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)
Thats it, on Sunday I might update with a picture of the bike, might even be a picture of the bike loaded!
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.
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!
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.
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.)
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)
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).
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!
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!
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!
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”
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 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:
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:
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!)
Started out from home and then went up the Hansta- and Järvaled
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!
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!
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”
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
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.
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!
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!
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