TET Sweden in Autumn: Possibly the Best Time to Ride

Grabbing full brakes on loose gravel because a roe deer has just jumped out in front of you is enough to give you a hell of a fright, or ruin your trip altogether.

If you ride regularly in Sweden, it will probably happen eventually.

And once it does, you start riding differently in autumn.

For me, that is the trade-off with what might otherwise be the best time of year to ride the TET in Sweden.

The mosquitoes are disappearing. The roads are quieter. The forests are changing colour and the mornings are cold and still.

But the days are getting shorter and wildlife is moving.

Autumn might actually be the best season

Swedish summer gets all the attention because you can ride until ridiculously late.

I actually prefer early autumn.

It is cooler on the bike, the gravel is often in great condition and there are far fewer people around.

Best of all, the mosquitoes are largely gone.

That completely changes camping.

You can sit beside a lake, get a fire going and drink a coffee without spending the whole evening slapping yourself in the face.

A cold September morning, a bit of mist over the lake and an empty gravel road ahead is pretty hard to beat.

One deer usually changes your speed

Roe deer are the animals that make me most nervous.

They are quick, difficult to see in the forest and seem to have a talent for appearing exactly when you don't want them to.

The important bit is what happens after the first one crosses.

Don't immediately accelerate again.

Roe deer often move with others. If one crosses the road, there is a good chance another is nearby.

I've had exactly that happen.

The first deer disappears into the forest, you think it is over, then another follows across the same piece of road.

Now, when I see one, I slow down and wait.

Twenty seconds is cheap insurance.

Moose need even more space

A moose is a different experience.

If you ride enough forestry roads in Sweden, eventually you will find one running down the road in front of you.

It can be tempting to keep following and wait for it to disappear into the trees.

I wouldn't.

I've had moose stop, turn around and face the bike.

They suddenly look considerably bigger when they are standing in the middle of the road looking directly at you.

If a moose starts running ahead of me now, I back off.

Give it space and let it choose where it wants to go.

It's better for the animal and considerably better for the rider.

I avoid dawn and dusk

This is probably the biggest change I make in autumn.

I shorten the riding day.

Not massively, but enough that I am not trying to finish the last section of the TET as the light disappears.

Dawn and dusk are exactly when I don't want to be rushing down unfamiliar gravel roads with poor visibility and wildlife around.

If I would normally plan 250 km in summer, I might make it 180 to 200 km in autumn.

That also means arriving at camp with enough daylight to actually enjoy where you've ended up.

Extra lights are worth having

This is also the time of year when auxiliary lights start making sense.

Not because I want to ride all night.

Quite the opposite.

But trips don't always go to plan. A puncture, wrong turn or slow section of trail can easily push the last part of the day into darkness.

For autumn riding I prefer lights that give good visibility towards the sides of the road.

That is where I am looking for animals.

Huge distance is nice, but seeing what is about to come out of the trees is more useful.

I still treat the lights as backup.

If I'm regularly finishing my TET days in darkness, I need to plan shorter days.

Then there is kokkaffe

One of the best things about autumn is stopping.

No mosquitoes. Cold air. Quiet forests.

It is almost perfect for kokkaffe, the traditional Swedish way of making coffee in a pot.

It is very simple.

Bring water to the boil. Add coarse-ground coffee directly to the pot. Let it come back towards the boil, remove it from the heat and give the grounds a few minutes to settle.

Then pour carefully.

Every Swede seems to have a slightly different opinion on how much coffee to use, how long it should sit and whether it should boil once or twice.

I don't think it matters much.

Coffee made over a fire beside a Swedish lake somehow tastes better anyway.

Especially when it is 7°C, the bike is covered in gravel and you have nowhere particularly important to be.

Autumn changes the pace

That is probably why I like riding the TET in Sweden at this time of year.

I cover slightly less distance.

I stop more.

I pay more attention to what is happening around me.

And the riding somehow feels more remote, even when you are travelling the same roads you rode a few months earlier.

You just need to respect what autumn changes.

Watch the edges of the road.

If one deer crosses, expect another.

Give moose plenty of room.

Carry decent lights, but try not to need them.

And finish early enough to get the fire going and make a coffee.

For me, that's about as good as riding in Sweden gets.