When I tried to book the ferry to Helsinki, the first major logistical hurdle
became no longer avoidable; "Enter the vehicle registration numbers". Shit.
We knew we wanted to ride T7s, and for me that was easy, I had one sitting in the garage. But we still needed
a bike for Jaco. While technically possible, renting didn't seem feasible, so we decided the best option was
to buy another T7, and sell it after the trip. Not wanting to light a small pile of money on fire, it needed
to be a 2nd hand bike.
After a few phone calls jumping between broken Swedish and broken English, I had a deal lined up. The only
hitch was that the bike was 550km away in Skåne, and the seller was only available on a day when I had long
standing plans in the afternoon. I say hitch, but to be honest I loved the idea of this small time window to
get the bike and get back home.
I took the train after work, slept a few hours in Lund, and then drove about an hour with another friend,
Scott, to meet the seller. We got there just after 8am, and I was on my way by 08:45 thanks to Swedish
efficiency. I now had just over 6 hours to make it back to Stockholm.
The ride was cold but otherwise uneventful, and after a couple coffee and korv breaks, Jaco's bike was parked
next to mine. Until this point, he had no idea about any details of the bike, except that it was a T7 and
within budget.
I made him wait until the next morning before revealing the details. An almost identical bike to mine, just
missing a bunch of scratches. That can soon be fixed.
