Exhausting Norway

Monday 22nd of July, took the bike across the road to Haugen motors to get the other fork seal replaced, as miraculously they had the part in stock! The gravel and volcanic ash in Iceland had taken its toll and destroyed them. At lunch time we picked the bike up and happily headed off to ride the trolls highway, Trollstigen aka highway 63 which snakes up a huge fjord and then down to Geringer, which if you see a tourist brochure for Norway is where they take the photo, the road then snakes up the other side and past some extremely steep peaks. It is truly spectacular and we had good weather so could admire the stunning views and many huge waterfalls. It took a few hours to complete the ride and we camped when we reached the north coast at the end, in a town called Andalsnes . Now about half way the exhaust gasket that had been temporarily fixed with some graphite and glue was no more and the bike was making a deafening noise again but worse there was an engine knocking noise at slow speed. A text from our new friend in Roldal confirmed this was not good and could possibly be fatal on this model of Guzzi if not corrected. We were pretty miserable for an hour or two as these bike problems were starting to become routine and cause constant worry. We decided to not let it get us down after having a good moan and instead bought ourselves an expensive beer each and admired the view. We decided to head back to Haugen motors in Grodas early next morning and get it fixed once and for all.
The ride early the next morning was good fun, no traffic and we road the trollstigen again and then took a shortcut and a ferry. There was constant worry in our minds that something else would now break and I kept hearing the knocking sound, not good, it was starting to ruin my day again. We made it to the workshop where the mechanic took a look, he didn't have the part in stock but tried a fix as best he could and also said the knocking sound was caused by the missing gasket and that it should go away once this has been fixed. We thanked him for not charging us for this. Thumbs up to Haugen motors. He wished us well and we headed off after a quick swim in the fresh water lake, which was great fun as it had a spring board into the icy water.
We headed off down route 15 which is breath taking...we rode for a few hours and then pulled into a campsite by the river. It was owned by a cool French guy who told us a story about when he went on a Moto Guzzi around Spain and how much he had enjoyed it. He was building some sweet cabins with fire heated outside hot tubs. I swam in the freezing river and then we had a braai with steaks and a cider each, to keep the moral up. As the bike was making a horrible noise again and was not only worrying us but it was also causing fatigue, spending the best part of 8 hours in the saddle with that noise. The roads in Norway are extremely slow going. Speed limits of 50 km are the norm. So even to do 250 km in a day can take 5 hours. Norway is spectacular and the people friendly and helpful, but for us its time to move on.
Next day we rode south to Lillehammer, saw a bike shop there and stopped to see if they could help. No parts and they couldn't do a bodge fix for us. They told us of another shop in Hamar about an hour away, maybe they could help. We rode to Hamar, same story, no can do, but there is a Guzzi dealer an hour away maybe he can help? Cool, where is he? Lillehammer! Haha we have just come from there...We then spent the night in brumuddal feeling pretty low. Nothing was going our way. The internet at the local shop was down, then the internet at the campsite was down. All we wanted was to find a bike shop that could help us, but none could. Next morning we awoke early and vowed to fix the bike one way or another.once the exhaust was fixed we could then see if there was still a knocking sound and how bad or good things were. We headed to a shopping centre and managed to get online, finally. I called some more bike shops and emailed some in Sweden. Sorry no parts, can't help. Surely someone can just weld it together? No can do. This is seriously starting to piss me off. I decide to fix it myself...
First find the dimensions of the required part...well need to know the part name or number first. In the manual it is number 6, gasket!? OK found the part number gu06123500. I dare you to try find the dimensions of this part.If you can do it in under two hours I will buy you a beer, bet you can't find it? Haha. So by some miracle we got the correct dimensions 55x49x30mm. Now all that is needed is maybe some pipe this size. We search the shops high and low, eventually find a piece of car exhaust with inside diameter of 48.5mm, curses its the closet I can find. Next we get a guy to translate the back of some glue tubes, aah this one claims to withstand 1000 degrees, mmm a bold claim. We buy a tube. Then a 2 inch clamp and a hacksaw. Things are coming together like an A-Team plan. I head to the bike in the parking lot. Its blazing hot outside, an old guy parks his car next to the bike and tools we had spread out next to it. Problems he says. Yes. He says a friend of a friend he knows rides a Guzzi and starts to call him. No answer, but thanks for trying. Back to the task at hand. First need to saw the pipe to around 30mm long. I had sneakily used a ruler in the shop and marked off the required length. Tighten the blade in the hacksaw and start cutting. The saw breaks in about 3 seconds. You freaking kidding me! I need something that has a bit more juice, I canvas the local shops, can you cut this for me? No, no and no. Undeterred I head to a hotel and see a man in a van doing some odd jobs. I ask him by any chance kind sir do you have an angle grinder? He shouts back in broken English, very busy, wait 5 minutes... he returns with the grinder and some safety goggles and says leave it by his van when I am done and disappears. Alright! No vice to hold the pipe, never used one of these before but I have seen them used on TV and in a Rammstein concert. Desperate times call for desperate measures. I plug it in and get in spinning while standing on the pipe. Hope I don't lose my big toe. In a few seconds the pipe in chopped down to size in a shower of sparks. Better cut a spare, just in case. I return to Jennifer and show her my handiwork. We start removing the header pipe from the bike engine and then smear the glue by the collection box and on the new 'gasket', bash it all in place and put the clamp on tight. Bolt the other bits back and warm the engine up for a few minutes. Test ride for ten minutes and all is good again. Just like new. Thrilled we pack up and headed east towards Sweden. Covered about 500km and all good. Also no knocking sound anymore. So we are happy as a pig in poo! We plan to order the part and get it sent to a friend in Finland and the swap it out to prevent further problems.
We camped about an hour from the border at a random campsite near a lake and had a smashing time, swimming, jumping on a trampoline, braai and just took it easy. What a good feeling, the bike was going sweet again and the sun was out, the worry was gone and we could just relax. It may sound lame but the bike problems have been around for the last 4 weeks, constantly fixing one thing for another to break and was starting to become an unwanted distraction. But we stuck together and tried to keep a good positive mental attitude most of the time and hopefully its plain sailing from here on.
So the next morning we got up early to beat the heat and set off for Sweden, we plotted a course of just going east towards Stockholm and followed random roads and signs until we ended up in Kil, thought it sounded like a nice pace to spend the night! Well it was and we survived! After swimming again and sleeping in the sun we left early morning again and covered some ground until we ended up on a big lake near Kristinaham or something like that. Very cool, secluded campsite with less people and more nature, we had to do a 50km round trip just to find a shop, got some nice steaks as things are cheaper in Sweden than Norway. We swam again, went for a walk in the forest and had a lekker steak braai. I then got mauled by mosquitoes and must have maybe 50 itchy bites, Jennifer maybe one or two. Even this could not upset me as the feeling of accomplishment of fixing the bike was still lingering.
Early start again the next day we rode to where we are now...another campsite by a sleepy lake, don't even know the name of the village, its somewhere about an hour and a bit from Stockholm. Spent the day sleeping in the sun then was about to take a dip in the lake, but the snake that came swimming out of the lillys kind of put me off. Made some toasties instead and then had a braai with some peppered bits of steak that only cost about two pound fifty but was so good it has probably been the best meal in the last two months on the road. It has now started raining on and off and we have a reasonable internet connect ion so will order the bike part and get it sent to Finland, the plan being to get the ferry to Turku then collect it in Helsinki before riding across to St Petersburg, Russia in a week or two.
So we are having fun again looking forward to our next destinations, everything else is going well and we have had awesome hot weather, although the next few days predict rain, it will still be averaging 20 degrees. We have spotted some wildlife here and Jennifer saw a wild moose. We climbed in a hide last night to try spot some deer, but made a hasty exit after discovering a beehive behind us! Hopefully post some photos of our travels later or tomorrow as batteries keep going flat. Have a good week everyone, I know we are looking forward to whatever comes our way ;-)