than I had hoped. From his perspective, everything needed to be managed through a garage, I'm not sure he understood the claim extended beyond damage to a vehicle which obviously would be outside the realm of a workshop and he certainly wouldn't accept me doing the repair work. It was garage or scrap, after assessment by a garage for value.
In the UK, when I've supported the insurance negotiations of damaged vehicles, there has been a threshold of repair costs being 40% the vehicle's value, beyond which the vehicle is 'written off' as uneconomical to repair. If it is structurally okay, you can get an offer for the write-off value less the parts value of scrap (relatively small) to buy the vehicle back and have the majority of the vehicle's value to repair it yourself, then you prove its roadworthyness (normally by MOT) to continue using it once its fixed. This is the direction I wanted to go with the bike, I wasn't about to abandon it in Norway and fly home. It's damaged, and the parts and labour to replace broken bits will exceed 40% the value of the bike (as of 6th Sept, I haven't heard from the insurance whether I can do this or not), but I know I can fix it and it will be okay, I really like my bike and it will ride again. To be told I have to either get the garage to manage the repair, through which I will get the bike but nothing else once they've had chance to do it in a month or so, or I get a scrapped bike and fly home, was not acceptable to me. Sindre rung them on my behalf and said its all sorted, but I felt uncomfortable with the direction it was going, I was losing the say with what will happened to my bike and the financial side of it was starting to become more shady than it needed to be with discussion of profit on the parts I order, manipulating the hours of labour as I wasn't an employee etc. I had some lunch then phoned my insurance to report the incident and felt much more assured by the direction things turned. The insurance situation isn't resolved yet, but ultimately whether the insurance pay out or not, I am going to repair the bike and continue the adventure, I just needed it in a state where I can continue to negotiate the money side of things whilst I fix the bike and get back to my journey.
Whilst I was on the phone to the insurance, Geir (Vegard's brother’s neighbour) stopped by to see the bike and say hello, in one of the classic Porsche he had rebuilt. I was on the phone the whole time but intermittently got chance to talk and he offered some space in his workshop and that I could stay with the bike at his if I wanted - a very very good offer. Vegard stopped by to see me at the workshop and agreed that I should take Geir up on his offer, so we went to see him to discuss next steps. In Geir's workshop under his house I sat staring at the equipment and space and tools and could not stop grinning - it was perfect! Geir's partner Kristin insisted I stay in the guest room - this felt completely right.
When I was in hospital trying to find a garage to call, being supported by Geir with his expertise and equipment is what I was looking for but without human contact and a network of support, its impossible to find. Within 2 days, through Ragnar, then Vegard, I was exactly where I wanted to be - amongst the kindest most talented people you can ever hope to meet.
Vegard took me back to the campsite where I spent the evening repacking, sorting camping kit and collating information for the insurance claim. The next morning I walked to Sindre's workshop and explained the new plan, thanked them for their support and said goodbye to the guys there, promising to come by on the bike before I leave Verdal. Geir arrived with a trailer and his 1940 Ford V8 he built, what a way to travel! After an unnecessarily complicated method of getting the bike into the workshop and lifted off the trailer as there were only the two of us, the bike was in its new home, a mechanical cave of wonders Aladdin would be proud of.
Vegard came to pick me up from Geir's and collect my things from Soira Moira camping. Ragnar wasn't there to pay and say goodbye to so I would come back another day to do that, but we headed back to Geirs and started stripping the bike. By 19:30 everything that was broken was off, and I started looking at the condition of the rest to make sure I hadn't missed something or that there was concealed damage on a component that appeared fine.
I believe (because some of this is extrapolated from evidence without actually seeing it happen), the bike was hit from behind at a slight angle, the rear wheel took the initial impact, which went through tyre, wheel, carrier, axle, bearing housing of final drive, bearings, swing arm finally to the subframe. The tyre burst, the wheel buckled in two places, the carrier then bent a little but not significantly. The main bearing in the final drive unit is a large bearing, but I believe it is okay (hard to tell at this stage). From there, the load went through the final drive housing into the top mounting bush and final drive knuckle bearings into the swing arm, which snapped. It's approximately 100mm diameter cast aluminium tube with 5mm wall thickness at its thinnest, and 12mm where the bearings are located. To snap that, has taken a lot of force. The death of the swing arm is likely to have protected the subframe at the mounting points. The subframe was twisted at the back, and on the left peg, but I believe this has happened from the second impact which would have been when the bike landed on its left side, after launching into the air from the initial hit. The pannier frames are bent which will have been a combination of residual energy from the car onto the right hand pannier, and the bike landing on the left handside. The left pannier box was badly distorted from the landing, the 6 U-shaped mounting features were twisted and mangled, the body of the box bent, lid and locking mechanism bent. The drybag with camping gear in dragged along the floor and died but protected the contents, the tank bag tore at the sewn base, with the tablet smashing inside but the rest of the electronics survived, and the 10L water bag burst like a balloon on the road.
Geir and I spent a fair bit of time looking at and discussing the remaining bits, the drive shaft, bevel housing, load paths into the transmission, and any aspect of the bike that was likely to have seen damage. The spare tyres on the front helped protect the tank but died themselves, the crash bars are a little bent but did their job protecting the engine which starts and runs as if nothing ever happened. I gave Steve back in the UK a call the next morning because I wanted to let him know I was okay and to hear his thoughts on the mechanics of the impact. He's clarity on load paths, knowledge on bike building, meaningful ways to check components and which features matter helped assure me of the things to consider with the remaining checks of the bike - it was really good to speak to him.
Once I was satifised I had a comprehensive list of bits I needed to get the bike moving again I made a few calls and spent the afternoon ordering parts to arrive at my parents house, along with the luggage and gear that had died in the crash too.
Geir is known as having a magical touch with restoration of pretty much anything with a carburettor. He has featured in various US and Scandinavian hot-rod magazines for the phoenix level ability to revive battered rust boxes, and earned himself the nickname of Norwegian Blacksmith. He has found, built and sold many bikes and cars of all types and ages over many years and has all the equipment to fabricate and restore the bodywork, fabric internals, wooden cars, engines, everything. To say he is a man of many talents would be an understatement, but he's humble and reserved with his abilities too. The projects he works on are ones he has interest in, and I have been told by others how lucky I am to be supported by him with my dramas - I could not have landed in the more perfect place to have these probems.
The next morning I set to straightening and battering the pannier boxes into shape, using a hydraulic jaw and powerpack, chocks of wood and a soft hammer to knock, twist and contort them back to shape. Geir straightened the luggage framework, chopped off the snapped mounting features and fabricated new ones which he TIG welded into place then I started preppping them to be painted.
I have been entirely spoiled by the kindness and care Kristin has given in keeping me fed warm and happy. When I got to Oslo I wanted to make sure I had traditional Norweigan food whilst I was here, but when I got a breadbowl of ‘trasitional stew’ I felt a little disappointed with it. After looking into traditional Norwegian meals they largely centred around fish or grass fed farmed meals which I would struggle to replicate bike camping and didn't really see many restaurants I could drop by in with bike and gear to get some. Service stations seem to double up as fast food 'restaurants' with the cashiers making more burgers and hotdogs than selling fuel as the fuel side seems to be more self-service anyway. Kristin has made some of the most flavoursome meals I've had, and I have definitely landed on my feet with discovering traditional Norweigan food! The recipes are largely in her head with how they're made and the ingredients so I hope I can get some recipes before I leave but I know I'll never be able to make them as rich and tasty as she has - I guess I'll just have to come back!
Without these people, I would be struggling. I feel like I have seen a glimse of the real Norway, of its people, their happiness and worries - a small slice of their lives. I feel privileged to have been given the opportunity to by Geir, Vegard, Geir, Kristin and Ragnar.
I knew there would be a few days delay whilst things were delivered to my parents, assembled and repackaged then sent out to me here from the UK, so I arranged to fly to Bodø with hiking and camping gear to meet Myrene and spend a few days on the Lofoten Islands rather than miss out because of the delays of dealing with the bike problems. Ragnar kindly gave me a lift to the train station, and I got an hour to sit and absorb the Trondheim Fjord from the train in the afternoon sun before getting to the airport as it began to set over the runway. I landed in Bodø fairly late and walked from airport to hostel through the quiet sleepy town, finally north of the arctic circle again for the first time since 2006.
