Thew web page for this years MAD is now open. Only in few days more than half of the bookings is already made!
Today 6th of January there is 90 free places -so I’m guessing it will be sold out very soon!
Make you reservation here!
Check some pictures from last years event Here!
and my story in this blog you check Here!
Week after our very nice November ride we got the first snow! And soon there was more and more coming all the time… At the best there was more than half of meter of snow on the ground. And it was also very cold all the time.
-Until Christmas!
In Christmas week it was over zero temperatures and even little bit of rain every now and then so almost all snow melted.
And then again the last 2 days of the year it was very warm. On NewYears Eve we had +5° So I decided to go riding!
And while I was riding little bit of TET route I was hoping I could find a spot where there was no ICE. And I found…
I don’t have spikes in my tires so I can only ride on tarmac or in soft snow. I’m not that big fan of winter riding… But ofcourse if the weather is ok I can go.
Next ride in 2023!
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.
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)
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!).
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!
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!!
This day was about turning back… But only after we would first ride quite far away north to Raippaluoto. We made a quick visit in Botniaring (racetrack) and rode through Jurva (city or village?). But soon it was time to turn to gravelroad!
At the end of this “offroad” ride there was a nice small observation tower of “Rajavuori”
Then we rode to Vaasa, it’s one of the oldest cities in Finland. There was old church but it burned in 1852 -Now there is only ruins.
From Vaasa we rode to Raippaluoto and to go there you have to ride over this very nice bridge!
Here in Raippaluoto we wanted to check another observation tower in Saltkaret.
This is quite amazing place if it is clear weather and if you will climb to the top of the tower!
From Raippaluoto we rode little bit more east so that we wouldn’t have to ride the same roads back home.
Before we arrived to Seinäjoki we took a short stop at Ylistaro church -the third biggest church in Finland!
And after putting all our stuff to hotelroom we went swimming (Yes it is 11th of May and it is very early for swimming in Finland!)
But it had been so nice weather already many days and the water was actually very warm in Kyrkösjärvi!
The route for day 3 was like this:
Day 2 started when we had to ride again to the medieval church of Ulvila to check one possible gravelroad there but then we were already riding to Pori to check few places there. Rosenlew museum, Kirjurinluoto and Juselius Mausoleum. This mausoleum is the only one in the Nordic countries!
Then we continued towards Yyteri. This is maybe the most well known sand dunes and beach in Finland.
It was almost empty! Maybe because we were so early…
After this we were riding to Lampaluoto and Ahlainen. From there starts very nice road following the shores of The North Sea. You can follow the beachline almost 80 kilometers until you reach the city of Kristiinankaupunki. One very nice landmark on the way is the Belltower of Siipyy! Here I stopped to take a picture.
Few years ago when I was stopping in this same place the bells started to ring! That was very nice (and it hurted my ears)!
I checked the map before this day and I thought there is a nice gravelroad to Kristiinankaupunki and ofcourse I had to check it!
This nice road follows the river that goes to the sea just on the southside of this city. River is called “Lapväärtinjoki“.
In Kristiinankaupunki there is one place that every motorcyclerider has to check! It is the most narrow road (alley) in Finland. (Actually it’s maybe the third narrowest but the tha name of this alley is very nice!). “Kissanpiiskaajankuja” is less than 3 meters wide from the narrowest point -and it is 2-way road!!!
(Translation for this would be “Catwhippersalley”)
Then we road to Kaskinen -the smallest city of Finland. There is about 1200 people living here and it’s very beautiful because it’s just by the sea!
Then it was about the time to enter inland! We checked the windmill in Teuva. One wing weights about 10 tonns and it’s length is 49 meters!!!
Then we checked one empty house where anyone can spend the night and the biggest spear in the world.
I would definately change all bed linen before I would spend a night there… But you can go to sauna!
This spear is a monument honoring the Olympic gold metalist Pauli Nevala.
Then we finally entered our accommodation in Teuva. It was a very nice place called Opintola.
Here is route for day 2:
There was one more rider waiting for us in the Schwerin accomodation and then we were 5 riders to conquer the Europe! The last bike to the group is black Triumph Street Triple.
We checked the Schwerin castle already early in the morning!
This is the castle itself.
The day was about riding many kilometers and quite a lot about taking it in Autobahn. In the middle of the day there was some rain too -it surprised us and we got a little bit wet! The route was 650km’s to the southside of the Danube river in Regensburg. It was a nice sunset from the hotel window!
The route was like this:
It was monday the 26th of June when me and 3 friens of mine took the boat from Helsinki to Travemunde (Germany).
We had 4 red bikes (Ducati Monster 695, Ducati Streetfighter 1100, Yamaha MT-09 Tracer and BMW S1000XR) to ride with next three weeks.
The boat trip takes over 1 day and there’s nothing to do (except to eat!) And maybe go outside and take some pictures:
This was 4am in the morning when the sun was getting up from the northeast. One of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen! Tuesday 27th of June the boat was almost 1,5 hours late in the harbour of Travemunde and we had 70km’s to ride to our first destination. It was a beautiful city of Schwerin where we had a place to stay for the night. The route was like this:
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!!
Day 18 was a little bit different than other days. We actually had a place to visit and it was going to take at least 1,5 hours. Here’s the route for day 18.
This was a break in a small city of Großköllnbach.
I took only 5 photos before we arrived to Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald where we took a walk in a special path or a Sky-Walk in 8-25 meters above the ground among the treetops.
So we rode 300 km’s and we walked 1300 meters.
Here’s entering the Sky-Walk:
I have a fear of heights. In my case it means that I’m not afraid but my body reacts strongly when I’m high! My stomach goes upside down, I’ll start to feel dizzy, my legs feels weak and I might even fall down when loosing all the strength from the legs. I’ve also fainted 2 times when I was young.
So this Sky-Walk wasn’t easy for me (in the beginning!) I felt pretty unsure and unbalanced but slowly it became easier.
At the end of the Sky-Walk there is a wooden tower with a spiral-path to the top. It is 44m high and ofcourse the view from the top is simply amazing!! (Even we had quite cloudy weather)
I’m not sure if we spent 1,5 or 2 hours in the path but it was quite special experience! I really would recommend it to visit in some of quite many Sky-Walks in Europe (In Finland we have non!)
Couple hours later we arrived in our place to stay in Czech Republic and during the last hour it had started raining…
In the night it didn’t stop raining and we had a hard day ahead of us! It was raining all day! The rain was hard and heavy! Maria’s new waterproof riding shoes gave up after 30 minutes (the water came inside the boots!) My boots were a little bit better (It took about 5 hours when the water started to get in).
(Here is some news about the rain in Poland that day!)
We had 475 kilometers route including riding through Prague (That was actually one of the very few “Not so bad part of the day!”) After Prague there was a bad traffic jam in the highway and Maria and I got lost from eachother!
I tried to wait for her in some gas station every now and then but i just didn’t wait long enough! When she took a break it took a really long time for her to find the mood to continue riding! When we finally found eachother she had to have at least 30 minutes break… or maybe even 1 hour! But she is a fighter! She knew we had to continue so she did… And somewhere after we crossed the border to Poland she said “Let’s ride all the way to the end!!!”
It was almost dark and about 8.30 PM when we arrived to our destination, the small city of Bojanovo and very nice Villa Aurora. She had a big portion of Polish duck as a dinner and in the bed the blanket was thick!
So in the morning everything was ok again (even the shoes were still wet!)
This was the worst day ever of riding for me too!
Here’s our house in Villa Aurora where we slept after this hard day… in the morning it was easy to load all the stuff in to the bike. They were right in front of the door!
Go - Za 