London Fixed-gear and Single-speed

So, I'm planning this summers "ride" last year it was Plymouth to Santander- down the west coast of France, This Year i think Up the coast of West Norway- by means of a ferry from Newcastle , anyone here been there, done that?

Thanks.

I did that in 2003. From London to York (train to Newcastle to catch the boat on time), Newcastle to Stavanger, Stavanger to Kirstiansand, took the boat to Denmark and kept going for a bit, and then went home. 'twas Awesome.

But we went south though rather than north (west coast). Did drive up there at one point and it is beautiful. You'd be taking ferries I imagine though (or going way out of your way).

One day I want to do the entire North Sea Cycle Route.

http://www.northsea-cycle.com/defaul...3&maxy=8188271
http://www.northsea-cycle.com/defaul...alevel=x-small

No but it sounds fucking cool.

Here's how awesome the west (not even that far north up the coast! South of Bergen) is:



Prekestol Rock - I think it was about a two hour hike to get up?

Here's a pic I didn't take:

Sounds awesome to me. If Norway is the similar to Finland and Sweden then there is "everyman's right" which basically means you can go on almost any land and camp for a night. You can't take the piss and camp in gardens but you could save a lot of money on campsites. There are shit loads of insects (especially mosquitos and midges) in Scandanavia during the summer, although it should be a bit better near the coast compared to inland.

Thats it my next project is a touring bike.
Grandad The Fuck Up

The subject of the first picture looks cold. What's the temp like.

It was May. Not too cold. Damp and rainy overall (the couple of weeks we were there). And windy as fuck at the top (in that photo).

we have at least two scandinavians on the forum: haj and a guy whos name is very long (rubiskorvonensnerngs?) they might be able to help?

this looks amazing! My plan for this summer was to either do as you suggest and ride northward along the west coast of Norway, right up to the arctic circle to that northenmost town and go a bit crazy in 24hr daylight; or go to corsica. Ok, so this year I took the soft and sunny option and I'm cycling round corsica...but maybe next year then Sorry, no advice, but do tell how it goes!

i did a driving road trip last summer:
oslo-
voss (of expensive mineral water fame)-
sognefjord (stunning fjord)-
Alesund (nice small town)-
Trondheim (super cool university town) -
Lofoten islands (incredibly beautiful jagged mountains coming out of the sea)-
oslo


Lofoten

lofoten

really beautiful country. there were plenty of people cycle touring in the southern bits around the sognfjord and the glaciers by Voss. You could do days and days of climbing though...

They only have single track roads really, and big road-train type lorries going quite fast, but you could probably avoid the a roads.

It was mountainous south, then quite rolling and flat ish into the arctic circle, then mountainous again.

quite expensive food etc. I am fairly sure they don't have the same camping rules as sweden (i think you cannot camp anywhere you like) but they do have hundreds and hundreds of road-side camp grounds, which all have ncie wooden cabins with grass roofs. you have to take pans/pots/food etc but they have beds/fridges/cookers and can be had for maybe £15/person/night depending on which area you're in....

I definitely want to go back and take my bike. i also want to do the north sea circular route...

sorry for long post..........

Nice photos.

15 p/h camping is a bit steep though.

sorry, wasn't clear: £15/person for a cabin. with grass on it. however, you're right, in general it was very expensive, and £15 was at the lower end.....

Ahhh that make more sense. Expensive but sounds worth it.

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People can be so small sometimes

Expensive doesn't even begin to approach the cost of living in Norway. £10 sandwiches, £2.50 cokes, £7.50 for a l bottle of beer in the grocery store. Of course, this is isn't universal, but we did pay these prices (well, I think the beer price is pretty universal).

As far as camping, when we were there we were told by a local (who happens to be my girlfriend's brother) you do have the right to camp anywhere, so long as you're such-and-such meters away from someone's house (10m? 20m? Don't remember). This may have changed.

150m actually!

http://www.environment.no/templates/...e.aspx?id=2147

Hey folks, I'm norweegi... West coast of Norway is an absolute must. Never did it by bike, only by car and foot, but it should be awsome. Just don't camp in some poor farmers field, it can them pretty upset. Just came back from Oslo and yes it is an expensive country, especially now with the current oil inflated exchange rate! 1sterling will just get you 10norwegian (got you nearly 14 some years back). This means a pint of beer in a bar will cost you about £5.50, a six pack of beer in a shop (REMA shop or something can be a tad cheaper than say MENY which more posh) is about £7.50 and whale meat for about £20/kilo. Yes a gas station will charge you £2.50 for a coke but remember that tap water is prette excellent anywhere in the country (beats the hell outa any of the stuff you buy bottled here - really!)
The goverment run NSB train company offers a special cross country one way ticket deal called "minipris" from about £20 to about £40 to all the major destinations - subject to certain times etc etc.. http://www.nsb.no/ticket_and_travelt...4726-2752.html
Thats not a bad deal guys and girls and they are happy to take the bike.. I'm happy to take any questions regarding Norwegian shopping experiences, but don't ask me too much about this vast country as i am from Oslo and we're retarded and only leave the city to go to London.
On a related topic, I'm thinking to take my bike from London to give it a home in Oslo, after the summer. Thinking from Harwich via Holland or Denmark with final ferry to Oslo. Never did longer distances with a fixie or single speed so this should be fun..!

Anyway pleased to say hi..

i stand corrected re. camping in norway - shame we didn't know that last summer, it would have been cheaper!

Norway is fucking beautiful, defo do it. I did it last Summer by car, flew into Bergen from Stansted then drove to Oslo around the coast via Sandnes, Stavanger,
Kristiansand

Bergen is a must, gorgeous, picturesque and a cool, kinda chilled University town
The drive from there to Sandes is really impressive - about 2/3hrs if memory serves me correctly. With that you have to takin 2/3 short(30/45min) ferry rides which is very impressive in itself
Stavanger is also a really cool place to visit, again amazing scenery

I have loads of cool pics that I'll put up next weekend when I'm back in London. The midnight sunsets are something else!

I went the first week of June for 6days and apart from 1 half day of rain it was blue skies and 22-26dg every day

Copenhagen(I know it's Denmark) is also a very cool city

The coolest.

For small cities anyway.

Arguably the sauciest birds on the planet seem to live in Copenhagen too

1 - Ferry somewhere in between Bergen & Sandnes
2 - Bergen
3 - Stavanger at midnight
4 - Somewhere between Stavanger & Kristiansand
5 - Ditto
6 - Oslo

You'll have no problems with cars over there either, they drive like 74yo Honda owners. Seriously, I don't think anyone did more than 40/50kph and that was on the motorways/main coastal roads

Just back from some cycle touring around Sweden. Departed with a couple of friends from Gothenberg and cycled up to the Gota Canal then to Koping (for mid summer celebrations). Whilst not having the spectacular fjords of Norway, the place was well set up for cycling and not as pricey (apparently there is something called a meat run in the weekends when the Norwegians cross the border and empty the local supermarkets of meat and booze). There were a fair number of cycle paths and also lots of b roads that were in good condition and camp sites with the option of cabins as well.

Definitely interested in heading to Sweden next year via Norway

i actually got lost as i quite contently followed these two birds on bike along a bike path. when they turned off i realised that i had to turn around and go back the way i came to try and find where i had ended up in copenhagen. pretty funny

I'm planning a tour from Norway down to Finland in August- so excited!
Racks + panniers + tyres are on order.

It's all a bit last minute, so I'm going on my own, but should manage 4 nights camping either way and a weekend wedding in the middle.. I still need to figure out a return route though! :-D

Advice, comments, warnings are all appreciated.
e.g. - How far from the roads should I be camping?
It will not get dark at night - will I go mad being on my own?

Norway to Finland in 4 nights?!! You doing it on motorbike then I take it?? It took me five days by car to do Norway through to Sweden(West), Finland is the east/northside of Sweden

But I'm landing at tromso, so its only really 200 miles. :-)

methinks that you should try to extend your route - after 4 days you'll just be getting in to it and it's gonna break your heart to have to come home so soon!

Oh, I see, so you're starting from the north. When I did Norway I flew into Bergen on the west coast and did the south loop via Stavanger, Kristiansand, Oslo into Sweden

Enjoy!

PS you'd better start saving now, well expensive....