The chief bluesmoke travels far north..

[arcticIndian]

Last year we (my 1944 indian chief and myself) went to Iceland, and a ride report was posted here after the trip.

From a bad start of the riding season, with delays and a troublesome transmission, everything got sorted in early July.
After longing for the open road for months and months, I just loaded up the indian and headed north on tuesday july 8th.
Actually I got the flu the night before, so I waited until 1400 to start my travel. Really I should have stayed at home, not feeling well at all.
But sooo fed up by the small hometown....
I've been to the north of Norway several times, and worked there as an officer for 1,5 year. I love the nature and the friendly people up there.

Since I left late and was not feeling well, I only rode some 475 kilometers the first night. And stayed at my brother in law's grandmother's house.
She is 90 years old, and still drives a car! She knows lot's of stories from the ww2 and earlier.



At the Aukrust museum in Alvdal. Abroad he's probably best known for the Pinchcliffe Grand Prix movie (http://www.caprino.no/movies/en/flaaklypa.asp)



The next day I first had to ride back to Tynset to replace the front brake cable that broke the night before.
After one hour of ride or so, I reached Røros. One of the Unesco World heritage towns. Røros is known for the copper production, and the buildings and remains of the copper production still stands today.
I spent several hours in the narrow streets and the museum.


Big piles of remains from the copper production




The museum with the church behind



Old houses






The old pharmacy

[ORexpat]

Very nice.

I love the way the old cruisers look; not sure I've the cajones to ride a hand-shifter all over the world!

[Chanderjeet]

It doesnt get any good that this. A vintage bike ride report. Bravo.

Keep posting more please.

[arcticIndian]

..an at 15:00 o'clock I left Røros and headed north.

On this trip I went high tech and installed a Veypor ( www.veypor.com ).
For this trip, the Veypor's fuel gauge function and the speedometer was in frequent use.





After passing Trondheim I noticed there was no charging.
It took some minutes before I saw the generator pulley stop when I revved up the engine. Just before the trip I decided to replace the old pulley with a shiny new one, a custom chrome part. Actually no reason to replace the old one apart from the visual appearance.
For some reason they had managed to machine the pulley too narrow, so the locknut bottomed out in the threads instead of keeping the pulley secured on the tapered drive axle. And the pulley was probably too soft also, so the key on the drive shaft had spun in the pulley.
Only the weak give up by minor problems like this :) ... so I made a shim from a .006 feeler gauge I use for valve adjustment. This was enough to build up the gap between the tapered drive shaft and the pulley.
After securing the locknut with a wide washer underneath, it was back onto the road.

I noticed the voltage regulator had some issues regulating the charging to the almost drained battery. Had to replace the electronic regulator last year, and have been running a mechanical bosch regulator since.


Entering Nordnorge (northen norway ) just after midnite, the darkest time of the day

Anyway...the bike ran good.. and with the help of the midnight sun I kept riding until 02:00 in the night. Just found a spot near the road and slept for some hours in the tent.
Distance covered on day 2 was ~590 kilometers.

[groop]

[Klay]

[mrbreeze]

You have flu and you spent the night with a 90 year old woman? You do realize that stuff is contagious, right? How is she doing now? did she get the flu?

[arcticIndian]

Day 3:

Well, I usually don't sleep well the first night in the tent.
So I spent some hours in Mosjøen and had brunch and lot's of coffee before leaving at noon. Bought a package of 10 fuses for the bike, as the regulator now charged too much. After opening the sealed regulator housing I noticed that the points inside were quite worn. Probably best to look for some VW beetles or some old Opels/ Saabs along the road. It takes only a few minutes to replace the regulator if I find a better one.
Since I'm following the E6 road, I should be ok.

Near Mo I Rana there's a big racetrack called the arctic circle raceway.
They say it's a very good track...but I can imagine the season is short due to the location almost at the arctic circle.

The following weekend was a classic motorcycle race weekend, so there were some vintage race bikes already present.

80's vintage racebikes



The E6 road goes over the Saltfjellet pass, and halfway over the mountain I pass the arctic circle.
Later on I passed this cool old gas station which had been restored.




After a stop for dinner i Saltdal, I decided to skip the big motorcycle meeting in Sortland. It's like every other motorcycle meet, beer and mostly modern bikes. Apart for the occasional voltage regulator "adjustments", the bike was running like a champ. So I decided to try ride all the way up to the north cape.. after first attending a vintage motorcycle meeting in Lakselv. Hey, at least I'm halfway up..

To make the vintage motorcycle meeting in Lakselv, I had to speed up.
Off course I missed the ferry from Bognes to Skarberget by a few minutes.
Saw a big moose eating from the trees just 25 meters away from the parkinglot where I was waiting for the ferry. Entering wilderness...
So I passed the town of Narvik near midnight.
From Narvik I rode to Bjerkvik and then over the mountains to Bardu.
I planned to stay at a 24hour motel (Øse) on the Gratangsfjellet mountain, but managed to ride past it since there were lots of new cabins around.
I've been a lot around in this area, since I spent 1,5 years working in the army up there.
Instead of turning back I just continued over the mountain towards Setermoen.


It doesn't get much darker than this in the summertime, due to the midnight sun.



At 0200 in the morning it's almost daylight




Pitstop at Setermoen...everyone else is asleep.

After passing the camp where I worked as an army officer...I saw no reason to stop yet. So I kept riding through Andselv and had pretty much the road to myself.. and a few foxes and birds... luckily no mooses or raindears.

At almost 0400 I found a nice spot near the fjords just a bit north of nordkjosbotn.

Distance traveled on day 3, approx 740 kilometers.
Average speed around 70km/h .
The roads are not highways, just narrow roads with endless number of curves... following the fjords and harsh mountains.

[arcticIndian]

Originally Posted by mrbreeze

You have flu and you spent the night with a 90 year old woman? You do realize that stuff is contagious, right? How is she doing now? did she get the flu?

She never get's sick...that's maybe why she is still doing good at 90
And it wasn't the really contagious type of flu..

[bobw]

Love the trip, it is so cool to see the Ol Chief out and about. We seem to get so hung up on the GSA VS KTM VS ??? with all their modern tech additions. It takes a post like yours to remind us of the riders and their equipment from that era that had ALL Adventure riding ALL the time. Sweet. Best of luck and safe travels.

Bob

[NomadRip]

I love your reports

[GB]

Great ride, report and pics

[Regbafazool]

Hello arcticIndian!

Another inspirational ride report!

Please keep documenting your journey for us.

[indianscout]

Gott'a love them ol' chiefs, they just keep on ticken!! Cool report, keep up the good work!


.

[arcticIndian]

been busy the last week.. but now I have time to continue writing the trip report:)


Day 4:

It was hard to get up in the morning after riding until 4 in the morning.
But after breakfast (outside the gas station) and a coffe, I was ready to ride to the vintage motorcycle meet in Lakselv.
The "Lyngen" alps and Kvanangen area are among my absolute favourite places. It's so beautiful that pictures really can't capture the beauty.

Somewhere along the E6 road ..


Kvanangen



Lyngen

In Alta I phoned the guys from the vintage motorcycle club, and told them I was heading their way.
Also this is raindear country, so one have to be careful not to hit rudolph...


The raindears are mostly property of the native "sami" people, they have rights to use the icecold finnmarksvidda desert for their raindears. Still lot's of the sami people live in tents parts of the year. With their snowmobiles parked outside:)


Riding over Sennalandet, a part of the Finnmarksvidda

After some hours of riding I finally made it to Lakselv and the campsite in the beautiful Stabbursdalen valley. The Stabburselv river is next to the campsite, and several of the tourists caught some big salmons while I was there.
The rest of the night was spent at the campsite checking out the other vintage bikes and drinking beer :)

Total on day 4: ~440 kilometers
The voltage regulator was troubling several times during the day...