Last sunday we had a groupride. I had a message that if you have ordinary streettyres you can manage this trip (in the gravel roads)… and we had quite interesting riders and bikes!
This was Aprilia Mille with Pirelli Supercorsa!
Then there was BMW F800ST with Continental Road Attack and Yamaha Tracer with Pirelli Road Pilot. And we had a few surprises in the route!
That’s me with my KTM 690 Enduro! There was a river going over the road but luckily it was only about 15-20 cm’s deep water. So everyone rode over it! Last attempt was with the BMW F800ST:
In the picture the water looks much deeper because the bike makes a wave… But we got all over it quite easily. This was so much fun!!
It was actually already before easter when I got the offer from my Honda VFR1200X Crosstourer. After trying to sell it so long time I was quite happy with offer I got from Bikeworld. But I had to wait over 1 week for the delivery of the new KTM 690 Enduro.
This photo was taken only 10km’s after I bought it and already I’m offroad!! Ok it’s only like 20 meters away from the pavement but anyway that bike really invites you to make turns away from the road.
My way home (normally about 30km’s) turned in to 90 kilometers of gravel roads and some little bit illegal roads. I even found some nice and interesting places.
Here’s the route I rode yesterday (few places I couldn’t add to the route since googlemaps doesn’t allow it).
The real offroad places (forest etc) are still snowy or at least very wet so for now I’m staying mostly on the gravel roads. But luckily there are lots of those here in my area!
Tuesday March 15 was the day when I went to garage and took my Honda out (BMW is still waiting for the 1st ride).
I took a short ride to Lauttasaari in Helsinki to check one motocaching.net -cache someone had made during the winter. The place is actually not legal to ride with the motorcycle but it was in the middle of the day so there were not too many people around so I took the risk and rode my bike up to the small hill with this cannon.
There’s also a viewing platform very near from where you can see the south-western parts of Helsinki.
Wednesday 16th of March was much warmer so I even got 1 friend with me and we rode to Vuosaari to check 1 breakwater where you can also ride. Ocean is already without ice and there were few swans flying around beautifully!
Here’s my Honda VFR1200X Crosstourer with my friends KTM 990SMT at the Ruusuniemi breakwater in Vuosaari. This is also a cache at motocaching.net!
Then on friday morning it was below zero and some snow was in the ground (and on my Honda too!)
Now it seems that we’ll have to wait many days until we can ride again!
This strikes straight to my heart and soul! It was so close that I put my name in there right away… But it’s better to ride the the summer 2016 first before getting in to 2017. But I will remember this -Oh yes I will!
Over 1 month riding in the alps… UUh! http://alpenbutt.com/
Quite many riders from Finland have been riding in Estonia too. But usually it’s only riding through as fast as you can! Riders from Finland are coming to Tallinn by ferry and then they ride straight to south!
But what if you’d stay for awhile?
It is true that there are not too many roads with nice corners in Estonia! But it doesn’t mean that riding here would be totally boring. The best curvy roads are in the coastline east from Tallinn (https://goo.gl/maps/n7Ej8PAaqb92) but you will find some nice roads also in Otepää area and in the Hiiumaa and Saaremaa islands. Sadly it is also true that if you find a nice curvy road it is quite possible that the pavement is not in very good condition.
But what is it then that makes the riding not boring? There are few good answers to this:
1. Estonia was a part of Soviet Union before 1991. There are many very interesting places to see: some abandoned nuclear missile bases, military fortresses, harbours, military airports or a submarine base.
2. Tallinn and Tartto are old Hansatowns. That means there are so many historical spots to see. There is also an old castle in Pöltsamaa, Haapsalu, Kuressaare and many, many other places too! (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_castles_in_Estonia)
3. Prices are very cheap! Last summer (2015) me and my friend stopped to eat something in Rakvere. We parked the bikes in the centrum and we saw a restaurant. The price for a russian kind of meal (some potato sallad, vegetables and a meat-saslik) was about 8 euros!
4. The nature is surprising! There are some cliffs, waterfalls, beautiful lakes, forests, very nice sandbeaches and so much more surprisingly beautiful places.
5. Huge motorcycle meeting in July in Jögeva! Usually something like 2-3000 motorcycle riders meet every year.
Curvy road from Leesi to Hara
…but I can’t find that corner!!
I went to my garage anyway to install new levers. They are beautiful red!
And then I took the bike out and started it first time in 2016 like this:
This was one of the first rides after my crash in Romania last July. I had my Honda waiting for me in Finland when I had to leave the XR far away from home.
It’s also a big surprise that I haven’t taken this road to the video before?! It’s very good road very near to Mäntsälä and there is one corner where I’ve seen quite many crashes. It is more than 90 degrees to the right (in this video 03:50) but here I’m taking it very easily because I’m still careful after my crash.
Here is Vanha Soukkiontie:
And here is the video:
Sehe’s quite young girl from Melbourne Australia! And for some reason she desided to come to Europe and make a 3 months roadtrip here. And what a wonderful trip it was!!
http://www.bikergirl.me/
Here’s the route she made (or I think this is the plan):
This was also in the Helsinki motorcycle show! They are the Diorios Globe of Death from Brazil.
Helsinki motorcycle exhibition 2016 started today.
Honda Africa Twin
KTM 1290 SuperDuke GT
Yamaha MT-10
These were all in the house! And there were few other bikes too!
Check all of my photos here!
GoZa Mite 