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The Fin Fling
This all started 6 weeks ago when i casually asked one of the office guys if anyone rode trail or enduro bikes in Finland.Within a day Heikki in the office gave me a name and it was on.Lopen enduros had 4-5 hr one day rides.It was on private land (about 15km square in Loppi)owned by Paavo.
I even had a lift organised with Mikko (a guide rider), from Espoo station. The weather was ,damp but no rain ,16 deg perfect.The all up cost was 240Euro which included evrything except jocks and socks.The steed was a 250 4stroke ktm, in good nick.most of the bikes were small bore (I soon found out why). True to the rumour, we had about 20 guys most young fit motocross guys.A few old timers, although I suspect I was the oldest.We had the riders meeting where Paavo gave everone the run down.It was a 50km ride.I am thinking, I will be back in an hour,pretty short day Oh well a ride is a ride.Took the camera for a few shots.The young mad Fins took off.My group was Mikko leading, with Kimmo and myself.The first 5 or 6 ks a bit like WCS ride course.Quite tight, a couple of rocks minor little hills a bit slippery.The tyre pressure they set was a bit high for my liking ,but oh well I was feeling in the groove, and sort of keeping up with Mikko.We had some nice bridge crossings and even a barge across a lake. However after the lunch break, things got more interesting. Finland has a lot of granite rock.Paavo's property is no exception.The first few loops were bearable - slippery rocks and angled wet tree roots and f...ing tight.I could see myself falling back from Mikko now.Kimmo was also struggling.For you sand lovers who don't ride on much gnarly rocky stuff don't come to Finland.Afer about the 4th 1km loop of rocks , I was blue tonguing.The only saviour was that Kimmo was often a couple of minutes behind and gave me a chance to recover.Mikko then suggested Kimmo ride on the main road while he and I did the next slightly longer rocky loop.Holly Sh..t .I have never in my life riden on such a continuous couple of ks of rocks of all sizes,mini rock hills which came out of nowhere,slippery angled roots with odd mud hole.Half way thru I could see I was going to loose it ,as my arms were like mums home made jelly.In shame I have to admit I stopped for 2 minutes, just so I could get the strength to continue.It now dawned on me why the best bikes for this course were 125's.Power was an unecessary requirement on this course.Low weight was.It also became apparent why the hire bikes seemed to have about 20psi in the tyres.I got back to where Mikko was waiting and "you win" and then a few expletives.Now that I had been tortured enough, we took a slightly easier route back, with the sort of tight tracks that I like.Back at camp after a quick dip in the lake (at 12deg)and a clean up, it was all over.No prangs but so many close ones I lost count.it was the ultimate technical ride.Welcome TE310 Kimmo and HBerg Mikko as honary Crusty's.Photos on soon, sorry no real good ones, my hands were shaking too much with exertion  Husaberg Mikko & TE310 Kimmo  host Paavo  easy section  kimmo apprehensive  Kimmo after bridge  HM shattered |
