GoZa Mite

The warmest November day in Finland

Posted by gozamite on 19.11.2022

Posted in: motorcycling. Leave a comment

Ok maybe not the warmest ever… but anyway in 60 years! The Saturday 12th of November 2022 it was +13 or +14 in south Finland and of course we had to go riding!
I was home quite early on friday so I decided to change my rear tire! And first time in a very very long time everything went quite smoothly and now I have a Motoz (Tractinator Adventure) tire first time in my bike!
Saturday morning I was very early going to check the pressure of the tire (I have only a simple hand-pump to put air to the tire at home). At the gas station I checked that this time I had 0,8 bar pressure on the tire -not bad (but it could be more).

Rode to the forest right away to try how the new tire felt… And it was very ok! The sun wasn’t even up yet!
We had agreement with my friend Lauri to meet in on Gas Station after 9 a’clock but because I was ready with all my preparations I started maybe 8.30 from home!
This short track I’ve been thinking should I add it to the TET but the problem is the fence/ gate/ barriers when entering the road in the end of video:

They are probably going to tear down the buildings that you can see in the end of this video. We will see how the area will be after that?
It was already 10am when we started from Virkkala ST1 -station and the goal was to ride all the way to Kisko TL! This would be a lot of kilometers! The route that we did was like this:

That was 340 kilometers from Virkkala via Fiskars, Teijo, Salo, Heikin Laavu, Koski TL, Somero, Iso Valkee to Kasvihuoneilmiö where we separated. We were mainly using TET route while riding to Heikin Laavu but after that not much anymore.

My friend Lauri used to have Honda CRF300 Rally but now he has Husqvarna 701 Enduro. Quite big change I would say!

The weather was amazing!! Not cold at all but the wind was quite hard and it was bothering a little bit in open places! Finally we arrived to Heikin Laavu and it was first time for me to visit this beautiful Lean-To.

I didn’t know that it’s not easy to see this place from the road. So I decided to add map marker to the TET route because this is such a lovely place! We met also another rider there and he had already made the fire so we could fully enjoy our short brake. I spotted some woodpecker knocking on a pinetree there!

November woodpecker

Then we had to ride straight to Koski TL to fill the tank because I already made 200km’s (and I can’t do much more than that!). After that we found one OffRoad route that was nice challenge for the day.
In the southside of Somero there was some very nice nice small roads and once we even visited some private yard. You can see how was the chat with the houseowner if you put subtitles ON in the video.
The full video of this great day here:

Warmest November day in 60 years!

Now they have promised snowfall… so next time will be maybe in 2023?!

TET Finland 2022

Posted by gozamite on 8.10.2022

Posted in: adventure, adventure bike, dirt bike, enduro, Finnish Nature, gravel road, Moottoripyöräily, Motoadventure, TET Finland, TransEuroTrail. Tagged: adventure, Motoadventure, TET Finland, TransEuroTrail. 4 Comments

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!)

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 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 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:

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!

Energy Drinks – Energiajuomat

Posted by gozamite on 6.10.2022

Posted in: motorcycling. Tagged: battery, energy drink, Mad Croc, monster, red bull. Leave a comment

I’ve started a project that is totally crazy!
I’ve been trying to taste all energy drinks…
The list is in Facebook. And sorry the comments are only in Finnish!
Check here!

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: adventure, adventurebikes, Adventuremotorcycle, BMW G650XChallenge, BMWadventure, Motorcycle Event, motorrad. 1 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.

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:

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!

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:

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: adventure, BMW, BMW Adventure, BMW G650XChallenge, Moto Adventure Days, motorcycling. 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: gravelroad, Motorcycle Adventure, SouthWest Finland, TET Finland, TransEuroTrail. 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!

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.

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

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€.

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

Visit Café Lättis

Posted by gozamite on 23.6.2022

Posted in: adventure bike, BMW G650XChallenge, dirt bike, enduro, gravel road, motorcycling, Off-Road, Video. Tagged: adventure ride, BMW G650XChallenge, Cafe Lättis, Dirtride. Leave a comment

New cafeteria/ motorcycle meeting place Cafe Lättis was opened few years ago. It has become very popular and if the weather is nice there can easily be 100 or even 200 bikes on sunday afternoon.

Last august we had the first ever XR-meeting there and we had even 12 or 13 BMW S1000XR bikes in the same time!

This cafeteria has homepage in facebook. They are quite active there and sharing new pictures and updates very often!
This summer when I’m riding with my enduro the distance to to visit Lättis is quite long. But if you just make the route it can be made easily. This time the route was excellent!

Best ride so far this summer

The route from Veikkola Neste to Cafe Lättis was like 150 kilometers. I found trails that I did’nt ride before and especially the trail that starts from Suopellontie (Karkkila) was excellent!

On the west side of Cafe Lättis there is one landowner who doesn’t want bikes or cars to ride through!

So you need to ride to the paved road of Rautakoskentie!
It seemed there was al lot interesting trails on the west side of Lättis so gotta go exploring there again!

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: adventure, BMW, motorcycling, motorrad, TransEuroTrail. 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: adventure, Adventurebike, BMW Adventure, BMW Enduro, BMW G650XChallenge, Enduroride. 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:

Second day I was checking one place where was flooding.

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

And here is the video of the ride:

Spring ride 2022

And there is more to come!!

Tartu & Lake Peipus spring 2022

Posted by gozamite on 24.4.2022

Posted in: adventure, East Europe, Estonia, History, Matkustus, nature. Tagged: Estonia, Lake Peipsi, Lake Peipus, Tartu, Travelling. Leave a comment

First time visiting foreign country in more than 2 years!
Tartu is second largest city in Estonia. It has very long history since it got the city rights in 13th century and it was already quite important town for Teutonic order.
Only place/ building that is left from medieval times is the fortress hill and the cathedral that stands on the top of the hill. It is quite interesting church because it’s mainly ruined but one part of the old church is reconstructed and they are still using it!
We came to Tartu by car to spend 2 full days exploring the area. And The city of Tartu is not that big so we also checked Lake Peipus (Lake Peipsi) and few villages close to it.

We also checked the Tähtvere park and the area of National museum. That museum is quite amazing building (Built in 2016) -to take a picture of this I should have my Drone with me! But you get the idea from the picture in Wikipedia.

Then on the second day we visited Lake Peipsi. The first village that we visited was Räpina (Sillapää Loss), then Mehikoorma lighthouse and Meerpalu rand, then Kavastu Praam (manual ferry) and finally Alatskivi Loss and Kallaste rand.

Estonia is not very big country but there is so much to see. You should stop in every small village and probably you will be surprised by the history or by the people! And it’s only 2 hour ferry trip from Helsinki Finland!!