2010 Rallies & Events
European Super Rally Seinäjoki, Finland Part 1
Story and Photos by Horst Rösler
European Super Rally is always a time to ride, an experience on the road. This is especially true when a distant country hosts the rally requiring a lengthy ride to get there. This largest of the European rallies changes host country every year. Scandinavia has been on the list quite often in the last decade, but Finland has hosted the rally only once in 2000. No matter how well their cellphones work, seen from the rest of Europe, Finland is quite a way to ride. This year’s event did not make us traverse the full length of Finland, that could have been close to Murmansk. But as organizers honestly claimed, “It was the northernmost Super Rally ever.” Nevertheless, even the Greek club, next year’s hosts for a highly anticipated warm and sunny Super Rally, arrived in force. With the event so far up in the north, a lot of riders took one or two weeks to explore the countries en route.
On the way to a Super Rally, there are many things that can happen, but one thing is certain, you never ride alone. Thousands of Harley riders from all over Europe experience the magic of riding. Or the curse, if the weather is against them. This year travellers saw all types of weather, but the snow of former years was not missed. Even by Super Rally standards, this rally would challenge the hard-ass riders like Smörebröd from Switzerland. With more than 90,000 miles on the odometer of her Russian built hardtail, she took some three weeks off to enjoy the ride. “I just love to ride in Scandinavia,” explained the Swiss-based hardcore lady rider, while waiting for the huge Silja-Line Galaxy to swallow more than fifty Harleys into its belly. “We visit several clubs on way and stay in their clubhouses, that way the trip does not become too expensive.” Thanks to the extended Scandinavian club scene, a lot of motorcycle clubs did share that experience. With Hamburg, Copenhagen, Stockholm and a possible long turn through Helsinki, there were four major European towns, three of them capitals of their particular country, on the way up to Seinajoki.
Seinäjoki is located where the Finnish population thins out to the north. It was built up around the Östermyra Bruk iron and gunpowder factories founded in 1798. I guess they wanted to produce the then dangerous stuff far away from civilization. Before the Super Rally stopped in town, Seinäjoki was known for hosting two large summer events, a 100,000 person tango festival, and Provinssirock, which is the biggest rock festival in Finland.