Skip to content

Category Archives: Cycling

Self-made ultralight camelbak

This is my DIY ultralight water bag. The bag itself, without the bladder, weighs 20 grams.

Nexus-7 exact ratios and tooth counts “from the source”

Previously, I have tried to find “theoretically” the tooth counts of the Nexus-7 internal gear hub. Some nice numbers were obtained, but there were some suspects (you may think yourself what can be wrong with the numbers given in the link). Soon after, I disassembled the real hub and counted the teeth of all rings. [...]

Nexus-7 gear tooth counts and exact transmission ratios – wrong version

Vendors of internal gear bicycle hubs naturally give the transmission ratios of own products. But I was always curious how exactly these ratios are obtained, i.e. which planet gears are engaged in which combination and how many teeth each gear has. This information was surprisingly hard to find – in fact, the only vendor [...]

Heavy-duty self-made mudflap

Bicycle mudguards are frequently made shorter than they should have been. I was not able to find a front mudguard which would protect front chainrings from water jets pouring from the front wheel.
So I made my own from a 2mm thick rubber sheet. It is heavy and non-aerodynamic. It is heavy-duty! It makes difference [...]

Welcome to Vantaankoski evening rides

Living in Helsinki region, looking for a company for evening sporty road rides? Come to Vantaankoski (the home mark on the map below) on Tuesdays and Thursdays by 18:00.
What to expect there?

Trip report from Indian Himalayas – 2008

I’ve started writing about my last year bike trip in the Indian Himalayas. Before I had not forced myself to more than one blog post and an unsorted pile of photos. Now I’ve started with a short illustrated text about practical issues, answering questions which I had at the planning stage:
Cycling in Himachal Pradesh: [...]

Summer has arrived: family tandem ride

We’ve done a great sunny full-day ride on our tandem with a kidback plus two other bikes. The target was Vanhankaupungin koski (stream and a waterfall), one of the city attractions we had not visited before.

This made 56 km and 10 hours door-to-door. I think it was the first day of the year when it [...]

Winter cycling season with IK-32 turns to spring

Here is a map of my 8 March ride with IK-32 club.
View Larger Map

Winter unicycling!

Are you sometimes getting a thought that the life feels a bit too routine? That you’ve done nothing really crazy for a long time?
Even if so, the good news is that there is always an escape from such dead end! That is, unicycling!

Winter transforms of a roadbike

The winter – meaning, snow and ice – is not yet coming to our region, but I somehow feel that the roadbike season is over. With this thought in mind, I rebuilt my road (or cross) bike with flat bars.

Cycling in Himachal Pradesh, India

It has been a month since I have returned from solo cycling trip in Indian Himalayas.

Impressions clearly overloaded my brain. This was first time I’ve been to Real Mountains – the highest pass, Kunzum, was at 4500m. And this was my first time I’ve been to a non-Western country (not counting my home Russia, which [...]

2000 km from the season start

Today evening I was catching last weekend of the school vacation. Starting from tomorrow, my time limits for the outdoor activities again become much more strict. And there was a great chance to use it: in a company of Antero and Matti (thanks for calling me in!), we made 100km at average speed a bit [...]

Saturday ride: 100km with (former?) profi riders

We have fantastically good cycling weather now in southern Finland. And I’m happy to report the fact that I’m using this chance at full speed! Specifically, last Saturday I participated in a group ride in Hamina region.

Helsinki-Tampere, next try

I cycled Helsinki-Tampere route to hang out with my former colleagues already many times. This became almost a tradition; I ride about 200km, and at some place meet my friends who rode maybe 20km from their homes. Each time I naturally try to choose a new route to explore small roads in between. This is [...]

“Traditional” bike rides to the west of Espoo

I have a number of favorite ride routes. Most of them are to the west from Helsinki area, as I live almost on the western border of Espoo. Recently I’ve refreshed two especially beautiful, probably “classic” treks: Hanko and Lohjanjärvi.
First was Hanko. Espoo-Hanko distance is 110 km by an arrow-straight, relatively flat, moderately loaded [...]

Know Finnish bicycle-related traffic rules

I’m writing this from Helsinki cyclist’s viewpoint.
Do you know the Finnish traffic regulations applicable to bicycles? When you are obliged to yield to a car by the rules, and when to do this only if you see that you’d be ridden over otherwise?

The best thing is to read the source, but to get the feeling, [...]

Joint “season opening” of Helsinki bicycle clubs

4 May, the first Sunday of the month, Helsinki bicycle clubs traditionally go out for a joint ride.
This time the ride was more than just enjoyable. It was fantastic! At the starting point, Vantaankosken grillikioski, there were about 25 bright-color roadbikers.

Creating ride routes with Google maps

Use case: I want to draw a bike route on a map, for own joy or for sharing with my cycling friends. Google maps are cool, and free. As they are, they are not perfect for this task… but you can make them perfect with a tweak.

First spring road ride of Helsingin Polkupyöräilijät

This time I was “leading” the club ride. I did not expect too many people to join, as the weather forecast was not the best one, ride was announced less than 1 week in advance, and there was another club ride the same day. 4 persons rode in the announced 22-25 km/h tempo to Veikkola [...]

Strange failure of a studded tyre

Cycling from work yesterday, I noticed something… well, uneven, on my rear wheel. At the cellar door, the exploration has revealed three places where the sidewall cord of the tyre was torn, two of them longer than 3 cm! Inner tube was buldging out. What a luck that it still got me home and did [...]