Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Eclipse
I didn't even care about the partial eclipse of the sun today, since the weather forecast promised a cloudy enough weather that it would not be visible. The clouds did however partly disappear during the morning, so I figured I should give it a try. I left work and grabbed my bike half an hour before the eclipse was to be at its maximum and went to find a suitable spot. Had I known it would be this visible, I would have taken some longer optics and sought out a better place to observe it. I did actually have my new camera (more about that later) with me and got some pictures with the normal range zoom. With my 400 mm lens I could have gotten some great shots, though.
Monday, January 3, 2011
2011 goals
And without further ado, my bicycling and outdoor related goals for 2011:
- One overnighter a month or more
- One week-long bikepacking trip. I have two alternatives in mind: Either a fat bike trip from Kilpisjärvi to Halti and back along the snowmobile and ski route in April or a mountain bike trip somewhere in Lapland in the beginning of August.
- The ice road to Åland (and back) if it is open. This could be a rather demanding two day trip.
- 180 km of TahkoMTB.
- A good solo effort at Kangasala 24H if it is arranged this year.
- Maybe one or two XC marathons.
- A little more serious photography.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
More snow
Another two inches of snow came during the night, which made the trail conditions challenging again, even with the Pugsley.
Unrideable.
What are these called in English? In Finnish and Swedish they are named the equivalent of "willow cat". They are supposed to be a sign of spring, but this seems a little early. The sun has been visible very little lately and it has mainly been fairly cold outside.
Unrideable.
What are these called in English? In Finnish and Swedish they are named the equivalent of "willow cat". They are supposed to be a sign of spring, but this seems a little early. The sun has been visible very little lately and it has mainly been fairly cold outside.
Friday, December 31, 2010
Happy New Year!
It's time to wrap up this year. Thanks to everyone who reads and comments on this blog.
This year clearly showed what my real interest is. I had planned to do a bit of racing, but I only participated in two events: I rode the Pirkka 215 km road event in the fastest group in a little over 6 hours and two laps (120 km) of Tahko MTB in 7h 49 min, a result I'm fairly satisfied with.
One of my goals for this year was also to do one overnighter a month, which I mostly did. These overnighters proved to be the real highlights of the year, and I feel that will be my direction in the future as well. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to do some longer outings next year.
We seem to get more snow all the time and currently there is a little over 40 cm (16"). The trails are narrow and semi-soft, expect for the most used ones, which should be rideable with an ordinary mountain bike.
On the last ride of the year I also tested out my new camera backpack (Christmas gift), a LowePro Slingshot 102 AW. As I hoped and expected, it was exactly the right size, i.e. as small and light as possible, and it felt steady on my back loaded with an EOS 40D, 17-70 zoom, extra batteries and a remote cord.
That's it for this year. Happy New Year!
This year clearly showed what my real interest is. I had planned to do a bit of racing, but I only participated in two events: I rode the Pirkka 215 km road event in the fastest group in a little over 6 hours and two laps (120 km) of Tahko MTB in 7h 49 min, a result I'm fairly satisfied with.
One of my goals for this year was also to do one overnighter a month, which I mostly did. These overnighters proved to be the real highlights of the year, and I feel that will be my direction in the future as well. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to do some longer outings next year.
We seem to get more snow all the time and currently there is a little over 40 cm (16"). The trails are narrow and semi-soft, expect for the most used ones, which should be rideable with an ordinary mountain bike.
On the last ride of the year I also tested out my new camera backpack (Christmas gift), a LowePro Slingshot 102 AW. As I hoped and expected, it was exactly the right size, i.e. as small and light as possible, and it felt steady on my back loaded with an EOS 40D, 17-70 zoom, extra batteries and a remote cord.
That's it for this year. Happy New Year!
Saturday, December 25, 2010
One year with the Salsa Fargo
I just posted a longish retrospective on my first year with the Salsa Fargo on MTBR. The thread should be visible even for non-members, if anyone is interested. Most of it has already been posted on this blog earlier, so I won't repost it.
Thursday, December 23, 2010
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Pogies
Just when I was about to start sewing my own bike pogies, Harri wrote about the cheap ones available at Biltema (product number 82176). I decided to take a look at them and bought a pair, the idea being to get some experience with them before I design my own ultimate bike pogies. As expected, they need some modifications to be fully usable, but I think that with a little sewing they might actually be great. The handlebar closure needs to be improved with some velcro and fleece to get it more sealed and the arm hole is unnecessary big. The biggest improvement would be to add some velcro to attach them at the outer ends of the handlebar. I also expected to have to add some insulation to them, but that will not be necessary. My hands were very warm with just summer gloves inside during a two hour ride today at -12°C.
Most of the trails were back to fatbike only state after the snowfall. This one would not have been rideable with an ordinary bike even before the latest snowfall.
Gaiters are nice.
Most of the trails were back to fatbike only state after the snowfall. This one would not have been rideable with an ordinary bike even before the latest snowfall.
Gaiters are nice.
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