Sorry for writing in english...

[matt1]

...but i have only been in Finland for 2 days and I haven't learnt enough Finnish to write here!

My girlfriend and me are currently riding our bikes around the world and are in Lappeenranta for a week for a wedding. Whilst we are here I would really like to do some riding around the area, hopefully some off-road trails.

Have been trying to find some info on this but not very successfully.

If anyone can help or would like to join me for a ride that would great.

You can read about us here http://www.a2wheeledadventure.com

Thanks

Matt

[Pallokala]

Hi Matt!

When you are talking about adventure riding, this is definately the right forum!
Guys from Lappeenranta area, give Matt some clues...!

[matt1]

Thanks so much for the reply, I like your signature about old thumpers, I should have mentioned I'm riding a Suzuki DR650

[matti]

Warmly Welcome to Finland Kim & Matt!

Here your will certainly find a lot of friends being
excited of your marvellous combination of DualDual Sports
and LOVE! Especially if it´s your own Wedding ?

It was only yesterday when the latest group tour
of Dual Sports enthusiastics was organized in the
Lappeenranta region, let's hope that we will get
some URGENT new plans either in here or in their thread!
And for your own adventures please find
here a terrain map of Finland.

Enjoy your stay and in case of any questions, most
propably you will get an answer in here within some
hours, night or day !

[matt1]

Warmly Welcome to Finland Kim & Matt!

Here your will certainly find a lot of friends being
excited of your marvellous combination of DualDual Sports
and LOVE! Especially if it´s your own Wedding ?

It was only yesterday when the latest group tour
of Dual Sports enthusiastics was organized in the
Lappeenranta region, let's hope that we will get
some URGENT new plans either in here or in their thread!
And for your own adventures please find
here a terrain map of Finland.

Enjoy your stay and in case of any questions, most
propably you will get an answer in here within some
hours, night or day !

Thanks for the quick reply again Matti!

This is such a great forum to get such fast responses.

Would love to hook up with some other riders but for now I will go and explore myself as the weather is good and I have my GPS so I can't get lost

Oh, and the wedding is not ours, not yet! It is a Finnish friend of ours and we have ridden 4000 miles to be here!

Ride safe,

Matt

[psi]

Try http://www.retkikartta.fi/ (just zoom deep enough, first view is shoddy) for a great map.

Many 4-numbered (1234) roads are gravel roads.

[HessuL]

Hi Matt,

I'll be in Lappeenranta area next weekend and we are going to do some gravel road riding with my brother-in-law on saturday, but I'm afraid the wedding party will be just then, am I right? Otherwise, it would have been nice to show you aroud.

Anyway, have a great trip and ride safe!

[skuikka]

Check your private mail. Second clickable object to the left from the sign in/out thingy.

[matt1]

Thank you so much for all of the replies, it has been really amazing, I have had several offers to ride with people and will be going out tomorrow!

The friendliness of Finnish people is really good, the best so far since we left home, Finland is the 10th country we have visited, and the people on this forum could not be kinder!

I had a little ride out today and took in some forest roads which was good fun, but it will be nice to go with someone who knows the area tomorrow, I will try and post some pictures tomorrow evening.

Thanks again

Ride Safe

Matt

[matt1]

Hi Matt,

I'll be in Lappeenranta area next weekend and we are going to do some gravel road riding with my brother-in-law on saturday, but I'm afraid the wedding party will be just then, am I right? Otherwise, it would have been nice to show you aroud.

Anyway, have a great trip and ride safe!

Thanks Hessul, you are right the wedding is on Saturday so I will not be able to ride with you and your brother this time!

Maybe some other time when I return to Finland, which I will definately do!

Ride safe

Matt

[ArPy]

Hi Kim and Matt
met you on the boat from Tallin to Helsinki,and took a pic,just came from Greece and thought it was a hard trip,but yours is something;-)

Have a nice ride!

[TTA]

There is some nice places;

Nice beach http://kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi/link ... 87&lang=fi

Another beautiful beach, very clear water
http://kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi/link ... 65&lang=fi

both beaches you can camp there.

This road from Savitaipale to Suomenniemi includes beautiful landscapes and many curves. There is small pizzeria also http://kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi/link ... 05&lang=fi

In this area there are most beautiful landscapes near Lappeenranta
http://kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi/kart ... ra&lang=fi

[Jukka]

Greetings Matt

Very nice to see that new audience finds its way to the forum and that we are able to create
nice opportunities for experiencing our beautiful country!

How did you find your way here and how did you manage to register (it is, after all, in finnish!)?
We haven't really made any efforts for it to be easy for foreigners to get in, maybe we should...

[hönö]

how was your riding yesterday? any pics??

did you got best tips to russian side also.......

[matt1]

Hello!

Sorry for taking so long to get back to you all, I really did not want you to think I was un grateful for the help you all gave me! Wednesday we went up to the Summer Cottage with not Internet and since then I have been helping with wedding preperations, the big day is today.

Pietro who posts here kindly took me out on Tuesday and we had a great day riding trails, enduro single track and a couple of Motorcross tracks, I only fell off about 15 times and still have the bruises to show for it. Pietro was a much better rider than me but he was very patient and even let me rides his KTM 690 a couple of times. My DR650 did really welll considering it is set up for carrying me and about 80kg of equipment for thousands of km, the dual sport tyres struggled a bit in the deep sand, and so did I as this was the first time I have ridden on that kind of surface, but on the tight single track we rode I was really impressed with how it felt to ride.

hönö
Post subject: Re: Sorry for writing in english...

how was your riding yesterday? any pics??

did you got best tips to russian side also.......

I do have some pictures and will get them posted on here as soon as I have some time to transfer them to my laptop, and yes I got some info on riding in Russia and Pietro has kindly invited me to join him on one of his frequent trips accross the border!

TTA
Post subject: Re: Sorry for writing in english...

There is some nice places;

Nice beach http://kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi/link ... 87&lang=fi

Another beautiful beach, very clear water
http://kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi/link ... 65&lang=fi

both beaches you can camp there.

This road from Savitaipale to Suomenniemi includes beautiful landscapes and many curves. There is small pizzeria also http://kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi/link ... 05&lang=fi

In this area there are most beautiful landscapes near Lappeenranta
http://kansalaisen.karttapaikka.fi/kart ... ra&lang=fi

Thanks for all the info, we are supposed to be leaving Finland tomorrow but we both like it so much that we may stay a bit longer so I hopefully will get to check them out, and we will need a place to camp!

Jukka
Post subject: Re: Sorry for writing in english...

Greetings Matt

Very nice to see that new audience finds its way to the forum and that we are able to create
nice opportunities for experiencing our beautiful country!

How did you find your way here and how did you manage to register (it is, after all, in finnish!)?
We haven't really made any efforts for it to be easy for foreigners to get in, maybe we should...

Thanks Jukka for such a great site, and it really has introduced me to a side of Finland that I never would have seen without it, the members have been absolutely fantastic!

And you are right it is a beautiful country, the most beautiful scenery we have seen on our journey so far.

I can't remember exactly how I found it, but Google helped, and also translated a some of the site for me which helped me register, although it took me 2 attempts!

If it is ok with you and your members I would like to post a link to it on my website http://www.a2wheeledadventure.com and also at http://www.horizonsunlimited.com which is a huge forum for Mororcycle Travellers.

ArPy
Post subject: Re: Sorry for writing in english...

Hi Kim and Matt
met you on the boat from Tallin to Helsinki,and took a pic,just came from Greece and thought it was a hard trip,but yours is something;-)

Have a nice ride!

Thanks you, and thank you for posting on our website too, it is really nice to hear from people we meet along the way!

I will update the website soon with stories and photo's of Finland, check it out if you have time!

Thanks again to everyone!