Been on the bike for the better part of today doing most probly the last longer trip of this season. They`ve promised a long and warm-ish autumn here but it`s pretty crispy already to ride for longer and the leaves will start to fall onto the road in a moment so probly not gonna ride that much anymore this year. Even after today I got myself feeling pretty ill even though I had warm clothes on me.

As is my custom, I`ll let the pics tell the story cause I`m not much of a Shakespeare...

https://maps.google.fi/maps?saddr=V%...=4,5,9&t=m&z=9

Here`s the route map if someone wants to take a look. Already posted it on the "what you`ve been doing" thread in the F2 section earlier but figured I`ll throw it here too. Ended up riding 438km due to a missed turn near the G waypoint and instead of going through Luopioinen I ended up near Padasjoki on my way to Lammi.



`Twas a pretty crisp morning, the temp when I left at 6:30 was at 7c as can be seen in the car windows. Couldn`t find my cold weather riding gloves anywhere cause my wife had put them in the wrong drawer box which I found out later, so I was forced to leave with my snowkite gloves (just ski gloves), super uncool but it was those or not go at all so



Route plan with the satnav rig, never gonna go on a long trip without anymore if there are unfamiliar roads ahead.





The canal that splits my home town into the old and the new side. Could say the water was somewhat still.



*sigh* here too? One bridge already almost collapsed because of the added weight of the locks, IIRC they removed 1800kg of metal from the rails...



A typical view of the countryside around here, church roof and all.







The Karisalmi bridge from the Pulkkila ridge I`ve filmed and posted here last summer. I used to commute to work and back through this scenery every single day for years so I didn`t exactly look at the views for a while. Having driven there only a few times in the last eight months I see the whole place in a new light Why I chose to do the trip today is they are going to cut this route the coming tuesday as the smaller of the two bridges is undergoing a major overhaul so the whole way is cut for the next five months, which is why they fully paved and straightened the few dangerous places of a detour last summer which just happens to be one of my favourite twisties AND starts three km:s from our house.



The border of my old home town.



Wallpaper material right there...





hate the cold, but gotta love the scenery...

Quick stop at the Virtaa powerdam...













Not a whole lot going on at 7:40 on a Sunday morning, specially after the "venetians" a.k.a. the cabin season ending festivities last night.



These concrete slabs frame two sides of the place known as "the good people`s market". If you`d lived in here like I have you`d appreciate the HUGE irony in the name... My print is in here somewhere too, just can`t remember anymore where as the slabs were made well over a decade ago.



Gas is always a little more expensive here but since there isn`t any commercial activity in the next 80 km (and I forgot to fill up when I left) I had to get it from here...







Always a fun place to approacs as it seems to the last moment that the road is about to end onto a sheer cliff, but in fact just descends down from the ridge...









...to cross this bridge and climb back up again.



Doings of the ice age and the reason why there are no mountains in the whole country. During the ice age there was an ice crust a mile thick over the most of Finland that ground all mountains to rubble and pushed the remains to what we know as the Saplausselkä ridges. These "stone fields" can be seen almost anywhere in this region, specially if the trees have been cut down, or the bedrock is so close to the surface the top soil has eroded away. I know of one place where the whole valley is covered in stones from fist sized to as big as a van, with minimal vegetation but to get there you need to drive over 35km of bad gravel roads even the Alfa can`t tackle so it`s impossible to reach with my bikes.



Another deep descent down from the ridge...



...onto another bridge, which is also the north end of the ridge region.



Some old industrial buildings preserved at the Korpilahti marina.



A little cafe in an old file "factory".



Found this delightful little restaurant at the side of a canal, pity it wasn`t open yet, could have fancied a cup of coffee and some waffles...



Sight from the terrace.





At first I wondered why this old locomotive is there until I remembered the whole region is built around paper mills and have been since the fifties. In fact there is a very large paper factory complex just across the bay, you can see one of the numerous chimneys in the background of the restaurant.



I rode around the city of Mänttä for a while trying to find even one place that would be open in Sunday morning but found squat. Not even anything worth photoing. The whole city is filled with grey, bleak, boxy concrete buildings, purpose built for dwellings of the factory workers and nothing else. A perfect place to get depressed... This some sort of art installation made from shirts and hung over the church was just about the only thing to peak my interest but couldn`t find any reason to why this was done.



The manticore itself. Had to ride past it to get out of there...



My words exactly







Not much to picture on the rest of the trip, other than tight wound little forest roads going through towns like this. Could picture the whole of Eräjärvi without moving the bike in between





back to familiar scenery. The medieval stone church of Lammi. The last time I walked in that gate I walked out a married man.



After enjoying my father-in-law`s birthday coffee I headed home and took a few last shots of these hairy little critters. Highland cattle I believe is the name of the breed. Odd looking fellas one local farmer grows, only used to the "regular" white and brown spotted ones...

The next thing to do is probably trying to build the missing table to the garage next weekend and after that find out why the cbr has started leaving oil stains under it. Seems like it`s coming from the drain plug but who knows I might end up lifting the whole lump on the table and refurbish the worn tranny whilst I`m at it!

 

Just brilliant Matti - thanks for sharing.

Looks like a great ride.

Cheers, SB

 

Fixed the broken map link. If I was to do the trip again I`d skip the Mänttä tour and ride straight to Längelmäki from Jämsä, the little F2 does NOT like riding on highways, and nor do I... Gotta go back to the Längelmäki-Lammi part again, some great twisties on that area!

 

Very pretty Matt.

 

Outstanding photos sir. It appears it was a day well spent. Thanks for sharing your beautiful part of the world.

 

Thanks guys. Yea I can think of a few worse ways to spend a day. The only problem with that paticular region is that is the "green belt" area with most of the forests so there naturally is a lot of industrialism revolving around trees in various forms, which means there's not a whole lot to see... The roads near me have already been ridden through so I'd have to ride through the area all the way to the coast, and to get further away means riding highways for extended perioids which my wrists pretty much prevent from doing, and I'm not old enough yet to buy a PanEuropean or a SilverWing I do have a few ideas brewing but can't get to them due to financial and free time issues for a while yet but I'll tell you I'm probly not gonna ride a factory spec bike in the future either, just gotta find a proper project first but they tend to ask silly prices from even the worst lemons here... to give a some kind of a hint what I have in mind it's probly gonna have a V engine and I'm not gonna ride it feet first Of course it could also be cool to see if I could cafe a Valkyrie but can't drop 10k on a project...

Oh, and another thing that adds a little surprise factor to the riding ATM is the combine harvesters that surprise you from around the corner taking about 60& of the road! Not to mention the mud cakes they leave to the road when coming from the fields... Almost banged my head at least twice to the corner of the front collector thing, lucky the biggest ones tow it when moving on roads although that means a 15 meter combination moving at 20km/h, and the grandpa behind it on his 1,3 Corolla too scared to pass and away we trudge like a piggy train... actually got the front tire off the ground for the first time yesterday when I blew a fuse after trying to pass a combo like that a few times but cot cut off by the corolla driver trying to peek past the harvester completely oblivious of me behind him until I kicked down a few times and howled past him power wheelie-ing, not completely intentional but surely he'll remember to look at the mirrors for a few days...

 

Wow, Matty - great pics. Thanks for sharing them.

 

The old saying goes,'How bad do you want it?' Where there's a will there's a way.


Very nice photos, I had to go back for seconds.

 

The ridge area is pretty nice to ride through but the asphalt is in appalling condition. Half the way is patches over pathces with cracks in between that keep pounding your hands. And the fact that no matter do you turn left or right you have to drive back along the highways going round the lake Päijänne. But it's a fun road to ride through once a year.

There's also a saying Patience is a virtue. One that I totally lack If someone asks me to describe myself in one word I usually answer "windhat". The thing is I want it bad, but gimme a month and I'm sure I'll find something I want equally bad so it's down to deciding what sticks to run after cause they'll be flying that's what's for sure! If I'm ever to take a bike trip up north to Lapland I gotta remember to buy one of the čiehgahpir, or the "four winds hat" (don't ask me to pronounce that) that is a part of the national costume of the Saame people, bit like the indians of the north. Would be fun to take an avatar pic wearing one of those but some uptight people might snort a pea up their noses for that cause I'm not even from the north let alone a Sami.

What comes to the way, I was rummaging around the garage last night and happened to kick a plastic bag I didn't even know was there, what I found was unused Volvo parts worth about 350eur which I no longer need since the car's been sold, I put them up to the volvo forum marketplace with a "must go" pricetag and bam, they went in 30mins so got a few coins in my back pocket ready.

We'll see what the next few weeks bring but if all goes as planned I'll be needing some new attire on the coming spring. At least blue kevlar jeans, a black leather jacket and a scarf around the neck. Thinking would a Davida lid make a nice touch too