BMW motorrad

MotoAdventureDays 2022

Posted by gozamite on 1.9.2022
Posted in: adventure, adventure bike, BMW, BMW G650XChallenge, BMW motorrad, dirt bike, Finnish Nature, gravel road, Moottoripyöräily, motorcycling, nature, summertime. Tagged: , , , , , , . Leave a comment

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 start
Steep 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!

August rides

Posted by gozamite on 13.8.2022
Posted in: adventure, adventure bike, BMW G650XChallenge, BMW motorrad, dirt bike, enduro, Finnish Nature, gravel road, Moottoripyöräily, motorcycling, Off-Road, TransEuroTrail, Video. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Surprisingly june and july were moths (in the middle of the summer) and there was almost no riding at all. But when august came… It was on again!
August started with “Tour de Karis” -kind of ride around this village where I live.

28 minutes video of riding in Karjaa – Snappertuna area

And quite soon again I was riding. This time to the north side of Raseborg city. I was especially interested about this road: Malmitie – Malmvägen. It looked interesting on the map and it turned out to be even better!! (in the video it’s from 4:45 to 09:15)

Malmvägen and some offroad

Then on 7th of august I did a ride with friend. That turned out to be excellent tour from Veikkola all the way to Kisko. Best parts were in Fiskars forest and then on the north side of Kärkelä Ironworks area.
First Järventaustantie then Ruonankorventie and then Ahvenlammintie. Great Roads!
And I made my longest riding video so far (38 minutes!).

Long ridingvideo!

Next week we’ll have MAD (Moto Adventure Days). It’s now second time this event is happening in Finland and I’m one of the guys riding in front of some group, doing so called “punainen tekninen” routes. These are mainly big and small gravel roads added with some challenging tracks and trails. Here is the description in Finnish:
Harvaan liikennöityjä metsäautoteitä, polkuja ja kapeita yksityisteitä, joille ei välttämättä kannattaisi lähteä henkilöautolla yrittämään. Vastaan voi tulla pehmeetä hiekkaa, sepeliä, helppoja vesistöylityksiä ja muuta hauskaa. Toki välillä ajetaan nopeampia sorateitä.
Sopii jo kokemusta omaaville kuskeille. Kuivalla kelillä pärjää hienosti karkeakuvioisilla kumeilla, mutta kostealla suosituksena nappulat.
See you there!

Updating TET Finland (Section 5)

Posted by gozamite on 18.7.2022
Posted in: adventure, adventure bike, BMW G650XChallenge, BMW motorrad, enduro, gravel road, TransEuroTrail. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

I’ve been the Linesman of TET Finland now 1 year. Been making quite many updates and I thought it would be a good idea to show people how it is made? (The update)
I don’t remember who made the original Section 5 (From Turku to Räyskälä) to connect Turku harbour with the main route -Sections 1 & 3 (From Helsinki to North)? But even as it was very good addition to the TET that time it didn’t serve as a “real adventure route” because too many parts with paved road.
I really wanted to make the update! I didn’t know the gravelroads in that are too well so I knew I had to go and make a ride there also. But I made the “raw version” first and I tried to make as good as possible so that there wouldn’t be too much searching for better alternative when riding!

Ylijoentie, Salo

This was the first place to check! It turned out to be very good “short cut” in the area where there was a little bit paved road. Now there isn’t.

Wiurila Manor, Salo

This was second place I wanted to add to the route. TET was already going very close to this manor but since there was quite long part with only paved road I could add just a little bit gravel road and this amazing house/ area. Wiurilan Kartano

Meyer Yard, Turku

This place I knew. I just needed to check it one more time that it was easy to reach from the route. It’s the Meyer shipyard in Turku but the viewing place is in “Playa del Raiso” -on the other side of the bay. Very easy to make quick visit!
After this I was finally on the part of the TET that I wanted to update. Route between Naantali and Räyskälä. First there are may villages with medieval (or very old) stone church. This is one of them:

Askainen Church, not actually a medieval church

After Askainen and Mynämäki you are finally entering the area with mostly gravel road. First the route goes towards Kurjenrahka National park and from there it goes to Somero direction. The whole Section 5 looks like this:

Section 5 (with the main route on the right)

I found 1 more interesting place on this route! There is outside swimming pool in Kyrö Village, entrance fee is 6€.

Kyrö swimming pool

The whole Section 5 is 450 kilometers. It starts from Siuntio, goes through Raasepori to Salo, then to Paimio and Turku, Then to Naantali. Then it turs back to east and goes to Somero and Räyskälä (In Loppi).
I didn’t need to change the route almost at all -there was only 1 place where the route went straight through the yard and another place where was “Private road” sign.
And ofcourse I made the video about this crazy day. Enjoy!

TET Finland Section 5

Adventures goes on

Posted by gozamite on 2.6.2022
Posted in: adventure, adventure bike, BMW G650XChallenge, BMW motorrad, dirt bike, enduro, gravel road, motorcycle. Tagged: , , , , . Leave a comment

Springtime was so short! It started in the end of April and soon in May you will start to feel like it’s summer already. And I had so many ideas about new possible routes for transeurotrail.
First idea was to make additional route Helsinki – Turku. There was already one but it was going from Turku to the TET route and to connect to it in Räyskälä (almost 100km away from Helsinki). So I started to check my plans in the beginning of May.

Here I’m riding the few possible selections Between Karjaa & Perniö and also all the way to Teijo ironworks area. I made second checking ride a week later and I was checking the possible routes between Salo and Lieto. I found only private yards and tracks that were impossible to ride.

The new update for the TET route was made on 13th of May!
On that same day I was riding again! For that ride I found interesting start From Karjalohja: A very small ridgeroad going between two lakes (Kannaksentie) -but there are quite many summercottages on the way, I’m not going there again.

The part in the end of this video comes to Ruonankorventie that I have recommended to quite many riders that they should check this. I was riding from Lohiojanie to Lemmulantie and then to Ruonankorventie.
On May 15th I was inviting riders to make a group-ride to Iso-valkee and 15 bikes came to make a very nice ride together!! You can see some pictures here! I made also a video:

Then in the end of May (Helatorstai/ Ascension Day) I made a ride to check some small roads and tracks on Hanko Peninsula. Found some very good ones! Here’s the video:

Waiting to ride again!!

Season 2022 Start

Posted by gozamite on 6.5.2022
Posted in: adventure, adventure bike, BMW G650XChallenge, BMW motorrad, dirt bike, enduro, Finnish Nature, Moottoripyöräily, Motorcycle Tour, Off-Road, Spring Is Coming. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Finally after a winter with HUGE amount of snow it was possible to start riding!
And I did it with 4 times riding in one week. The weather was already quite warm -not like I needed to put all possible clothes on me.
First day ride was less than 100km like this:

First ride of the season

Second day I was checking one place where was flooding.

Ride to Kärkelä Ironworks area

Here is the short video of the place where the river was flooding!
I made a riding video of this next days ride.

3rd day short ride
Riding to the border of Varsinais-Suomi
Snow was mostly gone but lakes had still ice!
The temperature was something like 10-13 degrees -so not too cold anymore!

And then on saturday I got three friends with me and we did already almost 200km!

Tour around Lake Lohja

And here is the video of the ride:

Spring ride 2022

And there is more to come!!

New S1000R

Posted by gozamite on 25.11.2020
Posted in: BMW motorrad, BMW S1000R, Extreme ride, Make life a ride!, motorcycle. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

In 2013 BMW introduced this naked superbike!
And when I saw it in Helsinki Motorcycle exhibition I simply had to have one! It was my first motorcycle I bought as a new one.
Then 2015 came the XR with same engine but totally different bike and the generation 2 was introduced first to the XR and now 1 year later comes totally new S1000R:

S1000R 2021

It has same engine that XR has. So no shift-cam technology. Same 165hp and 114Nm torque. But it is lighter than previous S1000R (199kg)!
So when Kawasaki & Ducati made super naked bikes with over 200hp -BMW decided NOT to go along in this kind of race. BMW thinks the real race is on the racetrack or in the streets.

Basic White Yellow
M Motorsport paintwork

This new S1000R has some nice options in it! Here’s the list:
Three riding modes, Dynamic Traction Control (DTC) and ABS Pro as standard. Optional equipment “Riding Modes Pro” with riding mode “Dynamic Pro”, Dynamic Brake Control (DBC), engine drag torque control, MSR, “Engine Brake” and “Power Wheelie.
The swingarm comes almost straight from S1000RR so this is one step closer to a racebike. And BMW promises it will be very fast and enjoyable ride!
Who are we to question this?

BMW S1000XR sport

Posted by gozamite on 30.7.2020
Posted in: BMW, BMW motorrad, BMW S1000XR, motorrad, OneworldOneXR, S1000XR. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

BMW was very early! BMW Group Press release came out today and it says:
“BMW Motorrad model revision measures for the model year 2021”
S1000XR is now available in “Style Sport” colour which is with Lightwhite non-metallic/ Racingblue metallic/ Racingred non-metallic. It looks like this:

There will be also some new and additional things:
– Titanium sports silencer, M Endurance chain, Windshield Sport, additional Core Screen with Laptimer.
– Tank cover and card pocket in motorcycle colour.
– Tour package with expanded content. USB charging port, new luggage rack with integrated holder for 30 l and 49 l topcase.
– New optional equipment: M milled parts package*. M folding brake lever, M folding clutch lever, M engine protector left, M rider footrests right/left and M pillion passenger footrests right/left.

This new colour with extended accessories should be ready to order from 1st of August! Check your nearest dealer!

S1000XR 2020 review

Posted by gozamite on 14.5.2020
Posted in: adventure bike, BMW, BMW motorrad, BMW S1000XR, motorcycle, motorrad, OneworldOneXR, S1000XR, test-ride. Tagged: , , , , . 2 Comments

Today I took the testride with the S1000XR (New 2020 model). My wife was there with me so she could give some opinions about the rear seat and how the bike feels from her POW.

IceGrey BMW S1000XR

When you sit on the bike you can notice right away that the seat feels quite different. It’s more narrow and the edges are too sharp. Luckily I’m quite tall and my knees are coming quite high so I don’t feel this sharp edge almost at all. In my 150km testride I didn’t feel uncomfortable and I could ride longer trips easily!

#OneWorldOneXR

Then I notice the narrow handlebar. But it doesn’t bother me at all! Maybe I should’ve gone to some heavy traffic where you need to use the maximum steering… But in this kind of normal street riding it didn’t bother me (Even I like the wide bar of the old XR!)

Boxroad in Sipoo Finland

The bike feels maybe little bit lighter, it feels like it wants to take the corners tighter and faster -it reminded me about S1000R that I was riding back in 2014. All the buzz or vibration is gone from the handlebars but there was few times when I felt a little bit of buzz in the bike itself -somewhere around 4000rpm.

Spjutsund pier

Since I have owned already 3 XR’s it makes me think “Is this bike really so much better than my old XR?” The price of the new bike is about 4000 euros higher. Is it worth it?
I think there is 2 correct answers to this question!
1) No it is not worth it! Keep the old one and you will be very happy with it!
2) Yes definitely! They made it little bit better, little bit more unique and little more nice in every way (except maybe the seat!)

Bike by the sea

My wife didn’t like the backseat of the bike. She thought it was too short and the handlers for her were too short also. They should go further behind the seat.
One thing I found very interesting! There was 1 page in this new TFT screen where you can see the leaning angle of the bike… I think I would be staring this page only… all the time! Or at least when I’m riding in the curvy road.

It will be mine, someday!

Thank you Biketeam Vantaa for making this testride possible.