Biking goes a long way back in Jarmo’s life. Most children born in or around the 70’s knows the thrill of biking in the forest on trails. Jarmo did that too as a child but of course bikes were very different back then. Just a normal town bike without mudguards was the hottest ”rally bike” for any kind of use.

During the late 80’s the first mountain bikes arrived with a lot of gears and really set up for the trails. This evolution of bikes was exhilarating and changed biking forever. We know that now.

It still took some time before Jarmo got into biking more seriously. Somewhere in the mid 90’s around when the second generation of full suspension bikes came onto the market, Jarmo joined the local downhill bikers group. It had only 3 members at the time but soon grew to 6 or 7 downhill bikers. 

 

With this group Jarmo travelled around to national downhill competitions in Finland. But the most fun was to be had riding around local ski resorts and all the trails on the hills in it all the while trying to create new trails and lines in the forest. There was no one else around doing this, just a few riders who understood the downhill concept. This meant that all the training for the competitions and preparation had to be done by the group on their own. Even the local bike club did still not consider it a sport. They spent a lot of time figuring things out and finding themselves, including planning training schedules, riding techniques, bike mechanics etc. 

 

Exploratory bikepacking trips are also possible with YellowSnow guides. They organize longer trips into the wilderness, exploring untouched nature, local food, and good stories in various locations.

 

”We once combined a Cannondale V4000 dh with 60cc dirt bike front fork. That monster rode like a modern enduro bike over rocks, but it weighed more than 30kg so it was more a one off test project rather than a bike to ride or compete”.