Thanks Dani.

Just caught up with this thread, sorry to hear of your loss Timo, your Pops sounded like a cool guy, our prayers are with you.

we will be over in summer so maybe can catch up? (Mirka and Emma are there now until after the May 1st party)

DINGO

Hey Timo.

So sorry mate.

How is the weather there now - must be starting to warm up.

There's nothing like a ride to clear the mind.

Dingo, Kurt. Much appreciated, thanks. Yeah Dingo, LMK know when you're around and we'll think of something, maybe come visit to the shack/our place or somehting.

Let's turn the discussion into something positive.

It's the 30th of april today and the annual 1st of may/labor day celebrations aka Vappu in finnish is about to kick off. Finns who already have "slight" difficulties handling alcohol in civilized manner are today being allowed to go completely ape in the streets.. uh oh... not good. LOL. But. it's somewhat amusing to watch people though especially when you're sober.
We have plans to go downtown as usual to see the party action, maybe have a zip of cider and some pastries/food who knows. The 1st of may marks the beginning of the long awaited summertime. Trees get green, grass is growing and generally speaking the life feels pretty good again. It's the best time of the year really.

A lot has been going on in the past few months, nothing completely out of ordinary but still all kinds of stuff. We've spent a lot time at the shack (as usual) doing whatever. Here is some of the best shots since february to this day. Enjoy!


Me & kati at the shack, late february sunset. Me with my David Copperfield pose holding a fork. sheesh.


Some more sunsets at the shack. The powerline pole in near 45 degree angle. It took some three weeks for the electrical company to come and fix that thing.


Yet another sunset, early march.


The first fly.


Saying farewell to the winter. This is a tradition, somehting i've done since kid. There is symbolism in this getting rid of the final piece of ice and welcoming the summertime.


...while SOMEONE was sleeping. One of those kooky photos, lol. It was warm enough to feel a little bit cold. Weird isn't?


Late march snowman by my father. We had a huge snowfall in late march this is the remains of it.


Meanwhile at home, we upholstered our old heavy duty office chair originalting from the 30's. It took us all day but was totally worth it. Here in the middle of finishing the upper back seam.


Random writings from nearby area saying "girls, you're not there yet" ..whatever that stands for.


Girl/boy scout group meeting/march at downtown from just few days ago. The traffic was jammed obviously, including bicycle lanes.

World's strongest man at the shack. In other words continuing the work on the rock wall behind me and the new procejt, the wave breaker. We're out of decent size rocks soon so we have to dig them up, lol!


What's happening here.. The rubber carpet used under canoes had accidentally slipped few meters too far in to the water because it wasn't properly attached on the shore so i had to find it and pick it up with all that mud. Atleast we found it.


Yours truly doing some gardening in form of cutting some dead branches off trees. Eyes closed. Dont worry the trees are fine.


And since it's the "may day" today, here's your typical may day food, or atleast an important part of it. Pastries called "tippaleipä" which look like bunch of worms or brains and the kind of a soda we call "sima" yet it's not exactly soda, impossible to explain.

YEAH!!

Timo,

good to hear from you at last

Mirka nad Emma are over in Finland visiting her folks (and Mirka is probably partying right now lol)

I hear it was 22 degrees and sunny today? fantastic

Emma in Finland today (excuse the pic it was sent via cell phone):-





DINGO

so glad you have come out of hibernation timo! we've missed you. good to see kati again too. so not only does your dad build outhouses he builds snowmen too. nice. good form. mmmmm brains... awesome pics as always timo. looking forward to some riding ones

dingo - emma is sure a cutie

Excellent images. I love Helsinki and Finland. The people were simply great.

Yeah it's been +22 and sunny outside today.

...while i have spent the precious day-off inside four walls with this goddamn jacked up knee! Crap! I'm hatin it totally. Oh well they say good things come for those who... wait?? If only i could measure the amount of frustration right now.

Cheers for the comments folks.

I hope your feelin better soon Timo. Not a lot of days to be wasted sitting around. Great pics mate.

Cheers. Yeah doing much better than a week, two weeks ago when just walking was pain.

Bad news first, check this out...



While we were visiting my folks today evening Kati's bike was left locked INSIDE the buildings bike cellar/room where only the people who live in tha building have acces. When we left and wen to get the bike somebody had destroyed the seat on Kati's bike. This happened at somepoint this evening. F-ing Unbelievable. Somebody cold sliced it open. Why? I have no idea. I would guess some neihgbourhood kids/punks who had nothing better to do. Mind you, the bike was locked inside locked doors in a bike cellar and not left on some alley. This just furiates me, if i had seen who did this i would've kicked their arse. This just pisses me off cause the seat was fairly new with the outer from the old one for better looks & shape. F**K!
Either they were jealous or just plain retarded or both. Ican't see any "reason" for this.

*boiling*

what in the world is wrong with people? i just don't get that.

glad to hear you are having continual improvement.

Only now i am starting to get over it. lol Guess they were just some bonehead junior delinguents let on the loose. Sheesh i hate that, if only theoir parents knew their little angles are up to no good. Maybe i'll just patch the seat and make some cool seat cover for it, checker pattern etc. moto-inspired. Well this is a good excuse to order some new bars and tires i've been meaning/wanting to get for her cruiser for better looks. I'm going for real deal enduro motocross bars and some new skinwall 2.125 tires.

Anyway, it's going to be chilly this week barely above +10.


You can't start a post with "bad news first" without tellign the good news aswell.
Yesterday went skating with an old friend, classmate actually, from my school days in the 80s. We had a nice 4 hour skate session in the nearby areas, totally nostalgic. We hadn't gone skateboarding together since late 80's i think. It was like a two man calss reunion, lol. Time flies, good times.

Last saturday we had the Aina Flatland Jam at Ruoholahti ballcourt. Aina Flatland jam was intetionally poorly translated to "Always Jam" because Aina is a female first name but in spoken language it also means "always". So, always jam we did.

Anyway, it was hot. Probly the warmest day so far, should've wore my shorts and not the long black jeans. Here's some photos i took of the jammin' posse. It was not many but then again.. when is? It's small circles around here.


Warming up waiting for more people to arrive.


This is Aapo with a regular Death truck. I can only wish i could do something like that some day..


..and one step beyond - the Death truck without hands. He's amazing.


Not only did Julius had some new smooth tricks up his sleeve...


..he was also cruising around like a king (on my bike) with his "Eazy-E" looks. lol!


Two of the street riders appeared aswell with bunch of their "not normal" tricks. Here's Markus with his invention where the bike spins 360 sweeping the ground. Sounds like nothing but the way he does it makes it ultra smooth. But still, those street riders are weird breed, lol!


Saku "mr. hyperactive" lets it loose. I had hard time staying behind him with my camera. This is like the only shot that was decent, i pretty much missed everything he did because he's so quick in his actions.


Jussi with a cross footed Hitchiker. For once a decent shot with nothing cropped out.


Typical scene. One person is riding - the rest are sitting. Exactly like the common joke about city construction workers where one is digging the hole in the ground while the rest are watching.

More..


Aapo on rear wheel preparing for one of his crazy moves. My bad on timing.


Markus "bicep" B on his way home with the final pose.


"The end" is to "Guys were heading to downtown to buy some (more) beer"

Overall it was a very nice day meeting guys and hang around. I did some riding too but not as much as week ago with Upi though. Reason a) the knee was slightly holding me back b)somebody has to shoot the photos and c) i really don't like the coarse/disintegrating surface of the ruoholahti court because it is so bad shape these days and it eats up tires too much, too fast (..and it especially likes vintage skinwall slicks).

For anyone into viewing the not-so-typical tourist attraction photos here in Helsinki, "the pearl of baltic", check out this hilarious yet tragical photography presented by Pekka Niittyvirta exposing the scenes we native citizens encounter if not daily, let's say quite often. Helsinki is mental state, sometimes literally.
Warning, might contain strong imagery to some people.

Greetings From Helsinki!
(click the photos on the site to go to the next one etc.)

yeah that is some different stuff for sure. thanks for sharing. i didn't get to see too many because of my darn dialup so i hope they won't be blocked at work and i can see some more.

Cool Dani. Yeah different alright..

Ok some new stuff to talk about. On 20th-21st we had the usual midsummer's eve aka nightless night. It's the same tradition every year, guess it's been discussed here too. Majority of us finns get completely wasted (like those in the "Greetings from Helsinki" site lol!) while some of us don't. Bonfires at late evening are part of the tradition, grillin and chillin etc. Lots of tourists around checking out the phenomena of daylight in the middle of night. Those of you living in the northern parts of the globe are familiar with this but those that don't are normally even more confused than us natives cause it messes up the biologial clock completely, especially if you stay up all day and nite. How are you supposed to sleep while it's bright as a day still at midnight and it doesn't even get dark. It's tough sometimes.
Anyway, we had our own "celebration" at the shack with K. Nothing fancy or complicated, just grilling and plain enjoying the eve doing nothing. And what's midsummer's eve without rain? Nothing. So it was pouring most of the time but luckily we had our brand spanking new beach cabana wind breaker whatever tent set firmlay on the shack's terrace so we were good. This is what went down..


Arrived at the shack at noon. THought of taking some bike pics and i did before the weather turned against us. Here starting the grill, stoked on FIRE, Kati with the m-coast chicas sign (the notorious girl gang from Möhkö, lol!) Yeah. Beware.


Kati cooking with FIRE.


Then it was my turn to turn up more heat. Stoked on FIRE again casting spells and whatnot, burning twigs doing backflips and talking funny.


On the shack menu: grilled sausages with mustard, grilled red salmon, mushrooms accompanied by some green stuff guess some type of green onion, salad with feta cheese, tomatoes, cucumber and spinach leafs and fresh boiled potatos with dill, butter and some bread (not shown) and Pepsi. Nam nam.


Then it started to rain without end. The good thing was it took us less effort doing the dishes as the rain pretty much took care of that.


It as also fun to watch people on their boats and tourists on their sightseeing vessels getting soaked to see the big bonfire at nearby island.


meanwhile I decided to try and finish some of the dishes but i had hard time putting enough effort to it.


Ultimately i decided taking a nap was better idea than finishing the dishes. We didn't mind the rain as the tent or whatever you call that thing, held water pretty well and we were very cozy under the blankets with food on our bellys. Slightly chilly but that's part of the bliss. Midsummer's finest hour in typical finnish midsummer weather, lol! But It was very relaxing just to listen to the rain come down with a rumble.


Finally it started to clear a bit.


And on our way home we saw the remains of the big bonfires which the rain had put out at one point.

Oh yeah, some more recent random photos.


Foreign ship on a visit with gold plated eagle. They should've gold plated the whole ship, now THAT would've been something! Oh yeah and add some new frame decals.


Cathed a chopper taking off today. It was exciting.


Wall of art and PK Ripper.

yeah ok alright uh-huh

Looks like i made it to the local newspaper on my Vertigo causing havok in the streets of Helsinki:


Well, in reality the article is about how there isn't enough bicycle lanes in the downtown Helsinki area. Photo taken at morning on my way to work.
Damn paparazzis! They're stalking me everywhere i go! they won't leave alone. sheesh!! leave me be you evil. LOL

oh man this page is killin me. i can't see the new ones because even after an hour of waiting at home they aren't all load and they are blocked at work. grrrr

ooo ooo i just thought of something and changed the number of posts per page from forum default to 10. i bet that will make a difference for me at home.

Let me know if it works. Makes sense.

holy cow! i am on a wireless network and the pictures are there before i even scroll down to them. wow!

really great stuff timo. i loved the construction worker bit. same over here. and it was good to see kati and your feast looked really nummy. i love salmon. but where are the s'mores??? a girl gang? lol. kati and the hedgehogs? or the cat?

and that pic in the paper is great. so were you off being a punk as part of your initiation into the mohko gang?

i am down at my mom's right now. oh hey timo you should check my thread in the cafe about her skydiving.

oh man i don't know how i am going to go back to dialup after this. this is so great...

hey Timmo. I haven't been here for a while. How have you been mate?
We are going through our winter at the moment. Bit chilly at 5 deg C !
Hope your getting lots of riding in mate.
Cheers

Life indeed is amazinf sometimes. Get this, we are walking downtown here in helsinki i see a taal man dressed in black walking with his wife and daughter. We get closer and the man seems familiar. Too familiar...

WHAT?!?

HOLY CRAP!! IT'S DEE SNIDER!!! IN FLESH AND BLOOD! IT'S DEE SNIDER HIMSELF WALKING RIGHT HERE IN THE MIDDLE OF HELSINKI!!

I true disbelief i grab the pen from my backpack and a tourist booklet i have with me (Kati's folks are currently visiting Helsinki) and approach him sayin "sorry to bother.." he goes "what's the bother" and i politely ask for an autograph. I tell him i was dedicated Twisted Sister fan since 1984 and he's pleased to hear that. The "Fire Still Burns" like the title of one of their song.
He asks my name, i spell it for him and he writes "Timo Twisted Forever! - Dee Snider 08"


I then tell him we went to their gig last november and he goes "did we rock?" i go "yeah, definitely!"
Turns out he was in helsinki because his band (not TS though) has a gig at a place he can't remember the name of. We then shake hands (*im even more stoked*) and he shakes hands and says hi to Kati aswell which was pretty cool too. This was one of those moments "wish i had my camera" but the memory will remain forever AND i got the autograph i could only DREAM of as a kid so a photo or not, who cares.

What-a-day. Still overwhelmed and stoked beyond belief.

Coasty, we've been fine thanks. Seems the weather turned sour on us at aug 1st, but it should get better next week. I am working a getting parts for the new secret build Other than that, just enjoying the summer atlhough i didn't have any summer vacation this year. Oh well there's always the next.

Yo Dani, Thanks. Great to hear the pics work. Yeah that was my part of M-gang initiation alright, lol!! You funny. Skydiving? uh oh, have to check that out.

OMG timo that is so freakin crazy! were you squealing like a junior high girl? very cool!


this is the thread with my mom's stuff. enjoy

http://www.vintagebmx.com/community/index....wtopic=27015406

so sorry for the loss of your furry friend

We appreciate it Dani. 2008 has brough a lot of joy but also just as much pain. I can't believe this is actually happening. We had the pleasure to know Paavo for ten years, he was 3 when he arrived to us along with his brother who, by the way is currently doing fine and is very lively in his old age so he will comfort us and will keep on bringing tremendous amount of joy to us. I never knew this would be so tough.. I am in pieces.

yes. it's been a tough year for you guys hasn't it? hugs to you and kati.

Oh man Timo, Thats sad news mate. Real sorry for the loss. Chin up, both of you.
Glenn

Dani, yes it has been a crappy year but also a lot of good has happened. But it seems for every piece of joy there has been same amount shite dropping onto us and it sucks. God i miss Paavo. You won't believe how much. <3
Cheers Glenn. It will take time that's for sure but we'll try.

how's things going timo?


tonight i saw an old picture on a friend's myspace and he was wearing a shirt with your avatar on it

Towards better, day by day thanks for asking.
I pretty much lost all my interest for riding and things i normally do since our loss but i/we're already doing better day by day. I'd say everything's goen back to normal, and it's the routines that help. I went riding on wednesday for the first time in three weeks and it felt better than i was expecting so i went again yesterday thanks to warm weather (for a change) +14c, sunny and beautiful yellow leafs on trees glowing on the sunshine.
Beyond that it's been work work work and getting back to routines and creating some new ones. And ofcourse getting new bike projects on their way for the creeping winter time. The usual really.

Donated some coins i had on the bottom of my pockets on the world hunger day to red cross, that made me feel happy. Part of the donations go to the families of recent Kauhajoki school shooting victims aswell. Due to these recent unfortunate events i feel pretty privileged and have been thinkng about stuff a lot.

But lets lighten up a little. Here's a few best photos from yesterday riding session.

Tucked smith decade in process. Hoping the rear cable doesn't snap. I remember when i learned these in late 1991 i think, i was stoked and i guess i still am. The longer you stay up there the better the trick gets. I'm hoping to learn how to do these one handed like JOSH.


The usual focused switch footed gliding thing. The t-shirt with the flock of swans flying, who knows where they're going, was found at one fleamarket at Ilomantsi (near Möhkö). Says Laura Peterzen Collections. I don't know who's Laura Peterzen, apparently someone from Denmark making clothes, but the silk screened graphics were cool and it cost like 50 cents. From that same trip i picked up a Spice Girls t-shirt. Which was too small and a tea cup with red/white checker pattern on it.


Ok where were we.. Them evil self timers. Never "on time" dammit. Yeah go on blame it on the camera you. See the person sitting on the background? She was and older woman full of surprises. A guy was throwing some frisbees on the baseball field when all of a sudden the lady ran after one of the frisbees, stared it for a while and ran back to sit on the bench. Then she left and cheered. Talking about creepy.


Whiplashing away. Two kids were watching while i was fiddling with the camera/self timer, i felt stupid but i decided to continue my photo venture anyway. It was difficult to capture the whiplash at the right moment, especially those kids watching like they'd never seen anyone taking photos or ride a bike but they lost interest pretty soon and left to continue whatever they doing, skating and playing ball - and stalking flatland riders. I think there was and episode in Beavis and Butt-Head titled "whiplash" or something.. ...and a quick look at google proves i remembered correct, quote: "Beavis and Butt-head plan to fake getting injured so they can get insurance money; real injuries follow." Uhh-hu-hu


I am planning to sell all my bikes to get one of these.


..or these! Yeah looking sharp. I wonder if you do WHIPLASH on that thing.

OKay so theres someone at myspace wearing an OZONE t-shirt that I don't know about?!? holy smokes Batman. That needs further investigation.

can't see the pics until i get home but i am sure they are great as always

do you have a myspace timo? man i am going to have to try to remember where i was looking when i found that now aren't i? hmmm...

Hei Timo

sorry to hear about all your troubles my friend

We booked our flights recently for christmas so maybe we can hook up?

also check out my friends website/business

www.pimpgarage.fi

DINGO

i love the frisbee lady story

The frisbee lady seemed harmless but - she was still creepy..
Dingo, yeah i know pimpgarage, i've visited there couple times and it's a cool shop with nice bikes and parts. You know the owner or someone else there, who? If i'm not mistaken Tumppi aka Tuomas Vatanen is also involved/runs the shop (?). He used to have skateboard shop here called "City Hobby", later it was "Psycho Skate". It was a legendary shop for us who skated in the 80s. A small room in a basement, painted all black flooded with skateboard goodies. Materialistic heaven really. What else could you possibly wish for as a teen..

It was a busy weekend in a positive way. We spent most of it on our bikes and at the shack once again. Today it was really windy, forecast said it was a storm but it was a sunny storm.

Sunset at the shack from saturday with interesting sky:


Backpacking at the stadium, saturday evening on our way home.


Kati checking out the scenery today (sunday).


Well, actually she had to wait while i insisted on taking "new" photos of the bike again, i used the word "update" as an excuse. She didn't buy it but because she felt sorry for me she agreed to wait a couple secodns. What's new is the absense of the front brake for cleaner looks..


..and a cool MINNESOTA FACTION sticker on the back of the #plate!! Kiitos paljon Mikkopeters! Much appreciated.


..and because of the reduced weight (due to no front brake, lol) and the new sticker providing super powers the bike was considerably faster as you can see from this photo.


And i couldn't resist a few powerslides.


Crossing the bridge to feed the ducks stalking us.


On our way we stopped at the poor man's fish eye sphere and Kati took the M-coast look and flashed the notorious Chicas sign. I had to look over my shoulder constantly to see if any cops were around. I was reaally scared.


Then we arrived to the shack and after having some tea we decided to organize the message boards by getting rid of some useless old newspaper cutouts, and dated brochures and classifieds. After that was done it was time for darts tournament using the hundred-year-old target and disintegrating darts. Kati was first to go. Style and distance didn't matter as long as you'd hit the target (or the surrounding walls or paddles) it was ok.

Then it was MY turn...


Steady now...


YEAH! Super hi-score!!


See, i WON!


Oh wait.. that was Kati's score, nevermid. But here's mine, let's see, eleven, twenty, zero, zero, one on the floor, oh here's one, and here, oh you found the last one thanks... doh forget it.. okay, okay You won. *grunt*


Made these the other day aswell. Handlebar extenders for chopped handlebars (patent #87407130004 pending). Today added the final touch and polished the big aluminum bit.


I wish weekends were three days, there's so much stuff to do.

Nice work Timmo,
I haven't forgotten the plate either! Just been busy and forgot!
Love your pics mate. Cool as always.

i think i'm afraid of kati now what with her gang affiliation and all...

LOL Now that I re-read that I see what you mean. I wasn't very awake at that time.

hehehe

Timo,
Tuomas is Mirkas cousin Tiinas boyfriend thats how I know him,

small world eh?

DINGO

Timo, glad you got the plate mate. Looking forward to seeing it on a build. Even though the numbers are crooked!

No worries man, the numbers are just fine. I won't change a thing on it.

Timmo, where are you? Hows everything going over there?
Have a Happy New year mate.

I'm in Helsinki this week and just saw a ad for a TV Show called "Talent Soumi". One of the people competign was a really good flat land guy. Made me think of this thread. Timo you around this week?

hey ben - haven't seen timo around here in a while. you might try hitting him up on facebook. he has been on there quite a bit lately.