Tossers rally extraordinare (in the East periphery...), an idea.

Still the idea is spinning in my head about doing a proper tossers tour around Estonia, depending on popular need, maybe a detour to St. Petersburg as well.

We've got the university graduations in progress, hopefully we're done in mid-june, so me and Kariina have basically free to decide scedule from july to september.

Lookin at the UK event list it's pretty dense, so i'm guessing it'll be a compromise-making for those who want to come(?)

So please input your ideas, timings, suggessions who'd like to come and when. Let's see if we can pull some "UK event plug" and make it happend for the ones interested in such expedition.

Me idea is you can come here with ferry or by overland via Dane-Sweden and ferry there to Tallinn or via Baltics (for those more extraordinary guys a possibility to go or come via Kaliningrad).

- Have been thinkin' and in Estonia highlights will be a spin around Tallinn medival old town.

- Visiting islands Saaremaa and/or Hiiumaa (couple pics i got):




- A circle around forest rich, and hilly South-Estonia:


- Visiting Narva and mine - a bit shock tourism for you as well (abandoned USSR places and mining). A nice view how the Russian and Estonian cannons are targeted to each other on both sides of rivers that separates the border.

- Russian faith villages in the east. Swamps and national parks etc etc

+ many other ideas not in my head now and awaiting any ideas YOU have in the head, so we can do a proper selection and construct the expedition plan'n'path.



Ideal time would be in july or august, then the weather is usually very nice and warm/hot in daytime also warm nights, so we can camp in the wild places or use some cheaper hostels, depending who's up for what, but i'd prefer a more "adventure" atmosphere in the group


And a word of caution too: the side effects of leaving this place is that you'll have considerably increased gravel road experiences and your clothes need throughoutly washing for sure.


Lemme know about the idea! We do, or do not?

Cheers, Margus

most of the time i love oz but sometimes i get an urge to go abroad. looks great but i cannot imagine me doin it this year. Bummer i will suffer the winter out here.

Great idea

That looks fabulous and a real GS Adventure as well. Unfortunately I have my plans made for this year but if this is to become an annual event I'd certainly look at it for next year.

If I was planning it in I'd like to know a few things in advance:

How do you suggest I get to the jumping off point with the bike, and how long would this take?

How long do you plan the tour to last and a rough cost?

How much off road experience do you think I need?

Any special equipment needed for me / the bike?

Really good luck with the plans, I hope it gets off the ground

Mutley1150 said:

That looks fabulous and a real GS Adventure as well. Unfortunately I have my plans made for this year but if this is to become an annual event I'd certainly look at it for next year.

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Let's see if we can make it happend this year or not... Dunno about the possible annual regularity though.

How do you suggest I get to the jumping off point with the bike, and how long would this take?

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I'll do the calculations in the evening if coming by land with reasonable speed (via Denmark, Sweden + ferry or Germany, Poland, Baltics). From my experiences it's doable from Estonia-Latvia-Lithuania-Poland-Germany-any Channel crossing country (Netherland, Belgium, France) in 4-6 days if heading directly with the bike and if you want to come or go fully overland.

From France-Belgium-Ger-Denmark-(bridge)-Sweden-(ferry)-Estonia it's considerably faster and less hassle free compared to fully overland version. Ferry from Sweden to Estonia takes about day. But riding time i say 2-3 days max to Stockholm - nice roads, plus one day on the ferry from Stockholm-Tallinn or Kapelskällar-Paldiski (cheaper).

Also I will do Google search if there's any more direct ferryes coming from the UK, i.e. it's maybe possible to go to UK to Denmark or Sweden, then there's not much to ride to get here, but i'll be certanly more costy.

How long do you plan the tour to last and a rough cost?

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Duration: thinking 4 to 8 days around Estonia, depending how much we want to rallye around or how much to stay and chillout on some places and if we go see the neighbours (Latvia or Russia) with detour too.

Cost: idea is that everyone is on it's own budget - no organisation cost or profit earning from us! We'll get the thigns organised here (ferry ticket bookings, accomondation, etc). Maybe just if we need to do a group buy for some tickets, evening camping beer and barbeque etc, to make the things comfortible then we do collective buy stuff then we gather the money up.

Costs here:
1 litre of 95 octan petrol: about 0.6£
1 bottle of beer: 0.35£
Ferryes between islands: around 4£ one way, you+bike (more info here)
Eating on some not that luxorious restaraunt, some typical daily eating place, good food usually around 1-2£ + something to drink.
Accomondations in some official guesthouse places (with shower etc): around 10 to 20£ for one room, but we can camp our own in silent places no problem, also there's official camps where we can have shower etc, they are cheaper as well.

As you can see compared to UK it's cheap, maybe even twice cheaper if not more.

How much off road experience do you think I need?

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We'll start pretty slow, probably from bad tarmac we have first. Depending what tyres anyone have, we choose safe speeds accordingly (i.e. Tourances - on straights 90kph is no problem, but on the corners you need to reduce speed considerably to some 30-50kph coz you can slide more easily, with knobby tires the speed holds up more constant, the knobby tires hold better on the corners). I'm no rallye ace myself, also i'll be two up and probably some others as well so it will be no problem to keep up for complete newbies as well. If it proves that we'll have a very slow group on gravel, we'll stick more to tarmac (which is mostly relatively shiite quality as well, it's the GS wonderland in both ways) and do less gravel 30/70 maybe. Sorted.

But i say the gravel comes an excellent experience for anyone with the GS, even if we do it slow.

Any special equipment needed for me / the bike?

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Not obligatory. Knobbies would be nice to have though, but doable without as well. Engine guards would be also nice, on slow speed falls we may have (very rarely i suppose) it's easier to pick the bike up and there's less scraches on cylinder heads. But i say again we aren't going to brake the bikes here, we'll choose the tracks and roads accordingly for big trailies, so don't be scared, to be on the safe side is one of the main goal

Margus

YOO

Sound very interessting Margus , I'll be keeping an eye on this tread, though if it's for this year, then I won't be able to join the lot.
Allready three bikeholliday's planned for this year, and I've got to keep the misses happy

Grtz, Philip!

Just scrapped my plans for this year after reading this, count me in.

It sounds very interesting. It depends when! If dates are ok, count me in! September will be brilliant

Romeo said:

It sounds very interesting. It depends when! If dates are ok, count me in! September will be brilliant

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Took the words out of my mouth...

coming-going

Distances - From London to Stockholm is 1770kms (1100 miles), easy 3 days trip, good roads. Ferry from Stockholm and you're here.

From London to Estonia overland is 2400kms (1500 miles), about 4 days trip (note the slower roads in Poland and Baltics!)

So count 3+3 (directly via Sweden, same way back), or 3+4 (circle) or 4+4 (overland, same way back) days here and back, depending how you want to do it.

My map also says there's ferry going from Newcastle (UK) to Kristjansand (Norway) and ferry from Harwich (UK) to Esbjerg (Denmark) that saves riding miles, but i reckon it's more expensive and less adventure.

Hmm... With two or three interested people so far, why not make it happend, i guess there will not be huge group coming that far anyway - that's why it's called "rallye extraordinarie"

September - hard to say, weather gets more unstable then - colder nights and more rain. I'd prefer july or august, but it's doable in september as well.

Cheers, Margus

Edit: count me in tentatively. Girlfriend's spoiled it with Real Life ™. Depending on how early dates are sorted.

Margus
This sounds like a real nice idea.

Any idea what the border in and out of Kaliiningrad is like. All the other countries are EU so I think they would be straight forward but the little hop through Kaliningrad strikes me as an interesting route.

Also if we were to order and pay in advance , any chance of arranging TKCs or K60's to be available for fitting in Estonia for the fun stuff ? Riding that kind of distance on tarmac on knobblies would mess them up for sure . What do you think ?
Cheers
Gecko

Last time I checked you needed a Russian entry visa to get into Kalingrad. If you wanted to go into Russia as well you needed a multi-entry visa.

Gecko said:

Margus
This sounds like a real nice idea.

Any idea what the border in and out of Kaliiningrad is like. All the other countries are EU so I think they would be straight forward but the little hop through Kaliningrad strike me as an interesting route.

Also if we were to order and pay in advance , any chance of arranging TKCs or K60's to be available for fitting in Estonia for the fun stuff ? Riding that kind of distance on tarmac on knobblies would mess them up for sure . What do you think ?
Cheers
Gecko

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Gecko said:

Any idea what the border in and out of Kaliiningrad is like. All the other countries are EU so I think they would be straight forward but the little hop through Kaliningrad strikes me as an interesting route.

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Never been there, but should be something between Russia and Europe (vodka sodden roads vs civilized hybrid). You need VISA to get there coz it's Russia indeed. Russian VISA is the best to obtain via VISA- or travelling agency to avoid hassle with embassies, but it normally the issuing takes more than a week so better if it'd done before you leave if you wanna go to Kaliningrad or St. Petersburg.

Also if we were to order and pay in advance , any chance of arranging TKCs or K60's to be available for fitting in Estonia for the fun stuff ? Riding that kind of distance on tarmac on knobblies would mess them up for sure . What do you think ?

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It's arrangable i think. Pair of Heidenau K60 are 110£ here, fitting&balancing 8-12£ or so. I have to know how much guys need them, so i can tell the Heidenau importer to take the pairs into stock then.

Indeed, mine K60 last at least 12 000 kilometres, so if you got some new or till 30% worn there, it's no problem to get here, have fun and go back. TKC should be able to do about the same mileage.

Margus

Margus.....It`s a fabulous idea and a lot of us would be up for it,but I can`t help thinking that it may be too short notice for a lot of us to manage this year.....many people have to book holidays,and than save for the dosh.

A lucky few will manage it this year...I'm another one who won`t be able to....but I`m sure there would be a massive Tosser invasion of Estonia next year

Hello everyone! dance pize Ive been working in a ladies house today from Stokholm and she said that the best time to visit that area is betwen the middle of June, end of July. After that the days are very short(for the light) and after August the weather starts to change drastically. :sunshine very unpredictable.

Next Year? - More Time To Plan?

Hi Margus,
Sounds like a great idea - fancy someplace a bit different. But, like others have already said, we have most of this year's trips planned!! - would it not be a better idea to set a good date for next year? - that gives plenty time for planning/preparation here and in Estonia??

Cheers.....................Grizzly

tarka said:

Margus.....It`s a fabulous idea and a lot of us would be up for it,but I can`t help thinking that it may be too short notice for a lot of us to manage this year.....many people have to book holidays,and than save for the dosh.

A lucky few will manage it this year...I'm another one who won`t be able to....but I`m sure there would be a massive Tosser invasion of Estonia next year

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Oi guys,

we can make it next year as well, no problem. But those who want to come this summer lemme know - we can do the reconnaissance rallye here then

Cheers, Margus

Sax said:

My hols run from 7 Jul until 2 Aug. (comes with da job) Unfortunatly the days are not flexible.

I have no off road experience, and so far only 4k bike experience. Hope thats enough.

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Hmm... Gotta see about that. The schedule get's too spreaded out then, some want in september, some in august and some in july then.

We'll be on the road mostly. Just lot of gravel roads, that is different. The experience comes quickly as more miles you ride on 'em.

Sax said:

Can we hunt our dinner as well????

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Noupe, not under my watch


Cheers, Margus

Hi Margus

I will be staying in St Petersburg from July 23nd till July 28th. Am travelling via Norway, Sweden, Finland with a friend and our wives are flying over to spend a week with us there before we ride into Estonia. If you guys are able to be in the St Petersburg area around that time perhaps we could meet up.