Skyteam 250 ST and Moilami

[david3921]

Great story moilami and nice looking bike too. Just a note, make sure that you get the filter changed soon if it already wasn't. That oil looked pretty nasty for such a short time riding. Your filter is grabbing the bits of metal as the motor is braking in and is sure to be full.

[Pfaelzer]

Great report.

That's what happens when traveling. Always meet good people. More, more, more,...

[moilami]

Great story moilami and nice looking bike too. Just a note, make sure that you get the filter changed soon if it already wasn't. That oil looked pretty nasty for such a short time riding. Your filter is grabbing the bits of metal as the motor is braking in and is sure to be full.

My bike doesn't have a regular oil filter. It only have stuff like this:

suodatin..jpg

[culcune]

Great story Moilami!! Keep the photos and the story coming. I don't get to see many photos of Finland, and from your perspective, they are even better.

[david3921]

My bike doesn't have a regular oil filter. It only have stuff like this:

suodatin..jpg

Ah, the screen. Well, it looks like you're up on your knowledge, have fun.

[moilami]

Ah, the screen. Well, it looks like you're up on your knowledge, have fun.

Actually I am a very poor mechanic. Had friends who did practically everything for my previous bike.

[moilami]

So, my bike was in excellent condition and I was succesfull in my first priority mission to get the oils changed. I had all night long time to drive anywhere I want, if I so desired. I asked from service chief Esa Laakso is there any dirt roads towards Lahti, and he gave me directions to one. It was the time to take one last picture of this very nice village called Nikkilä and move on.





I found the dirt road and had tons of good time driving on it. On dirt my Skyteam really shined, even though it was still a little bit shy of me and did not yet show its best performance. That I understood well.





All good things come to an end and eventually the I found myself driving in tarmac. I visited yet another fuel station and ate a sandwich there. I had no idea where I was, so I had to ask from the merchant lady about my location. The map told me I was about 30km from Tampere, if I remember correctly, so can’t speak of progression distance wise – a minor detail I just laughed at.


However the night was surprisingly cold and I wondered if I should find an inn and rest. I thought that well alright, I can do it IF I happen to find a very cheap place. It meant in practise that I wont sleep on clean sheets. After some driving I found an old mansion now used as an inn. It looked cool and for the sake of curiosity I went inside and routinely asked for a price of a room. The nice lady told me that unfortunately she does not have any rooms left. We pondered the situation and I finally said that it is fine, I can easily drive more. The house were populated by very drunken Finnish people singing Karaoke upstairs loudly. Even though it was cool I don’t think I would had been not able to sleep there.


I went out of the house near my bike and after a while the lady came out too and said she is going to lock the doors and go home. That certainly inspired me to think about asking her how much a sofa at her home would cost. There was just a problem, maybe she would be unable to handle a real man like me? Then suddenly the real problem arised. Would I be able to handle a lady like her? I shrugged in my mind and replied to her drive safely wishes that I will.





The night was even colder and I stopped a couple of times on the way to warm up a little. I wore only my enduro driving suit and a t-shirt under it. Was rather stupid to not take more clothes to the trip but can’t say it was an issue, I had time to travel slowly and enjoy. The breaks from driving also did good to my rear, the bench was hard to sit for long periods of time.


Before I arrived Lahti while I was taking a break somewhere I felt for the first time compassion and love at my bike. It was a great moment I enjoyed. This can be hard to understand for those who don’t drive motorcycles, or maybe not, I don’t know if people can feel the same for cars. I can’t feel the same for cars so it could be hard for me to understand.


Anyway, I knew we would make it. Me and my bike. I trusted my bike and appreciated I can drive it. The Skyteam felt like a woman who is not fine tuned artificially to please eyes and body. It felt like a good real woman I don’t have to fear leaving me for another man. I thought that one good thing in china bikes is that they probably don’t attract thieves. I watched my bike standing on the tarmac and waiting for me to give life for it. Suddenly I realized that dang, I can’t compare women to my Skyteam because my Skyteam is like a dog. It just waits for me patiently and says come as you are, I don’t judge you and I will come with you anywhere you take me, no matter how you are.


Pity I did not take a picture of that moment but it was too personal private moment to capture on a camera and publish in Internet.


I arrived to Lahti city at night and drove around watching night life on the streets. There was not much to see, except near some entrances to the bars.






My mind got again distracted by warm and clean sheets in the hotel so it was the time to eat something before finding a nice place to rest or even sleep.






I looked for one place I knew which could be fine for camping without paying, but were unable to find it. Instead I found the harbour of Lahti for the first time in my life. I walked around and thought about waking up there in the morning. I did not like the idea so I chose to just rest on the bench and wait for the morning to come and bike shops to open. A woman with two dogs walked past me and the other dog pooped to the grassy area in the front of the bench. Oh well, who cares, the bench was good and the air was fresh.






Some time passed and one scooter police passed me too. The early morning came, within came screams of hundreds of seagulls. The seaguls had plenty of good time in the nearby breakwater construct. This was their home. Alright, time to change place after taking a couple of pictures. I never wanted to sleep there anyway.





One last photo and onwards.





I inspected my bike and found that something is going to break soon. It was a rubber thingy separating the plastic fairing and muffler. At the time I write this it has not yet breaked.





Lahti is famous in being a winter sport city in Finland. I saw the Ski Jumping towers and it was a must to go take a closer look of them. Maybe I could get some pictures of the city from there in the early morning light. I was sleepy but had to find some view for my bike and the towers.


Near the roots of the towers were very comfortably looking grass, the sun shining on it. It was just a fine place to rest some more. The ground was a little bit cold, but I had warm driving pants and the rising sun warmed me more. My last thoughts before I fell asleep were: alright, not a good idea to sleep here, someone can come pick my pockets while I sleep and get my wallet and keys to the motorbike. Not good to fall asleep before I hide the keys and wallet somewhere inside my driving pants rom where people can’t get it without me waking up. So can’t fall asleep.





I woke up and saw a man walking near me asking is everything alright. I said yeah no problems, I just rest here a little. The man said aha ok and went away. I was very sleepy and wanted to sleep more. I watched as the man begun to do some maintenance things around the towers, and I fell asleep again.


The next wake-up came from a big school bus full of little kids yelling. I watched the clock, it was three to ten in the morning. About just a fine time to continue my journey. The maintenance man begun to drive some noisy vehicle so I did not have much choise either. I started my bike and drove near the maintenance man and greeted him as thanks for everything.



(To be continued... next time with more pictures, explosions and stuff with less text, was tired and did not photograph much at this part + lack of light, sorry.)

[jape]

Some great pictures and a fun tale ... keep it up! The calm glassiness of that sea shot is amazing and it is good to see the picturesque houses old and new. Australia is such a new country they worship shacks that are just a hundred years old ( and meant to last just 20 yrs) and they put protection orders on ugly cement sheet shops from the 1970's. I thought Finland was all log cabins and birch trees .... lol. That dirt road is just like the roads round me that I use daily, except mine are all corrugated and potholed because another things the Ozzies never learnt was how to build dirt roads that last. They don't crown them or put in ditches, hence they scrape and smooth them every few months (to no avail, filling the holes with dust only lasts a few days). Your forest road looks like you could get some speed up and drift ...

[moilami]

Thanks Jape (sidenote: it is a lakeside view, not a seascape). I am not sure but I think people rebuild dirt roads annually here. We have a hard winter and the spring makes dirt roads very messy when the snow melts. All dirt roads I have seen are messy in the spring, and a little bit later they are like new. Then during the summer and autumn the dirt roads go again a little bit bad, the snow comes, and the cycle gets repeated next spring.

By the way you wrote somewhere you have there +10C or so, we have had now about a week around +10C also and will have that kind of temperatures for some time according to forecasts. So as for now our "summer" is like your winter It should not be that cold here though.

[moilami]

The morning in Lahti city was very pleasant even though I had to drive here and there while looking for a repair shop. I at first called to the Skyteam dealer and asked where in Lahti there is the approved repairing shop. The dealer asked how much I had driven. I told him about 190km and that I managed to get the oils changed yesterday at 60km. He said I can drive to Mikkeli without changing oils. I said I want to change the oils, I haven’t spent a night in Lahti in vain. The dealer gave me contac details for the approved mechanic, but we however agreed that I can go change the oils to any shop and maintain the guarantee of the bike. So I chose to go to Riku Motors, of which I have heard good things.


At first I found Riku Motor’s motorcycle and gear shop. There I met the head of the shop himself in person. I asked from him how much it costs to change oils. He said I must go ask about it from the Riku Motor’s repairing shop and gave me a card with driving information. Then another customer came and said he wants to buy a bike. Riku said alright and asked me what bike I have. I said I only have a small enduro and proceeded to walk out of the shop. Riku followed me outside even though he had a customer who wanted to buy a bike. Outside of the shop Riku was impressed of my poor little Skyteam and asked how much it does cost. I said 3000€ list price. Riku Said “It is nothing”. I disagreed and he said it can still be a lot of money. This time I agreed and we kept chatting about my bike for some time before I left and he went to serve the customer wanting to buy a bike. Amazing! Stories of the owner of the Riku Motors appear to be very much true. Just a freakingly big pity I did not took a photograph of him observing my Skyteam. Lazy shy me!





I found the Riku Motor repairing shop. There were plenty of bikes waiting to be served inside. I told to workers I have a new bike and I am breaking the motor in on it and need to get the oils changed, how much it would cost. They said 50 to 60 euro, which made me start complaining at once of the price. I however agreed after they answered that the price of the oil is included in it, also again I had no plans to spend a night in Lahti in vain.


I drunk a cup of free coffee for the customers from the selection of different refreshments in liquid form. It took about 5 minutes before they were ready to take my bike in for the emergency maintenance. Another 5 minutes and I got my bike back. The bill was 46 euro. Now it was just a matter of driving about 120km back to home. I got the oils changed two times as I had planned. The reason for so many oil changes were a new theory on breaking in the motor. I don’t go to the reasoning of it but the theory suggests one to drive harder and change the oils more frequently.


After driving about 20km from Lahti and driving through Heinola, a small village, I saw a car blocking the way and smoke coming from the distance. I saw an adventure!





The car turned and went away. I had already dismounted and begun to walk towards the smoke when I heard a series of loud explosions. Puzzled on what is happening I took photographs of explosions and cursed I had no zoom or tele lense in camera. As you can see, the explosions were quite big when you compare the size of fire to the street lamps and street lamps to the road worker. This is very unusual in Finland.





I was worried if the road workers would turn me back if I try to drive closer with my bike, so I had to keep walking. And now comes a pro tip (even though I am not a pro photo journalist): act like a pro and you will be treated like a pro. I can’t count how many times people have asked to what newspaper I do photograph. There was a problem that the road worker would turn me back even though I was not driving my bike. To counter it I begun to take pictures of him while he closed by.





It worked or he was not interested of me, he just ignored me and turned the cars away. Note my great little Skyteam parked on the side of the road.





Another road worker came to guide the traffic and the same trick worked. Act like pro and don’t begin to ask stupid questions. I don’t actually know how the pro photo journalist work but I guess they god damn take pictures xD And since I am a photo journalist and adventurer wannabee I god damn take pictures too.





The first fire department rescue car came.





To the opposite direction went a road working vehicle.





Two men were watching the situation. After I photographed them I got confirmed I was acting good like a pro since they asked me do I photograph to some newspaper. I said no I don’t. Unfortunately I had no time to have a chat with them. Duty called!





It was going all good from my side, I managed to get closer without being asked to go away.





Act like a pro; get access and get the pictures.





Seriously, it is good if someone documents what kind of work these firemen do. They are the first to go literally in to the fire. Even I were fine letting them go first. The best wisdom of life I have been told is “it is okay to be crazy but it is bad to be stupid”. I heard that when I was 18. I can say it has ever since been my motto.





I was told that there can be some gas bottles which has not yet exploded.





Firemen discussing about the situation.





Fight fire with water!





Great work firemen.





The firemen did their job, and thanks to their judgement skills they let me do mine as a wannebee photo journalist. The world is now a little bit better place.





Unfortunately my memory card became full of pictures so I chose to go away. My little but great Skyteam was waiting for me faithfully. It was great to meet her again, I can say it was relatively long time no see! I got an ad hoc surprise adventure, of which I have to admit I was very happy and my spirits were high big time, yet I could not help it but to think how nasty the smoke looked and how much firemen get exposed to it. Have to treat them with respect.



(To be continued..)