Contemplations by Thor /tɔː(r)/

Since the return of my fourth BMW Navigator VI, I have been driving without a dedicated navigator on my motorcycle. With only my phone attached with a QuadLock system, I knew this was not going to be solution for me. After careful consideration of my options, I went for the new Chigee AIO-6 MAX with a BMW Quick Release module. About half-way through my Eastern Europe trip this summer, my BMW Navigator VI stopped logging my GPS track. When I returned it (it was the fourth one in five years) I got most of the money paid for it back and was thus free to choose another option. The BMW Connected Ride Navigator was never really an option. Although made for BMW by TomTom this time instead of Garmin, the reviews suggested a product with a lot of flaws. Probably the most expensive option too. The Garmin Zumo XT2 looked to be a decent 6" alternative with 1280x720 resolution and 1000 nits brigtness. It fits the BMW Nav cradle with an 3rd party adapter that does not add much to the thickness...

Our R12?0GS motorcycles are comfort machines, designed for exploration of the world. My 2020 model had only been driven to Sweden so it was time to unleash its potential. With a bucketlist of countries and places in Eastern Europe, a trip to Easten Europa was planned. Two weeks were set aside for the trip and visits to Moldova, Iron Gates on the Danube and Beograd were made compulsory. The planning was started by consulting the insurance company. We were issued a green card for travel, excluding only Ukraine, Belarus and Kosovo from visits on this trip. The route planning was done using Calimoto targeting MC-friendly roads, avoiding motorways. The route was chosen as to follow the Carpathian mountains as much as possible. Navigable track and tracklog was transferred to my BMW Navigator VI. Day 1: Kristinehamn We started off from Trondheim towards Røros in excellent weather. Gauldalen is the best road going south from Trondheim. Due to the distance, we chose to drive through Trysil. Thi...

Ever since my visit to El Paso in 2006, I've contemplated crossing the border to Mexico. I've been to the border in San Diego, Durango as well without crossing. For several reasons. This year, I allied myself with three SINTEF colleagues to take a road trip to Ensenada. This time I succeed in visiting Mexico for the first time. It turned out to be a fantastic but eventful roadtrip. Preparations for the trip started with the rental car booking. With Avis in Norway, my thorough travel agent double checked that the car was OK to enter Mexico. No VISA required, and border crossing times at Tihuana and Tecate was taken into consideration when planning.  Laguna Hanson  in Parque Nacional de Constitucion 1857 was the only National Park within range; due to geocaching I had already marked this spot for my 2011 trip to San Diego. My colleagues also wanted to take a hike there so we decided on the following route estimated to be less than 8 hours of driving: The plan was to arrive in ...

After coming back from our road trip around Yellowstone in 2017, there was only one US state that I had not visited. Alaska would require something else, so we started planning for a motorcycle trip in 2020. This was sort of a birthday gift to myself since I would be 50 years in October that year. The name of the project was obvious: 50-by-50 . I posted my plan on facebook to go in May 2020, well assured that I would achive this goal. I was on another road trip in California with Sissel and the kids in February 2020. We barely made it home before US was closed for travel due to the COVID pandemic. My next trip to the US was in August 2021; I had a National Interest Exception for travelling to the US, but due to the conditions in Alaska at the time it did not make sense to visit from California. It was nevertheless too late for 50-by-50... This year, we decided to finally to the trip in summer. Our deposit on the bikes were still valid and we decided to do the trip in July/August. Our i...