When it snow in UK, everything stop then? 
thefootdown - 23:37, 16.6.2014 » I’m moving to Helsinki with my girlfriend in a couple of months, she’s Finnish but hasn’t lived in Helsinki before. I was hoping you guys could answer some questions for me... 1. We’ll probably be moving to Vuosaari, is it a nice area? 2. What are the best rider owned bike shops in Helsinki? 3. What are the best skater owned skate shops in Helsinki? 4. What happens in the winter when it snows??? Can you still ride or not? 5. Is riding brakeless ok? Or do the police bust you? Thanks! Ty1. You can take subway if the riding gets too boring. 2. Almost every bikeshop owner is/was a rider once. It depends what you're looking for: roab/mtb/fixed/city/comfort. 3. Don't know. 4. Snow comes down nothing changes. If an Irish messenger can do it I believe you can. 5. Brakeless is ok but in my opinion it's stupid. Distances are not so big over here and it's easier to use the brake lever to slow down than skid/skipstop or wiggle. I've heard only one ticket written under headline of "using vehicle not suitable for traffic".
Once you arrive you’ll see that the handedness is not that big a deal - sort of. You’ll understand what I mean once you get here. It’s gonna be fucked from your perspective regardless.
Police are generally not very progressive or aggressive, so you might get fined or given a warning for dicking around in the gray area, but as a general rule, as long as you pay attention and are respectful and try to follow the law to your best ability (not that straightforward as you’ll see) they are quite easy to deal with. Also blaze with discretion.
East, including Vuosaari, is a great choice. Inexpensive, quite modern, down to earth and close to nature with great cycling route choices.
You can get here FAST by taking the subway, my favourite method of public transportation, and they allow you to take your bike with you.
Some say that east is dangerous, but as rents and apartment prices have skyrocketed, more and more people bit the bullet and it’s actually quite ok here. god bless gentrification.
You’ll find apartment prices cheaper than in uk I suppose, so you may think you’ll live as kings, but unless you’re sneaky and shop in nazi siwa aka lidl, the Axis of Evil, SS-Ryhmä and KKK-Kesko will bleed you dry.
Stoa next to Itäkeskus station has an excellent lunch & brunch and in Puotila there is a highly appreciated beer joint.
In general living next to Itäkeskus feels to me more like being in a city than when I lived in Pasila.
Personally I fucking despise winter and I will move the fuck away from this piece of shit demari vasikka kyylä cuntry as soon as possible but as long as the temperature is below zero it’s ok.
Best bike shops for fixed are velobia, hi5bikes, and pelago, velosport and many more for other needs. all the skate shops are skater owned more or less, I think? Velobia is probably the most “boutique” fixie shop and my personal favourite - eternal love and respect.
Wear nothing in sauna, make jokes about being a foreigner, accept there are no jobs, no small talk or eye contact and the only way to learn finnish is to not speak english because we WILL speak english as soon as social contact loojs like it’s taking too long and most importantly: bring jeans.
Welcome to Finland.
Yep, as merenneito posted above, there’s no problem living in the eastern parts. I myself live in Vuosaari and it’s nice area. In addition, there are few areas in Vuosaari that has different people living in them: Aurinkolahti is nice fancier concreate block near beach and the older Vuosaari has some free time oriented people living among us.
Commuting to down town takes around 45 minutes and I commuted through last winter w/o any problems.
i suggest east dwellers and such in spirit and others should welcome ty with an introductory east helsinki tour some saturday. I know i could use one too.
Then we can slowly work our way towards middle east, all the way to la rambla via a punk gig in lePakkomies, get hamnered in vitamiini, spill veggie burgers on our shirts in soi soi and call it a night.
Night metro, yay
Don’t we’ve annual ghettoblaster which is kinda introductory tour to east? But I could come for a tour if all the stars align properly.
The relevant questions have already been answered, so I’ll just tag along with pieni merenneito and say that Vuosaari and the east in general are nice parts of Helsinki. (ok, to be frank, the best parts 
Full support for an introductory tour of East Helsinki!
Anyways, welcome.
Oh, some actual answers:
2. Apart from Kumiluoti and Velobia, Pelago is a good shop as well. Suomen urheiluaitta is worth checking out as well.
jerkku - 8:43, 17.6.2014 » Don't we've annual ghettoblasterwell that's more like an alleycat, what I had in mind was an all day ride around essential monuments and establishments.
This topic made me feel good.
One of the worse aspects of cycling from the east is the bridge called Kulosaaren silta. Long, windy, narrow and for the time being cycle/pedestrian lanes only on the south side due to eternal construction works.
However, whenever time is available, a short detour via Viikki is amazing rural time warp in the geographical center of Helsinki with nature preservation area, pastures and cows!
For visual feel, check out the pics in the photo quiz topics Itäisen kantakaupungin kuvarastit, Pääkaupunkiseudun kuvarastit and Katurastit (Helsinki) to see the weird details of cycling environment here. If you look at the date of the photo, you’ll also get a hunch of the weather and snow conditions during different times of year.
Depending on your destination, Viikki may even be a smarter choice.
My current commute is pretty much from itäkeskus to keilaniemi and I prefer a little detour via viikki, etelä-haaga and munkkiniemi. Less lights and significantly less rage than through ruoholahti or god forbid, centre.
Oh and if I don’t have the time I simply take the subway to ruoholahti and struggle towards the calming coastal route to lehtisaari.
thefootdown - 23:37, 16.6.2014 » 3. What are the best skater owned skate shops in Helsinki?You might want to check out [Ponkes](http://www.ponkes.com) which is located in the Forum shopping center and [Lamina](http://lamina.fi/) and [Union Five](http://www.unionfive.fi/) which can be found in the Kamppi shopping center. All three are within walking distance of each other.
I’ll just answer to the skateshop question:
All the skateshops in Helsinki are skater owned and there are 3 good shops downtown. Ponke’s the shop in Forum. Lamina and Union Five in Kamppi.
And there are some decent concrete parks in Vuosaari and in the east of Helsinki. And in Suvilahti theres a DIY concrete park, probably the biggest in Europe. Ruff but good.
Porteur - 9:18, 17.6.2014 » However, whenever time is available, a short detour via Viikki is amazing rural time warp in the geographical center of Helsinki with nature preservation area, pastures and cows!And birds!! Anyway, Viikki is really nice and often a good short cut/way to avoid traffic when moving to and from the East. And there are some nice trails around Viikki (extending to the neighboring areas of Herttoniemi, Latokartano, Kivikko etc.), if you are into that sort of stuff.
1. We’ll probably be moving to Vuosaari, is it a nice area?Vuokki 4 LYFE boi http://koti.mbnet.fi/~jukkah/terassitalot.jpg
pabs - 23:43, 16.6.2014 » Police got nothin on us.
your future kids will hate you for the east tho
Thanks for all the replies everyone! Sounds like the area we’ll be living is fine and the commute sounds great to me.
I’ll check out all the links later when I’m on the computer.
One other thing, do you know of any screen printing facilities with public access which I can use? Most big cities in the UK have one so I assume it’ll be the same out there.
This “urban workshop” doesn’t actually have screen printing equipment, but I thought it might be something you find useful anyway: http://www.kaupunkiverstas.fi/en/the-urban-workshop/
Damn foreigners. Comin´ here and stealing our ladies and nice jobs in cool shops. Oh you already did the first one while in U.K. 
Seriously, welcome!
Did you manage to score a job already by the way? Judging by how my GF is doing, if you’re unemployed in finland:
http://fedgeno.com/meme-generator/uploads/49.png
you’re gonna have a bad time.
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Probably one of the nicest places in Eastern Helsinki. Big, green, has metro, although a bit far away from the city, but if you’ve gotten used to living in suburbs, Vuosaari will do just fine.
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I’m gonna go with the others in this, and say Velobia. Some bikeshop owners/workers bear a striking resemblance to Finnish cabbies. It almost feels like someone is forcing them to do that for a living, so they’re often really grumpy, think they’re always right and do just enough to earn their wage. Nothing extra, nothing just for the fun on doing it. This is where Velobia differs from others. They go the extra mile to make the customer happy. Hi5bikes and Kumiluoti are told to be okay too…
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Just don’t get into accidents. Most cops don’t recognize brakeless bikes, the others don’t care as long as you don’t hit a pedestrian, car or something else…
Welcome!!