Five roads in Norway that will ruin every other tour for you
Bold claim incoming: Norway might be the best place on earth to ride a motorcycle. Wiggly tarmac, fjords that look painted, wilderness that goes on long past the point where you stop expecting it to.
The catch is the scale of the place. Norway stretches deep into the Arctic Circle, and doing it properly takes months. If you’ve got a fortnight off and a bike that needs a workout, you need a shortlist. This one was put together with the help of Mad Hatter Motorcycle Adventures, who run a guided annual tour of the country and know these roads properly.
Five roads. All worth the fuel.
FV17 – Norway’s Atlantic coast
Where the land narrows in the middle of Norway, you get a choice. The E6 is the quick inland option. The FV17 is the right one. It runs along the Atlantic coast through a vast, almost empty landscape of islands — some connected by ferry, some by tunnel bored straight through the rock beneath them.
At a relaxed pace it’s a two or three-day ride. The tarmac is smooth, the bends keep coming, and somewhere along the way you cross the Arctic Circle. Pack a tent. Norway’s wild camping rules are some of the most relaxed in Europe, and sleeping out under the Arctic sky is as good as the riding.
Lysevegen Road – Lysebotn
The Lysevegen Road drops 1,000 metres to the floor of a fjord in southwest Norway via 27 tight, steep hairpins. Eighteen miles of mountain road carved above the tiny village of Lysebotn, and the photos don’t fully prepare you for how steep those bends actually are once you’re on them.
Best bit: Lysebotn has no other road in or out. You ride Lysevegen twice, whether you like it or not. You will like it.
E69 – The road to Nordkapp
Most riders fixate on the destination – Nordkapp, the northernmost accessible point on mainland Europe – and almost overlook what gets them there. The E69 deserves better than that. The landscape up here is flatter than Norway’s mountainous south, but the road makes the most of the open space with long, sweeping bends and proper straights to clear the tourist coaches.
And yes, you’ll still want the photo in front of the globe at the tip of the continent. It will absolutely make your mates jealous. That’s not a side effect, that’s part of the point.
Trollstigen – Geiranger
Eleven hairpins. Valley floor to nearly 800 metres above sea level. Sheer walls either side of you the whole way up. The Trollstigen is one of those roads that photographers queue for, and for once the photos aren’t lying — though they’re not quite telling the full truth either. You need to ride it to understand it.
Stop at the top. Get the photos. Get the pannier stickers. You’ve earned them.
The Atlantic Road – Møre og Romsdal
Seven bridges rise and fall over the crashing Atlantic, stitching together a string of small islands and their fishing villages along Norway’s rugged southwest coast. The Atlantic Road won’t have your heart in your mouth like Lysevegen will, but it’s an extraordinary piece of engineering in an extraordinary setting, and any rider in the area who skips it will regret it.
This is the one you ride slower. Stop in the villages. Look at the water. Take a breath.
Mad Hatter Motorcycle Adventures run a guided annual tour covering Norway if you’d rather have the route sorted and get on with the riding. Either way, Norway isn’t going anywhere. But you should.
Two wheels, one club.
