Touring in Norway

Cycle-touring, Expeditions, Adventures, Major cycle routes NOT LeJoG (see other special board)
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jakobpoffley
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Touring in Norway

Post by jakobpoffley »

Hello,
This is my first post on the forum so i'd love to get some good responses so i use it again! :)

Basically I want to go on a 3-4 week cycle tour in norway this july. I would be camping (mainly wild) and carrying all my kit. I'm 16 but i have lots of experience of tours with my family. However i want to know what norway is like for touring and any suggestions for routes. I'm looking to be doing about 1100 miles and there would have to be an airport and the start and beginning. I'm struggling to find any good routes to go.

Thank you very much and i look forward to reading your responses.
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gaz
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by gaz »

Welcome to the forum.

You might want to look over a few of these threads whilst waiting for replies.
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cycletourer
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by cycletourer »

Hi There,

You will certainly enjoy Norway it is a great place to tour with some amazing scenery. As far as routes there are so many possibilities, a good place to start is http://www.cyclingnorway.no/en/ you will find there several way-marked routes which a mainly traffic free routes. We can certainly recommend the Lofoten isles and the Rallarvegen routes. Due to the mountainous terrain the touring can be quite tough and one thing you will need to consider is the tunnels in Norway. Quite a few of them are banned to cyclists and you will need to take alternative routes. There is a map to all the tunnels on our website here and you will also find more information on cycling in Norway on our site here. You might might find that food prices are a bit more expensive than the UK. As far as airports there are some direct flights to Bergen and Stavanger but if you wish to fly to places like Tronheim, Bodø, Tromso etc. you may have to fly to Oslo and then take an internal flight.

Hope you have good weather :D .

Jon
jakobpoffley
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by jakobpoffley »

Thank you cycletourer for your reply,

I'd actually already found your website and it has been very helpful. The lofoten isles do look amazing but i'm not sure how i would combine them into the trip. I'd like to think that i'm good at reading maps and i prefer to stick to proper roads than tracks and cycle routes because they always take so much longer. I'm glad the touring can be quite tough becuase i want it to be challenging. Thanks for showing me your tunnel map. I'm sure it will be extremely useful in choosing a more specific route when the time comes. What i'm thinking of maybe doing is starting in oslo then cycling west to Bergen maybe go a bit south. Then cycle up to Tronheim which when looking at flights it seems you can get direct flights to england to get home. Please let me know what you think. Also is it worth trying to visit pulpit rock?

Thanks once again :)
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by Vorpal »

There are places where the cycle paths in Norway are good, but generally, you are correct that roads are best. There are some exceptions to that, and Rallarvegen is one of them. Rallarvegen was originally a road. It was built as an access road to build the railway from Oslo to Bergen. Most of it is packed gravel and fine for touring bikes (with fattish tyres). There may be a couple of places where someone on a touring bike would have to get off and walk. The only faster way over the central mountains is by other means of transport. Anyway, it's an amazing route.

Many of the national cycle routes in Norway are on quiet roads (rather than cycle tracks). They are signed with red 'cycle route' signs. The on-road national routes are very often the best routes because they follow an old main road, which has since been replaced with dual carriageway, or wider single carriageway.

As cycletourer said, main roads in Norway often use tunnels where cyclists are not allowed. In addition to the site linked above, it may be worth checking this one http://www.vegdata.no/2014/06/17/cyclin ... n-tunnels/ This one is off the highways department database, so it doesn't depend on people updating it; information about new tunnels is always good here, but information about older ones is not always available, so check both the site that cycletourer linked, and this one.

The Norwegian equivalent of DfT (Vegvesen) also have some good information about cycling. At least have a look at the rules of the road (trafikkregler). some parts of the website are available in English. Others are in Norwegian, but you can stick it in a translator

http://www.vegvesen.no/Fag/Fokusomrader ... keltrafikk
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beardy
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by beardy »

Asking from the viewpoint of somebody who has never flown with a bike, do the luggage weight limits allow you to carry enough kit (including the bike) for four weeks of wild camping?
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by Vorpal »

One more thing to add... trains, and many buses take bicycles in Norway. To take a bike on a train is half the price of an adult ticket. Prebooking is required on some routes. Oslo to Bergen (including Rallarvegen) is one of them. On most routes, however, it's easy to take a bike, and no booking required.

Bikes are free on buses, but on the long distance & regional ones, they need to go into the luggage compartment. That's not usually a problem, although some of the drivers aren't accustomed to handling them. Often, only one luggage compartment is in use for luggage, but the drivers can be convinced to let a cyclist put the bike in the other on the basis that people donæt want dirty tyres and bike chain grease on their luggage, when the truth of the matter is I don't want someone's 50 kilo bag sliding into my bike :shock:

On local buses, bikes can go in the wheelchair / buggy spaces. bendy buses have two of these, and the back one is usually available for bikes. Cyclists do have to give priority to disabled passengers, and parents with buggies. In the middle of the day, it's not usually a problem. At peak times, it can be.

It's quite easy to combine trains and buses with cycle touring in Norway, and it can be a good way to see a bit more.
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Vorpal
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by Vorpal »

beardy wrote:Asking from the viewpoint of somebody who has never flown with a bike, do the luggage weight limits allow you to carry enough kit (including the bike) for four weeks of wild camping?

It depends... Some airlines will allow either allow teo pieces of baggage, and accept a bicycle as one of them. Others do not include bicycles as part of the luggage allowance, but allow them to be carried for no additional charge, with some limitations. Others make passengers pay for everything.

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=67410 is a couple of years old, now, but has some good information.

Excluding the bicycle itself, between carry-on and a checked bag, it's usually possible, even if the checked bag is just panniers all strapped together.
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jakobpoffley
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by jakobpoffley »

Vorpal wrote:The only faster way over the central mountains is by other means of transport.

Couldn't I go further south? My bike doesn't have very wide tires so i don't think the Rallarvegen would work.
jakobpoffley
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by jakobpoffley »

beardy wrote:Asking from the viewpoint of somebody who has never flown with a bike, do the luggage weight limits allow you to carry enough kit (including the bike) for four weeks of wild camping?

Last summer my family and i managed to do a 3 week trip with just the bikes in the hold and hand luggage. We also had one hold bag to put a few things in but put a couple of things and empty panniers in with the bikes.
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by Vorpal »

jakobpoffley wrote:
Vorpal wrote:The only faster way over the central mountains is by other means of transport.

Couldn't I go further south? My bike doesn't have very wide tires so i don't think the Rallarvegen would work.

What tyres do you have? I said fattish just meaning that 25 mm wide tyres aren't suitable. I probably woulnd't try it with 28 mm, either, but most bikes that can carry camping gear will be okay on Rallarvegen. I've done it on a hybrid with 32 mm wide Marathons.

And, of course you can go further south. But the road routes through the mountains to the south: E16, route 7, and E134 all have tunnels that ban cyclists, and it's pretty much impossible to completely avoid them. But that said, if you are okay with taking buses to get through a couple of places where you can't take a bike in a tunnel, there are some alternatives. If you want, I'll see if I can come up with a couple of suggestions.

You can also go around on the coast, which is obviously longer, but has it's own attractions.
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jakobpoffley
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by jakobpoffley »

Vorpal wrote:
jakobpoffley wrote:
Vorpal wrote:The only faster way over the central mountains is by other means of transport.

Couldn't I go further south? My bike doesn't have very wide tires so i don't think the Rallarvegen would work.

What tyres do you have? I said fattish just meaning that 25 mm wide tyres aren't suitable. I probably woulnd't try it with 28 mm, either, but most bikes that can carry camping gear will be okay on Rallarvegen. I've done it on a hybrid with 32 mm wide Marathons.

And, of course you can go further south. But the road routes through the mountains to the south: E16, route 7, and E134 all have tunnels that ban cyclists, and it's pretty much impossible to completely avoid them. But that said, if you are okay with taking buses to get through a couple of places where you can't take a bike in a tunnel, there are some alternatives. If you want, I'll see if I can come up with a couple of suggestions.

You can also go around on the coast, which is obviously longer, but has it's own attractions.


I'm probably going to go on my brother's dawes galaxy tourer but i don't know what tyres it has but I don't think particularly wide. If you think its do-able then you'd obviously know better than me but i must be honest that i want to be cautious because i haven't had particularly good experiences with tracks like that in the past and i don't want to be stuck on it for ages if it's really not suitable. It does look beautiful though and i'm sure it is amazing!
I see... would it work to go as far south as somewhere like stavanger or would that be avoiding beautiful parts of norway? I think going all the way round the coast would take to long. If you could find some alternatives i would be very grateful.
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by Vorpal »

A Dawes Galaxy can almost certainly do the job, but there are some rough sections. If you don't like that sort of thing, it's probably better avoided. If you get to Flåm, take the Flåmsbana train up to see the view, have a picnic lunch, and ride the train back down again :)
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jakobpoffley
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by jakobpoffley »

Vorpal wrote:A Dawes Galaxy can almost certainly do the job, but there are some rough sections. If you don't like that sort of thing, it's probably better avoided. If you get to Flåm, take the Flåmsbana train up to see the view, have a picnic lunch, and ride the train back down again :)

Okay thats good to know. I'll think about it. How long is the route? That train looks incredible!
botty
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Re: Touring in Norway

Post by botty »

I've never cycled in Norway but I have motorcycled. If you are camping note that it can get COLD, even in Summer. On our trip at the end of June it was falling to 3C some nights. However all/most campsites have huts of various levels of luxury that you can hire if you need a rest from the wild camping.

The huts are also useful to allow a bit of drying out. Good/excellent waterproofs, even in the height of summer are a must.

Oh, yes, must add, really good insect repellent would be another must. At least full motorcycle leathers, helmet and gloves keep the midges off and you wont be wearing those on your bike.

The fjord are around Bergen would be an excellent, if hilly, place to explore. Can you still get to Bergen from Newcastle by ferry? That might avoid aeroplane hassles.
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