Dark times: November bikepacking on the Ilvesreitti (Lynx route), Häme, Finland.

Bike packed for bikepacking. Swollen stream from the autumnal deluges behind

Hillbilly country

The older I get, the more I can’t ignore it, November is a shitty month in southern Finland. Snow is a rarity but so is sun. Do expect darkness, rain, wind and misery. Today, where I live, the day was 7 hours and 4 mins long, and when I say ‘day’, don’t get over excited: with 100% cloud cover, the skies have gone from black to grey and back to black once more. 6 hours of greyness and drizzle; that was the day. It’s interesting to note that we’ve actually lost over an hour and half of daylight since the first of month as well. So like I say: November - it really is a shitty month.

Old collapsed farm building, quite normal in rural Finland

Last weekend my son had a Scout camp to go to. In a fit of making-myself-do-something-I-might-otherwise-not-do, I volunteered to take some of kids up early on Saturday and bring them home on Sunday. The plan was, once out in the countryside, I’d stay and do something outdoorsy rather than drive there and back twice in two days. Climbing was one possibility, but didn’t quite work out. Rock climbing in November is always a bit marginal, so perhaps I didn't miss out on much. Instead I decided to go for an overnight bikepack trip near where I was taking the kids. I mentioned in a past post I've been to various parts of what are called the "Häme Lake Uplands", and have the outdoor recreation map to the area. Using the map I figured I find some sort of circular route around the Liesjärvi National Park and taking in what I presumed might be good single track riding on bits of the 250 km long Ilvesreitti long distance hiking trail. It didn't quite work out like that.

The 'path' as state of mind...

The map is great, showing loads of different potential adventures in this area. Besides the Ilvesreitti itself crossing the whole region, there are loads of other, much shorter circular paths that join it for sections; canoeing routes; cycling routes using quiet back roads; and even a long distance horse riding trail. Someone has been investing in the Ilvesreitti, there are plenty of signs and waymarks where it crosses roads and the like but actually in the forests, the path is almost non-existent in the places where I tried riding it. There are strips of faded plastic tied around trees every 50 metres or so. They take some effort to spot but you need to, because the path on the ground in places just disappears. There are little bridges and such across ditches, a few duckboard sections here and there, but over all the sense you get is that not enough people are using the route to really make an actual trail on the ground. Sections were essentially unrideable and I was pushing or carrying my bike. It's not easy hiking even without a bike.

...rather than geographic reality

In other places the route follows pre-existing dirt roads which make for easy mountain-biking and perhaps rather dull hiking, but don't get complacent because the route will suddenly leave the road and head off into the forest with just a few strips of plastic on trees showing you the way! It's interesting, because if I have any complaints about Finnish national parks it's that they make the hiking trails idiot proof: so many waymarks that walkers don't really need to take any responsibility for themselves in navigating. I followed the Ilvesreitti for maybe 20 kms or so of my trip and found that I was consulting my map and compass regularly, and backing that up from time to time with the GPS on my phone. I could imagine anyone used to the more normal Finnish marked trails finding the bits of the Ilvesreitti I followed frustrating and easy to get lost on. I eventually bailed out after a good few kms of pushing and carrying my bike where the trail follows the northern shore of Onkimaanjärvi (just east of Liesjärvi national park). After the autumnal deluges, the path was underwater at one point, so I escaped away from the lake, giving up on the trail for the nearest logging tracks.

The map showed a laavu on the shores of a small lake called Kivijärvi. I realised that it was past 3pm and overcast, meaning I didn't have a lot of daylight left, so it only being a few kms from where I had escaped from the bike-pushing torture on the Ilvesreitti, it seemed a like a good bet. The main thing I wanted was a fireplace and some dry wood, which often comes with hikers' laavus in Finland, and I wasn't disappointed with this one. The wind meant most of the smoke from the fire went into the laavu which was unfortunate, but considering that my gas stove was malfunctioning (until a little emergency repair work with the pin from my swiss army knife later) it was great to have the fire to cook my food on and boil tea and coffee water.

The inky dark of a cloudy November night

 By 8pm I had ate, drunk and fixed my stove, so I realised there wasn't much else to do beside let the fire go out, roll out my sleeping bag in the now less smokey laavu, and go to bed. I think that's the earliest I've been to bed in years. It was a very dark night, only one electric light visible off in the distance and the stars and the moon hidden behind thick clouds. The noise of the wind driven wavelets on lake slapping against the shore and the gusts of wind kept away the claustrophobia that all pervading darkness can bring. I got stuck into a new book, but after 45 kms of biking (or bike pushing!) that day I soon went off to sleep.

The laavu fire bucket made an excellent windbreak

Trail signs; we're just missing the trail!

Dawn on Sunday was marked by a slow and subtle change from blackness to greyness. The wind was blowing straight off the lake and into the laavu. It wasn't desperately cold, a few degrees above freezing, but the dampness, wind and greyness made getting out of my sleeping bag and unattractive prospect. Eventually I did, and once breakfasted, packed and back on the bike it wasn't too bad. I rode around the top of Liesjärvi on some pleasant quiet roads and into the national park. Virtually no one else was around, so the highlight of the day was riding along the amazing two kms long esker ridge of Kyynäränharju that splits the lake in half. I imagine in summer this could get quite busy but I saw no one else. After that I did some much better, technical single track riding through to Korteniemi Heritage Farm. Leaving the farm area I took another footpath that turned out to be a bad move as it followed duckboards for a couple of kms through a swamp. Normally riding duckboards is a fun challenge of your riding skills, but these were in lousy shape, often broken and with a gap in the middle big enough to catch even the fat tyres on my mountain bike. They are also as slippery as hell after the autumn of rain. Even just walking on them and pushing the bike was no easy task. Duckboards escaped, it was nearly back at the main road. Once on the road, now in real rain rather than just the drizzle of the morning, just a few kilometres of tarmac bashing had me back to the car and the closing of the circle.

The esker ridge of Kyynäränharju, Liesjärvi, Finland from Toby A. on Vimeo.

The woods are rather dead feeling at this time of year; the leaves are all now just brown mulch under your tyres, all the ferns and grass have died back and perhaps most noticeable is the almost total absence of any type of bird song. Biking should be (if you have everything running well) very quiet, so I have had far more close encounters with wildlife when riding than even whilst walking; but on this trip - nothing. There must have been moose around somewhere because I saw a standard huge Finnish hunting party out to shoot something, but if the moose were about they must have been sensibly keeping their heads down.

Brown and grey

Overall? By no means a bad trip, but there is something melancholy about this time, these dying weeks of the year. Nevertheless, without it we would neither appreciate the glaring purity of the thick midwinter snows and hard frosts, nor the manic abundance of life and growth that is the short northern summer.

Battling the bike rage

This month’s Guardian bike podcast has a piece on bike rage. I suspect that there aren’t many regular cyclists who don’t know exactly what the guy is talking about; when drivers appear to be willing to risk your life out of their thoughtlessness or lack of attention, it is very hard not to take it personally no matter how hard you try to rationalize it.  The Guardian’s commentator talks about self-loathing cyclists – those who are embarrassed by the aggression of angry and self righteous cyclists and his battle to find his place between the two extremes, something I understand well. A few days ago, for the first time ever in maybe 10,000 kms of riding in Helsinki I hit a pedestrian. 

In retrospect it wasn’t really anyone’s fault and fortunately my mountain biking skills paid off, and when this woman suddenly stepped into my path I just managed to brake and jump sideways giving her shopping bag a good whack but thankfully neither hitting her or knocking me off my bike. But once I got past the shock of how close to being a nasty accident for both of us it had been, I managed to avoid feeling either guilty over my riding or too angry at her actions. The street at that point is an undifferentiated cycling and walking path. The lady had as much right to be walking there as I did to be cycling. The lack of logic and changing basic assumption of the Helsinki cycle path system means there is no ‘natural’ feeling of who should be where on such as road. The road also has some patterned bricks in it, purely for aesthetics I guess, but that are enough to loosen the fillings of cyclists riding over them and meaning you tend to make you look down rather than forward. And finally half the road was being dug up pushing everyone into an even smaller space. I do get annoyed by pedestrians who walk on the cycle paths and I get annoyed by cyclists who ride on the walking path, but the lack of any consistency all across the city is clearly a major cause of this. It is a structural problems with Helsinki’s cycle path system that actually “empowers” inattentive cyclist and pedestrians – and we can all be one of those at times - making accidents more likely to happen.

On the way home I rode through the forests of Central Park and out into the countryside around Ylästö, on the quietest roads and cycle paths that I could think of, and that was much more mellow.

Dumb Helsinki cycle paths #8

First bit of rubbish bike path design for 2010, Katajanokalaituri in downtown Helsinki. Another case of a good intentions not really thought through very far.

(Please click on the picture to get the full-size version.)

The winter biking blues

Hibernating bikes outside Helsinki Central Railway Station

After a pretty good cycling year last year, this one has started badly. In early January I rode into work and there my bike has remained ever since. Firstly the temperatures went down and I just couldn’t bring myself to ride in temperatures of –15 to –20. Weak I know, but keeping your toes from freezing becomes such an issue it takes a lot of the pleasure out of it. Then after that cold snap it has snowed and snowed some more. The city is trying its best to clear snow from walking and cycling paths but there are plenty where they haven’t managed it yet and that would make my ride very slow and hard work. I’ll just have to keep XC skiing instead.

Winterized single-speed, spoke cards and all...

In the past this blog has been a little bit snarky towards my Helsinki fixed-gear brethren, what with their wildly spinning legs and off-the-peg-total-lifestyle-fad-adoption. But it has to be said, I’ve seen very few folks on their bike this last month, but of those I have seen a decent percentage have been on fixies; a massive increase on the percentage of summer riders using fixed gear bikes anyway. So big up da’ fixed gear winter riding posse.

First cycling of the year

First cycle ride into work of the year today; hard work with lots of soft snow about but still very pretty with all the trees laden with snow.

Start as you mean to go on: just like all through last year the customers of the Wanha Apteekki Café were blocking the pavement and cycle path again. Happy New Year to you to.

Last years mileage: 3032 kms commuting; 158 kms off-road mountain biking; 85 kms on the road bike. A grand total of 3275 kms ridden. That's my best effort since 2005!

Little victories and righteous anger

These are the dark times in North. It doesn't last forever but whilst it does it can beat you down. It messes with your sleeping patterns and with other parts of your mind. Humans only came to these latitudes recently in evolutionary terms, we evolved under African suns. Today, in the north, the sun rose at 9.15 and it will set at 15.11 but you don't see it anyway as it's so low and hidden behind a thick smog of grey clouds. It snowed a little through the night and it is brighter now for that, but yesterday the dusting of snow didn't even settle everywhere, and was dripping and melting where it had, only adding to the damp, cold, claustrophobic dampness of it all.


I rode my bike because I hadn't for over a week and felt bad about it, not because there was much pleasure to be had from it. A certain grumpy, bloody-mindedness is probably the right the attitude to get you through these weeks, and for that you need little victories and a pinch of righteous anger. Fortunately biking can provide both. First the victories - I went past 3000 kms ridden this year on my commuting bike yesterday. I was just coming out the forest and into Pasila when my bike computer clocked the big 3. I must have actually done 3000 kms ridden this year a couple of weeks ago as there a few hundred more kms logged on my other bikes' computers, but somehow seeing it on that display felt good.


The next thing was the righteous anger: I climbed up over the bridge that crosses the railway at Ilmala station, turned south again next to YLE and started the swoop down the hill that takes the cycle path down over the level crossing and up into Pasila station. Going downhill, picking up speed, round the corner and there in the middle of the cycle path blocking basically the entire track -crash-barrier to bank- is a cherry picker. Somewhere high above some blokes were working from the basket on the side of the Fennia building. Fortunately between disc brakes and studded tyres and I managed to stop and had to duck to get under and around the bloody thing. Yet again, cyclists get treated as if they don't matter. If some other vehicle needs somewhere to park, you just block a cycle path because, who gives a fuck? They're only cyclists aren't they... So if you're the people working on the Fennia building with a hired cherry picker from Leino Lift, you are antisocial idiots of the highest order and you could try having a bit of common respect for other people.


Now I'm glad that I got that off my chest.

Smackdown

A sharpish corner, going downhill, wet sand and gravel from road works covering tarmac. Not a good combo. It all happens so fast, I've hit the floor and rolled before I know what happened. Back wheel skidded out I guess. Dammit, that hurt, but I'm ok and sit on the ground for a bit swearing. Palms of my newish winter biking gloves both shredded. Knee of my bib tights ground away and blood is starting to soak into the muddy material around the hole. It hurt again washing the dirt out in the shower at work later, but overall I'm more annoyed about the trashed clothing than the injury.

That was going to work. Coming home, I stick to the tracks through central park and Paloheina - away from traffic, and sand-slicked tarmac cycle paths. The knee hurts a bit, but the autumn colours and setting sun make up for it.

Dumb Helsinki cycle paths #7

The BBC has good report looking at how Copenhagen has become the best city in the world for cyclists. There a third of people use a bike for getting to work, school or university. A third!? That's amazing isn't it? Less pollution, less noise, less traffic for those folk who do need to drive, less congestion on public transport, more exercise meaning less weight for the medical system to carry. Everyone's a winner.

So in Copenhagen they are extending the cycle path network and widening the actual lanes. Here in Helsinki some people seem also to be excited about the cycle paths/pavement that forms part of my route to work. They have decided it can be used as over-flow car parking for the fat, lazy, selfish and anti-social, and as it happens daily as the same place and has done summer, it appears the relevant authorities don't give a shit either.


So it's nice that us cyclists and pedestrians of Helsinki now know our place. That would be dodging traffic in the road.

Dumb Helsinki cycle paths #6

First day back at work. First day cycling into Helsinki in a month. First idiot of the autumn who thinks that the pavement/cycle path makes a good place to park his truck whilst he pops into the café next door for a quick donut and coffee.

As I tried to inch round the truck on the 15 cms or so of the pavement that he hadn't selfishly and dangerously parked on, my back wheel slipped off the kerb and I went down, falling into the road. This was the result.

So to the driver of truck registration number "SIO 655" - thanks a lot. You are a thoughtless and anti-social knobber of the highest order.

Dumb Helsinki cycle paths #5

I think this one, from Pasila - a bit north of downtown Helsinki, is pretty bloody self explanatory. As they haven't repainted the pedestrian/cyclist division line for some years, I've added it to the photo.

Good Helsinki cycle paths #2

I cycled to and from work on four days this last week - lovely weather balancing out tired legs. That's about 200 kms and 8 hours in the saddle. Anyway, the more I ride, the more sadly obsessed I become with cycle path design (or lack there of). The weather being so good I've ridden the longer route through the central park quite a few times this week. This is very relaxing as you are on gravel tracks, miles from any cars, with the only worry being coming round a corner and meeting a dog walker with one of those idiot extendible leads. Why do people with those extendible leads somehow think that walking on one side of a cycle path whilst Fido walks on the other side - stretching two metres of tight nylon out between them - could ever be a smart thing to do? Run in to that doing 35 kmph and me, the dog or the dog's owner are going to get hurt - and I'm the only one wearing a helmet.

Anyway, eventually you get down town and have to leave the quiet woodland paths and get back into urban cycling mode. This is why I want to point out the best bit of cycle path I know in downtown Helsinki:

The video is riding south down Pohjoisranta, about here:


View Larger Map

It's a good because, first, there is a metre of space clearly defined with trees and stuff between us bikers and the cars in the street. Secondly there is a bloody great wall between us bikers and the pedestrians. Now don't get me wrong; I love pedestrians, indeed some of my best friends have been known to walk, I just don't like them wandering aimlessly onto cycle paths. It's great to see pedestrians strolling down here, looking at the boats, enjoying the sea air, having fun - knowing that is where they'll stay thanks to the aforementioned bloody great wall. Also, where cars or pedestrians can cross the cycle path, it is really clearly marked with zebra crossing markings on the road. If all of the city could be like this, cycling life would be really sweet.

Good Helsinki cycle paths #1 - Central Park

I have been getting excessively annoyed (see post below) by the dumb cycle paths this last week: pedestrians walking in the cycle lane, cycle salmons: those who can't stay on their side of the path, cars refusing to stop at crossing, car transport lorries parking on cycle paths and the general annoyances of urban cycling, so on Friday decided to ride the whole way home through Helsinki's central park and the countryside strip to its north that cuts through urban Vantaa. It's not actually that much further, and although it is mainly gravel paths not tarmac, not that much slower. And there are just less irritating 'other people', so really I should ride this route more often and keep my moany, anti-social self away from the civilised folk.

Normally I'm listening to current affairs podcasts on my iPod when riding but on Friday I just put on the 'my top rated' play list and I'm sure I rode much faster as a result, spinning hard to my favourite tunes. Anyway the video is just to prove to myself, as much as anyone else, that I can appreciate the good things in life - in this case quiet, well-made, forest cycle tracks - as well as moan about the bad. And for anyone who doesn't know Helsinki - it's kind of cool that you can find these kind of areas in a city of a million people, isn't it?

Dumb Helsinki cycle paths #4 and other cycling matters.

It's my old friends at the car leasing showroom once again blocking the cycle path/pavement with their car delivery trucks. I actually had 'words' with the driver this morning to make sure he understood the issue. I suspect he thought he was being thoughtful leaving all of 50 cms space between the grass bank and his truck, to let foot traffic and cyclists to 'pass' (to pass him; of course we can't pass each other in that much space). They actually drive the cars down the pavement to load them on to the truck as well, just to add insult to injury. The thought just clearly never enters their heads that they could park in the road, and force car drivers to go around them whilst they load or unload - oh no. They couldn't block the traffic, could they? But pedestrians and cyclists don't count as traffic, so why give a shit?

Maybe lots more people will get the chance to explore the positives and the negatives of the Helsinki cycle path system next Monday as currently the trains will be on strike, and commuter trains are a major part of the transport network in greater Helsinki. According to YLE, the train company VR says it is impossible to arrange alternative transport during the strike. The BBC reports that cycling trebled this week in London as a result of the tube strike, so come Monday the cycle paths of Helsinki might well be packed. With the pleasent summer weather we have currently the paths are already busy - this is the worst time of year because there are so many walkers and out and, as I have discussed before, cyclists and pedestrians are forced to share paths in completely illogical, confusing and downright dangerous ways.

And one final Helsinki cycling note: where the hell have all these girls on fixies suddenly appeared from? The whole fixie thing is a total downtown phenomenon - I don't think I've seen anyone riding fixed gear north of Pasila, let alone in the 'wilds' north of Kehä I (the inner ring road), but before this year I don't think I had ever seen a girl riding fixed. Now they are everywhere. Of course the bike are totally urban hipster, and they wear all the right clothes to match as well. But ladies, really - you have to work more on not looking so nervous. It totally blows your cool. Dare I really suggest it? How about riding with brakes? It makes life so much less scary. :-)

Dumb Helsinki cycle paths #3

If you can't find anywhere else to park, or are just too lazy to walk from a parking spot a bit further away, there is lots of space to leave your car or truck on the cycle path system of greater Helsinki! It's easy - just park in the middle of the cycle path and totally ignore any feelings of being an anti-social and selfish dickwad who puts other people's safety at risk! Presumably you're too thick to have much of conscience anyway?

If you have a big enough truck you can score the double whammy of making both cyclists AND pedestrians walk in the traffic! Score triple if the pedestrian is parent pushing a pram!

This truck is blocking both the cycle path and the view of people waiting at the tram stop making them walk into the street to see if the tram is coming. Well done - you are a jerk of the highest order! (We will get on to the brightness of putting trams stops on cycle paths at a later date...)

If you had parked a bit further over mate, you could have covered the cycle path markings, and this photo wouldn't have been nearly as good!

Dumb Helsinki cycle paths #2

This interesting signage is on the east side of Pasila train station, Helsinki's second major train station, and the northern city centre transport hub. The signs show quite clearly that the cycle path system isn't a system as such, but rather a collection of good intentions never clearly thought out from the users' perspectives.

In many places cyclists and pedestrians share the same pavement but a large, solid white line (often half faded away) theoretically seperates them - this is what the sign on the left in the photo means. Cyclists should follow the rules of the 'road' (i.e. riding on the right) on their half of the pavement. Of course kids, dogs, drunks, idiots and simply the absent minded forget about the line and wander from the pedestrian side into the cycle lane. In other places the line is so worn out, people who don't know that street can genuinely say they didn't realise, an old lady was walking along the cycle path just before I took this photo - where the line was no longer visible.

Yet in many other places, pedestrians and cyclists moving in the same direction are meant to share the lane on their right. Here a broken line marks the middle and this is what the sign on right in the photo means. After well over 10,000 kms ridden on Helsinki bike paths, I still have no idea why these two completely contrary systems exist, and whether there is any logic to what system goes where. I'm pretty certain there is no logic at all and it was left to the whims of which ever urban planner was dealing with that stretch of road. This is of course utterly confusing to bikers and walkers and leads constantly to dangerous situations.

Dumb Helsinki cycle paths #1

Hopefully the first in an irregular series.

The photo is of the cycle path down the west side of Elielinaukio - for non-Helsinkians it the square right between to the central railway station and the central post office in the very centre of Helsinki. It is also one of the major bus termini for the downtown area. As you can see in the photo, the buses pull up at this point and all the passenger disgorge. It is virtually impossible to get off with lots of other people and not end up on the cycle path. I wonder how many pedestrian-bike crashes there are each year that never end up in hospital or police reports? A colleague at work told me today he hit a woman on his bike last week after she stepped out blind onto the cycle path from behind a kiosk, giving him basically no time to do anything. I noted this a few weeks back, but it is a good quote to repeat - the problem, as summed up perfectly by a visiting American cycle expert, is:
"in the US, cyclists are accomodated on the road and are treated as slow cars, whereas in Europe (and certainly in Helsinki) cyclists are accomodated on the sidewalks with cycle tracks and are treated as fast pedestrians."
Helsinki, and Finland in general, should not rest on its laurels when it comes to cycle path provision. Things aren't bad, but there is plenty of room for improvement.

Bikes are back in Helsinki

The snow is almost all gone. There was still of scum of ice left on the harbour bays this morning down town as I rode to work, but a brisk wind had broken much of it up by home time.

The first flowers are out in my garden. The grass is still brown having emerged from under the snow, but nature is pregnant with that feeling of spring about to burst into forth from all directions.

The street sweepers have been out getting rid of a winter's worth of gravel, dust, litter and now unfrozen dog turds.

I've had my summer tyres back on for the last 100 or so kms and everything is running smooth and sweet, after 700 kms of studded-tyre chatter since the end of November.

The sun shone and Helsinki actually looked pretty scenic in the bright light.

But what does this mean? It means suddenly I have to share the cycle paths again with more than about four other bikers. With fast cyclists, slow cyclists, wobbly cyclists - that's all good. But I do get annoyed by pedestrians who seem too stupid to work out what a big painted picture of bike on path might mean, and even worse with dog walkers and their death trap extendable (and invisible from a distance) leads. These idiot devices allow Fido to stroll along on the far side of the cycle path, sniffing for interesting dog piss in the bushes, whilst his master walks on the pedestrian side and in effect stretching a garotte across the cycle path between them. I hate dog walkers with extendible leads. So you ring your bell or shout a warning and they have the temerity to look fucking shocked that there might be a cyclist coming down the cycle path that they have just stretched a trip line across. Perhaps pet shops only sell extendible leads to stupid people? Or does somehow just using one, make people stupid?

Oh well, in New York people use the cycle lanes to walk their dogs (scroll down) as well. But it is not just the dog walkers...

In Helsinki some people think that cycle paths are good place for a truck stop. In fact I've seen the tosser in the photo snapped from the bus above parked in exactly the same place before - not only blocking half of the pavement that is the cycle path, but also the other half for pedestrians. When I had to bunny hop into the road to get round him the last time he had parked there, I watched a mother have to push her pram into the same busy road to get around the thoughtless wanker. If I had been a metropolitan police officer I might have told him to "go away" in a very certain manner, which probably makes it good thing that I'm not.

I took this pic late at night last week. The car had been parked there when I was going to work about 12 hours earlier and was still there at night, with no parking ticket on it. Fair enough - cars break down, but there's an empty area just out of sight on the left of the photo where they could have left it with with out it blocking walkers or cyclists. An American cycling adovocate recently visited Helsinki to compare cycling provision here to Washington DC where he is from. Helsingin Sanomat's report had the 'good news' headline of "American pedal-pusher sees Helsinki as a good biking city" although if you read Eric Gilliland's blog about the trip, it is much more interesting - and he clearly know what he is talking about as identifies virtually all the problems with the Helsinki cycle path system very quickly. For example: "in the US, cyclists are accomodated on the road and are treated as slow cars, whereas in Europe (and certainly in Helsinki) cyclists are accomodated on the sidewalks with cycle tracks and are treated as fast pedestrians. I think, and Petri and Marek also think, that the true answer lies somewhere in the middle."
Exactly.

I was going to make fun of Finland's seemingly new found fixie culture having seen a sudden burst of down-town fixie hipsterdom in the last two weeks - but I'll have to leave that for another post. But if you are out and about in Helsinki - just keep an eye out for this sort of chap (or his female counter part):

(Via, and big-up, the Get Outdoors blog)

And you'll know who I'm talking about as they all look the same. :-)