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.
Helsinki Motorcycle Exhibition first time in 3 years!!
There was 3 bikes that were extremely interesting for me: Aprilia Tuareg 660, Honda XL 750 TransAlp and Ducati Desert X But lots of other nice bikes too!
Aprilia Tuareg is lighter than Yamaha Tenere 700 (187kg dry weight) but the engine delivers about same power than Yamaha. It seems to have more offroad capabilities and surprisingly low seat (86cm).
To the same “middle weight adventure bikes” comes Honda XL750 Transalp. It’s about same weight than Yamaha Tenere 700 but the engine delivers more power (90hp!) Seat is also quite low in this (86cm).
Ducati Desert X is bigger than those “middle weight” bikes. It has 900 cubic engine with 110hp! And it weights only little bit more than 200kg’s. This would be very very interesting bike to ride TET Finland all around!
It’s not very difficult to guess that New Honda Transalp will be on top of the list about sold new bikes. Let’s hope it is trustworthy bike for the new owners!
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!
There’s alrady new routes (sections) made… but we need to check everything before anything will be published. Here are the plans:
So there will be these new sections – Tikkakoski to Juva and from Juva (via Savonlinna) to Parikkala – Porvoo (via Juva) to Suonenjoki – Section 2 will have new route going from the westside of Tampere – From Siikainen to Kyröskoski (between sections 2 and 3) – From Yli-Ii to Taivalkoski (Between 2 and 3) – From Tornio to Muonio (Final part of section 3)
At the moment TET Finland looks like this. It is impossible to say when these will be published but we will start checking them pretty soon after all the snow is gone! At the moment it looks like it’s going to be before march!?!
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.
I’ve been the Linesman of Finland now little bit over a year. When I started I didn’t have anything else in my mind except to add more nice routes to TET Finland but during this summer 2022 I finally realized the “Goal” to reach: Finland can be or should be one of the main adventure countries in Europe! Until now we have only been the “ride-through” area on the way to Nordkapp. There’s been too much shortcuts and not riding the whole marked route because we are not interesting enough! This has to end… Finland definitely has more to offer to all adventure motorcycle riders in Europe (and the rest of the world!)
New Section 4
There will be new update coming soon: Section 4 will follow the Russian border very close and it goes all the way to the Raate road and connects with section 1 there. That most southern part between Helsinki – Vaalimaa we already have in TET. After this next update TET Finland will have 4 mainroutes from south to north:
Section 1 This is the main route that starts from Helsinki West Harbour. It goes west from Helsinki until it starts to go north from Siuntio. Like this:
Section 1
Section 2 Was released already before I came as a Linesman. And this is very nice addition to TET Finland because I think I wouldn’t have been thinking this kind of route through Finland myself! This section I will probably update so that it will start already from the south side of Hämeenlinna and the route would go from the west side of Tampere. But this is the section 2 now:
Section 2
Section 3 This was published few weeks ago. The section starts from the north side of Naantali and it pretty much follows the west coast of Finland. At the moment this section ends in Tornio but in the future it will go all the way up to Muonio and connect with Section 1 there. This is section 3 now:
Section 3
The main goal is to make Finland Great again… I mean it could be the main area to reach for the adventure riders to make THE adventure. We have so much to offer! So I really hope more and more adventure riders will find our beautiful country!
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!
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!
In the beginning of July 2021 the Linesman of Finland (Roland from Austria) gave the task to me! I was ofcourse very flattered about this and I was thinking should I take such a responsibility to me since I’m not very active rider anymore, But from the other hand I want to be more active! So here’s my reason to go riding Enduro more often!
I’m the new Linesman of TET Finland!
For my first active thing I went riding! Took my XChallenge very early in the morning…
Sun is about to rise…
I didn’t have too much planning done. First to ride to Iso-Valkee lake and to the TET route and then start to follow the route to Hämeenlinna and beyond. My main goal was to change the eastern route to go to EVO -area. It was about 1,5 hours ride to Iso-Valkee.
Just before Kisko Kko (Church village of Kisko)Somewhere in Kiikala forest
About 6.30 am I arrived to Lake Iso-Valkee -I had the video camera also with me!
Iso-Valkee as beautiful as always!This place is already in Kanta-Häme (Tavastia proper)
Riding up to the lake highlands of Tavastia… 150 meters AMSL
Getting closer to HämeenlinnaShort visit to Aulanko area in HämeenlinnaAnd the TET route goes through Parola military area…
FInally I found the place to stay for the night quite close to EVO area and next morning I would meet Lauri and we would ride together few interesting roads of EVO.
Early morning in Kuohijärvi
After 2 days of riding in this interesting area I can say that I know area quite well!
These roads I was riding in EVO.
1 interesting road in EVOHere I separated from Lauri
I wasn’t sure where to ride on the 2nd day but the bike was making some strange sound! I got little bit help from Autohuolto Markku Ruuskanen in Luopioinen to find out that it wasn’t the rear wheel bearing that was making sound. But I still decided to continue riding south… I was thinkin maybe to spend the night somewhere in Forssa (???)
I checked this Off-Road route near Toijala
But finally it was riding all the way back home! And it almost 400km’s in one day! The whole trip was like this:
2 days Enduro trip…
And after few days of planning the new TET Finland route is ready for download!
Go - Za 