All roads lead to Senigallia – Knut-Bjarne Klaussen, Norway
As H.O.G.® members across Europe and beyond prepared to make their way to the 30th European H.O.G. Rally, The Enthusiast® met a few of them
While motorcycles weren’t a rarity where Knut-Bjarne grew up in Northern Norway, Harley-Davidson® motorcycles were, with just one in the neighbourhood that rode past his house every day. “I’ll never forget that sound and that look,” he says. “I was only 15 or 16 at the time and it made a huge impression on me.”
The teenager had to settle for a basic motorcycle, upgrading to a bigger Japanese model when he was 18, which he had for a number of years. With the responsibilities of a mortgage and young family, the bike was later replaced with more practical transport, but that would change after a trip touring the south-eastern US on a rented H-D® in 2004. “It was such a great experience that I promised myself I’d buy a new Harley®,” Knut-Bjarne says. “It took me two years, but it really was a dream come true.”
So, in 2006, he bought a brand-new Heritage Softail® Classic and joined the H.O.G.® Arctic Chapter. Shortly after, Knut-Bjarne became Activities Officer and has held officer positions in the chapter for the past 18 years, as well as the role of Director for six. Now Head Road Captain, the retired air traffic controller runs rider skills and road captain courses, as well as helping organise the group’s many activities.
With just over 140 members spread across the region, the chapter has weekly ride-outs during the riding season, taking in the spectacular scenery of Finnmark and North Cape, as well as the Lofoten Islands. It was in this stunning location that the chapter hosted the Nordic Harley Days rally in 2016. “Almost 2,000 bikers from around 24 countries (including the US, Iceland, Italy and Saudi Arabia) attended the event, which was quite an achievement, and we had a packed programme,” Knut-Bjarne, who served as Rally Coordinator for the event, says. “For the opening ceremony, the soundtrack of the Vikings TV show played as a Viking ship sailed in. Another memorable moment was the parade, which saw 300 Harleys lined up on the runway at Svolvær airport before departure. After the rally, 150 bikes rode from Svolvær to the North Cape, which took us three days. At the end of the ride, we had a big party to say goodbye to everyone. The whole event was fantastic, and people still talk about it now.”
Knut-Bjarne has ventured further afield on his Harleys, taking in several European destinations including Austria for European Bike Week® and Portugal and Croatia for European H.O.G. Rallies, as well as the Harley-Davidson 115th Anniversary celebrations in Prague in 2018. On many occasions, he has been accompanied by his wife, Siv, who rides pillion. On one particularly memorable solo ride, Knut-Bjarne rode 2,300km in one go from southern Germany to mid-Norway, with 2,000 covered in just 24 hours.
He also visited the US on two more occasions – California in 2009, and a month-long tour in 2013 that took him and a friend from Colorado to the Sturgis Motorcycle Rally, Yellowstone National Park, Utah, Route 66 to Chicago and then up to Milwaukee for the Motor Company’s 110th Anniversary celebrations, where he met Bill Davidson. “When we hosted our national H.O.G. Rally in 2010, also in Lofoten, Willie G. made a recorded message sending greetings to the world’s northernmost H.O.G. rally and we played it on the stage, which was fantastic,” recalls Knut-Bjarne. “In Milwaukee, I went over to Bill to say hi, and he said, ‘Oh, you’re from the Arctic Chapter.’ I asked if he knew about us, and he said, ‘Yes, my father sent you a greeting three years ago.’ He didn’t know we were going to be there; it was brilliant.”
Since becoming a H.O.G. member, the dedicated rider has covered more than 100,000 miles on three models – the Heritage Classic, which was traded in for a new 2010 CVO™ Street Glide®, which in turn was traded in for a new 2015 CVO Road Glide®. That bike has just recently been replaced by a brand new 2024 Road Glide in Whiskey Fire with black finish. “I couldn’t resist all the new technical improvements,” he smiles. “It’s not a CVO this time, but I have ordered some upgrades from the dealer, such as heated grips, passenger and rider backrests and a luggage rack.”
Knut-Bjarne will be taking the new Road Glide to Senigallia with four members from his chapter. “Three of us will start together and join the two others later, in the Alps; there, we will set course for the event as one group. The first challenge will be not knowing what conditions to expect when we cross the mountain just south of where I live, as the weather changes so much,” he says. “We have to leave at the end of May, and if we’re unlucky it could be snowing! But the plan is for three of us to take the ferry from Oslo to Kiel in Germany, then the train from Hamburg to Munich. We’ll ride around the Alps for five days before heading to the rally; the two others will ride all the way. After the rally, we’ll spend a few days riding around the Dolomites before returning home. We estimate that we will ride between 6,500 and 7,500km on this tour.”
Some would say it’s a long way to travel to an event, so what makes H.O.G. rallies worth it? “You feel a special bond with members of the same organisation,” Knut-Bjarne says. “And I also love the international aspect of these events – if you see someone with a H.O.G. patch you can go straight over to them because you have the same starting point.” And, of course, part of the fun of attending a H.O.G. event is getting there. “There’s so much to see and it’s always fantastic,” he says. “It’s about the riding but also about the experience with nature and the feeling of freedom you have riding a bike. You can’t compare it to driving a car – it’s a totally different world!”
The Enthusiast also followed the journeys of Angela and Uli Konietzko from Germany, Evert Richter from The Netherlands, Bruno Picchianti and Sylvie Schmit from France, Emiliano Izquierdo del Barco from Spain, Valentina Giachino from Italy, and Knut-Bjarne Klaussen from Norway.
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