where did you TAKE your Tenere today?

Strummer

Well-Known Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2020
Messages
620
Location
Italy
Well as indicated in the post above I'm on an "epic" ride. From Bergen, Norway, to the northern city of Bodoe. Total distance 1575 kms, which is just shy of 1000 miles. Might not seem to be much of deal, but ... it is all in one, eternal, never ending curve... I'm not kidding, the lengths of the longest streches of straight roads are generally about a half mile or so and rarely more. In the West the roads are as gnarly as the people inhabitating the coast (myseLf included, changing imperceptibly to more open-style roads and gentler curvatures and topography as we venture East. Oh, the gravel roads they have back there ... Then on northwards, the inter-european highway E6 a no-nonsense way of just getting there. Albeit across the Arctic Circle. And then my destination Bodoe .. a fabulous city, great people, boats, a marina and damnit if the Court isn't within walking distance to get some quarrels settled.View attachment 83772
View attachment 83775View attachment 83773View attachment 83776View attachment 83777View attachment 83778View attachment 83779View attachment 83780
Is the artic cicle center on the way to Nordkapp?
I have rode past there few years ago and I swore I would come back soon or later...
Fantastic roads and scenery!!
I envy you mate....
 

Tangedal

Active Member
Joined
Feb 12, 2017
Messages
57
Location
Bergen, Norway
Is the artic cicle center on the way to Nordkapp?
I have rode past there few years ago and I swore I would come back soon or later...
Fantastic roads and scenery!!
I envy you mate....
The Arctic Circle Center is a bit south of Fauske; to get to Nordkapp on Norwegian roads you'd normally pass it. Unless you'd seek out back roads and gravel roads an detours via Sweden just to not scoot on up the E6. :)
 

Darkstar77

Member
Joined
Aug 11, 2021
Messages
25
Location
Ontario
I've been riding for years; 3 of my 4 bikes have been dual sport or adventure. I started on dirt bikes going back to my childhood. Generally I stick to the pavement, but I like a good fire road as much as the next guy. A good friend of mine picked up a used VStrom 650 a couple of years ago and got his license. This is technically his second season on 2 wheels. He's been bugging me to try some proper "adventure" riding off road. Today I took him on a road in my area called "Hogsback Road". It's on the maps, but it's an unmaintained road. It's popular with the 4x4 crowd, and the dirt bike crowd, and is about 4km long from where we picked it up. The last time I was on it, it was lots of dirt, some rock, and some sand. Well, today it was a lot of rock; like so much more rock than I was expecting. In the 5 years since I last rode down it, someone, I'm not sure who, has dumped tonnes of fist sized river rock all over the hills, up and down. I presume it is to stop erosion.

Anyway, we got on it, and the first part is a hill climb up to the actual "road". My buddy went first so I could watch him, with me following a good distance back. He of course fudged it half way up, and stalled out because he wasn't in first gear. Mistake #1. Mistake #2, he decided to get off the bike, on the hill. Mistake #3, he let go of the brake for some reason and had put the bike in neutral, while it was running. Mistake #4, I had pulled up about 10 feet behind him. Long and short, he dropped his bike pretty much right on top of me after rolling backwards down the hill 10 feet, with me yelling at him to grab the brake. I didn't go down, thankfully, but it was close. I picked a new line, and climbed to the top onto the main "road", with the intention of parking and going down the hill on foot to help my buddy. By the time I was starting to walk down the hill, his bike was back upright, and he was crawling up towards me. Awesome. I checked my bike over, and no damage from where his bike's rear rack had effectively landing on my front wheel.

At this point I asked him if he wanted to just turn around and go back down the hill and out to the main road. He wanted to push on, so with me leading now, we did. The last time I did this road was on a DL650A VStrom, and before that on a KLR650. The S10 is a wee bit heavier, though that torque makes up for it just by not having to constantly work the clutch; I can see how capable this machine would be in the hands of a more experienced off road rider. We pushed on, and thankfully we have helmet comms, because I lost him several times, and kept having to stop. While I was busy talking him through a section that was very sandy and rutted, I wasn't paying attention to my line, and got caught by a rut. That resulted in me clipping a tree with the bar end; actually the hand guard caught it. I kept the bike upright, and kept moving. In total I probably stopped to wait 4 times, each time wondering if I was going to have to walk back up the trail to rescue my buddy.

Several rocky steep hills later, and we emerged victorious beside a little pond and a short smooth 500m to the proper road again. I snapped a quick shot of the bike before we headed out again.

PXL_20210825_171909039.jpg

I'm not sure I will be revisiting that "road" any time soon, and I think this cements that I am more about touring, then going off road. I will definitely never take a novice down a trail like this again, not even a short one like this. I spent nearly the entire time worrying about my buddy, which almost caused my own dumping of the bike.

That's what I did for my lunch break today.
 

Travex

Lost is my destination.
Joined
May 7, 2012
Messages
832
Location
Western New York State
I've been riding for years; 3 of my 4 bikes have been dual sport or adventure. I started on dirt bikes going back to my childhood. Generally I stick to the pavement, but I like a good fire road as much as the next guy. A good friend of mine picked up a used VStrom 650 a couple of years ago and got his license. This is technically his second season on 2 wheels. He's been bugging me to try some proper "adventure" riding off road. Today I took him on a road in my area called "Hogsback Road". It's on the maps, but it's an unmaintained road. It's popular with the 4x4 crowd, and the dirt bike crowd, and is about 4km long from where we picked it up. The last time I was on it, it was lots of dirt, some rock, and some sand. Well, today it was a lot of rock; like so much more rock than I was expecting. In the 5 years since I last rode down it, someone, I'm not sure who, has dumped tonnes of fist sized river rock all over the hills, up and down. I presume it is to stop erosion.

Anyway, we got on it, and the first part is a hill climb up to the actual "road". My buddy went first so I could watch him, with me following a good distance back. He of course fudged it half way up, and stalled out because he wasn't in first gear. Mistake #1. Mistake #2, he decided to get off the bike, on the hill. Mistake #3, he let go of the brake for some reason and had put the bike in neutral, while it was running. Mistake #4, I had pulled up about 10 feet behind him. Long and short, he dropped his bike pretty much right on top of me after rolling backwards down the hill 10 feet, with me yelling at him to grab the brake. I didn't go down, thankfully, but it was close. I picked a new line, and climbed to the top onto the main "road", with the intention of parking and going down the hill on foot to help my buddy. By the time I was starting to walk down the hill, his bike was back upright, and he was crawling up towards me. Awesome. I checked my bike over, and no damage from where his bike's rear rack had effectively landing on my front wheel.

At this point I asked him if he wanted to just turn around and go back down the hill and out to the main road. He wanted to push on, so with me leading now, we did. The last time I did this road was on a DL650A VStrom, and before that on a KLR650. The S10 is a wee bit heavier, though that torque makes up for it just by not having to constantly work the clutch; I can see how capable this machine would be in the hands of a more experienced off road rider. We pushed on, and thankfully we have helmet comms, because I lost him several times, and kept having to stop. While I was busy talking him through a section that was very sandy and rutted, I wasn't paying attention to my line, and got caught by a rut. That resulted in me clipping a tree with the bar end; actually the hand guard caught it. I kept the bike upright, and kept moving. In total I probably stopped to wait 4 times, each time wondering if I was going to have to walk back up the trail to rescue my buddy.

Several rocky steep hills later, and we emerged victorious beside a little pond and a short smooth 500m to the proper road again. I snapped a quick shot of the bike before we headed out again.

View attachment 83900

I'm not sure I will be revisiting that "road" any time soon, and I think this cements that I am more about touring, then going off road. I will definitely never take a novice down a trail like this again, not even a short one like this. I spent nearly the entire time worrying about my buddy, which almost caused my own dumping of the bike.

That's what I did for my lunch break today.
On the way from Orillia to Picton with the gps set to favor 'offroad', it led me down that road. It would have been a greater treat with something more assertive than the Battlewings.
 

holligl

Find the road less traveled...
Joined
Nov 13, 2015
Messages
2,212
Location
IL/AZ
Top