Vacation is here!

Last(ish) post before heading to Finland with the boat, but I might put one small one up later, because one of the things I was supposed to show was my Genesis after service (it’s gotten a new back wheel and drivetrain parts, but the store had the opening hours wrong on their page..)

So with that said, I’we ridden my old Poison for soon two weeks, it’s sort of working after swapping the chain and cassette, still needs new chain rings on the front though, but 10 speed is better then no speed.
I also took my old trusty cross out in to the forest for a spin, as shown in this totally awesome video I made…

What else, oh right, I don’t like the Continental Cyclocross speed tires, they roll nice and all, but I had like 8 or so punctures in two weeks, so thats a no go for me, probably get some Vittoria’s when I’m home.

Hmm, last thing for now, goals!
I set two goals, one for distance biked and one for weight and I achieved them both, I biked more then 2000km before the trip and I’m under 120kg (118 last weighing, that’s down from 138kg)

goal_before_trip_2015_donegoal_before_trip_2015

 

Thats it, on Sunday I might update with a picture of the bike, might even be a picture of the bike loaded!

Departure day

But not for any of us, JeanR went back to France today, he’s now spent eight days about at our place, but before he left we got to do another bike ride, destination Mälaren.


Järva, Barkarby, Kallhäll and back, nice little trip!

wpid-20140524_100716.jpg
Me and JeanR by Säbysjön, selfie style!

wpid-20140524_102635.jpgwpid-20140524_103205.jpg
JeanR at the beach with my Bianchi, and my Poison tanning at the same beach!

wpid-20140524_112731.jpg wpid-20140524_110905.jpg
JeanR looking at some preburger and a picture of our fika at Säbygård cafe, awesome cakes!

After this we went home, he repacked and we parted ways as he went to the airport, thanks for the company this week Frenchie, welcome back anytime!

A couchsurfer in Järva

Ahh, summer is finally here, it’s way past 20°c in the sun, it doesn’t get dark early so we can bike late after work.
And yesterday that’s just what we did, and what a day it was!

Maybe some background information, we got a couchsurfer, JeanRemi from lé France, doing science stuff in Schweden for a month, he was supposed to stay with us for about two weeks, but it got cut a bit short due to girlfriend surprise  visit, resulting in a no go for our bike weekend!

Anyway, we managed to get out on Wednesday!


Tour de Järva

We went out and towards Hansta, some kind of hiking path/bike route or something, we saw some other mtb’ers go up there to, went ok, but my CX aint much happy about the rough terrain, neither is my hands, but what can you do.
From there it was towards the Natureschool and Bögs gård, with a food stop at the birdwatching spot at Ravalen.

wpid-20140521_190302.jpg wpid-20140521_190308.jpg
My poison CX leaning against the railings and JeanR trying to skip some rocks (my Bianchi in the background, JeanR is using it this week.)

wpid-20140521_190250.jpg
That’s one happy Frenchman, finding another rock to skip on the water!

 

After food we headed out and towards Översjön, had a little detour, got alot of mud on bikes and stuff, but in the end we got to where we wanted, even if we had to cross a fenced in field for cows (cowless today thankfully)

wpid-20140521_193939.jpg wpid-20140521_194028.jpg wpid-20140521_194010.jpg
I see a silhouette of a fat man! (me.. that’s me, I’m fat 🙁 )

From here we went for a quick fika at the McD at Barkarby Handelsplats before heading home via some random trails and tracks (see the map).

All in all, enjoyable and nice!

Ride Report: Järva in the snow!

What a morning!
Had a plan to meet my coworker around eight in the morning, to go out biking on the snow covered dirt roads and tracks in Järva.

20131207_080100

Just a random crap mobile shot of my thermometer, it was  around -2.4°C outside
Anyway, down to meet my coworker!
CIMG3780 CIMG3782
Taking the elevator down to meet the old man on his 29’er.
At this point it was still a little dark, more then enough to see though!

  CIMG3783 CIMG3784
My CX showing of it’s spoke bling, and my profile.

CIMG3790CIMG3792

CIMG3788CIMG3794

Well, it wasn’t a speed race, some places where icy others wet and muddy under the snow, but it was great getting out and nice company, lastly here is the GPS from the trip!

Cyclocross, not my cup of tea

So it has come to this, after lots of peer pressure from my coworkers I finally caved and joined on of these “grass races”, was skeptical as I find the idea boring, and I was right, that’s the short of it.
The long of it, I enjoy forest paths, with the occasional dirt/gravel road, preferably flowy and curvy in the sense that you get some nice speed and all that, so from now on I can just skip the CX races and go out for an hour or three in the area around home!

Anyway, two pictures and a map!

DSC_0136 DSC_0025

First post after vacation..

Well, its roughly two weeks since I started working, and obviously it’s two weeks since my vacation was over (RIP vacation, you are missed..)
Well, this means I’we gotten some commuting in my legs again, 480 km’s according to Runkeeper (halfway through August, almost, still need to get home today!)

Anyway, I’ll start with today, then go historical backwards, if I can be arsed once I’m done with today that is!

It’s Friday morning and I actually got Leif to take a detour to work! (This is a milestone, hence the picture, post and map of it!) we met out on the bike path outside my apartment in Akalla, and went Sollentuna, Edsberg, Danderyd, Work (more or less).
Anyway, we got almost perfect weather (I prefer a little warmer, but thats all), and I took some pictures!

20130816_064359
My bike waiting to be taken on it’s morning journey, complete with mudguards and touring tires with reflecting strips on it (so, so sexy!)

20130816_070932 20130816_071502
A blurry me, doing a “bruce” selfshot and one to document the fact that “farbror Leffe” joined for the detour!


The obvious map and stuff from this ride.

Other notable stuff?

Uhm, I guess the work mate cyclocross:


Akalla, Rinkeby/Kista, Järva, Barkarby and back

And the next weekends Igelbäcken with another Coworker, he on a FS 29’er and me on my stiff CX with no thread left on my skinny back tyre:


Kista to Igelbäcken, we did end up on some parts of the NICK track

I think thats it for my mid august post!

One post to make it all, the summer vacation in Finland!

Where to start?

I guess day “0”, departure day, going to the boat on the 18th of July.
The day before I took my bike to work and left it in the garage (it’s 5 min from the harbor), and being by the check in 06:10 am was a little to early biking for my taste, plus the first tube to work gave me 15 min of “to be late” time.
Thankfully it all went well, I got to the boat in time!

waitingforboatbreakfast
Waiting in line to get on the boat in värtahamnen. then the breakfast on the boat!

waitingofboat
The wait to get of the boat has started! in Turku now..

I got of the boat and met my brotherinlaw Hannu, then we headed to our hotel

_DSC3307_DSC3310
Two pictures Hannu “snapped” of me on the way from the harbor to our hotel.

Our hotel of choice was Omena, pretty much in the middle of Turku, nothing fancy, but good space, large TV and fairly cheap!

omenastorage
Our two stallions in a corner at our hotel, ready for the abusive loading of gear.

Pretty much straight from the hotel check in we went to meet a friend of mine,Esa aka Bellina.

_DSC3321
 The one they call Bellina and me at Panimoravintola Koulu some kind of meatserving brewery, nice food and beer!

From there we went to a pub, had a few more pints before heading back to sleep!

Day 1 – The first one of our epic two days Tour the Finland on the Kings road!

Well the day started early, breakfast at Subways around 0800 before a quick stop by Turun linna (the castle in Turku)

_DSC3332 _DSC3328
Me in front of Turun linna to the left and both of us in front of it to the right.

From the castle we went towards Salo, which would be our halfway stop for the day!
The roads where 90% bike roads, and rather country side-ish.

_DSC3336 _DSC3340
We had a little rain on our way out of Turku, didn’t stop Hannu from bringing out his Nikon, or lending it to me!

_DSC3346 _DSC3347
We found our Sign, it says Kings Road in Finish and Swedish!

_DSC3353  _DSC3367
At some point towards Salo we took a turn of the main road (I think it was the 51 or something) and ended up in what was more or less our own road (I think we met three cars in 15-20km)

_DSC3349_DSC3374
 
Complementary pictures of dramatic skies or something, it rained far away, then we hit the rain, the things that happen when you bike with a photo-nerd!

Anyway, roughly 60 km and many hours later, we found Salo! where I bought an new mini-pump (that broke a week later), before heading to get lunch!

_DSC3383
 
Said bikestore where I bought my pump, it started raining badly here.

20130719_133904 _DSC3395
Pizza time, we stopped at “Smiley face” pizza or something like that,I had a bacon something pizza, Hannu had something vegetarian.

_DSC3397
Again with some artsy pictures from Hannu, my Uvex helmet with the go pro on it..

From Salo we headed south towards Tammisaari, fairly uneventful, abit of a changing weather, we did help out to “save” some horses, have a stop in Teijo

_DSC3399 _DSC3404
Said horse that was trying to runaway, and the reason we stopped, to photo this magnificent stable building!

_DSC3424
We had more rain on the way, here from outside a farms hedge, gave nice cover while we waited for the worst to pass!

_DSC3440_DSC3437
My bike leaning against a tree somewhere, during one of the “nature calls” breaks, the right was a church on the way in to Tammisaari (Tenhola I think).

We found our motel fairly late, I think between 1900 and 2000, but it was ok, plan was to walk around a bit, have some food, a few beers, maybe take sauna before bedtime.
Everything but sauna went as planned, sauna was booked for next morning, after breakfast.

_DSC3442 _DSC3443
 
Some mode pictures from Tammisaari, beautiful town by the sea.
_DSC3448 _DSC3463
Another mode shot, this time of the church tower in Tammisaari, and just a little shot to show how dirty our bikes got!

_DSC3459
Not the biggest of rooms, but we fit everything inside, our rooms was at “Motel Marine”

At the end of the day, this was where we biked:

Day 2 – Two tired men go from Tammisaari to Helsinki

So, Saturday morning, breakfast “continental light” style, that’s no bacon for me and on top of that the people at the motel forgot to put on the sauna, so no sauna either, well early start for us then!

_DSC3467
Posing on a beach in Tammisaari, the morning of day 2

The original plan for today included a trip to Fiskars, but after a really long discussion (or one minute talk) we decided not to go “all the way up there” and instead went a different route that took us past Raseborg Castle

_DSC3468 _DSC3470
Hannu and me outside of the castle and the castle from another angle, cool castle atleast!

_DSC3485 _DSC3497
Me and Hannu on the inside of the castle, nice lighting from the windows and stuff.
_DSC3491  _DSC3500
 
Two pictures of the inner courtyard of the castle.

From Raseborg we headed toward Helsinki via Inkoo and Kirkkunummi, where we had a coffee break and our lunch, before heading via Espoo, Leppävaara to eastern Helsinki.

_DSC3509

20130720_125655 _DSC3510
Some pictures from our “fika” in Inkoo.

_DSC3511
Random mailboxes on one of the roads, think it’s somewhere between Inkoo and Kirkkunummi, a lot of what we saw on our trip was similar landscape/scenery.

_DSC3539
Home at last  well at least at our end destination, being greeted by one happy little girl, my little princess <3

The GPS file from our trip this day:

The rest of the Finland trip, starting with a exploration ride of almost 90 km.

Well I did spend nearly two weeks in Finland, sadly I got problems with a tooth, had to go on antibiotics and then pull said tooth.

Anyway, I did get a few days of biking in before and after it!
The first trip I did a few days after finishing the Kings Road ride


The plan was to CX in Sipoonkorpi, unfortunately I ended up abit wrong compared to what I hoped and I only found some skiing place, filled up with soft and soggy sawdust, well since my mom was in Helsinki, I figured I’d turn around and go see if she had time!

20130723_122016 20130723_124844
The only two pictures I took on this trip, the Norwegian Kings Ship K/S Norge and a nice view by the beaches of Eiranranta.

After a quick Milkshake at McD with mom and one of her co-workers I headed for Sipoo to meet my lovely wife!

Photo session time! yes you read it right, I shall model a little (sort of)

Well it was decided that I was going to get some action shots of me biking, and Hannu agreed to bring his camera, flashes and softbox out in to the forest to photo.

Anyway, 4 hours later we had something like 62 pictures, here are some of them:

_DSC3863
The flying Norwegian, effect achieved by having the photographer lying in the ditch with me jumping on the wooden bridge.

_DSC3776 _DSC3783
Full focus ahead, picture on is the place leading to where I jump of on picture number two.

_DSC3843
The photographer wanted a picture with the view that I can only describe as a little peeping Tom or something…

_DSC3885 _DSC3890
Two pictures where we played with shutter speed and flashes to get some ghost trails.

The trial of GoPro’ing

I got to borrow a GoPro hero2 from Hannu, after a few tries, some cheezy editing of the movie, this is the result:


All the music in this movie is from www.beatpick.com
beatpick com-tag-trasp

Thats it for my vacation, who knows what will happen next time!

Last few tidbits before the Finland trip! (+this weeks exploring)

Not going to be the biggest post in the world, but today me, the wife and the two girls went out to shop stuff, including my last items for the long trip.

So without much more fuss, here is the list of things we bought:
– 4 x Carbohydrate gel’s
– 2 x Continental tubes (I now how three spare ones with me)
– One new tire (my front one got a nasty rift and well I want a spare one with me for the trip and the two weeks in Finland..)
– Four pairs of white ankle socks!

And last but not least, my new pair of Castelli Velocissimo Due BIB:
8855851761694_1088258_white_black_1-1_57923_jpg 8855852482590_1088258_white_black_1-2_57924_jpg

 

Other then this, I’we done some more exploring, Igelbäcken to be precis, I was looking for some nice flowing forest paths and stuff, so I took the bike and headed down towards Igelbäcken, followed the road next to it past Akalla and past Kista, before I had to jump off the bike and go over the new road, down in Igelbäcken I think I found a little piece of heaven, lots and lots of tracks all over the place!

I also met Magnus, who was out with his 29’er MTB, after a little chat we went back towards Järva together and I showed him a few of the places I usualy bike (since I’m on a Cyclocross I dont go the most technical places, more flow, more fun!)

Anyway, here is the map from this day:

For a more detailed view, check out my Garmin connect page —>HERE<—

Exploring the hoods part 2

It’s been two days or something since my last trip out alone with the cyclocross, but today I managed some more.


Started out from home and then went up the Hansta- and Järvaled

20130626_210437

 

From here it was a bumpy and wet route, tons of roots, mud holes and mosquito infested areas, and with all the new found paths I seemed to never really get anywhere!

20130626_203012
One of the muddy mosquito places!

Anyway, fun day and all, looking forward to find more places to bike, also I now want a suspension bike even more then before!

Summer vaccation, cross tires on again!

Last night I swapped my touring tires for a pair of Conti CX Race tires and today it was time to go out and explore some forest paths in Järva!


I’ll start by adding a map, I went from home and up by the arch saying Hansta skogen/naturreservat or something and followed the paths around there (orange triangle I think)

Well I got my first “stop”
20130623_155052 20130623_155747
Some random tree in the roads, no biggie, just jump of and keep going on the other side! and me somewhere close to Bögs gård I think
20130623_161203 20130623_163522
Had to go over a field with some cows, thankfully they where a little to the side, on the right side is me at one of my “dead” ends.

20130623_165130 20130623_165615
Somewhere around 18 km’s I got to what looked like a prepared skiing place, nice packed gravel and lots of hills up and down, eventually got off it and ended in the forest again, with more fallen trees!

20130623_171504
Finally the last little hill before I was home!

All in all a fun day, I found lots of single tracks, some wide forest paths, alot of dirt roads, some horse roads and the skiing thing, not bad, but I consider it a lesson learned, I know why people enjoy the dampeners on bikes, it got bumpy!