Haha well I think the only way to be sure is a side-by-side comparison next year. I’ll book your ferry now Chris.
Friday morning met me with a strong hangover. Norway has a zero blood alcohol tolerance, which was an excellent excuse to be a passenger in a sidecar for a day!
Sober Mike kept it on two wheels whilst I was struggling to stay on two feet!
By the time we’d got back many more people had arrived. I’d guess around 100 bikes.
The guys who had been here before all had proper winter tents
The fun of the event is going around the camps and having a ‘cultural exchange’
With the occasional chilli soup to keep you going
The coldest it got was -17.
Very glad to have a petrol stove as we used around 3L from the 640’s tank just cooking and keeping warm.
There were many ways of coping with the ice, but no-one was running without some form of modification
Indeed the solo bikes all came with full studded treads, not like our 50% efforts
Don’t worry, that stopped as soon as we were camping!
Ok, how the hell did you get into that tent with all those clothes on… the maths are very tricky?! 
i think he’s wearing the tent underneath. 
Actually I was pretty skimpy in there, it was a very warm bag! Suffice to say that going to the bathroom required a fair amount of forward planning, unzipping, and careful rezipping!
Good write up Martin and a fantastic experience. Looks well cool 
Sorry to disagree with you both but Mr J is far sexier than the guy in the photos though 
Mrs J xx
Cor blimey guvnor sore it on LB first Mr J havin’ his own Elvis impersonator innit
Cool love your adventures, can’t wait till next one.
A quick review of the Snugpak Antartica RE. I didn’t feel it got tested at -17, suffice to say that I didn’t believe it got that cold until I was shown proof. I could not have been more comfortable in it. Very impressed, though it does take up 70% of a pannier.
The Helinox Chair One and Table One. Witheringly expensive kit, though exceptionally comfortable, lightweight, and a great solution for motorbike travel. You really do need some form of chair for these events, though the table is arguably less useful as it can’t be used to cook on. If the cost isn’t a problem I’d definitely recommend them. No doubt they will start to be copied for less, but I’m happy to pay for good design, and I feel like they will last a long time too. Well done to Helinox for making such a lightweight and quality product and innovating in an already crowded marketplace.
We left the campsite at noon on Sunday after three days camping. Heading back down the hill was still icy, but nowhere near as difficult as when we arrived on Thursday. It was a beautiful clear day and the trip through the forests and fjords made me wonder why I choose to live in London.
There were plenty of Danes returning home on Sunday. The alternative return trip is Gothenburg to Kiel, which would really make more sense for me if I didn’t have friends in Denmark.
I took it easy to port in Oslo in the hope that it would make taking out the studs easier. This is where the concept of the Bestgrip studs is questionable to me. I’d say only about 30% of the studs from the rear came out easily, the rest were too worn for the tool to purchase on. It was a slow and tedious process removing these with a pair of pliers. Given they only travelled, at best, 200km, I can’t really recommend them for anything other than day trip / emergency use as they looked pretty finished (bestgrip 1200). I have no experience of proper studs either, they may be just as fast wearing so don’t take this as a positive to another solution if you are doing some internet research before a big trip. Picture is the last one coming out!
The ferry back to Denmark got stuck for a few hours due to rough seas, and arrived at 12:00 instead of 07:00. With my next ferry scheduld to leave Rotterdam 1000km away at 21:00 it was clear I would be delayed a day. Instead of asking Mike to wait with, he took his bike back to Germany that afternoon in his van. I stayed overnight with Hot Wheels MCC in southern Denmark before an early escape next day, within striking distance of Rottterdam 800km away through the rain, wind, and snow.
With that, my adventure to the Primus Rally was over and that very morning I arrived home at 8am, had a shave, chucked on a suit, and headed off to the City a day late.
The End!
Many thanks to Qvan and the gang at Hot Wheels MCC for whom I would not have heard of this rally, nor would have benefited from their hospitality and expert knowledge of this event.
It was great running to into the Arctic Butt gang and I do hope we meet again.
Well done that man. 
outstanding
That looked incredinly fun, but jesus just rewatched your vid where youre riding over sheet ice, that was iffy!
As always martin, fantastic adventure, great write up and love the photos…
I can’t imagine being able to work with you in the office… it would be impossible for anyone to share their weekend plans after that
Maybe :ermm:
thank you Martin, for going to the trouble of writing up and properly documenting your adventures, always a great read.