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After many years without having a proper biking trip, this summer I tried to get back the feeling of long journeys. And I have to say I managed to do it pretty well.

With a total amount of 2224 km spanned in ten days, the trip day by day was as follows:

• 18.7. Oulu - Virrat - Tampere
• 19.7. Stay in Tampere for the Iron Maiden’s gig
• 20.7. Tampere - Hämeenlinna - Helsinki
• 21.7. Trip to Suomenlinna (not by bike)
• 22.7. Helsinki-Porvoo-Helsinki
• 23.7. Helsinki-(ferry)-Tallin-Haapsalu (Estonia)
• 24.7. Haapsalu-(ferry)-Kärdla-Kiudja-Kõpu-Ristna
• 25.7. Kiudja-Sõru-(ferry)-Triigi-Kurressaare-Mändjala
• 26.7. Mändjala-Kuivastu-(ferry)-Virtsu-Tallin-(ferry)-Helsinki
• 27.7. Helsinki-Valkeakoski-Oulu (almost 700 km in one day!)

So basically the journey was half in Finland and half in Estonia, including five ferries to get also to the island of Hiiumaa and Saaremaa. If you count on top of this that 800 km have been done in two people with tent and mattresses on the back, it was really a good seikkailu!

I have to say really enjoyed Estonia, still quite cheap (but I wonder for how long), wonderful sand beaches and nice people.

And, by the way, on the way back to Oulu, the Pegaso overtook 97000 km, just 3000 to the sixth figure!

Here below the detailed map of the journey, it might take a while to load: be patient, I said it was a long trip!

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While approaching the one hundred thousand kilometres (!!!) with my good ol’ Pegaso, I’ve decided to keep trace of the checks and repairs that are done on the bike. Really, until now I haven’t kept records of the maintenance, and still the bike works great after all these years (11 and a half right now).

So here we go with the 94 000 km maintenance:

• Spark plug replaced
• Rear shock-absorber replaced
• Oil changed
• Oil filter replaced
• Cooling liquid changed
• Brake fluid changed
• Battery replaced

To be done in a short time:

• Change brake pads (changed on 16.7.2008)
• Change air filter

To be done at a certain stage:

• Change air box

Important replacements done some time ago:

• ~85 000 km: Fork seals replaced
• ~90 000 km: Exhaust-pipes replaced
• ~90 000 km: Tyres replaced

Yes, this time I’m quite late, but I like to keep trace of Pegaso’s “kilometres birthdays”. I just noticed that I haven’t driven lately as much as in the past, if you consider that the 80000 birthday was back in August, 2004. That is, around 10 000 in two years is not a big deal, if you think that in the Italian era of my bike (1997-2000) I’ve done almost 60 000 km. But well, here you can’t use it as often as in the south.

However, I am REALLY happy with it, we’re approaching 100 000 and the engine has never been opened. I was yesterday off for a short trip with the new tyres, and it goes great!

This morning I’m supposed to leave for a journey by motorcycle to Lapland. But from my page about the weather in Oulu I read:

Report for Oulu, Finland.

Last update: 29 minutes ago, at 05:50 EET.

Wind: 2.1 meters per second from southeast (140°).

Temperature: 0 °C

The temperature felt like -3 °C.

Pressure: 1026 hPa.

The sky was overcast from a height of 30 meter Visibility: 250 meter.

The visibility was 550 meters with no distinct tendency for runway 12 and 625 meters with no distinct tendency for runway 30.

Weather condition: fog.

A little bit foggy, in’it? And feels like -3°C? Voi että! But I’ll leave anyway. If I get frozen, I will miss the whole winter and wake up fresh and ready the next spring… mmm it sounds interesting…

Update (21:08): Just got back (+3° now outside). After all I did it. The journey was: Oulu - Kemi - Rovaniemi - Övertorneå - Haparanda - Kemi - Oulu for a total amount of 590 km. A bit foggy, always cloudy, but it was great! And I have also been in Pisa!

Road map of the trip.

My good old honest motorcycle has today reached the target of 80 000 km. That’s quite a lot, although I have to say that at least 30 000 km out of them have been spent on the A11 motorway going from Pistoia to the Uni in Florence. However, I just realised that I have never spent a word (neither a picture) on the net about it, which is really unfair. My Aprilia Pegaso 650 has been with me since year 1997. We’ve been through so many journeys around Europe, one small - my fault - accident and a lot of fun. I’m a sort of “lonely rider”, that is, I like to travel alone and meet people along the journey, so I guess not so many people are aware of the places I have been by bike. So I’ll try to recall some of the most memorable journeys.

The NSA (Not So Accurate) list of trips riding through Europe on my Pegaso

• August 1997. Trento, Riva del Garda, Rovereto (Italy), Innsbruck, Kufstein, Salzburg (Austria).
• August 1998. Riva del Garda (It), Garmisch-Partenkirchen (where I met Daniele and Annalisa who were hanging around Germany by car), München, Nürnberg (Germany).
• August 1999. Riva del Garda (It), Schwarzwald (Freiburg, Ger), Stuttgart - to watch the total eclypse of the hea… ehm, sun (but it was cloudy so I saw nothing but complete darkness at midday).
• February 2001. Sicily (Sicily). My longest two-day journey (1300 km) with a lot of rain and even snow on the Calabrian Apennine (yeah, I forgot the A3 motorway reaches almost a thousand meter of altitude).
• September 2001. Kiruna (Sweden), Lofoten Islands (Norway). My longest one-day-journey was then coming back from Norway: 950 km in 20 hours. Never again.
• June 2002. Sonka (Rovaniemi, Finland, climbing trip).
• July 2002. Julma Ölkky (Hossa, Finland, climbing trip), where I’ve learnt to keep always an eye at the fuel level when travelling in the Finnish countryside.
• August 2002. Död Lars Berget (Älvsbyn, Sweden, climbing trip), when Aila fell asleep (but didn’t fall down) behind me on the bike while we were coming back.
• June 2004. Sodankylä (Lapland, Finland) for the Midsummer Film Festival.