MY STORY
Everyone has their own story, and here is mine! Learn a little about who I am, and how I got into motorcycling and traveling.
If you don't feel like reading, you can watch this video from ABR Festival 2024 where I speak about my journey from getting my license, to becoming a full time content creator.
THE
BASIC
STUFF
NAME: Runa Grydeland
AGE: Born 1994
NATIONALITY: Norwegian
JOB: Full time content creator
So what are you even supposed to write on pages like this? Hm, let me see.. I like motorcycles, camping, taking pictures and drinking coffee. Ok bye now!
​
Alright for real now. My name is Runa, I was born in 1994 i the city Narvik in Norway, 339km above the arctic circle. My siblings and I was raised with a great respect for the outdoors - going on hikes and small outdoor adventures regularly. Pretty much all summer holidays were spent hiking and camping in Norway and Sweden.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
We moved around a lot when I was a child, and I kept moving around a lot as a young adult. I left home at 16 years old to a city over 750 km away from home to pursuit a dream of becoming a professional archer. I did pretty well; in 2012, I won a world championship for juniors in Las Vegas, USA. I won a few more international medals and was the Norwegian champion 15 times up until 2020 when the covid-19 pandemic took over the world.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
The covid pandemic put a stop to all local, national and international competitions. It got pretty boring, training for what seemed like no reason. I am quite goal-driven, and at the time, I had no goal to work towards. That is when I decided it would be a great time to pursue another dream finally; to get my motorcycle license!
WHY
MOTORCYCLES?
THE
MOTOR-CYCLES
I HAVE
OWNED
ARNOLD
LOKI
FENRIR
KIWI
OSGAR
I have always known I wanted to get a motorcycle at some point in my life, both my parents used to ride motorcycles, and they have all these photo albums from when they used to go to rallies and trips; it looked like SO much fun!
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
To actually get my license was mostly a question about affording it and having time for it. In Norway, getting your license is EXPENSIVE. There is so many mandatory classes to go through, it will cost most people between 20 000 - 30 000 NOK (2000 - 3000 EURO). Then there is all the mandatory riding gear and obviously the motorcycle on top of that.
​
I passed my riding exam on 2nd of June 2020, and was stoked to spend the summer on the Suzuki Intruder VS750 1986 model. I did a couple camping trips with my motorbike that summer, the longest one for a week.
​
​
​
​
​
​
I quickly realized that I was going to need a different type of motorcycle for the kind of trips that I wanted to do - in November 2020 i sold my Intruder and bought a KTM 790 adventure S, 2019 model.
​
​
I owned my KTM for over a year, we rode about 15 000 km together, the longest lasted a month and took us to all 4 "corners" of Norway.
​
In 2021 I tried a Yamaha Tenere 700 just for fun - and well it was a LOT of fun. SO much that I ended up buying one for myself just a few months later. I loved this bike and still to this day this is one of my favourite adventure bikes that I have tried.
​
​
​​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
This bike got the name Loki, and we traveled through quite a few countries in Europe, the highlight, without a doubt, being Iceland in September of 2022. I was content on this bike and could see us sticking together for a long time - until....
​
In February of 2023 I was contacted by Husqvarna Motorcycles Scandinavia. They were looking for a nordic ambassador for their Norden 901. A motorcycle I've had a crush on since they released the first pictures of it.
Early spring 2023 I picked up my new buddy that was named Fenrir! We had a bunch of fun that year and covered just over 15,000km together. The longest trip being 42 days through Norway, Sweden and Denmark. ​
.jpg)
In the beginning of 2024 I packed up all my riding gear and flew out to new Zealand for a one month trip. This trip was a collaboration with Husqvarna Motorcycles New Zealand, who borrowed be one of their Norden 901's. This bike was named Kiwi, and we covered almost 6000km through the north and south island of this beautiful island together! ​
.jpg)
Coming home from New Zealand it was only a couple weeks until it was time to pick up my bike for the season in Norway, my third Norden 901! Reason being the bike had a new design and a couple upgrades. This bike is named Osgar and is the bike i am currently riding. As of September 2024 we have done about 15,000km together, and it looks like we will continue to clock a lot more kilometers through the next few months!
.jpg)
And that brings us to today! My fifth summer with my license is over and done, and my memory bank is filled with many more fantastic experiences. Getting into motorcycles is easily one of the best decisions of my life. It has led me to meet so many great people, so many fantastic experiences, opportunities and memories and I can't wait to see what more is to come!
​
Thank you for being a part of it!