Thursday the 4th of May was finally the first actual spring-day here in southern Finland. I took some lining off from the jacket and pants ant took a short ride in very beautiful weather!

This is a small beach in Vihti (Otalampi). And because of very nice weather I took a swim also… The ice melted maybe 1 week ago so the water was freezing cold!

Little bit later I just stop the bike to take some photos. I am few meters away from the road and the sun is behind me… I love the photos that my new mobilephone (OnePlus 3T) is taking. The colours are very nice! This is also in Vihti (Tervalammentie).
I have this new red screen in my XR, I ordered it from powerbronze and it makes the bike look lighter and faster (I think). If I try to lean down behind that screen the road looks like this:

Soon I will be in my first tour for this year… We will take 5 days journey to Åland!!
Moottoripyöräily
This could be a first “big” bike for quite many riders in the future! It’s low and small, the riding position is very natural even for a big rider like me. And it’s very easy to ride!
It has 2 cylinder engine that gives some “vibes” around 4k rpm. It’s actually more like a tickle through the seat and when the seat is quite hard you really can feel it!
First thing I would change with this bike is the seat. It’s not very comfortable.
Honda makes the bikes feel like very good quality. I can imagine that if you buy this bike you can easily ride many many kilometers with it!
Throttle and engine responses slowly. There’s not too much power. But if you think about the possible first bike it’s only a good thing!

The biggest surprise is that even it’s a very small bike it didn’t feel small at all when I was sitting on it. So it can be a bike also for a tall guy like me. Suspension was working nicely with my weight on it (120kg’s).
RallyRaid products makes nice additional tanks for KTM 690 Enduro. I bought one for my bike last autumn but it took too long for me install this to my bike. Now I finally did it!

At first I removed the rear fairing… As you can see my bike is totally dirty!
Then I needed to empty the fueltank, so I needed to lift the airfilter box a little bit up so I could detach the fuelpipe.

Then using the bikes own fuelpump I removed the fuel. I had too much gasoline in my tank (about 8 litres!)

When the tank is empty I could start to remove the fuelpump from the bottom of the tank.

I only needed to take the pump out from the tank, remove the wires and then I could add this fuel connector adapter to the bottom of the fuelpump.

Then I needed to drill the holes to rear fairing (18mm) and start install the rear rack. This rack has the new bolts that will go throught the holes in the fairing for the proper installation.

After the rack is installed it’s time for the additional tank itself.

I was lucky with my miniblinkers that I installed last autumn. They are in perfect position and I didn’t have to change anything!

My bike is missing the passenger footrests so I needed to make an contemporary ironbar to keep the the tank still.

Here the bike is ready:

But still very dirty… So finally I washed the bike!

And finally I got the chance to test my bags I bought last autumn. These are from Poland (check: http://www.xcountry.pl). I will also try these in real action and I will make tours that will take many days!

I can’t wait to hit the gravelroads and tracks!
Last sunday it was three KTM 690 Enduro bikes testing the forestpaths in Kirkkonummi and Siuntio. The roads are mostly dry but the forest has much more shadowplaces and it means more snow and ice!

The first video is a track I found last summer… But in the summertime it’s too wet, now it’s mostly ice:
I fell through the ice there and it’s not easy to move the bike away from the hole with the boots that has no grip! But I did it…

Second video is a ride near aluminium factory in Pikkala:
And third video is a very nice track under the powerline between Karskog and Evitskog:
I did not have any spikes in my tires so for me it was very slippery and I had to be very careful!

This time I will make update in Finnish.
Aika-ajo.com on suomalainen nettisivusto joka on koonnut muutaman aktiivisen nettikirjoittajan ajatuksia yhteen. Sitä voisi hyvinkin kutsua aikakausilehdeksi jota julkaistaan netissä. Aiheita ovat urheilu, liikkuminen sekä moottoroidut vehkeet.
Nyt Aika-ajo on kirjoittanut motokätköilystä eli motocaching.net sivustosta. Kirjoitus on melko neutraali eikä hehkuta ylisanoilla eri ominaisuuksia mutta kertoo toki kaiken tarpeellisen siitä miten sivusto syntyi ja miten se on kehittynyt/ kasvanut alkuaikojen jälkeen. Itselläni on ollut isohko osa tämän palvelun kehittymisessä.
Tästä pääset lukemaan jutun.

Tältä näyttää motocahing.net sivuston etusivu englannin kielellä.
This is how motocaching.net frontpage looks like.
I bought this KTM about year ago. I have almost zero experience of changing tyres but now I’m going to learn this! Just because these enduro-bikes eats the tyres so quickly I need to change them even 2-3 times per year. First I needed to get my bike back to the garage:

I have MB Sprinter as my working car and I can easily fit my bike in there!

Front rim was removed in about 10 minutes!

And rear was removed 5 minutes later.
I’ve seen it done many times so maby I could say that I have quite a lot of experience! But I didn’t do it myself ever! This was now my first time! Tomorrow I will have new tyres in my bike and the trails are calling again!
Soon all the snow will be gone! And I haven’t done almost anything to my KTM yet. Ok, yesterday I did install the protection shield by touratech under the engine, but it was easy installation!

Then today I was at the garage again and desided to take a short ride even there’s some ice and snow on the road! I rode about 5-600 meters and took one short video of the sounds. Remember it has the LeoVince silencer now!
Before the season really starts I still need to install the extra tank. After that the bike is ready for all the adventures to come… in the season 2017!
Helsinki motorcycle exhibition 2017 was in Messukeskus Expo and Convention Centre.
Even there’s this possible (totally insane) motorcycle-tax coming it didn’t seem to affect the peoples intrest. Here are some of the most interesting bikes of the show:

Ducati Scrambler Desert Sled

Husqvarna 401 Vitpilen

New versions of BMW R NineT

Suzuki GSX-R1000

Triumph Street Triple 765

KTM 1090 Adventure R

Yamaha MT-07 Tracer
All the pictures I took are here!
Sorry all you international readers, this is only in finnish!
SMOTO ry on jäätänyt lausuntonsa koskein tulevaa moottoripyörien omistamiseen kohdistuvaa veroa/ lakimuutosta varten. 13 sivuinen lausunto on kokonaisuudessaan luettavissa täältä!
Yhteenveto kyseisestä lausunnosta on lyhykäisyydessään tämmöinen:
I did a post in august 2013 about the best motorcycleroads in Finland -now it’s time to make the same in English.
I have chosen only the routes that are longer than 10 km. You can also find the best roads from motocaching.net but there the most of the introductions and comments are in Finnish. And my list is not the same!
- Porkkalantie
Pros: Nice corners and landscapes Cons: Few parts only 40km/h speedlimit - Fagervikintie – Vanha Rannikkotie
Pros: Some parts are challenging some parts are with nice landscapes, nice corners Cons: The pavement is in bad shape - Trollshovda
Pros: Maybe the tightest corners in Finland Cons: Ends in gravel, blind corners - Vihti – Road 280
Pros: Nice speed, lots of other good roads near Cons: – - Hämeen Härkätie (Somero – Porras)
Pros: Nice speed, nice pavement Cons: Low speedlimit near Somero - Marjoniementie
Pros: Nice corners and hills (!) Cons: Ends in gravel - Puumala – Sulkava
Pros: Nice speed and quiet road Cons: – - Hamina – Virolahti museumroad
Pros: Nice corners and challenge Cons: at weekends lots of traffic - Kuninkaantie ABC – Sarvisalo
Pros: Nice variable corners, nice landscapes Cons: – - Niska-Pietiläntie – Miettiläntie
Pros: Challenging Cons: The pavement is in bad shape
Somebody might think that there are other roads in top 10, but this is my list. Please leave a comment or if you have any questions!
