Random bike shots from the north..

[Mika K]

We have approx. the same phrase in use here and not the first time I hear it, so..

[wiicrackpot]

Mika,

I'd like to piggyback on your thread with my new purchase from yesterday, it's a Surly Crosscheck in a thief preventing gravy brown colour,
quite heavy classic steel tubing and tough powder coated, 50cm compact to fit my short arse 29'inch inside leg, i have been ogling it in my living room taking a cloth to it,
can't wait to get the bits together and build it up, i am better at building/adjusting bikes than i am at setting up TT's.

Thought i'd share my joy.

[Mika K]

That'a a nice frame for do-it-type of riding. I had the black one in size 60cm before bought my Steamroller as a replacement. Should have never sold that one, as some other bieks also..

[Mika K]

No, these are not bike shots but continue still using this for my purposes..

Spent eight days at the northern Norway near Troms, Lyngen peninsula and Tamokdalen valley area, with friends and our purpose was naturally to climb and ski as many nice peaks as possible. Well, things don't always go as planned as the conditions were partially quite challenging, so far I've heard of five avalanche victims from the area during the last week, two skiing and three with skidoos.

We tried to be careful and turned back down from few places where analyzed the snow conditions to be too sketchy. Few pics..

Heading towards the Ellendaltinden


Scenery to Lakselvbukt village


Climbing to the Middagstinden peak


And skiing down


Saw some aurora borealis during few clear nights


Norwegian army blow on huge cornice at Tamokdalen


Got some good skiing at the trees also


Not bad trip at all despite of loong loong travelling..

[Mika K]

Vacation period is over for me and first week at the office already suffered. Luckily the weather is still nice and can do some rides at the evenings whenever have a permit from Mrs

During the holiday we went to southern Finland to see relatives and I had a change to go for a spin there. The ox road at Häme, southern Finland is the old medieval main route from Turku to Helsinki to transport all the needed equipment and food between the two biggest cities in the country. The ox road nowadays consists of the long straight roads and then small roads with hills and corners that go through a agile farming land with rivers and small lakes. Totally different scenery what I'm used to see at home. Perhaps that is the reason I decided to do a little longer spin despite of the hot weather (burning my nose, neck, arms and knees). Days total 187km.



Last month the students of the Liminka Art School painted the walls surrounding the main construction site of Stoneheart (the new underground parking place and mall) as earlier those did look like some russian concrete ghetto in the middle of our nice city. Well done!



This is from Syöte MTB where I was attending as organizer. Me and Mr.V did some route checking for the markings etc during the last evening before the race. Naturally it was raining the whole time we were out there ..





Then yesterday I received my new custom made Konga Truss fork to my Sawyer. Oh boy that thing rocks! The ride is so well rounded that other non suspencion forks don't come even close. The accuracy of the steering is something have not experienced earlier and it looks damn nice too. Me so happy!

[wiicrackpot]

Missed this post and missed what was on the delete pics, nice panoramic shot,
can see the logic in the Truss forks stabilising and tracking effect but would it not make the feel a little dead with it's added weight?,
would've thought playing with the trail of different forks be just as beneficial without the drawback?,
lovely bike and love the unusual look of them forks all the same.

[Mika K]

^ Actually the Truss is equal in weight compared to my previous rigid fork found from stock Sawyer. And soon when get the aluminum steerer, it will be even slightly lighter..

Will try to look those broken links tomorrow. Had to update my Mac and somehow the Aperture photosync crashed and the flickr-stream was partially re-arranged and something went horribly wrong. Also some other reporting to do for this thread then. Now off to the bed.

[Mika K]

Still haven't repaired the Flickr-stream

However last saturday rode 300km brevet here in northern Finland. Left 9AM and came home after 13h 49min of total time final distance being covered 301km. This means that the average speed for the ride was 24,9km/h plus almost two hours of breaks for eating, stretching, switching gear etc. Managed to do surprisingly well with hydration and energy sourcing, and also my good old Brooks saddle kept me going without any problems. The official brevet max time for 300km is 20h, so had plenty of time there. Next summer I hope I'll take part to few public brevets at least in 200km and 300km routes, perhaps even 400km.

Also last week received new bike (my 6th ). It's Genesis Croix De Fer cx-bike for the autumn rides as have been planning to do more cyclocross riding and also gravel grinding than earlier years. Also wanted a good quality steel frame that I can alter from mean CX machine to light tourer or randonneur oriented bike for next summer. Genesis geometry suits me well and that Reynolds 725 frame and fork have all the neededs eyelets, so it was actually quite obvious choice. The disc brakes work really well here in northern Finland and being a big bloke don't really mind the weight penalty. However the Shi Tiagra groupset feels weird as have been riding mostly Campa for past 3-4 years and also the build quality does not dazzle me. Perhaps there might be a change for the upgraditus maximus bug to come and bite me. On top of those basic updates as Brooks saddle and Thomson seatpost and stem that will do anyways, naturally..

[wiicrackpot]

Mika, those distances just make my eyes water, add to that Finland is not Holland flat, Reeeeespect !!!!.

Wow !!, lovely bike once again, right after seeing Paul's too, you know i really wanted disc brakes on my build but really can't justify a Crosslight Pro 6 i so wanted,
your Genesis is just immense, funny you should mention the Tiagra mech, i got the same impression when i received mine from Probikekit,
although stamped 'made in japan', i am not convinced after seeing/feeling the quality on hand, i've had Shimano stuff from the past and it's waaay better,
i really think it's made in China, we'll see how i get on,if it doesn't live up to scratch, i'll go back to a Campy rear mech, no big deal.

[Lace'd Taste]

Cheers Andy. 6 foot?! My misses wishes i was 6 foot! Nah i think the bike level angle of the photos may be a little misleading, perhaps a bit of distortion from the lens because they were taken up close. The Gazelle is 55 square so not big at all. Yeh get the vintage MTB up, love to see it!