Hello from SE Sweden

[Jon in Sweden]

Hi everyone,

I'm Jonathan and with my family I moved to SE Sweden from Devon last year.
I'm only 13 months back on the bike (but almost 11,000km) after a 17 year layoff, but I'm having a whale of a time. I'm mostly a road cyclist, but do some gravel and a little MTB too.

We moved to Sweden for a better quality of life, and that's something we've very much found. At least from a cycling perspective it's fantastic, with perfectly surfaced and almost traffic free roads. The gravel is something else too.

Anyway, looking forward to getting stuck into the forum. I'm signed up for a large event next month called Vätternrundan (315km around Sweden's second largest lake) and I recently did a 163km gravel event called Lönneberga Gravel.

Here are a few photos from our area.

Jonathan

 

[Oldhippy]

✌️

 

[13 rider]

good luck with Vätternrundan . I signed up for that in 2020 but covid sadly ruled it out and its still on my bucket list. Have visited Sweden a couple of times in the area near Uppsala and Norkopping (forgive the English spelling) a beautiful unspolit country

 

[Shadow]

Welcome Jon.
You live in a beautiful part of the world.
A friend of mine has signed up for next month's Vätternrundan and is excited and apprehensive in equal measure. She and her friends have little experience of long rides or night rides.

 

[alicat]

Welcome to the forum, @Jon in Sweden. At the risk of hijacking the thread, how did you manage to get a visa to live there? I've housesat a couple of times in Malmoe and loved it. PM me if you prefer.

 

[Jon in Sweden]

good luck with Vätternrundan . I signed up for that in 2020 but covid sadly ruled it out and its still on my bucket list. Have visited Sweden a couple of times in the area near Uppsala and Norkopping (forgive the English spelling) a beautiful unspolit country

Thank you!

I was up near Norrköping a couple of weeks ago working (about 25km south). It's very busy up there compared to where we are, but nevertheless beautiful. I took my bike with me and explored a bit.

I'm sorry that you missed out on Vätternrundan. It's my first year doing it, and I'm going with a few friends from the village. I'm quite a bit faster than them, but they've all done it loads of time and I greatly appreciate being taken along as a tourist! I'll go for a strong time next year maybe.

It really is like an institution here though. Almost everyone who cycles in any serious way has done it.

Welcome Jon.
You live in a beautiful part of the world.
A friend of mine has signed up for next month's Vätternrundan and is excited and apprehensive in equal measure. She and her friends have little experience of long rides or night rides.

Thank you!

My set-off time is 01:16 on the 17th, so the first 2hrs will be in darkness. That's a new one for me too!

The landscape here is just so peaceful. The population density is extremely low (12.7 people per square km in our region, versus 434 in England) and you can cycle quite long distances without really seeing any number of people. I did a gravel event 10 days ago called Lönneberga Gravel. 163km with 90% on gravel roads and tracks. I think I saw about 10 cars, most of which were on the very short tarmac sections. Even around us, you can go a good 45 minutes on road sometimes without seeing a moving vehicle.

I was back in the UK at Easter and brought my bike. I cycled around 300km in the week I was there, and whilst I enjoyed the hills (I love serious climbing - did Porlock main road again ), the potholes, traffic, terrible weather and poor road design was unpleasant.

Anyway, I hope your friends have a good Vätternrundan!

 

[Jon in Sweden]

Welcome to the forum, @Jon in Sweden. At the risk of hijacking the thread, how did you manage to get a visa to live there? I've housesat a couple of times in Malmoe and loved it. PM me if you prefer.

I am in the fortunate position of having a German passport, as well as the UK one. That made things very much easier. My wife was able to come in as the spouse of an EU national, with her only having a UK passport.

Brexit has certainly made moving here (or indeed anywhere else in the EU) trickier. For those wanting to do it with a UK passport, you either have to be able to show financial independence or have a job to go to.

I haven't been to Malmö other than to go through it, but it's quite different from the rest of Sweden. More Danish really. Go another 80km inland and it starts to look a bit more like where we are.

 

[alicat]

Thanks for the info @Jon in Sweden . Unfortunately I don't have the right to another passport. I'll check out the other options since I did feel really at home in Malmö.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

Hej!

 

[Misti]

Nice! I got to briefly visit Sweeden in March with my daughter. We did the Polar Icebreaker Cruise and it was INCREDIBLE!!! So bike friendly there as well. ENJOY!

 

[Fab Foodie]

Hej!
25 years ago I spent a couple years with my young family in Helsingborg. Now I've moved back to Devon.
Sweden's a great place to live - enjoy!

 

[Chris S]

 

[UphillSlowly]

Welcome, from another newbie!

 

[Drago]

Greetings and welcome.

 

[phillc]

Hello and welcome