Finnish couple spent 20 months on seat and saddle of a DIY bicycle to see the world
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Finnish couple Roosa Turpeinen and Otto Peltola, both 29, cycled from Finland to Singapore on a self-made tandem bike.
ST PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
Megan Wee
SINGAPORE – Four years ago, Ms Roosa Turpeinen pitched an adventure of a lifetime to her long-term partner: cycling from Finland to Singapore.
Mr Otto Peltola agreed instantly. The Finnish couple, who describe themselves as casual cyclists, began training by cycling 1,600km across Finland over a month in June 2023.
With savings accumulated over 2½ years, they then quit their jobs, packed their lives into storage and set off in May 2024.
Ms Roosa Turpeinen enjoyed capturing “real moments” on the trip using a professional camera.
PHOTO: ROOSA TURPEINEN
Their travels took them through 24 countries and more than 21,000km – most of it on a tandem bicycle – before they completed their 20-month journey in Singapore on Jan 17. The couple chose Singapore as the final destination simply because it was the furthest possible country they could travel to by land.
Ms Turpeinen, a former paediatric intensive care unit nurse, 29, was inspired by a travel blog of a Finnish cyclist who biked from Austria to Australia.
“We really only have one life, so I thought, ‘Why not?’” she told The Straits Times on Jan 21.
“We knew that when you travel by bicycle, you go to the places that you wouldn’t go otherwise,” she added. “You go through small villages and see the cultures as they actually are – meet the local people and see how they live.”
Ms Roosa Turpeinen and Mr Otto Peltola volunteered to build mud walls while staying with a family in Georgia.
PHOTO: ROOSA TURPEINEN
Some of these countries the couple visited include Greece, Turkey, Tajikistan, China and Laos.
They cycled 14,000km on a self-made bicycle, and travelled by bus, ferry, train or by air for the remaining 7,000km when cycling was not possible.
Uzbekistan was their favourite stop, said Ms Turpeinen.
This was because of the hospitality of people there, and as they were doing shorter distances each day at the time to help Ms Turpeinen recover from a left hamstring injury she had sustained earlier in Turkey, said Mr Peltola, 29, who previously worked in product development.
The couple stayed with a family during their time in Uzbekistan.
PHOTO: ROOSA TURPEINEN
They had to get off their bikes during a 150km-long stretch of the Kyzylkum Desert in Uzbekistan, when she could not continue due to the pain.
“We went next to the road and just started throwing a thumbs up. It took maybe 20 minutes before one guy with a truck took us in with our bike,” said Ms Turpeinen.
They relied on translation tools to communicate as the Uzbekistani driver did not speak English or Finnish and the couple did not speak Uzbek.
“He tried to ride the truck to the mountains where our homestay was, but the truck was too heavy to drive (uphill),” said Ms Turpeninen with a laugh, recalling how they were dropped 2km short.
“If you want to help someone but you cannot speak the same language, you must really want to help them if you’re still going to do it,” Mr Peltola added. “And so, it feels special.”
Of the self-built bicycle, Mr Peltola said he spent 2½ years making 3D models, doing research and sourcing for materials before putting it together.
“I was thinking of a cargo bike or a tandem bike... Then I got the idea to connect the two,” he said.
He also designed a recumbent seat to reduce saddle soreness so that the couple could alternate between the seat and the saddle.
Mr Otto Peltola specifically included a recumbent seat in designing the bike.
PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
He also built in independent gears, an uncommon feature in tandem bikes, so that each of them could pedal at their own pace.
Their journey has strengthened their relationship by teaching them to express their needs, Ms Turpeinen said.
“It feels stupid to say that ‘I’m hungry now’... or say ‘I’m tired, so I won’t communicate that well’, but it helps the other person understand your needs,” she said.
After spending a week in Singapore, the couple said Singaporeans reminded them of Finnish people – super-friendly but respectful of boundaries.
They also enjoyed connecting with locals who reached out to them on Instagram.
The couple, who flew back to Finland from Singapore on Jan 23, said the biggest surprise was experiencing the kindness of people through encounters with locals who offered help along the way.
“It’s something we didn’t really understand because in Finland, we like to keep our space. There isn’t this culture of inviting strangers that we experienced months after months,” Ms Turpeinen said.
Another eye-opener was seeing first-hand the effects of climate change, from dried-up lakes in Central Asia to trudging through the floods in southern Thailand in mid-November.
The self-made bike is 2.5m long and weighs between 35kg to 40kg.
PHOTO: NG SOR LUAN
Looking ahead, both of them have lined up solo and couple cycling trips.
Mr Peltola is headed to Spain in 2027 for a bicycle frame building course to build his own bike and ride it back to Finland, while Ms Turpeinen will embark on a solo journey across Sweden either in the coming summer or the next.
After what Ms Turpeinen describes as a “life-changing journey”, the couple do not intend to return to their previous jobs full-time.
She intends to explore her options in furthering her studies while working a day job, while Mr Peltola will continue pursuing a bachelor’s degree and later a master’s in mechanical engineering while working in product development part-time.
The couple are also looking at the South American and African continents for their next endeavour together.
“We learnt on this trip that you really can’t plan life... but you can get something even better from it, and it’s a really great way to look at the world,” said Ms Turpeinen.
