Saturday, 25 November 2017

Tampere Supercross & OffroadExpo @ Tampere Exhibition and Sports Centre (TESC) - 11th of November 2017 - Tampere, Finland


Here's my photos from Tampere Supercross and OffroadExpo held at the Tampere Exhibition and Sports Centre (TESC) 10-11th of November 2017. First time the event took place in 2012 and act as a final event for Finnish Supercross championships in 2012 and 2013. 2014 the competition turned international.

Head2Head format was introduced this year where two riders compete against each other. Six heats decided the winner and #48 Joan Cross took the first place in Saturdays competition. The main competition started with two qualifying rounds and consisted of four heats and two finals. It was a tight battle between #91 Alex Ray and #151 Harri Kullas. Harri won the final on Friday but on Saturday it was Alex's time to shine and take the first place. 

Between heats there was also 50cc and 65cc Minicross exhibition races. Pit area for competitors was constructed beside the OffroadExpo fair area which had over 50 exhibitors and was free of charge for visitors. New KTM Freeride E-XC electric bike grapped my attention. I also recorded quite a lot of video clips and I will upload them to my Instagram account.

Monday, 2 October 2017

Westcoast Motor Show @ Botnia Hall - Part 5 - American - 24th of September 2017 - Vaasa, Finland

Here's the last set of photos from the event. I saved the biggest category last 😉 Lots of cool cars were on display in this category. Probably my favorite ones were 1932 Ford 5W Coupe, 1947 Buick Roadmaster, 1957 Pontiac Starchief and 1971 Chevrolet Camaro if I had to name a few.

American and yankee cars have been very popular in Finland for a long time. There are a lot of events (shows, cruises, meet ups, swap meets etc.) based around this scene and most of them are located in southern part of Finland. With that said there are a lot of nice events also elsewhere around Finland like this one in Ostrobothnia.

Show car 'Kryptonite' with 341 DeSoto Hemi engine

Wednesday, 27 September 2017

Westcoast Motor Show @ Botnia Hall - Part 1 - Motorsports - 24th of September 2017 - Vaasa, Finland

Last Sunday I made a one day trip to Vaasa to visit Westcoast Motor Show for the first time. I had quite a busy schedule that day. I took a train from Oulu around 9 am in the morning and arrived to Vaasa little over 1 pm. Botnia Hall, where the event took place, is located in Mustasaari, around 7 kilometers from the city centre. A quick cab drive took me under 15 minutes to reach my destination.

Westcoast Motor Show is arranged by a local association called Westcoast Street Cruisers ry. Show features all kinds of vehicles from restored classics to heavily modified cars and motorcycles. There were also few snowmobiles, which I will cover later.

Roihis Racing Ry's BMW E92 drift car

Tuesday, 26 September 2017

Drift & Tuning Day @ Ouluzone circuit - Part 2 - 23th of September 2017 - Arkala, Finland

Here's the second part covering the pit area and action at the track. Lots of people gathered to the event so hopefully it will grow more popular and bigger next year.


Drift & Tuning Day @ Ouluzone circuit - Part 1 - 23th of September 2017 - Arkala, Finland

Last Saturday NorthernWay racing team together with Catcorner Drift Team and Chevaliers hosted Drift & Tuning Day at the Ouluzone race circuit. Weather was cloudy but luckily rainless. Day consisted of drifting demostrations, passenger rides and powerslide competition. Chevaliers arranged a tuned and modified car show near the pit area and here are few photos from the exhibition. In part two I will cover the drifting side of the event. Enjoy!


Sunday, 10 September 2017

Hifi & Tuning Show 2017 - 9th of September 2017 - Oulu, Finland

Here's a peek to this year's Hifi & Tuning Show held once again in Ouluhalli, Oulu. This year's event was 16th in its history and over 200 vehicles were on display. Lots of them were familiar from past events but there were also few new acquaintances. Take a look!

People waiting in line at the entrance.

Sunday, 3 September 2017

Helsinki Bike Show 2017 - 10th of June - Helsinki, Finland

Here's a peek to some of the motorcycles displayed at the Helsinki Bike Show last June. Show was held in Kaivopuisto, Helsinki. Weather was great that day, warm and sunny, which helped to gather more visitors and motorcycles around the venue. Helsinki Bike Show is an annual event hosted by Modified Motorcycle Association of Finland. It's also free of charge. I'm glad that I finally got to the time edit these photos and show them to all of you. Enjoy!

BMW R100 RS

Thursday, 3 August 2017

Formula Student Netherlands @ TT Circuit Assen - 17th to 20th of July 2017 - Assen, Netherlands

Had a privilege to travel to Assen, Netherlands, and visit the first ever Formula Student Netherlands competition together with our University's Formula Student team, Formula Student Oulu Ry. The event was held at the famous 500 cc and MotoGP race track called TT Circuit Assen, The Cathedral of Speed. 

Formula Student is a technical competition for students. The idea is to build a working prototype race car, which complies with the Formula Student rule book. Competition is divided to static and dynamic events. Static events include Business Plan Presentation, Cost & Manufacturing and Engineering Design events. Acceleration, Skidpad, Autocross and Endurance are called dynamic events.

All the teams had go through a series of tests before they were allowed to compete at the dynamic events. Chassis, safety and technical inspections together with brake, noise and tilt test had to be cleared before you were allowed to enter the race track.

37 teams participated to this year's competition. 22 of them were powered with internal combustion engines and 15 of them had electric powertrains. TU Valencia was crowned the overall winner of the whole competition after taking first places in Autocross, Endurance, Efficiency and CV events. You can find all the results from this link. Remember to also check the events Facebook page for more photos and coverage.

Map of the venue with all the event locations.

Saturday, 10 June 2017

RAF Red Arrows - Kaivopuisto Air Show - 9th of June 2017 - Helsinki, Finland

Here's couple of photos of Royal Air For Red Arrows' performance, which was part of Kaivopuisto Air Show organised by Finnish Aviation Museum. Thanks for a great and entertaining setting!

This month we reached 10 000 views on my blog and I wanted to thank all my readers, especially all of you who follow my content regularly 😉 10 000 is just a small step compared to more popular sites and blogs but definitely the right direction. 

Unfortunately I haven't been been very active concerning my current motorcycle projects. There have been some changes in my personal life concerning my studies and involvement to other projects, which have affected my contribution. A lot has happen behind the scene and there's lots of progress but punch of small details and loose ends to be taken regard to before releasing new posts.

Nevertheless there's lots of new content coming up during this summer including shows and meet ups. So stay tuned for those! Have a nice summer!


Sunday, 4 June 2017

American Car Show - Oulu, Finland - 13th of May 2017

Here's few photos of this year's American Car Show organised in Oulu Hall and put together by American Car Club Oulu. Lots of cool old cars and motorcycles were in display. Take a look!

1926 Ford Roadster

Saturday, 6 May 2017

Motorcycle in Finland for 100 years - Jubilee exhibition - OSAO Kempele, Finland

Here's few photos from the jubilee exhibition organized by Terwamotoristit, regional association of the vintage motorcycle club of Finland (VMPK ry). This year Finland celebrates its hundred year of independence and the exhibition shows how motorcycles have evolved during that time span. Around 100 motorcycles were on display and the oldest was from 1913. Enjoy!

1913 Humber 3,5hp 500cc

Monday, 17 April 2017

Sunday, 16 April 2017

American Car Show 2017, 40th Anniversary - Helsinki, Finland - 14th of April - Part 2/4 - MC Heaven & Bomber Hell

Here's few photos from motorcycle sections of the show, MC Heaven and Bomber Hell. Bomber Hell was organized by Bomber Magazine, a Finnish motorcycle magazine. There were plenty of interesting motorcycles at display and 2008 Kawasaki ZX-10R built by Ape's Metalshop was definitely one of them. I wanted to take multiple pics of it since I totally missed it during my MP 17 visit despite the fact that I got to talk to Anssi Juvonen, the man behind Ape's Metalshop. Enjoy!

1920 Harley-Davidson L20T

Sunday, 2 April 2017

'73 Suzuki GT250 - Part 6 - '79 Suzuki RM 125 rear wheel refurbishment

Since I’m using a ’79-80 RM/PE 250 swingarm in my GT250 I figured that it would be easiest for me to fit same type of rear wheel to go along with it. I made a want-to-buy add to our local vintage MX forum requesting a ’79-80 RM250 rear wheel.

I had almost forgot my add when I received a phone call from a guy nearby. He had a pile of parts from a ’79 RM125 for sale including a rugged rear wheel, which would acquire quite a lot fixing up. Rim on it had cracked from several places and spokes were warped. After being outside for couple of decades lots of rust had formed in the brake drum and bearings were seized in place. 

'79 RM125 rear wheel (right).

Disassembling was the first thing to do and getting the beat up tire out with help of couple of tire irons and some lubricant. I needed to save few of the spokes and nipples so I applied some rust remover to them, screw them out with a spoke wrench and marked them masking tape. I removed the ones that were badly jammed or had cracked nipples with an angle grinder. Bearings were easy to get out after heating the housings with a hot air gun.

Couple of tire irons, spoke wrench, 1 mm cutting disc
for angle grinder and rust remover.


Rear wheel hub, bearings, spacer, spokes and nipples.

Rear wheel didn't come with a brake shield so I bought one from eBay and disassembled it.

'80 Suzuki RM125 rear brake shield



Due to heavy use and load bearing housings on the sprocket side tend to wear out and become loose. One way to fix this is to turn the housing bigger and fit a new steel bushing to it, which then holds the bearing. I send my hub to a machine shop located in Kokkola, Finland, called Konepaja Ågren to get it fixed up.

Pair of 6202-2RSH/C3 rear wheel bearings (15 x 35 x 11 mm).

I marked the worn bearing housing with a red marker pen.

Fixed housing with a new steel bushing inside.

Once I had both rear wheel hub and brake shield I masked them for sandblasting. I used old parts (rear sprocket and bolts, caps etc.) and masking tape to protect surfaces I didn't want blast. I also cleaned the brake drum before blasting with rust remover and a sanding pad. I took blasted parts to one of my local paint shops and got them painted black.

I used old parts for masking to protect surfaces I didn't want
to get sandblasted.


Painted rear wheel hub and brake shield.

I cleaned the brake drum with rust remover and a sanding pad.

I was looking for a new rear wheel rim and I got an offer of a new old stock (NOS) 18" x 1.85" Takasago rim with 36 holes. Since it had a reasonable price I decided to purchase it. Surface of the rim had stained during storage so I cleaned it with some Autosol Metal Polish and Autoglym polishing cloth.

NOS 18 x 1.85 Takasago rear wheel rim.

Storage stains on the surface of the rim.

Autosol Metal Polish and Autoglym polishing cloth.


Surface after polishing.

I picked one inner and one outer spoke from sprocket and drum brake side of the hub (4 total), marked and send them to Wheel Factory Finland, a company which makes custom spokes and nipples. I decided to try stainless steel spokes in this project. I've used their spokes before on couple of my bikes and been very pleased with them.

Model spokes marked and ready for shipping.

New set of stainless steel spokes and nipples.


Dimensions for '79 Suzuki RM125 rear wheel spokes.

I assembled the hub (bearings and spacer) before putting on the spokes. I used an axle seal (20 x 35 x 5 mm) to cover and protect the sprocket side bearing. I will turn a new bushing for it when I start lining up front and rear wheel sprockets.

New axle seal (20 x 35 x 5 mm).

I began lacing by placing all of the spokes to the hub, lubricated every spoke thread with boat tar and screwed them to the rim with nipples. Once I had the whole wheel together I took it to my local village shop. They do lacing for bicycle wheels and were able to line up my wheel and tighten the spokes for a fair price.

Bottle of boat tar.


I lubricated all of the spoke
threads with boat tar. 

Assembled rear wheel.

I've wanted to try white vinegar for rust removal for a while and brake shield parts seemed suitable for this experiment. I set rusted parts to a plastic container and filled it up with white vinegar. Placing the container to a warm location sped up the chemical reaction. Vinegar quickly turned to brown color and after a while to black. Unfortunately after keeping the parts a bit too long in the solution it had build up a black gooey layer on the surface of every part. I cleaned it off with warm water but it left black stains, which I had to soda blast off.


Rust removing with white vinegar.

Parts after white vinegar treatment...

...and after soda blasting.

Now that I had rust free parts I decided to try bluing them. I bought a bottle of Birchwood Casey's Perma Blue, a liquid gun blue. Bluing is simple process, which starts by applying the solution to surface of cleaned and rust free parts. I used a small paint brush. At first the surface turns black for a while. After the solution dried out off the surface I washed it with warm water. Last step was to oil the surface to bring back the black color.

90 ml bottle of Birchwood Casey's Perma Blu

First three stages of bluing: rust free (bottom),
applied (center) and dried and washed (top).

Dried parts after applying bluing solution.

Oiling the surface brings back the black color.

Lastly I replaced some of the worn parts with new ones. I ordered a new OEM bushing (09319-10008), washer (08211-15341) and pivot dust seal (61262-22A00) through my local Suzuki parts dealer. I bought a new TA2225Z roller bearing (22 x 29 x 25 mm) from eBay for a more reasonable price than the OEM one. Unfortunately the new bushing didn't match with the original spherical plain bearing so I have to find another one or use the old one instead. I also bought a pair of EBC S 617 brake shoes.


Bushing (09319-10008) didn't match with
the original spherical plain bearing (left).

Pair of EBC S 617 brake shoes.