Another day (another month to), and I finally got around to update this blog of mine.
It’s been slow, biking has started up again, still mostly commuting, but Easter is coming up and I’m home alone, so I hope to get some epic rides in, well maybe epic is the wrong word, but some rides non the less.
Anyway, I got a new bike, new for me at least, and in my eyes, she’s a beauty!
The bike is built on, as far as I can tell a Bianchi L480 frame, it’s a early 2000 Martini Racing team bike, it’s got a XT/XTR drive train and brake setup, and a old Rockshox SID dual air fork, it’s fitted with V-brakes (damn the old XT ones pack some breaking power) but it also has mounts for discbrakes, so that might be a future upgrade!
So, there you see her, before I started fixing things, the main issues are/were the drivetrain components, the cogs where so worn the chain didn’t stick, so I’we swapped for a new 11-32 sram cassette and chain, and I swapped the wires for some jagwire stuff, a little adjusting and it runs smooth again!
I also have a pair of disc brake wheels that I’m thinking about using, though the disc touches the frame on the back triangle, not sure if I have to go down to 140mm disc back for it to work, but thats for the future.
I still need to check the fork, it’s got to little air, but I dont have a adapter for it, and I don’t know if it’s serviceable anyway, might just go for a new/used fork.
The last thing I need to do, probably is get a small can of paint to touch up some parts, there are deep cuts and dents in the paint job around the chain stay, cosmetic only, but still, oh and the saddle is more or less worn out!
It seems like I’m rather slow to update, but well, nothing major happening on the bike front, sadly..
My daily commute is not so daily, I could blame a lot of things, the weather (bad excuse), lack of motivation (again, bad excuse) and several cases of the flue.
But instead, lets look at the positive stuff, and we’ll start on the day before 2014 started, New Years eve.
I went on a ride with Richard, he was on his 29’er, I was on my cyclocross, obviously, its my only bike right now, more on that later in the post.
We started off close to Akalla and went north in to järva:
Some pictures
:
After this there has been only some (2-3 days a week at most) commuting days, but I’ll add a picture of my “lifetime” biking (since I got my first bike here in Sweden that is):
The last bit of news, I’m getting a free Mountain bike, a friend in Norway has a early 2000 model Bianchi (26″) that I’m getting for free, I plan to add discbrakes and maybe a new fork and use it for fun in the forest and a bad weather/winter commuter!
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.
Just a random crap mobile shot of my thermometer, it was around -2.4°C outside
Anyway, down to meet my coworker!
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!
My CX showing of it’s spoke bling, and my profile.
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!
Wow, I cant believe it’s been almost two months soon.. Anyways, I’we been up the usual, commuting to work, it’s not been overly exciting times, mostly biking alone as it is.
Wish I had more time to go for longer rides but alas, family and work takes it time to!
I guess the biggest things happening is the “planning” the three big bike things for next year, two road trips, one in Finland (Åbo -> Nokia -> Helsinki) and one from Stockholm to my parents in Norway.
The other thing I’m planning is a carbon fiber road bike, a coworker of mine is selling a pair of wheels and a complete drive train (SRAM Apex and some wheels from his Bianchi), since I’m getting such a good price on them I figured, heck it’s time for something to eat asphalt for breakfast!
Anyway, the plan so far is a china frame, specifically a ZhongWei R-002 from Velobuildmall
The plan is to build it during the winter half, color scheme is planned to be blue and white (like my Cyclocross sort of), but we’ll see what comes from it.
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!
Alright, so it’s the last week day of August, and it’s been a good month, hardly any rain and good temperatures!
So whats happened in August?
Well, I’we biked a lot, like the coworker CX, the Igelbäcken ride with another coworker and my solo trip to Nynäshamn, combined with my normal everyday commute to work (well I skipped one day, as I was going out to kastellet with work to compete) made it possible to reach my 1000 km goal for August!
It’s Sunday, the wife and kids are going away, what to do, what to do!
Well, duh, this is a cycling blog, so I did just that!
Started from home, went 6 km to deliver one of the kids to a friend, then reset the GPS and went from Spånga towards Nynäshamn on Nynäsleden (sorry link to Swedish site).
First pictures from Ursvik, on my way towards the centrum of Stockholm, second one somewhere south of Stockholm, cant remeber wear right now..
Some of the roads could use some maintenance, this is close to Länna.
Fika time at Västerby Bygdegård, I seem to be covered in small flies though..
Finally after 4 hours, 25 minutes and 34 seconds I was at the train station in Nynäshamn, waiting for the 1 hour 20 min train ride home…
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!
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!)
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 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!
Waiting in line to get on the boat in värtahamnen. then the breakfast on the boat!
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
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!
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.
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)
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.
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!
We found our Sign, it says Kings Road in Finish and Swedish!
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)
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!
Said bikestore where I bought my pump, it started raining badly here.
Pizza time, we stopped at “Smiley face” pizza or something like that,I had a bacon something pizza, Hannu had something vegetarian.
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
Said horse that was trying to runaway, and the reason we stopped, to photo this magnificent stable building!
We had more rain on the way, here from outside a farms hedge, gave nice cover while we waited for the worst to pass!
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.
Some mode pictures from Tammisaari, beautiful town by the sea. Another mode shot, this time of the church tower in Tammisaari, and just a little shot to show how dirty our bikes got!
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!
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
Hannu and me outside of the castle and the castle from another angle, cool castle atleast!
Me and Hannu on the inside of the castle, nice lighting from the windows and stuff. 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.
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.
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!
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:
The flying Norwegian, effect achieved by having the photographer lying in the ditch with me jumping on the wooden bridge.
Full focus ahead, picture on is the place leading to where I jump of on picture number two.
The photographer wanted a picture with the view that I can only describe as a little peeping Tom or something…
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:
Here’s the thing, I need to be at the harbor no later then 0610, on the way I need to stop at work to get my bike and one bag, this shouldn’t be a issue as I walk past work from the tube to the boat, the problem is, the earliest tube from home gives me a 30 min error margin!
Oh well, packing is almost done, here’s to making it in time!
