Truth being said, his teacher wasn’t completely wrong. Jussi himself sympathises with the description. But the teacher might have passed over the respectable underlying attributes that create such a defiant personality. As Jussi says, “While I do agree with him, I’d also add curious and passionate into the characteristics if I may. Honestly, obsessive and restless should go in there as well… as should problems with authority. Well, having a problem with authority isn’t really a problem is it? It’s more like a problem for the authorities. Non serviam!”
 

Jussi lives in Berlin, working as a creative marketing concept designer and producer. Throughout his life he has been absolutely passionate, “obsessed” to use his words, about mountaineering, cave diving and mountain biking. And ten years ago, whilst living in Spain, he added one more obsession to that list. He bought his first motorcycle: a naked Suzuki GSR600.

“I loved the bike and rode it all through the year on the fine tarmac roads of Southern Spain. It was a gentle introduction into the world of motorcycling: the bike was nice and mellow bike and the blissful weather was endlessly warm,” says Jussi.

Not so endless after all, as he returned to a cold Finland in 2009. The harsh winter warned him away from icy roads and punished him for his new love affair. “Non serviam,” quoth Jussi, jumping onto a different kind of motorbike. Little did he realise that the best was yet to come.

From tarmac touring to winter enduro

“Being denied the possibility to ride on the road was utter misery,” says Jussi. “I resented the weather and had to find a way to beat it. I’d been mountain-biking for quite a bit so I figured I’d be a natural in winter enduro. Stupidly enough I bought a second hand Yamaha YZ250F and jumped on with zero experience. One ill turn deserves another, eh? It’s a rough sport, with smooth sliding soles on the boots, tall studs on the tyres, very soft suspension and a tiny margin of error before you fall. The track is the width of the tyres so if you lean into the side wall even a little, you’ll quickly end up on your face. Picking up the bike with the slippery boots in snow is awkward and exhausting, especially when the snow is deep. My first ride on the Yamaha was on a 12km track and it took me two full hours to complete the loop. With an average speed of 6km/h and top speed peaking at 15km/h, I was clearly not the natural I had hoped. In fact, after face-planting dozens of times, absolutely exhausted from the exertion, I finally deduced that winter enduro probably wasn't for me.”

And this leads us on to what makes Jussi… Jussi! Relying on the “restlessness” and “obsession” attributes he mentioned before, this strong-willed Finn kept trying and training, building up his new skills from scratch. 

“I couldn’t just give up,” he says. “Instead, I stubbornly went back every weekend and trained and trained and trained. Gradually it started to pay off, and on one particularly cold Sunday afternoon I finally hit the jackpot: the third gear. My confidence grew hand-in-hand with my skills and I started to enjoy the gnarly winter riding.”

And what happened when winter was over?

“Finally, when the long miserable winter was defeated by the warm light of spring, I found myself riding dirt for the first time. It felt extremely easy after the snow, and luxuriously fast. Well, at least on flat sandy trails, but as I progressed into riding through typical Finnish forest, with rocks and roots spread out in a sea of mud, I understood. It was just as nasty as winter enduro, if not more so, but it wasn’t such a constant struggle. Most importantly, the narrow confines of winter enduro were gone and your line could be freely selected. It gave me the opportunity to go anywhere, and I was completely hooked.”
 

From Suzuki GSX1400 to KTM 690 Enduro R to KTM 500 EXC

Along with a general air of boredom Jussi was experiencing in his late-stage touring trips, came the desire to “step-out” off the tarmac and into the dirt. In his words, the mellow Suzuki GSX1400 “was less than optimal for riding the gravel roads.” The logical step was to purchase a KTM 690 Enduro R.

“The small, twisty tarmac roads I had so loved became monotonous and boring and I found myself rubbernecking at trailheads and wondering what adventures lay along and beyond them. Touring also completely lacked the physical challenge of enduro, which made riding on tarmac even less appealing. It was time to move on. Enter the KTM 690 Enduro R. I considered it as an investment into a healthier future. It was a good incentive to get fitter and stay fitter, and it worked. It has been a faithful and dependable travel companion for three seasons. We have now travelled together for over 40,000km through twenty countries, shared incredible experiences, overcome obstacles and seen both bad days and good.”

“However, two years ago on a particularly hot summer evening in Macedonia, riding a steep overgrown trail, I realised that I had reached the limits of the bike to take me to new places. I would no longer use the 690 for adventure enduro, instead rebuilding it into something different. It is a great platform for rally-type operations, where the terrain isn’t too technical and the pace is fast.”

“The KTM 500 EXC is actually an evolution of the above-mentioned 690, and the ultimate tool for me and my adventures. It's light, has a superb transmission and great suspension for enduro. The engine is powerful with a lot of bottom-end grunt, and doesn't easily stall at low revs. The 500 has completely negated the need any kind of trail. I currently use it exclusively for all expeditions. Time will tell how it holds up to the abuse!”

Agreed. It's not just your body that's put to the test when riding off-road; your motorbike must also overcome its own set of challenges. If you plan to travel solo around the world, you better go prepared.

Jussi’s toolkit currently weighs 2.6kg – that's 20% of his total luggage weight. It's the outcome of task repetition and experience. It is, and always will be, in constant improvement.

Jussi says, “Adventure enduro is a holistic discipline. For any adventure, you revolve through the same cycles of planning, preparation, and riding. Throughout the process, the bike, riding gear and other equipment are continuously perfected. Each day of riding gives more insight. Your equipment either works or needs to be re-thought. High quality gear that performs reliably under extreme conditions is of paramount importance when running successful expeditions.”

“My philosophy with all gear is to be self-sufficient, ride as light as possible and bring only the bare necessities. The real question, however, is how to define “necessities”. Unsurprisingly the answers are as diverse as the riders. For me, a necessity is a piece of equipment that needs to be onboard to ensure the continuation of the ride in the event of a failure. This applies rigidly to all tools and spare parts. The definition of necessities dictates which spare parts are carried, which in turns specifies what tools are needed.”

Click here to check out a post on Jussi's ever-evolving toolkit.
 

The start of The Rolling Hobo project

Jussi’s strong visual identity, and his need to portray the philosophical side of this sport, led him to create his own project. The Rolling Hobo is his vision, his gem, and his contribution.

“I had contributed to various online forums, but some ended up going offline for weeks and ultimately the terms of publishing content were for the most part hazy at best. So I wanted something that I had control over and where I’d legally own all the content I produced. Most of it was just reports on bike builds or rides, so it was nothing fancy – a glorified blog if you will. The site, however, quickly became a personal creative outlet; after fifteen years of advertising photography, I found it exhilarating to portray the world as I perceived it. Or rather how the Hobo experienced it during his expeditions. Not just in terms of subject matter, but the mood and tonality of the imagery. I’m a son of the northern darkness, and it’s not something one can pour into the artificial reality of B2C marketing, if one wishes to maintain a successful career. With the Hobo, I finally had free reign.”

“The reasons behind the site were not purely selfish, though. The Rolling Hobo continues the noble tradition of adventure riders sharing valuable information and encouraging others to pursue their dreams. I have received worlds of information from the more experienced members of the enduro community, and want to give something back. I hope the ride reports inspire people to dream of epic adventures, and that the information helps them overcome the fear that is ever whispering discouragement in their ear. The adventure is the easy part. The real challenge is finding the courage to smother fear and commit to living one’s dreams.
 

The Rolling Hobo's Travels

Jussi has already travelled through seventy countries, from which he absolutely recommends Mongolia, Russia, Ukraine, Romania, Morocco, the Balkans and, of course, Northern Finland.

“All of these areas offer spectacular off road adventures, friendly people and very good food”, he says. “Except Morocco, and I’m only referring to the food as the people are wonderful; but there’s only so many tajines one can eat in a day, every day. And finally a dark horse; the great barren emptiness of Northern Finland is spectacular, but I may be a little biased.”

When travelling, he has a preference for those secret spots where nature remains intact – virgin places where a human shadow lies alone. And his high-school gym teacher was right: the “threat to himself” side finds its way to be heard as well. It draws him to ruins where the air is thick from old, heavy history.

“My generation had no war, or at least not a hot one. So I find abandoned Cold War relics fascinating. I've been to quite a few nuclear missile sites and other derelict military installations in the Baltic States, Poland and the former East Germany. It is mind-boggling to imagine how many resources were poured into preparing for a war that never happened, how seriously they took the threat of an enemy that never materialised, and how it was all just left to decay when the party was over. It's strange to camp in a spot that would have been a tightly-guarded military secret just thirty years before. Had you been in the same place then, you could easily have been interrogated, tortured and killed.”

“The abandoned Buzludzha monument in Bulgaria was something that I had been dying to see for a long time. When I finally did in 2015, it didn't disappoint. Buzludzha is an amazing example of grandiose Communist architecture, and sits high in the mountains with beautiful views over hazy valleys. It is in a complete state of disrepair now, and serves as a haunting memory of a failed ideology.”

“Unfortunately a great deal of the natural world has been mutilated to cater for tourism. So, experiencing the natural world in a pristine state is a rare luxury, and it never fails to inspire. There is nothing quite like finishing a long day on the trail high up in the mountains, taking off your body armour and leaning back against the front tyre in a warm breeze, drinking in the magical views of crisp mountain ridges lit up by the last rays of the sun, as shadows reach from the darkness of the valleys. One feels truly fortunate in those moments.”

“I love all mountains. But a few come to the fore as I think about it: Western Mongolia, the Apuseni Mountains in Romania and the Altai in Russia really stand out as particularly beautiful.”
 

The challenges

Deep waters, tricky trails, bears…you name it! Excitement-wise, Jussi’s pursuit of adventure hasn't let him down.

“The old winter road 110 east of Lake Baikal in Siberia, Russia was brutal. The road was built in 1974 and used for one winter only. It has since fallen into decay and out of memory. Just to get to the start of it required navigating a 100-metre-wide crossing of the River Barguzin, after which the two day trail gets progressively trickier and more technical. We were fortunate to have low water when crossing the Barguzin, but our luck soon ran out. As the rivers swelled with heavy rain, our way back was shut. The area was completely uninhabited so we were on our own. There would have been no help if things went wrong. A good testament to its remoteness was that we came across four bears on the trail in the first day.”

“We ended up making it through and were apparently the first westerners to do so. According to research, the trail had only been ridden twice on motorcycles before us. Back in civilisation, we took shelter at the small town of Novi Uoyan at the northern end of the trail. We were completely spent and the bikes weren’t doing much better. The miserable muddy town became the turning point of our seven week ride through Mongolia and Russia. The 110 felt like an appropriate last battle, before the long ride home.”

You can read about Jussi's ordeal on the 110 in grizzly detail over on his blog post here. He's also put together a guide to riding the road, for anyone adventurous enough to attempt it.

Though these situations don’t contribute much to your own amusement, in Jussi’s opinion they do quite a lot for your personal growth. Jussi says that “situations of extreme stress are when the strength of the mind is truly tested. It is either steeled or broken. Personal growth happens only outside of the comfort zone and the road to improvement is rocky.”

When we asked him why he was so passionate about adventure enduro, his answer left absolutely no doubts about what comes along with the sport:

“Adventure enduro is the perfect discipline. Long rides in the wilderness, across continents on small trails, seeking the elusive immaculate line. Exploring the forgotten places of the world, where no road will ever reach. A flawless union of physical endurance, mental strength and an endless game of risk management and problem solving. Riding out is a step into chaos and the outcome will remain a mystery until the end. The only constant is the will to keep moving forward. It is an escape from ordinary life, where one does not run into wild bears, camp at abandoned nuclear missile bases or wake up staring at the business end of an AK47 in the middle of the night. Adventure enduro is simply very, very exciting. It cannot be experienced on a tarmac road; for the truly unique experiences one has to venture beyond where the trail ends and into the place where fear begins.”

Upcoming adventures

Jussi is going to Eastern Europe for two to three months this year. He is hoping to “close the chapter on The Crimson Trail”, a project he started in 2015 with the mission of mapping and riding a dirt track from the Baltic Sea to the Mediterranean on the eastern side of Europe. Read more about it here.

“I’ve spent the last two seasons on the trail and this season will hopefully see the trail completed. It will also be the first long expedition on the 500 EXC, so I'm interested to see how it fares.”

To keep track of Jussi’s adventures, go to:

www.therollinghobo.com
www.facebook.com/therollinghobo
www.youtube.com/channel/
www.instagram.com/therollinghobo/

“Dreams never realise as planned, and they usually do so partly. Realising realistic dreams will end up disappointing when they fall short of expectations. Big dreams, however, will still be great achievements and epic adventures, even only partly realised.

Dream big. Never fear.”

Jussi