Sweden

The sun was setting as I made my way back to the campsite. I was a bit puzzled. From the dunes you could already see the campsite. The tent meadow had got considerably fuller. I recognised motorbikes. On closer inspection, even lots of Triumphs. After a brief chat with the guys and Arild, it turned out that they were doing an enduro tour with their motorcycle club from Norway (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1606097979629282) — from Halmstad up the TET to Norway. They’d set off the next morning around 10. Five days later they wanted to be in Norway already. So I simply asked whether I couldn’t ride along for the day tomorrow… and Arild said: sure! All great, so far… except that all my clothes I’d washed today were still wet. Reception had of course closed by now, so I couldn’t load any more money for the dryer. So I just took my home-made washing line and strung it right across the wash room. Those few people who are here won’t be doing laundry before ten tomorrow morning anyway, I figured! There was also a little electric heater on the ceiling. So a bit warmer than outside, at least. The next morning, luckily, everything had dried! Taken down, ironed two or three things, packed up the tent and stood ready at campsite reception around 10. The guys split into two groups. I was in group two. When riding the TET that’s usual, so there isn’t too much traffic on the forest and field tracks. Simply to keep the harmony between motorcyclists and non-motorcyclists. Quickly copied the track onto the sat-nav, had it shown on the map, and off we went. First a bit of tarmac towards the forest. I noticed straight away that we’d definitely reach the day’s destination… we were moving briskly. The classic German „10 km/h over“ was the baseline here too. In on the left, over gravel into the dense forest. Sadly we didn’t take many photos that day… otherwise it wouldn’t have worked out time-wise.

The surface changed often, lots of gravel. Sometimes fine, sometimes coarser. Field tracks with grass, and now and then some sand too. Since, as I said, we were moving quite briskly, in my opinion, I couldn’t really think too much about whether to just ride through something or not. It was always simple: yes, it’ll be fine if the guy in front of me managed it. And that actually worked well all day! Every so often we met the first group, who were just taking a break. A quick check that everyone was still there and how high the wear and tear was so far… and on we went. At midday we all met up at a pizzeria near the TET. It was also important to ride the entire route! Whenever we missed a turn, we always rode back to it, so that every metre got covered. I was also kindly treated to the pizza and cola!

After refuelling ourselves, we carried straight on at a brisk pace. The sections also kept getting a bit more demanding. Deeper sand here and there, and climbs in the corners. I’d already told myself first thing that morning, and kept reminding myself, that I still had quite a few kilometres ahead of me this year and that the trip shouldn’t end on a yellow tow truck in southern Sweden already. After the next short break I wanted to start my bike… but it wouldn’t go. There was power, the engine and starter turned over too, but it just wouldn’t fire. Off again, key out, back in and tried again. Sometimes problems solve themselves. Not this time, though. On the next attempt I gave it a bit of throttle. Then it went. At least the engine’s running… but when I let off the throttle, it cut out again straight away. Half reassured, I thought, riding works at least… After a bit of back and forth I decided to just keep riding like that until we met the first group again. Since, luckily, most of the group had Triumphs — and even my model in various age brackets — I quickly got the tip that it could be the throttle bodies. Or rather the servo (motor) that adjusts and controls them. Since I’d been riding second to last in the group, I got quite a lot of dust. The dust had probably simply jammed the adjusting screws, so the throttle bodies could no longer return to their normal-zero position. So my bike sort of no longer knew „how much throttle I was giving.“ The classic blessing in disguise — Jens had explained it all to me; he’s already ridden over 130,000 kilometres on his Triumph and always has the problem in winter, when ice gets into the adjusting screws. So if I ever drop below zero degrees on the tour and my bike won’t start, at least I know where to start looking… „A small problem and easy to fix,“ he told me, „just clean the screws with WD40 (oil) and done!“ Only, no one had any WD40 with them… So I rode the rest of the day off-road on „manual idle throttle.“ The motorcyclists reading this can imagine that this was fairly stressful… I couldn’t pull the clutch without giving throttle, and that on my first proper off-road day in my life. Sometimes adventure is simply right on your doorstep… or, well, in the forest of Sweden. On we went. Towards the end of the day I also had to ease off the pace a bit. I just couldn’t keep up anymore. In between I got a few instructor tips, like how to get around the corners better on coarse gravel! Quote: „Just let the bike do the riding, it’ll manage!“ — or in English in that case, „Let the bike be the bike!“ Of course the „centre of gravity“ already played a role here. Completely knackered, but with lots of new knowledge, we stopped at a supermarket for beer and dinner. On to the campsite, where the first group was already waiting for us.