My own summer holiday started in the beginning of July. I had a plan to go and check TransEuroTrail section that was planned ready and route was made but it needed to be checked before it can be live. This section is East-West Section Parikkala – Jyväskylä. And I also wanted to do more TET-riding all together. -To finally see all that I’m responsible of! So on the 3rd day of my holiday I started. Route for Day 1 looked like this:
From the west it was first Section 5 until it reaches section 1 in Siuntio. Then only the “beginning part” of Section 1 until I could continue Section 41 going around Helsinki and ride further east…
Hopom Lake & Magic Beach
Then after Hopom Lake I turned away from TET to ride to Loviisa and meet a friend who lives there. I was also offered to sleep the night… Here’s the video of the Day 1:
DAY 1: Just by random I was checking prices for midsummer night from booking.com. And from Ylöjärvi I found place to stay… with bed, toilet, shower and basic kitchen stuff with 39€ when all the other places were something like 150-200€. So friday morning I started riding! This was very early in the morning. First I was heading to Kylmäkoski -to the same place where I started checking TET Finland Section 2 update 1 week ago. But back then I was checking it from Kylmäkoski to south. Now I was planning to take the route north towards Sastamala and Hämeenkyrö.
And of course I made a video of the first day ride!
The route wasn’t as good as the route south from Kylmäkoski but it wasn’t too bad. I accept!
DAY 2: The place where I was sleeping used to be a school “Voionmaan opisto”. The room was pretty perfect with the toilet, shower and basic stuff for kitchen. And yes -the price was 39€ for midsummer night! There was a slight risk of rain and thunder in the afternoon so I decided to take a shorter and faster route back home. I still saw some amazing places!
I also mad a video of the second day ride!
The routes that I was riding were like this (blue was the one on friday and red on sunday):
Next time I will do wild camping also!! I tried couple years ago and my back didn’t like it. Lets see how it will go now…
The Starter clutch blew up (This post only in Finnish, sorry) Tämä tapahtui 1.5. aamulla kun olin lähdössä ajelemaan. En päässyt kuin muutaman sata metriä kun pyörä ei enää pysynyt käynnissä. Sitten sitä yritettiin käynnistää apukaapeleilla melko pitkään kunnes selvisi että akussa kiinni ollut kaapeli olikin löysällä. Kiristyksen jälkeen pyörä starttasi melkein heti! Mutta ei pysynyt käynnissä kuin n. minuutin. Tämän sammumisen jälkeen pyörä ei enää käyntiin lähtenyt ja lopulta kaikki virratkin hävisi. Mun pyörä on siis BMW G650XChallenge. Muutamien päivien ihmettelyn jälkeen sain sovittua Biketeamin kanssa että sponssaavat hieman ja katsovat mikä siellä on ongelmana. Vein pyörän Tampereen Biketeamiin lauantaina 6. toukokuuta. Saatesanoiksi laitoin seuraavan tekstin:
Ei mitään virtaa, akussa on normaali 12,8V jännite mutta pyörässä kaikki on pimeänä. Virtalukko?
Ennen kuin virrat hävisi pyörä oli käynnissä n. 1 minuutin mutta sammui täysin yllättäen eikä sen jälkeen lähtenyt käyntiin edes apuvirralla. Bensapumppu?
Pyörän käynnistymistä varsinkin lämpimänä vaikeuttaa se että starttimoottori pyörittää siten että se välillä jumittaa/ pyörittää huonosti. Pyörä on välillä huono lähtemään käyntiin lämpimänä. Starttimoottori?
10. toukokuuta pyörää oli ensimmäisen kerran tutkittu ja ammattilainen kuuli heti että startatessa kuuluu sen verran paha rohina että startin vapaakytkin on levinnyt. Muutamissa puheluissa arveltiin että jo pitkään vaivannut lämpimänä huono starttaaminen johtui kenties siitä että vapaakytkin oli jo hieman levinnyt aikaisemminkin. Samaa epäiltiin viime syksyn metallihiluista kampiakselin asentotunnistin -viassa. Tämähän saatiin kuntoon öljynvaihdolla mutta jos vapaakytkin on hiljalleen mennyt palasiksi niin sinne on saattanut syntyä sitä metallimoskaa ajan myötä vähitellen.
Itse vapaakytkin on tämän näköinen “laakeri”. Tämä lukkiutuu silloin kun startti pyörittää vauhtipyörää mutta kun moottori lähtee käyntiin se antaa vauhtipyörän pyöriä vapaasti ja startin pyörimisellä ei ole enää merkitystä koska se pyörii niin paljon hitaampaa. Virtojen katoaminen oli onneksi helpompi juttu. Pääsulake oli pimahtanut kun olin niin pitkään sitä apuvirtaa pyörälle antanut. Tässä on lopulta koko huoltoraportti mun pyörästä:
Sulake palanut, tämän takia ei saatu virtoja päälle
Moottori pyörii hunosti ja kuuluu rutinaa startin vapaakytkimen suunnalta
Sulakkeen palamiselle ei löydetty syytä
Startin vapaakytkin purettu; täysin tuhoutunut
Vaihdettu startin vapaakytkin, staattori ja roottori. Laskettu öljyt koneesta ja säiliöstä, öljyn seassa metallihippua ja tyhjennysropun magneetti täynnä samaa tavaraa.
Koitettu puhdistaa parhaan mukaan ilman moottorin avaamista, vaihdettu öljynsuodatin ja kaadettu uudet öljyt koneeseen. Käytetty lämpimäksi.
Suositellaan öljyjen ja suodattimen vaihtamista vielä muutamaan kertaan, jotta isoin osa moottorissa olevasta metallihipusta jäisi suodattimeen ja tyhjennysropun magneettiin.
Pyörä on vielä n. viikon verran Biketeamilla koska siinä sattui olemaan parikin takaisinkutsua jotka saadaan hoidettua nyt samalla kuntoon. Sitten kun minä saan pyörän jää kontolleni ainakin pari öljyvaihtoa ja öljynsuodattimen vaihtoa ja samalla täytyy tarkkailla sitä kuinka paljon öljyn seassa on mahdollista metallihilettä. Toiveissa olisi ettei sitä löytyisi juuri lainkaan koska silloin pyörällä olisi vielä paljon kilometrejä edessä! Moottorin sisältä löytyy paljon osia jotka ovat helposti rikkoutuvia jos siellä öljyn seassa jotain metalliroskaa on mukana. Öljypumppu, vesipumppu, staattori magneetteineen sekä se asentotunnistin ja tietenkin hurja määrä laakereita ja liukupintoja jotka tarvitsevat öljyä ihan sellaisenaan eikä mitään metallihilettä siinä seassa!
On saturday I hade a meeting in Lahti so I started planning the route to ride there. The spring was already so far that there was no ice and snow anymore except in few places. But I could ride through from all the places and I didn’t turn back anywhere. Here was my route to Lahti:
It was all together almost 300 kilometers for saturday. And it was really nice route and very enjoyable ride! I visited one friend in Orimattila to sleep the night there. Here’s the video from Day 1:
From Karjaa to Lahti
On sunday I first did a ride to Mankala Power Plant and from there I turned “back home”. But the route was about checking the Section 6 of TransEuroTrail Finland that I will share later. That turned out to be very nice route also!! Even less ice and snow than on saturday. I’m sorry but I’m not sharing the picture of the route because it will be published later in TET. Here’s the video from Day 2:
From Orimattila to Mankala and from There back to Karjaa
The best picture of the weekend is from sunday. This really made me smile!
Alive Children
I hope I will have a chance to do more these kind of longer trips this year!! I really enjoyed this so much.
YES! Spring is NOT around the corner, it’s here finally! So many plans made and so many routes to check. TET Finland will be even better soon! But lets start with the local roads and tracks. First ride was on Good Friday (Pitkäperjantai):
Good Ride on Good Friday
Second ride was on saturday:
Saturday with some more OffRoad parts
And on that ride we had a good laugh (I fell with the bike)!
Notice: Insta360 selfie stick is not made for enduro riding! Ihave now had it 3 times in my bike and it’s now bended. I can hardly open it or close it. I wonder is there any better ones?
Finally got out with my bike and this interesting camera Insta360 was attached into it. First ride I made a week ago. The camera was in handle-bar and I wanted to check only how it will look? Editing a good video was quite easy (Ok, I dunno about good but it looks quite ok to me!)
Insta360 One X2 attached in handlebar
Second ride I made yesterday. Now I had 2 cameras and my microphone with the wire (I couldn’t find my Rode Wireless!!) My DJI Osmo Action was in the normal place (handlebar) and Insta360 was on the tip of the stick behind me. You can see it from this picture:
Editing with 2 different cameras is much more complicated than you first think! They have dirrent picture style and colors. And my microphone with the wire mostly doesn’t work! I need to find my wireless mic -it has much better sound quality. Here’s video from yesterday:
Riding with 2 different cameras!
3 times in this movie there’s a cut from Osmo Action to Insta 360 when you should “understand” that this is the same place, same time and same ride. But if you don’t get it… It doesn’t matter! You can still watch the video. Maybe I can adjust the cameras so that the picture will look more similar? And maybe I need to make more “sharp cut” to make it more obvious. And the battery of Insta360 lasts much longer than DJI Osmo Action!
Every now and then there is a question which navigation system is the best for Adventure riding? I don’t have the correct answer but here are some features to check. Especially if you want to ride TransEuroTrail (Finland). I’ve been using Garmin GPSmap 62, Garmin Montana 600, Last summer Samsung Active Tab 2 & Osmand App and now I have Garmin Montana 700. I did a testride with both of these navigation systems attached to my motorcycle. I also had my camera (DJI Osmo Action) attached to my helmet -this I didn’t have in a very long time. And Rode Wireless Go II microphone was connected to my camera and the microphone itself was inside my helmet. Here is the video:
I’m not saying which one is better. They both have some cons and pros. Samsung Tab can be a little bit tricky to keep the batter fully loaded. It is very delicate part of the tablet this USB gate where you should connect the charging wire. I was using the magnetic type of wire where there is an extra connection just after the plug that you should push to the USB gate. The power that comes from my motorcycles alternator is not quite enough to keep the battery 100% loaded all day. But in novemeber when we were riding 9 hours it took only about 30% of battery power… So I could easily ride 2-3 days without recharging the tablet. It has also a small problem about the maps. You can get along with them but they are not as accurate than the maps in Garmin Montana. Every now and then I was little bit confused with Osmand maps. Why this track or that road is not on the map? Garmin Montana 700 biggest drawback (so far) is that you can’t change the thickness of the saved track’s line on the map! This makes it little bit tricky to see the line on the map that you should try to follow. The strangest thing is that it was possible in Garmin Montana 600!! (And also in Osmand App!) There are a lot of other devices and other apps to use. Especially this whole Apple -thing! I know nothing about them. But for android this Osmand is very good choice because it’s free or it’s not expensive to buy (full licence) where you can have unlimited amount of downloads (maps). I hope this helps you to choose a good system that serves you the best!
Week after our very nice November ride we got the first snow! And soon there was more and more coming all the time… At the best there was more than half of meter of snow on the ground. And it was also very cold all the time. -Until Christmas! In Christmas week it was over zero temperatures and even little bit of rain every now and then so almost all snow melted. And then again the last 2 days of the year it was very warm. On NewYears Eve we had +5° So I decided to go riding!
And while I was riding little bit of TET route I was hoping I could find a spot where there was no ICE. And I found…
I don’t have spikes in my tires so I can only ride on tarmac or in soft snow. I’m not that big fan of winter riding… But ofcourse if the weather is ok I can go. Next ride in 2023!
We’re actually going back in time to September 25th when I was riding with my friend Lauri from Karjalohja to Muurla direction. This was one of the best rides this year!
Here’s the video of that days ride!
But after about 150km’s My bike wasn’t running properly anymore! The idle running was ok but when I tried to twist the gas it started banging and didn’t take more rpm’s. My friend behind me said that there is gas smelling. We had some tools and we opened my airbox to check if the problem is there? It wasn’t… So I decided to give it a try and that was the correct decision because after few km’s I was able to ride normally…
Trying to give more GAS!
So we were able to ride the whole day but the problem didn’t disappear! One friend of mine took the bike and I asked the he would do “full service” in the same time as he was trying to find what was the problem. He had the the error reader so he just plugged the tablet that was connected to my bike and we got this:
The Speed sensor (RPM) is actually the same than so called crankshaft position sensor that gives the signal to the ignition. So it was no wonder that the engine didn’t run properly anymore. But was the sensor broken? Or was the problem somewhere else? After the engine cover was taken off from the right side it was easy to see what was the problem! The whole sensor was covered with some small parts of metal or metal dust. I had done the last oil-change already more than 2 years ago (and 8000 km’s) so it was a good warning about what happens if you don’t do service often enough! After new oil (Motul 5100 4T 15W-50), new oil-filter, new spark plugs, new air-filter and new coolant water my bike was running perfectly again! So no sensors were broken.
Early this year I paid my deposit to join this big adventure motorcycle event. But soon I got a phone call from the person who is one of the organizers… And I was asked to join as one of the “group leaders” to make this event possible to happen. And of course I said “Yes!” Moto Adventure Days is pretty much similar than any other adventure motorcycle event all around the world. This year it was the second time they arranged it and it was already many times bigger than last year, There was more than 180 participants and the event was sold out quite early in the spring.
About 9.30 PM tuesday evening
I started my ride on tuesday evening to Jämsä. It would be about 240 kilometers and I was choosing many times smaller roads. So I was in Himos only after it became dark. After Kuhmoinen I was already riding only the main paved road because it was dark. This was my route:
Route to Himos on tuesday evening
On wednesday all the teamleaders had some practise at Haaralankangas motocross track. We were testing quite many different things about riding enduro but it was too hot! After 2 hours I was loosing my concentration and after 3 hours I simply had to stop riding!
Uphill startSteep Uphill start
We had routes in 5 different categories: Black, Red-Black, Red Technical, Red Tempo and Blue. Balck route was mainly offroad even with swamp and other wet parts and then the categories after were easier and easier. Blue being mainly simple wide gravel road. I was one team leader for Red Technical routes and my team number was 16!
The event itself started on thursday when all the riders started to arrive to Himos. And on thursday afternoon about 15.30 we started the first group ride!
First ride in MAD 2022
I had one 1250GS Adventure that was stuck in the loose sand part in the beginning. But after that we didn’t have any problems. Route was the best of all three different routes I was riding. It had so many different kind of surface to ride! Second time riding was on friday morning 8.30 AM.
Second ride in MAD 2022
On this ride there was pretty much no problems at all! Third ride was on friday afternoon after 3PM
Third ride in MAD 2022
From this afternoon ride I remember that it was very hot! And that in the end of the route I made the water crossing… which was very nice experience! I have low adventure boots so I got a little bit of water inside but much. It looked deeper when I was watching the others riding there… Saturday morning was the next ride. 8.30AM!
Fourth ride in MAD 2022
On this ride there was mainly quite big bikes. All of them were much bigger than mine! The last ride of the event was on saturday afternoon. I was changing the route quite a lot… Mainly because I wanted to make it shorter.
Last ride in MAD 2022
The routemasters had been doing excellent work! These routes were super nice and fun to ride. Thank you again from me as a team leader and I think all of the riders are happy and grateful too! I can only hope I will be a team leader again next year. This was so perfect experience! I was riding back home (or to Espoo) on sunday with 2 friends. Route was pretty much the same that I was riding few days earlier. Only in EVO area we made a little bit exploring… Like this:
Exploring in EVO
In EVO
This was Great and Amazing event. I hope to see you all again in 2023!
GoZa Mite 