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Jawa Babetta would indeed be great, but I already have two bikes, and I need to get rid of one or another. The grocery shop is a minute walk away from here.
I will join to one Finnish bike forum where there are two Jawa men, I will ask from where I can get good winter tires for Jawa. I seriously need them ASAP.
C'mon, I was joking when I mentioned "Babetta". When I was teenager, she was considered as a... "most un-cool", cumbersome and not much reliable moped. "Tomos Automatic" is much better piece of machinery.
Take into account that "Babetta" or "Automatic" are just bicycles with auxiliary engine, not proper motorcycles and that you can always tell to you madame that you must to go to Tampere to grocery shop... and that pedaling is not always pleasant activity. :icon10:
About winter tires: studded tires are, supposedly, great, but here they are banned 30 years ago, so personally do not have any experience with that, but I've that people around the world sometimes make DIY studded tires for bikes. You can choose to make studs for ice or for snow, and what to use for studs - sheet metal screws, carriage bolts... you name it. Do you have within reach an old tire, hardware store and drill?
http://motocross-gum.at.ua/_ld/0/69159748.jpg
Haha, I have the tools, but that is definetly illegal in Finland and I bet I could not talk the police to believe that those are a must for safety's sake :lol8: Those tires I linked at first here are illegal too, but one can talk to the police they are the best for the sake of safety.
This winter tire thing is difficult because of this small village. Roads here use to be all covered of snow, so good spikes are the best. But if comes a winter with not much snow, then I could use car style spikes. In Helsinki I would had just already bought some sort of knobbies with car style spikes and be all good and set.
Regarding gaiters: Of course I wanted the gaiters but Simpanen said those are bad in Jawa and not needed at all because there is 2 dl of fork oil in each fork, and it wont come up from the forks, thus not much point in protecting the fork tubes and seals. I find it hard to believe that seals in Jawa would not begin to leak fork oil. Besides the fork tubes looks so gimp in Jawa they need to be hidden. So I will order from Internet the gaiters when I order some other things for Jawa.
What about these?
http://www.tyres-pneus-online.co.uk/...-rf-m%2bs.html
Thank you very much of the link, had that one on MZ. Now just spikes on them and a shop in Finland who sells them.
Now ordered the tires, got enough of this mess.
https://mprenkaat-store.com/enduro-3...u15ntfiul9fpb0
https://mprenkaat-store.com/silica-3...u15ntfiul9fpb0
Now only have to find a shop who install spikes on them. I am not very happy with that front tire, nor rear, but they make excellent job in making the road flat during winter here in this village, so guess those will do, at least they should be good on very flat snow and very good on tarmac.
Edit: Now someone say that no, those "silica" tires are not at all good in cold weather and on snow :lol8:
Edit: Heidenau claim silica is good on snow and cold weather :clap:http://en.reifenwerk-heidenau.com/mo...oint=5&rtyp=17
So, if traffic policeman sees you during winter on a bike with DIY studs a-la Mad Max, you can get traffic ticket, and if you have tires with... "civilized" studs, everything will be OK?
I know that here, if you would be halted by traffic police on a snowy day with minus temperature on a motorcycle, they wouldn't pay attention to your tires, but they would look at you like you're an alien and they would probably say something like: "Are you f... crazy!? Drag your ass home! What do you want, to fell down and slip straight under someone's car?" :icon10:
Police here has never paid attention to my motorcyle. If they stop me, it is part of their drunk driving thing, and they only request me to blow in their alcohol tester. In Finland people need to take annually their cars to "katsastus". where an inspector checks that your car is legal technics wise. Motorcycles does not need to go there, motorcycles are legalized by the importer, and that's it, unless you do major modifications.
We have a law which says it is a must to use winter tires during 1.12 - 31.3. Winter tires has been defined too, and there is maximum length for spikes. Basicly the law says that winter tires must be suitable for winter conditions and spikes can't be longer than, was it 1.6 mm or something.
Edit: There are reports that police accepts long enduro spikes on a motorcycle if one says that it is better to have these or else a crash will happen.
What you are saying - annual technical inspection for motorcycles is not mandatory!? Damn those EU rules! For us, savages from turbulent Balkans, annual technical inspection is mandatory even for mopeds. :eek2:
And you must to have winter tires on your car and snow chains in trunk from November 1st to March 31st.
It looks that you are serious about riding your bike during winter, so this discussion is not in vain.
Do you have enough space on "Jawa" to consider setting chains? Or even just to wrap around wheel and tire some tear proof cord, which will improve grip on trodden snow?
Hehe, we don't need snow chains, except in Helsinki they could had been good lately. There has been not that much snow in Helsinki, and then came a few winters with snow as it used to come in 80's and before, and it was chaos in Helsinki, the roads were like a battleground and the parking areas were the worst :D Here in the middle of Finland we have plenty of snow each winter, but it does not matter, rural folks keep the roads in excellent condition. They go at 4 or 5 o'clock in the night and wipe away snow, and if heavy snow fall come during the day they wipe snow away during the day also. Helsinki used to be like that, but not anymore.
EU regulations suck big time, and car people and politicians want that motorcycles should have annual technical inspection too. So far they haven't changed the laws because motorcycle driver organizations has resisted successfully.