Happy New Year!

It's time to wrap up this year. Thanks to everyone who reads and comments on this blog.

This year clearly showed what my real interest is. I had planned to do a bit of racing, but I only participated in two events: I rode the Pirkka 215 km road event in the fastest group in a little over 6 hours and two laps (120 km) of Tahko MTB in 7h 49 min, a result I'm fairly satisfied with.

One of my goals for this year was also to do one overnighter a month, which I mostly did. These overnighters proved to be the real highlights of the year, and I feel that will be my direction in the future as well. Hopefully I'll have the opportunity to do some longer outings next year.


We seem to get more snow all the time and currently there is a little over 40 cm (16"). The trails are narrow and semi-soft, expect for the most used ones, which should be rideable with an ordinary mountain bike.




On the last ride of the year I also tested out my new camera backpack (Christmas gift), a LowePro Slingshot 102 AW. As I hoped and expected, it was exactly the right size, i.e. as small and light as possible, and it felt steady on my back loaded with an EOS 40D, 17-70 zoom, extra batteries and a remote cord.


That's it for this year. Happy New Year!

One year with the Salsa Fargo

I just posted a longish retrospective on my first year with the Salsa Fargo on MTBR. The thread should be visible even for non-members, if anyone is interested. Most of it has already been posted on this blog earlier, so I won't repost it.

Merry Christmas!

Pogies

Just when I was about to start sewing my own bike pogies, Harri wrote about the cheap ones available at Biltema (product number 82176). I decided to take a look at them and bought a pair, the idea being to get some experience with them before I design my own ultimate bike pogies. As expected, they need some modifications to be fully usable, but I think that with a little sewing they might actually be great. The handlebar closure needs to be improved with some velcro and fleece to get it more sealed and the arm hole is unnecessary big. The biggest improvement would be to add some velcro to attach them at the outer ends of the handlebar. I also expected to have to add some insulation to them, but that will not be necessary. My hands were very warm with just summer gloves inside during a two hour ride today at -12°C.


Most of the trails were back to fatbike only state after the snowfall. This one would not have been rideable with an ordinary bike even before the latest snowfall.






Gaiters are nice.

Fargo

My Salsa Fargo, on which I've spent the most of my riding time this year, has been a little neglected lately, mostly because the Pugsley is much better suited to the current winter conditions. The Fargo has mostly served as a commuter lately, and that will likely continue during the winter, except for some occasional longer rides mostly on packed trails and roads. After my very positive experiences with the Rido R2 saddle on the Pugsley, I ordered one for the Fargo as well. I haven't tested it extensively on the Fargo yet, but the feelings after shorter rides (max 1 h) is that it is very comfortable on the Fargo as well, even with the less upright riding position.

Rido R2


Currently the best trails are packed really hard and thus easily rideable with the Fargo, but the Pugsley still feels like the better alternative for this.


The Extreme 294 29x2.1" tires look really narrow now...

Some winter pictures

Being away from home for a few days, I don't have the possibility nor the time to go out skiing or riding a bike. I still can't resist posting a few winter pictures. The weather is cold and sunny, which is nice.

Frost flowers on the window.






The days are currently short(5 h 45 min), so one should be prepared to go out in the darkness as well. The Canon S90 is a surprisingly capable camera even in the moon light.

Another winter morning

The weather was clear and sunny for a change. We've had a number of days with grey weather now, so the sun is very welcome for the almost six hours it technically is above the horizon. No mentionable snowfall since last Monday has occurred, so the trails should be rideable. The temperature was a refreshing -13°C.

About 30 cm (12") of snow.


Nobody had bothered to walk where I rode last Monday, meaning that the "singlespeed climb" was fully not rideable today


Christmas card landscape.








Some of the larger trails would have been rideable with an ordinary mtb, but not this one.




I'm going for the "saracen assassin from Robin Hood"-look. The heat exchanger is nice, but still not necessary in this temperature. For high intensity training, e.g. xc skiing with skating style, it makes my lungs hurt a lot less in colder temperatures,


The weather forecast for next Thursday is interesting. -23°C during the night and above freezing 18 hours later and then colder again according to the 10 day prognosis.

Independence Day ride

December 6th in 1917 the Finnish parliament declared Finland independent from the Russian empire, taking advantage of the turmoil caused by the Bolshevik revolution in Russia. A few weeks after that, the Bolshevik leaders recognised this in a document signed by Lenin, Stalin and Trotsky. During the WWII years, Finland was attacked twice by the Soviet Union. The independence barely survived this, thanks to the great sacrifices of my grandfather's generation. The Independence Day is a national holiday and it was therefore possible to go out for a snow ride in the morning.

It is still possible to get wet, despite the snow.


Even with the Pugsley, the very soft trails were barely rideable.


Outside the trails it riding was impossible, except for downhill sections.








Winter is nice. I think I'll commute to work by skis tomorrow, for a change.

Out playing

The winter is getting better all the time. We now have about 30 cm (12") of snow, with more on the way. I couldn't resist going out to play in the snow with the Pugsley. The temperature was around -4°C which is very comfortable: Not too cold and still mostly dry.





I wasn't the only one who was out playing in the snow.