From: todk@ariel.lerc.nasa.gov (John A. Gazzaniga  (Sverdrup))
Subject: The DoD at the Arctic Circle:  Title IV
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center
Date: 10 Jan 1993 22:40 EST  


     Greetings and a Happy New Year to the internet.  With this (belated,
yes I know) post I continue the minisaga of my motorcycle trip taken in
Sept.-Oct. of 1992 in England and Scandinavia.  This is title IV of how
many titles?  Who knows.  It seems to get longer with each part that I
post and I haven't even gotten to the Arctic Circle yet!  In any case...
on with the trip report.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
     At the last point I was attempting to get a good night's sleep at the
Euro-stop hotel in Orebro, Sweden on the night of Sept. 24-25th, 1992.  An
early morning fire alarm while disturbing my motorhead slumber also led me
to discover that my riding acquaintance, Erkki, ensconced himself at the
Euro-stop during the night.

     As the morning broke I got up without too much difficulty (around 0730
[7:30 A.M.]) to begin my preparations for departure.  While getting all my gear
repacked and lugging it down to the GPz (I swear, it seemed like I had twice
as much going down to the bike as I had going up) I met up with Erkki who was
loading up his own Suzuki GS1000.  After getting our cycles stuffed we went
to go have some breakfast at the Euro-stop restaurant where we could get our-
selves stuffed :-).

     We both had a good opportunity to talk and to get to know each other a
little bit.  It turns out that Erkki was coming back from a retreat in Scotland
and was returning to his wife and children in Kourtane which is a small town
about 100 km (60 mi) East of Vaasa (Vasa).  I told him of my plans to even-
tually go to Turku (Abo) and meet my electronic motorcycling counterpart and
then hopefully go on to Helsinki.  Not wanting to hurt him I told him a little
about the DoD, but not enough to have to kill him :-).  Erkki gave me directions
and a phone number to his place and invited me to stop over while I was heading
South towards Turku.  I thanked him for the offer but not knowing how my sched-
ule would turn out left me somewhat noncommittal.

     With breakfast done, Erkki mounted up and rode off to Stockholm to buy a
gift for his wife and then continue East to Finland and his home in Kourtane.
Meanwhile, my early morning start was promising to become a late morning start.
It was now around 1030 (10:30 A.M.) and I still had to give the GPz the once
over while fueling up.  After topping of the tank I went check the tyre (tire)
pressures and had my first experience with roadway automotive upkeep Swedish
style.  Air and water for cars and trucks were available in a metal cabinet
with glass doors, located a small distance from the pumps.  Air for the cars
was available in the form of a small handle equipped metal tank with gauges in
its top, that would be refilled when the tank was returned to its holder.  As
I never did learn how to use the device I always ended up using the retractable
air line reserved for trucks, an action more appropriate perhaps if I was
riding a Goldwing :-).

     With the watch now shouting at me that it was now past eleven I finally
got on the road.  The fog, still present from the early morning, concerned me
a little bit although it didn't seem too thick now and I did hope that as the
day wore on that the fog would burn off.  The temperature was around 9 deg C.
(48 deg F.) which was cool but now I would be slightly better prepared to face
the wind as the night before I hit upon the idea of doubling up on my thermal
underwear and on my socks.  The ride today would determine the efficacy of my
added apparel with the spectre (specter) of my abandoning the effort to con-
tinue North looming over me if this sartorial lash-up failed to work.

     Now I was on the road where I would head East to Gavle, on the coast,
then get onto the E4, which roughly follows the Gulf of Bothnia coastline,
and head Nortwards.  With my two wheels once again rolling beneath me I be-
came a little more relaxed and started to take in a little bit of my surround-
ings (while keeping at least one eye on the road).  Moose signs appeared with
some regularity, with some signs just exhibiting the moose symbol and other
signs having legends (moose legends?) in Swedish.  Being suitably alerted I
became especially wary for any ambling moose.  I did notice a fair number of
Volvos on the road, not too many SAABs, though.  One thing that puzzled me was
the low slung trailers that I'd say maybe 20 percent or less of the cars would
be carrying (almost invariably Volvos).  I never saw anything on top of them.
Were they for ferrying snowmobiles?  Jet-skis?  Ultralight aircraft?  Beats me.
Perhaps a reader in the know can tell me.

     The fog did indeed thin out but I was left with a weather condition that
was to persist in varying degrees during my whole stay in Sweden and in
Finland.  While there was no overt precipitation I noticed a thin coating of
drizzle build up on my face shield.  I would have been happy to wipe it off
and keep riding merrily along save for one minor annoyance out of all prop-
ortion to their size... Bugs!!  One thing I like about riding in the cold in
Cleveland (when the roads are clear) are a complete absence of bugs to run
into.  Perhaps it was the fact that I was in a less urban area or possibly
that this environment was more conducive to very small airborne insects but
these friggin' critters would expend themselves on my face shield preventing
me from wiping the drizzle off without smearing bug innards across my field of
vision.  For the rest of the trip cleaning my non-scratch faceshield (Nolan
N35) at least daily became a habit by necessity.  Oh yes, I would say as far
as helmets go if you are to keep a helmet for a long time my recommendation
would be to get a helmet with an anti-scratch faceshield.  If I had used my
Nolan N34 (which I brought along as a spare) the face shield would have be-
come scratched to a point where my vision would have been significantly im-
paired.  Yes, I have been through several faceshields on the N34 and I don't
know about other helmets without non-scratch faceshields but the N34 would
get scratched just by looking at it (or through it).  The N35 faceshield has
held up well with only minor scratches with close to 5000 kms (3000 mi) on it.

     After riding for about three hours (it was now around 1400 or 2:00 P.M.)
my fuel started to get low.  With the GPz, in addition to a trip odometer there
is an LED readout with black rectangles illustrating how much fuel is left.
Usually I made a point of filling up when I was down to two blocks but this
time I held on seeing how close I could get to Gavle before I had to fill up.
This precipitated a minor crisis when it turns out that there is a dearth of
petrol stations before and after Gavle on the route I was on, which bypassed
Gavle completely as it hooked up to the E4 (and yes, it _was_ the E4!).  I
kept riding till I was down to one block and then the block (and a red warning
LED) started flashing with no station in sight.  After minutes of this with
my apprehension mounting I reduced my speed down to 90 km/hr (~55 mph) in an
effort to reduce fuel consumption.  Shortly thereafter I went into reserve and
by now my heart was in my throat.  I chastised myself silently while my imag-
ination had me getting stranded on the side of the road in a foreign country
trying to hitch a ride in someone's Volvo to the nearest petrol station.  At
least I would be stranded in Sweden which would rank right up there with the
countries I would want to be stranded in, but still...

     Traveling some more kilometers on the road the bike started to sputter
and I went to the far right lane and slowed down to 55 km/hr (~35 mph) in
preparation for the motorcycle to die on me.  Finally an exit came up.  Not
only that but it indicated fuel!  Hallelujah!  I still thought I would have
to wheel it in manually but the bike held on until I rolled into the station.
A short prayer of thanks was in order while I gassed up.  My deference to a
higher authority continued to pay off as after I finished washing my faceshield
I gave the GPz the once over before leaving and discovered that my exhaust nuts
on the head had loosened.  Everyone of them!  Some (out of the eight) were
ready to fall off.  After a thorough wrenching with my 12mm spanners (wrenches)
and one more inspection of the whole cycle I was off again, Northward bound.

     My memory doesn't really register if the countryside changed too much in
going from the interior of Sweden to land now bordering on the Gulf of Bothnia.
It was pleasant countryside, nonetheless, that was fairly flat, had pine trees
in abundance and an isolated house every so often.  In a way it reminded me
of some of the flatter areas of Pennsylvania or Maryland.  Most of the towns
I passed through or by didn't really catch my eye (or my memory for that
matter).  The town (or city) of Sundsvall, however, did stand out.  One reason
was that this was the first time I had to stop in quite a while due to traffic
being routed through the centre (center) of town, hitting several traffic
lights in the process.  In addition, there was a fair amount of traffic around
this being reasonable, perhaps, considering the time of day (~1630 [4:30 P.M.]).
This was no real bother, though, since I thought that Sundsvall was quite
pretty.  So much so that I told myself that I should come back here sometime.

     With Umea bing the next major town to hit and it being at least three
hours away it looked like I would get to Umea by 2000 (8:00 P.M.) where I
could decide if I wanted to take another three hours to get to Lulea.  Several
things were working against that, though.  The major thing was a dull pain
in my right shoulder.  Granted, the GPz 750 is not the most comfortable bike
around but after the addition of '84 handlebars (mine's an '83) which are about
two inches higher and a Lockhart seat (according to the Lockhart people it was
the last one they made... sorry!) I was able to make the GPz relatively com-
fortable.  Of course the easiest way to alleviate the pain would have been to 
apply a liberal application of twisties :-) but neither the cycle or the route
I was on was up to it so I slogged on.  This pain was to be the thing I dread-
ed the most when cycling.  The cold was more or less manageable but this pain
was something that was hard to tolerate.

     While the cold was manageable I did have to regulate my breathing.  This
was because of my faceshield fogging up.  I dared not crack my faceshield as
doing so promised to give me a case of numbface.  If I exhaled enough to fog
the faceshield the fogging would not go away until I inhaled by the same
amount.  Thus by concentrating on how I breathed could the fogging be kept
manageable.  This dynamic state of meditation was something _Zen and the Art
of Motorcycle Maintenance_ did not prepare me for!

     Along with the above conditions I also noticed behaviour (behavior) in
the oncoming traffic that I thought was unusual.  Throughout the day and into
the night both cars and trucks (Volvo trucks, naturally) heading in the op-
posite direction would flash their lights at me.  In the truck's case this took
the form of them flashing their "moose lights" at me.  The moose lights, as I
called them, were two rectangular lights at the top corners of the truck's cab
that were used, I presume, for improving long distance vision at night since
fog lights would have been mounted on the bumper or lower to work effectively
in the fog.  Why were they flashing their lights at me?  I don't know.  I was
unable to turn my lights off and would not have even if it were possible to
do so.  I would flash my high beams at them but got tired of doing that after
several hours of travel.  Did it mean police or (shudder) moose were up ahead?
I didn't see either.  It was not until much later that I found out what the
problem may have been.

     Well by the time Umea was starting to come up the pain in my right shoul-
der combined with the cold made Lulea seem further away than ever.  So when the
first exit for Umea came up I pulled off and immediately into a motel parking
lot that was rather opportunistically placed.  I killed the motor and went
through the by now familiar routine of getting off the motorcycle, putting
the GPz on the centerstand (and putting up the sidestand),taking the gloves
off, taking the helmet off, and finally taking the ear plugs out.  When mount-
ing the motorcycle the reverse procedure would be performed, plus putting on
sunglasses if it were daytime, taking care not to do the steps out of order
(everything but the earplugs for instance).  When I had the rainsuit on, the
effort involved in mounting and demounting would be doubled.  After success-
fully demounting the cycle I walked inside to see if they had any rooms 
available.

     It turns out that they did have rooms available and I checked in with the
fairly pleasant clerk.  By the time I got the Krauser luggage, the Eclipse
tailpack, my helmet, and myself into the room it was past 2100 (9:00 P.M.).
I asked the clerk where I might get a bite to eat and she said that their res-
taurant was still open although it appeared to be getting ready to close up.
In spite of my wanting to get up early I said to myself why not go downtown
and see what I can find?  I went back out to the cycle, got on and headed North
with the GPz feeling pretty good after being unladen.  In going to town I
zoomed over a river (Umealv?) and hit some stoplights just as I crossed into
Umea proper.  I saw a burger place open with not too many people inside, went
past it, turned right and looked around a little more before deciding on
Hamburgesa's for din-din.  I pulled up in front of the place and put the GPz
on the centerstand and then walked inside prepared to order in German using
my McDonald's in Munich language lessons.  It turns out the cashier knew
English so I ordered my meal and sat down with only a couple of other of people
in the place.  I thought the GPz looked primo standing proud in the street but
nobody seemed to pay attention to it especially when the place started to fill
up.  And fill up it did with all sorts of people.  The younger ones (mid to late
teen's I'd say) were dressed somewhat punky and in general I thought it was 
a good perch to people watch while eating.  I finished my meal and headed out
slightly miffed that no one ogled the bike :-).

     Still wanting to see a little bit more of the town I decided to buzz ar-
ound town a little to see what was shaking.  Apparently not too much for al-
though people were out both walking and in cars I saw no overt signs of night
life.  I would have continued my search but the second time I drove by two
police cars and their occupants I decided to bag it and call it a night.  In
getting back to the E4 to head South I saw much to my suprise, another motor-
cyclist on what appeared to be a mid 80's sport bike (possibly even a GPz!).
Unfortunately he (or she) did not see me and while I got trapped by a stop
light the rider disappeared.  As I crossed the bridge again I came upon an exit
rapidly.  Was this my exit?  I wasn't sure so I kept going thinking I could
just turn around at the next exit if it did turn out to be a mistake.  Well,
it turned out that that _was_ the right exit with the streetlights ending as
I passed the motel, now on my left.

     Seconds later I ran into the thickest fog I ever rode in while on a 
motorcycle.  It was so bad I played with the thought of turning around
on the divided highway but in the end did not do so.  In not doing this
I had little choice but to continue on to the next exit, but it seemed like
forever until the next exit came up.  I turned around and headed back but only
at a speed of 50 km/hr (~30 mph) since I could practically see nothing ahead
of me.  My faceshield decided to participate in the minidrama by fogging up
to the point that I had to crack the faceshield with my face now not protected
by either sunglasses or a balaclava.  I was mighty thankful when the motel
rolled into view again with the fog ending almost at the boundaries of the
streetlights.  As I rolled into the motel parking lot I had the sobering real-
ization that this fog could just as easily have existed on the other side of
Umea with me running into it had I elected to continue on to Lulea.

     Thus ended a rather pedestrian (no pun intended) Friday night in Sweden.
As this section has gone on much too long I will bring it to an end right here.
My apologies for becoming a liar by default in not telling you in this section
on how to pay attention when backing up your motorcycle but I will in the next
section... promise!


     So... for information on how to pay attention, or rather how _not_ to pay
inattention when backing up your motorcycle, what to do when nabbed by John Law
(the police), and moose talk with the natives, catch:

                The DoD at the Arctic Circle:  Title V

John A. Gazzaniga                                   todk@ariel.lerc.nasa.gov