Cilurni Rides – Page 3 – My life on two wheels

Iceland trip planning: Route

After marking the spots with pins, I linked them with a elastic rope and I got the first version of my route. The main issue of that route was that it included doing Möðrudalur–Sprengisandur–Varmahlíð, and that was 400 kilometers off-road between gas stations. Too risky even with extra fuel, so I abandoned that idea and had to redo the whole route.

Using Google Maps, I calculated all distances and times on the actual roads to obtain the average per day. It looked like an easy plan that would allow me to rest some days.

To spare me the high prices of accomodation in Iceland, I will camp with my own tent most of the nights. I realized that if I always move forward, I would have to plant and remove my tent everyday. Also, I wouldn’t have many chances of washing and drying my clothes. Once again, I modified the route to travel in loops and stay in every place as many nights as possible. Another advantage of the loops is that if I get too tired or there is any issue, I can cancel them and still be on schedule for the next stage. So now it looks like this.

The downside of the loops is that they make riding distances and times quite longer. I recalculated this, and also reviewed the Lonely Planet guide once more to add the time that I would stop in every place. It turned out to be too much, so I shortened some routes and removed some sights from the plan.

At the same time, I decided where I’m going to stay every night. It’s not so easy as dividing hours by days, because in Iceland you may want to make it shorter or longer and stay in a place with good services. In the Highlands, there are a few places where one is allowed to camp at all.

I ended with big differences between days, so I’m still doing minor adjustements trying to balance them. But the plan is pretty much defined and I have already done most of the bookings. These include the hotels in which I will rest now and then.

You know I don’t want to share the all the details before the trip, but here are some numbers:

5400 kilometers in total.
95 riding hours in total.
260 kilometers average per day.
376 kilometers the longest route in a single day.
335 kilometers the longest route between gas stations.

I hope I haven’t gone too crazy. I’m sure Vacaburra can’t do 300 kilometers off-road loaded on a single tank, so I’ll fit Rotopax containers and other parts that I will show you when I get them.

By the way, the snow is gone and the motorbike is ready to be taken from storage. It’s still quite chilly, but I will start the season very soon.

Iceland trip planning: Things to see

I would like to share some plans for my Icelandic trip, hoping it helps someone in the future. I also appreciate feedback and tips from experienced travelers.

I chose Iceland because it will be my first motorcycle trip and I thought it was better to start in place where I could easily communicate and get help and services. I’m already thinking where I could go next…

Iceland is a very popular and growing destination where you need to book things way in advance. Accomodations are already geting fully booked for this summer, but I plan to camp most nights and book rooms as an occasional treat. This urge to book requires a detailed plan to know where I’m going to spend every night.

The first thing I did was reading and underlinig the most interesting parts of the Lonely Planet Iceland guide. Then I went through the underlined parts to come up with the list of things I want to see, which I share at the bottom of this post. You may notice notable abscenses like Hornstrandir or Vestmannaeyjar. I don’t want to trade time on the motorbike for multi-day hikes or excursions to places not that different from what I’m going to see anyway.

Then I marked the spots with pins in a map of Iceland. I also wrote some notes and marked the first and last petrol stations when crossing the highlands. You can see this in the picture below.

I’m currently linking the pins with that orange elastic string to define the route. Of course, I will be taking as many dirt roads as possible. I think I will need extra fuel cans to make it through the highlands. The part that worries me the most is crossing rivers.

Once I have the route I will use Google Maps to measure distances and times and decide how far I will go and where I will sleep every day. I have a total of three weeks, so I expect plenty of time to enjoy the locations and rest.

For privacy and security reasons, I won’t share much information regarding the route, dates and times before the trip. But I will tell you about the gear, equipment, costs, etc. After the trip, you will get every detail including pictures and videos.

So, here is my list of thins to see in Iceland. The pictures look better than anything I have seen in my life before. Again, feedback is appreciated:

Vantaa’s playground

In this location north of Vantaa’s airport there are some gravel pits that I call “the playground”. The area is small but good to practice some extreme terrain conditions without going far from Helsinki. There is no barrier or sign preventing access, but I never saw any other person or vehicle there. I went there on my way to leave the motorcycle for winter storage, and that’s when I took the pics of the post about Vacaburra.

Getting into the area one can turn left or right. To the right there is a straight path of soft soil that is always wet, due to the water running down from the slope next to it.

Soft soil in the pits north of Vantaa’s airport

I wouldn’t get in there if you can see some water flowing anywhere around. There wasn’t that day, sun shined during the last days, and I still got stuck as shown in the picture below. I managed to get out after several attempts of laying the motorcycle on its side to get the wheels out of the holes, and filling these with stones, branches and soil.

Stuck in the pits north of Vantaa’s airport

On the left side there are some gravel paths, steep slopes, pits, holes and climbable rocks. The area looks great for agile trial or motocross bikes, but I better stick to the paths in my old heavy rally machine.

Like I said, not worth of a trip by itself but nice to visit when nearby.

Have an exciting and safe 2017, by the way! I’m counting the days to get Vacaburra back, sometime in April.

Listening to the trees of Kalkkivuori

When I’m in the middle of a forest, I use to stop and turn the engine off to rest and enjoy the relaxing atmosphere. The video below was taken in this location of my Kalkkivuori trip, when strong winds waved the branches.

I know it’s cynical that I enjoy the forest peace when I’m the one disrupting it with my motorcycle. I care about nature and I always feel bad about the stress that I may cause to the forest wildlife, but my joy of driving there is stronger. I really wish I had an electric motorbike. Unfortunatelly the few existing off-road models are crazy expensive and have a really short range. Some day.

By the way, that video was taken with my cellphone, but I plan to get a proper action camera and post videos of my next season’s trips.

Finnish 112 app

I have always worried about how I could tell my location in the middle of a forest if I needed emergency asistance. Quite often I’m in paths with no name, or even paths not mapped by Google. A friend of mine gave me the answer: the Finnish 112 app, available for Android, iPhone and Windows Mobile. When you make an emergency call with the app, the emergency services automatically get your location. You can also specify your spoken language, english among them. You can read instructions in english here.

Fortunatelly, I haven’t tried it and I hope I don’t ever have to.

Kalkkivuori

Yes, the motorcycle season is over but I still have trips to tell you about. After the success of my trip to Ylimmäinen, I used Google Earth to search for more forests in the surroundings and Kalkkivouri looked very promising. Indeed, I found there challenging paths in a gorgeous forest, similar to the best of Niemenjärvi and Keihäsjärvi.

I’m not going to explain you again how I got there, nor I can give you a detailed description of my route. All you need to know is that I took every open path I found in the area limited by road 132, road 25, Korpiharjuntie, Livinkyläntie, Suopellontie and Kytäjäntie. I was mostly going around the outer part of the forest, since all paths to the center were closed by barriers.

I first went along Rauhaniementie, Itä-Vihtijärventie and Löytlahdentie, which are main dirt roads to access the cottages and a nice camping by Vihtijärvi lake.

It got much better when I took Iso-Kairintie, a very challenging path of stones similar to Källängintie in Sipoo, but this is longer and has great views of Iso-Kairi lake.

The sun doesn’t get high at this time of the year and visibility was a constant problem during the day. Trees and branches make zebra shadows on the ground that make it very difficult to spot stones and holes, like in the picture below taken in this location. They can hit you like flashes of light that prevent your eyes from getting adjusted. Despite wearing sunglasses, I could barely see a few meters ahead when the sun was right in front.

I was enjoying myself and, as you can see in the grass marks of the picture below, I missed this curve but was able to stop before crashing or falling. It’s not the first time I go off the path and I always wonder if it is because of me getting mentally blocked rather than actually reaching the limits of the bike or the road. Maybe I could have stayed in the trajectory if I hadn’t got afraid of sliding on the gravel. I would have definitelly tried if there wasn’t such a good escape in the outer side. In any case, I always try to keep the balance between fun and safe.

That day I discovered a new type of very deceiving path conditions. Much of the soil looked dry but was surprisingly slippery. What happened is that there had been heavy rains followed by sunny days that created a thin layer of dry soil over mud. I realized this when I noticed the tracks left by the tires were darker than the rest of the soil. Unfortunatelly I don’t have any picture to show you this, but I photographed some poodles in this location.

Another peculiar condition of the day was the amount of leaves due to the Fall season. The picture below was taken in this location, where I found the most beatiful spot of the day with different kinds of trees and rocks covered with moss. I stopped there to rest and listen to the wind waving the trees.

The slippery conditions put me in trouble when climbing this slope in the picture below.

Slope near ? (Vihti) — Path west of Solttila (Vihti)

The day wouldn’t be complete without getting into high-grass paths, like in the picture below taken in this location.

At the end I took Astrakan south to reach road 25 and went back to Helsinki. Astrakan is a wide gravel road.

Kalkkivuori is another great area for off-road motorcycling, and so must think the two KTM riders I crossed there. Besides them, I didn’t cross any other vehicle or pedestrian, but never assume nobody is around the corner. Kalkkivuori combined with the nearby forests of Niemenjärvi and Keihäsjärvi could make a perfect long day that I definitely must have next season.

Vacaburra

Finnish weather is putting an end to the motorcycling season and I have already stored mine until May. I thought it is a good moment to tell you about my ride.

I will tell you about my motorcycling story in another post, but to make it short I was never interested in going off-road until I got my current motorbike. I was looking for a cafe racer or something that could be turned into one. Jeff Veraldi’s K100 made me look for a BMW K100. But then I thought it would be nice to roam Finland’s forests and unpaved roads, so I changed my mind. And that was one of my best decissions ever.

So I looked for the off-roader of our childhood dreams, the legendary Africa Twin. They are appreciated and difficult to find, but I finally saw Vacaburra advertised in a second-hand dealer near Helsinki.

I call her “Vacaburra”, which is a word we use in my home region to say “crazy cow”. I chose the name because the thing is big, heavy and mighty. Get familiar with it, I will use it from now on.

Yes, it’s a Honda XRV 750 from 1996. The color scheme is my favourite of that bike. The odometer indicated 74800 Kms and I pain 3400 euros for it. Unfortunately after the first night parked in the street I couldn’t start it and I noticed the clutch wouldn’t disengage. I should have had it towed to the seller, but I sent it to an official Honda dealer because I wanted a second opinion. Its workshop said that someone used the wrong type of oil for the clutch and they had to change the discs. That plus a new battery, oil change and other ordinary maintenance added to a bill of 800 euros.

The seller told me they could have taken care of the problem, but still they accepted to reimburse me 100 euros for the new clutch discs. So, at the end, I paid 4200 to have it in working order and I didn’t have more problems. Not a bargain, but I think it was a fair price considering the selling prices in Finland.

The bike came with modifications and extras suggesting that some previous owner used it for long trips. It has plastic luggage cases and mount that I used in my Estonian trip.

It has a wider windscreen that you can see in the picture above. I have the original windscreen too, which I tried and I noticed the difference in wind protection.

You can see that it has a Touratech seat, which feels hard after a while on it. If this is an improvement, I wonder how horrible the original seat is. I have seen split seats that look more confortable but, in my opinion, don’t fit the looks of this motorbike.

The best comfort extra are the heated grips and a 12 volts socket. The grips really work well, I only used them in the low heat position and I still have to switch them off when they get too hot. The wiring could have been better, though.

Vacaburra's heated grips switch and 12V socket. — Vacaburra’s heated grips switch and 12V socket.

It also seems to have some performance modifications. The air filter box has extra holes to improve air intake.

Vacaburra's intake air filter box — Vacaburra’s intake air filter box

If the side stickers mean something, it should have some performance parts from Dynojet, probably in the carburetor. I will never be able to verify this, but I like to believe it.

The exhaust is bigger than the stock one and has been fitted with some pipe welding. Accordingly to the seller it’s a Suzuki Hayabusa exhaust, but I couldn’t confirm that yet.

Vacaburra's exhaust pipe — Vacaburra’s exhaust pipe

Other stickers claim it has Wilbers suspension. This should be easy to see, but I don’t know how the stock suspension is supposed to look.

Vacaburra's rear suspension — Vacaburra’s rear suspension

All this power would be of no use if it didn’t have a second horn to get people out of my way 😉

Vacaburra's double horn — Vacaburra’s double horn

I drove it for 4000 kilometers this season and you know I have put it and myself to the limit. It lived up to its reputation, surprisingly good handling and no remarkable problems at all. It’s true that it’s a tall motorbike, I’m not a short guy and I can only reach the floor with the front of my feet. That makes it very difficult for me to push it with my feet, so I always park backwards to make sure I can get out with the throttle. But I couldn’t be happier with this piece of motorcycling history I got.

When May allows me to ride it again, I will install bigger aluminum cases, change the tires to something more capable off-road, install folding mirrors, and maybe get some other improvements. In the meantime, I still haven’t written about my last trip and I will be sharing my Iceland trip plans and other stories. I hope I can keep you interested.

Lohja

This time I tried my luck west of Espoo. It’s not so populated as the north of Helsinki, but I couldn’t find any lonely forest. Most of the trip went on main dirt and asphalt roads, with homes and farms here and there. Not the best area, but not bad either. There were a couple of extreme spots that almost made me fall of the bike.

I finally found a reliable tracking app, Geo Tracker. I first took the 51 motorway west, which I left to take road 1130 north-west, Österbyntie south-west, and Volsintie and Solvikintie north to reach the 1130 again. I think I shouldn’t have left the motorway so early, only Österbyntie was a nice curly road.

I filled the tank at a gas station that had an old pump on display.

Pump in gas station by road 1130 in Espoo.

A bit of the 1130 west and I left the asphalt for the first time by taking Solvikinkaari and Björkebergantie. Not a long stage but the gravel and stones at the middle made it interesting.

I kept off the asphalt by taking Karhusuontie and Harvsintie north-west, and then north along Annilantie, Niemenkyläntie, Kopulantie, Eteläinen Brännträskintie, and back to Kopulantie until its north end. Most of it were main dirt roads between fields and forests, passing scattered houses. Fun for driving at a good pace, always with caution and respect to others.

Back on asphalt, I decided to move to another area. I took Kahvimaantie north to reach road 110, which I took north-west and I left to take Lehmijärventie south. A pretty boring parenthesis except for Lehimjarventie, which has some curves and is surrounded by a nice view of trees.

Near Lehmijärvi, I took a path north-west to Vaanilantie, which I did south followed by Luomantie and Laakspohjan kartano. This was the best part of the day, dirt roads and paths with the mentioned spots that almost made fall.

The first of the spots is here. Right before reaching Vaanilantie, the path is not mantained for vehicles and it went down a slope with some slippery mud.

Track connecting to the north end of Vaanilantie (Lohja) — Path connecting to the north end of Vaanilantie (Lohja)

The second difficult spot is Laakspohjan kartano, because it is covered with sand. Another slope made my bike shake both sides, but there was also a beatiful part surrounded by trees.

This road has sand and shadow trees because it is used by the horses of a big farm next for it, and for that reason I won’t go there by motorbike again and I encourage you not to do it.

At that point I was near the center of Lohja, so I thought it was better to leave that populated area by taking road 25 south and then check Lohjansaarentie. The later is a curly, but it’s a busy road that goes through residential areas.

Not worthy for me, so I turned around and took road 112 to reach Vähäteurtarintie, which I did all the way south-east followed by Vassbölentie and the beginning of Paivöläntie. Again, main dirt roads with little traffic, fun for a good pace.

I changed my heading to north-east, along Päivöläntie, Knapantie and Siggansintie, same type of dirt roads. Right after crossing under the rail tracks I found a more challenging, but short, dead-end forest path. I took the picture below here.

Path near the rail bridge of Siggansintie (Siuntio)

I continued north along Grennäsintie, a bit of road 1130 west, and Gårdskulla. Same dirt roads, with a slightly rougher part in the middle of Gårdskulla.

At that point I was mostly heading to highway E18 to go back home, so I took a bit of road 116 south-east and Niemenkyläntie north. The only interesting thing about these asphalt roads were the views of fields and forests.

The last dirt road of the day was Lieviöntie, same as others of the day but with more traffic as I was getting closer to populated areas.

Finally I took Muijalantie and the road 1125 to reach highway E18 and end the day.

Ylimmäinen

Forget Sipoo, there are far better areas for off-road motorcycling around Ylimmäinen lake. Bigger, with more tracks, all types of surfaces, quite lonley, and on top of everything, with awesome sights. Have a look at the pictures below.

I first took the E12/1301 which I left it to take the 132 to Klaukkala, and there Lepsämäntie passing Jyrkänpelto to reach Palsintie. A highway and main roads to leave the city behind.

I finally left the asphalt taking Pasintie and Palsinkorventie west, Pirunkorventie south and north again, Laurintie west, and then Koskelantie, Leppäarontie and Kössintie north-east. A residential area of main dirt roads where I crossed pedestrians and horses. An area to avoid. Now that I check Google Earth, further south there is a forest area worth checking.

I went a bit of Selintie west to take Peltolantie and Helkuntie north. Same kind of dirt roads with many houses. There is a very old farm construction in this location.

Old wooden construction in Helkuntie (Nurmijärvi)

I took the 1322 west, which I soon left to take Seisakkeentie north-west and Konnuntie and Vihantolantie west. Dirt roads as before, but more lonely areas. I like rail crossings, I see something old and romantic in them, or maybe a reminder of my childhood toy trains.

I continued west through Haimoon Myllytie, Haimontie and Kirveläntie to Herrakunta. The first one is challenging due to the loose gravel, Haimontie is a bad asphalt road and Kirveläntie the usual dirt road.

I changed direction north-east through Herrakunnantie and north-west through Moksintie to reach Kantolantie. Both asphalt roads, but Herrakunnantie is curly and hilly and I wasn’t the only biker enjoying it.

I was getting bored and frustrated about my trip. The most interesting road was actually Herrakunnantie. But then, everything changed.

Roughly, I took Kantolantie north, then Lustikullantie north, Rintelänkuja east to Hiiskula, Haaviskoppelintie north, came back south to take another track west to cross Lempolamminoja and reach road 133. I say roughly because I found and explored a network of forest tracks which is not totally mapped by Google.

I found many kinds of surfaces and sights, like the stones and rocks of the picture below taken in this location.

There were moss and trees, like in the picture below taken in this location.

Forest track near Likolampi (Kantola) — Forest track near Likolampi (Vihti)

There were leafs and bushes, like the picture below taken in this location.

And they were all curly and hilly tracks with amazing views. I only crossed a few parked cars of people picking something from the forest.

Next, I took Rönnintie and Kaislarannantie north, detouring to some tracks at the east to get close to Ylimmälinen and Hiukkalammi lakes. Rönnintie and Kaislarannantie were main dirt roads, the ones at the east were a bit more challenging. But this area was not as good as what I just visited south of the 133.

I took a nice picture of Hiukkalammi lake.

I still continued further north. I took Karrintie, but before reaching Keihäsjärvi, I explored some tracks to the west that are not mapped by Google. The beginning of Karrintie ir a residential area, but further north and the west tracks are really nice and challenging.

Tracks south-west of Keihäsjärvi lake (Loppi)

A big rock is sitting in this location.

Rock south-west of Keihäsjärvi lake (Loppi)

The area was so good as the one south of road 133, so I explored more of it. I went back east and took Leppäojantie and Mäntymäenpolku south. Then I turned around and went north through Raunintausta, Jokisuuntie and Niinimäentie until the 132 road. Again, curly forest tracks.

I passed a pond with some nice mökkis.

It had been a long day with plenty of fun and excitement, so as I reached road 132 I decided to take it and the E12 motorway back home.

To recap, the areas south-west of Niemenjärvi and around Keihäsjärvi are the best for off-road motorcycling I have found so far. I will visit them again.

Malaysians in Tallinn

I saw a F800GS with a customized Malaysian plate in Tallinn. I wonder if they came all the way in the motorbike, that would be more than 9000 kilometers!. Also, whenever I see an adventurer like this, I would like to know what they carry for the trip and what advices they have for me. In any case, hats off to them!.