Kuhankuono - Intro

I finally got away from work for a whole day and went for a long mountain bike ride. The plan was to ride from Turku to Kuhankuono (Savojärvi) and back, using the western route on the way there and the eastern route on the way back. I estimated this to be around 130-140 km and 12 hours of actual riding time, partially on rather technical trails. I took almost 3 liters of water and 1,2 liters of sports drink as well as some power bars, energy gels and berry pies with me in addition to the mandatory bike gear. At 7:25 in the morning I left home.

Still close to home




Karevansuo






Just south of Rehtsuo


Enjoyable trail


Rehtsuo. No riding here, since it would leave ugly marks


Laaskorpi, a new lean-to about here


Trail disaster around here


Full suspension territory


Eating a miracle pie at the Kurjenpesä nature cottage


Refilling the water supply


Vajosuo


I continued on the eastern route back, though south of Kangenmiekka they are mainly the same. Shortly after Myllysuo, after 92 km and 11 hours I accepted that I would not have time to ride the entire route back and opted to ride straight home, which in this case was a about 30 km of asphalt roads. It would have taken about three more hours to ride the entire route on trails, especially since the Rehtsuo and Merttelä sections are very slow. I returned home after a little of 12.5 hours, of which 11.5 hours were actual riding time. The distance was 123 km.

Lohja 24

Talk about anticlimax of the year. A few months ago my plan was to make a serious effort at Lohja24 and ride the most part of the 24 hours. Well, my bike did not arrive until a few days before the event, so I changed my plan to at least get a good workout by riding for 10 hours or so. Then I got sick with a flu two days before the event but got well enough to ride for a few hours. I did ride about two hours and then my bike broke, when greenman's Panzer-Pugsley accidentally hit the rear wheel from the side, rendering it completely useless. I think my bike has bad karma.


Lohja is not complete without some rain.






greenman




The worst accident during the entire event was fortunately my rear wheel, for which I received this price for a year.

Hifi 29

I finally got the last (almost) missing piece for the Gary Fisher Hifi 29, the headset adapter (make it possible to use a 1 1/8" steerer tube with a tapered head tube (1 1/8" upper and 1 1/2" lower). The front derailleur is still missing, but the bike is rideable without it.

Overnighter at Marttila

I've had plans for an overnighter to Marttila for some time now, and yesterday the time was right. Toni Lund had also expressed interest in this and this weekend suited him as well.

The summer just started a few days ago, so packing the bike is easy. I took some food, a stove, water, spare clothes, a short sleeping pad, a bivy bag and a small silk liner, but no sleeping bag.


Riding towards Paimio on the smallest roads I could find.


In Paimio Toni Lund joined me.




Finally the trails begin.


Soon it will be dark enough for...


...using some major lights.


It was quite dark when we arrived at the lean-to. I had been riding for 4,5 hours and 75 km. The air was very warm. Despite having a relatively low energy level after riding fairly hard I was still comfortable in a short sleeved jersey and bike shorts.

We started a fire and transformed our sandwhiches into delicious toasts.


At some point we went to sleep under the sky. A nice bonus of having had the eyes lasered is that now I can actually see the stars when sleeping under them. Around three o'clock in the morning it started to rain, and then we moved into the lean-to.

The next morning. We got up around 5:45.


The lean-to.


Morning view.


Breakfast.


We started to ride at around 7 o'clock. There were lots of boardwalk ahead.








Not everything was rideable.




Toni demonstrates his cyclocross riding technique.


On a large rock in the middle of the mire.


Soon after this we arrived at a dirt road. We were running out of time and decided to take the fastest road back, which for me meant about 2,5 hours of riding. We managed to ride maybe half of the trails in the area, so we definitely need to returns sometime. The saldo of this day was around 4 h 15 min on the bike and 60 km.

Just a few hundred meters before we arrived at the dirt road, my Thudbuster broke. The blue elastomer broke after four years of usage. However, the package contained several of them, so fixing this is a piece of cake.


A slide show with more pictures is found here.

Thank you Toni for the ride. It was a fantastic mini-adventure. Check out Toni's trip report as well.

Finally

It took a long time, but finally the warranty replacement for the frame that cracked in Kangasala has arrived.



It is a Gary Fisher Hifi 29 Pro. I still need a direct mount front derailleur and some sort of adapter for the tapered head tube, but hopefully I can get them soon.

Fargo ride

I went for a 3 hour / 50 km morning ride with the Fargo on mixed terrain (singletrack, dirt road and asphalt). The weather was nice and dry, but it is still not very warm.



Some gear notes: Last weekend I switched the drive train on the Fargo. The previous drive train will go to the Hifi 29, which has been coming very soon now for several months. The crank set is Shimano XT with a bash ring/36/26 up front and an SLX 11-32 cassette in the back. I also got the Salsa Woodchipper drop bar and can confirm that is is good. Finally, the Cascadia 29 fenders arrived and I tested them. They are wide enough to cover 2.3" tires and seem quite stable even on technical singetrack. I will probably remove them for now and put them back on when the fall rains start, though.

Velo Open Day

I participated in the Velo Open Day event in Turku. We rode through the city with police escort without having to stop anywhere, not even for red light, to the velodrome and BMX track, where it was possible to test different kind of bikes.





Immo and Aki shows how to ride in the velodrome.


Matti K gives everything.


More pictures can be found here.