Friday August 3, 17:30... to Bylandet

It is with great sadness that I must admit the Hanko Dynamo did not take place last Friday. We almost went, really. Only, it  seemed a bit silly, just the two of us. We're really hoping to do the ride sometime though, surely a couple more of you would be interested? 140 km at night...

This coming Friday will be an enormous turn-out, I'm sure of it. The Beast has suggested Bylandet and it sounds good to me - it will be a new discovery for sub-24. At the usual speed that is less than a two hour ride. Unless someone comments otherwise, let's meet at Bemböle Shell around 17:30.

If you don't know what sub-24 is, click some links to find out.  Or just put a tent in your bag, get on your bicycle and meet us on Friday.

Better than watching the Olympics, right?

Summer's here... before the rain

 
The big summer sub-24 saw eight riders make the journey to Haukkalampi in Nuuksio. Beautiful weather, the wind on our backs and warm lake water made the trip memorable.


Never before on a sub-24 have we seen so many varieties of fruit and vegetables, healthy food vastly outweighing the usual sausages and chocolate. Also, rarely have we seen such strange sights in Nuuksio - life-vest adorned Chinese people lure-fishing in tiny inflatable boats? People dressed in baby costume party clothes running around while being filmed? Second world war bombers flying over? All sad but true.

Four and a half Frenchies rode the 18km from Bemböle along with one Finn, two Brits and half an American... X's videos can be seen here.

Some experiments turned out better than others - Florian's night without a tent worked much better than his home-made methanol stove. For my part, I would not recommend leaving your sleeping bag at home, even in summer. And Robin's rack repair again reminded us of the supremacy of zip-ties in all things. By the way, at the risk of appearing fetishistic, I have to say Robin's old Raleigh is very nice:

The wind that supported us from behind on the way to Nuuksio was inexplicably blowing right down our throats on the way home and I would say that we all noticed at some point that sub-24 is about exercise as well as food, drink, nature and company. Having said that, my bike computer says 15 km/hour for the whole ride...

Other comments: The Hanko Dynamo is schedules for Friday 27th July. Any takers? The "triathlon" (I've decided to put it in inverted commas) will probably be on the occasion of the September sub-24. We will have a normal sub-24 ride to a camping spot but those interested in swimming and running will drop off their running shoes at one end of a lake, ride to the other end and dump the bike, swim across the lake, put on running shoes and run around in the forest for a while before returning to the camping spot for refueling and congratulations. Possible distances are 15km ride, 500m swim, 5km run - almost Sprint Tri-length! - and it looks like Halkolampi in Luukki is a good option (even though sub-24 has visited there twice this year already...).

As ever, please comment freely on all of the above...

Better late than never

Apologies for posting so late about this, I'm sure you're all on the edge of your saddles.

Although holidays will be getting in the way for some of us, this coming Friday is sub-24 Friday! This time last year, I had a lonely trip to Kaitalampi, but I'm hoping for some company this July.

One suggestion made last month was to write in more detail about the length of our rides, so here goes...

Possible destinations for this Friday's trip (approximate distances from Bemböle):

Pirttimäki - 10 kms / 1/2 hour
Luukki - 15 kms / 1 hour
Nuuksio - 17 kms / 1 1/2 hours
Porkkala - 40 kms / 4 hours (or 25 kms / 2 hours from Kirkkonummi railway station)

Use this journey planner to check the destinations.

I have been very generous with the timings, but I think it's quite accurate. Perhaps we are not riding at that pace all the time but with frequent stops and enjoyable rolling, we seem to be averaging 15 kms / hour. Or so. Maybe someone wants to comment?

I'll throw out another couple of ideas, while I'm at it. We have been talking about doing a night ride - enjoying the midnight sun and twilight. Actually it has already taken on a life of it's own and become The Hanko Dynamo (based loosly on The Dunwich Dynamo). Too far? Any other ideas? It supposed to be transcendental...

There has been an unusually great interest in swimming in the freezing Finnish lakes over the years. We all enjoy cycling. Some of us like running. Sub-24 triathlon, perhaps?

I'm fishing hard for comments...

Suffice to say, Friday 6th July, Bemböle Shell, shall we say 16:30?

See you then!

HUOM!: Friday 6th July, Bemböle Shell, 17:30,  destination Nuuksio, 15 - 20kms, Frenchies encouraged...