Bike packing

Summer ride with the Kona Big Honzo

By Erik Plankton

January 22^nd, 2019

gearing up

Just found these pictures from last summer, so I will share them with you now half a year later. My workplace has a nice hobby corner in the basement, so I took the Big Honzo there for some maintenance and fine tuning of the bikepacking setup. Also changed the tires from Maxxis Rekons to Ikons for faster rolling in dry summer conditions. After fiddling with the bike we hopped back home with the boat.

Multitasking

My goal for the weekend was to get familiar with the new Blackburn Design Outpost Elite line of bikepacking bags while riding some nice gravel and forest service roads and make a social visit to my parents in Hamina. This required some creative route planning combined with public transport. The plan for day one:

Ride from Helsinki to Tikkurila along the river
Take a train to Kouvola
Ride from Kouvola to Hamina along forest service roads
Enjoy a sauna and dinner with my parents place

Links to gps tracks at the end of the post.

Kouvola - HAmina

After an uneventful train ride I was on the road.

utti and beyond

The first part from Kouvola to Utti is a very familiar route. A cycle path goes almost all the way to the Utti ABC gas station / restaurant complex. A good place to grab a quick lunch from the buffet. Nice flat and fast single track goes parallel to the cycle path. Just don't wander into the military area. After passing the fenced Utti airport area I turned onto a forest road and started navigating towards Hamina.

reissumies - travelling man

When riding along the forest roads you are likely to find an abandoned car sooner or later. This red Peugeot had some classic tunes in cassette format.

dusty but not done

It was a pretty hot day and I was running low on water.

refreshments please

After endless stops at intersections of the forest roads to check where I was supposed to go and a total of 80 km of pedalling for the day I reached my destination. A hot sauna and a cool plunge in the river hit the spot.

day two

The plan:

Have breakfast and inspect bike setup with dad
Take the bus from Hamina to Porvoo
Ride the "scenic" route from Porvoo back home to Helsinki
Have a beer

PORVOO - HELSINKi

Back in 2016 we did the Helsinki - Porvoo mtb route with Mathias for the first time. It is about 100 km and a full day. So this time I took a few shortcuts and the gps showed about 70 km when I was home. Bike setup and the Blackburn Design bags worked really well. No need to adjust anything. A true fit-and-forget solution. I really like the Maxxis Ikon 2.8" tires for summer bikepacking.

single track and fishy stuff

Some parts of the route has really nice single track. I spotted something moving in the water at the Åminsby damm. A bunch of fish were hanging around and really minding their own business. Really enjoyed the last part of the ride in nice weather.