1954-2021
Igor's childhood was spent in Kivijärve and Laiuse(only a few kilomters away from later Jõgevatreff camp site in Kuremaa). At the age of 10, when Igor was still studying at Kivijärve primary school, Igor went to the pioneers camp.
On the back of the certificate received from the camp, there is a text dated July 24, 1965: Igor was an active participant in group events at the Värska pioneers camp, a good worker and athlete. He sometimes behaved rudely towards his comrades. Worked well in general. He was a passionate fisherman.
Father taught Igor to ride a motorcycle from an early age, so using the Kavrovets and M-72 sidecar as a child was no problem.
His father bought him his first motorcycle, "Pannonia", when he was still in high school. With it, Igor ride to high school in Jõgeva and also made his first long trip to Brest, along the Belarus-Poland border.
After high school, Igor was taken to the Russian army as a mandatory requirement, where he was a mechanic in the tank forces for 2 years. After the army, he started working on a fishing vessel, and the home port was Pärnu.
On the beach of Pärnu, during his free time from work, Igor met his future wife and mother of his children, Koidu, and took her out on a boat trip.
Igor asked Koidu out and made a bet with his coworkers that he wouldn't pay any bills that night. It didn't quite work out that way. Igor took Koidu out and paid the bill himself.
After some correspondence, Igor came to visit Koidu with red roses in Tallinn. However, since Koidu was not at home at the time, Igor gave the flowers to his future father-in-law instead and went to look for Koidu. The latter had said that he works under the Sossi hill. So Igor set his sights on the Liviko factory under the Sossi hill. Later, however, it turned out that Koidu instead works at the Salvo factory on Sossi hill, where helmets and all kinds of other plastic gadgets were produced.
When Igor finally reached the gate of the Salvo factory, the first to meet him was his future mother-in-law. This is because the workers were called to the gate by last name and because Koidu's mother was known more, she was requested to go meet at the gate.
The wedding was held in 1976 and in 1977 a daughter, Signe was born. The same year, a new Jawa with a sidecar was bought. As Igor said: "this JAWA is a 1977 release, the best that was available".
Already the following year, Igor left the sidecar, made a nanny of his mother-in-law and went on his first long trip to Central Asia with Koidu and a couple of friends, where the farthest country visited was Kyrgyzstan.
Since at that time it was not possible to buy anything special on the road except for dry goods, they had to take everything with you. Tallinn meat factory “Lihakombinaat” supported with canned meat and smoked sausages,
Kirov fish industry supported with canned fish. Marat gave all those who took part in the trip the same floral shirts, which had to be captured at every last monument or other sightseeing spot.
The trip lasted over three weeks. Both the participants and the equipment endured, although the temperature was often +50 during the day and dropped close to zero at night.
Inspired by the first longer trip, Igor already made plans for the next year's trip to Ukraine and the Carpathians. But then it turned out that the family is expecting offspring.
Hearing that the twins were coming, Igor held his head, but did not lose it. Igor's plan was to leave for the trip quickly and get back home by the time the children were born.
Argo and Eigo were not happy with the plan and decided to be born a month early. Igor was about to go on a long-planned trip when it turned out that he had to go to the hospital instead.
To get to the hospital and see the wife and children, a white coat “borrowed” from Salvo was helpful. With this he got into the maternity ward. Unfortunately, he did not manage to see the children before the trip, because at that time children were kept separately from their mothers.
Since that time, Igor went on at least one longer motorcycle ride every year. Riding within Estonia, with or without the family, was done on Jawa, because three small children fit nicely in the sidecar at the same time.
Through various events related to motorcycle hobbies and also by chance, Igor found many friends and like-minded people.
He met his lifelong friend, Urmas Kauniste, in 1980. In Tallinn, at the Rocca al Mare gas station. Uku, Arvi, Enn, Aadu, Raido and at least three different Olev’s were often Igor's travel companions.
They often participated in events where, according to the custom of that time, representatives of all kinds of hiking branches from all the federal republics, from cyclists to auto hikers, were together.
Igor said about it like this: "Everything that the soul was ready to put out came from the bike, not the car".
After living in Tallinn and near Mustvee, in the autumn of 1985, Igor and his family moved to Sadala in Jõgeva County, close to his childhood home. Right away, in the Sadala collective farm, he started a local moped club, where he began to infect both locals and also young people from Jõgeva, with the motorbike bug.
In addition to mopeds, there were, of course, motorcycles and go-karts. Under Igor's leadership and with the bikes he tuned, they competed both in Estonia and Latvia, both in motocross and circuit races.
Spare parts for the equipment were often received from the Jõgeva police station storage area and also from the Red Star factory in Riga, Latvia, where mopeds were produced at that time.
Children who wanted to take part in the activities of the moped club had to study well at school, get written consent from their parents, and occasionally bring some gasoline from their father's car with a bottle of lemonade.
Igor also built a local motocross track, where everyone could practice. With the end of the collective farms period, the opportunity to further develop the local motosports club disappeared.
When the subsidies disappeared, this project was left behind, but the patients infected with the motorcycle bug continued to go together in the future.
In 1989. Igor managed to travel to Scandinavia for the first time. First time outside Soviet Union.
Jörgen Mandell from Finland recalls that in connection with the catering of the Estonian delegation, the question arose, what do Estonians eat? Someone more experienced had said to go get bananas.
Jörgen was surprised, but he still brought a big bunch of bananas from the store and the Estonians were fed for the whole evening.
Having been on various trips and events in Scandinavia for a few years, Igor and his comrades came to the decision that an international motorcycle gathering should also be organized in Estonia. That's how the first Jõgevatreff took place in 1992 on the beach of lake Peipus.
In the end, the event went so poorly that it had to be organized the following year as well. Becoming better every year, learning from mistakes and not giving up.
A few years later, Igor and Koidu parted ways, but mutual friends and children remained and they continued to communicate.
Later in 1997, Igor met Külli, the love of his life. Külli was working at the local bank at that time. It was a very stressful day in the summer.
One of Külli’s co-workers said that it was a bad enough day, just not yet Ellisson with his red helmet. A few moments later, Igor entered the bank office with a red helmet in his hand.
For some time, for some reason, Igor went to the bank quite often to pay bills one by one. Every time he wanted Külli to help him, and one moment he mustered the courage to ask for Külli's phone number.
Of course, he wrote down the number incorrectly. He called this number for a long time and no one answered. Since it was vacation time and shift work, he didn't manage to meet Külli at the bank either.
After the Swedish Fim Rally, Igor, like a prince on the white Dnepr, finally came to the bank to inquire why his calls were not being answered. In order not to bother with calls anymore, he asked for Külli's address instead.
After learning the address, Igor went to visit Külli after work and discovered proper size men's shoes in the hallway. This made Igor a little worried, until it turned out that they belong to Mihkel, Külli's son.
This is how a life together, that lasted over 20 years, began. They traveled together with by motorcycles and cars. At one point, Igor's health began to deteriorate, so the hotter areas had to be avoided later.
Fighting his health issues, they still made a bike trip to Spain, where the Fim Motocamp event was held in 2000.
Between organizing Jõgevatreff bike meetings, Igor worked as a farmer. At the beginning of the 2000s, Igor built a new motocross track on the edge of his farmland and brought to life the Sadala moped club once again.
Once again, the children of Sadala had the opportunity to practice with the motocross bikes that Igor bought. This motocross track is still there and still available to everyone for practice.
Once again, Igor was going to polish the motocross track with an old bulldozer, when the following story happened. Due to his illness, Igor had to use his hands to lift his feet onto the appropriate pedals.
Once, however, when he had not yet managed to fully move his legs around, the bulldozer took off and developed a considerable speed.
He stormed over the pile of concrete blocks in front of him with a jump straight into the corn field. Of course, Igor pretended that all of it was planned to happen.
In addition to Jõgevatreff events, the international motorcycle federation events FIM Motocamp 2001 and FIM Rally in 2005 were organized, which were praised for years as the best organized FIM rally.
Igor also worked as the manager of Kuremaa swimming pool for 5-6 years. During this time, he started the renovation, which added a family sauna, a steam room, a private sauna, a conference room and much more.
In 2008, Igor got a Kawasaki motorcycle with a sidecar, which allowed him to ride for a few more years.
In 2009, Igor was recognized with the Silver Cross of Jõgeva County.
In 2011, Igor was awarded the Presidential Order of the White Star, Fifth Class.
In 2012 he was named an honorary citizen of Jõgeva municipality.
Since 2010, Igor was completely in a wheelchair, but thanks to Külli and Viktor, who also helped Igor for the last seven years, he still managed to take part of activities actively.
He kept taking part of Jõgevatreff’s, although no longer in the role of main organizer. His sons and friends took over the organization of event. Igor did not lose his sense of humor until the end - only recently Külli asked Igor in the morning if we would get up – Igor replied go ahead, I will catch up. Unfortunately, this was one of his last jokes.
Igor's life was an adventure on full throttle, which was stopped only by a serious illness. He did everything he set out to do even when many others didn't believe in it.
If he could say something else to us, it would probably be thank you Külli, thank you children Signe, Argo and Eigo, thank you Viktor, thank you friends for a great ride!
Many heavenly kilometers to you!
Valik pilte Igor Ellissonist
1924-2007
Syntynut vuonna 1924 Narvassa osallistui hänen sukupolvensa Toiseen Maailmansotaan.
Kohtalo vei Vadimin aluksi vapaaehtoisena Suomeen JR 200 =Suomenpojaksi=.
Kun virolaiset palasivat kotimaahan,puettiin heidat saksalaisiin asepuvuihiin 20. Viron Legioonaan. Vuonna 1944 ansaitsi Vadim, kotimaataan puolustaessa myös Rautaristin.
Neuvostovalta lähetti Vadimin 12 vuodeksi Siperian työleireille.
Rankka kohtalo ei murtanut miestä. Palattuaan jäi Vadim asumaan Pärnuun.
Kuusikymmenluvulla aloitti Vadim moottoripyöräharrastuksen.
Hän liittyi myös Enn Saigin matkateamin vakiojäseeneksi.
Häneen JAWA 350 vei Vadimin 1962 Krimin niemimaalle,1966 Tadzhikistaniin, 1968 Kirgiisiaan, 1969 Kasahstaniin, 1973 Karakumin erämaahaan Turkmeniassa, 1975 Vladivostokkiin Japaninmereella, 1976 Arhangelskiin ja Petsamoon,1980 Novosibirskiin ja Altaihiin Siperiassa, 1983 Kogalõm Pohjois-Tjumenissa.
Matka Vladivistokkiin -75 annsaitsi Neuvostoliiton mestaaruuden.
Harvoilla olisi annsioluettelossa Rautaristi sekää NL mestaruustitteli.
Vadimin viimeinen matka vei hänet vielä kerran Karakumiin erämaahaan.
Siellä testattiin DDR-än MZ pyöriä,mukaana oli neljä virolaista.
Vadimin kuuluisa JAWA seisoo nykyisiin Kurtnan Moottoripyörämuseossa toisessa kerroksessa.
Muistotekstin kirjoittanut Urmas Kauniste.
kuvat Vadim Palmin matkoista
1935-2003
Aloitettuaan motomatkailun vuonna 1957 oli Enn harrastuksessa mukana 90-luvulle asti.
Enn osalistui NL joukkuessa vuoden 1968 FIM Ralliin Italiassa, pyöränä Kovrovets 175.
Vuonna 1969 järjesti Enn virolaisten ennsimmäisen Karakum erämaamatkan.
Vuonna 1975 oli hän mukaana matkalla Tallinnasta Vladivostokkiin (13000 km).
Vuonna 1981 voitti Enn NL mestaruuden Altai matkallaan.
NL mestariurheilijan titteli annettiin Ennulle vuonna 1983.
Enn oli mukaana myös itsenäisen Viron Moottoriliiton työssa 90-luvun alussa.
Vuonna 1992 osallistui Enn virolaisten ennsimmäiselle Nordkapp matkalle.
Ennun ajopelinä kaikilla näillä matrkoilla oli Jawa 350 v.m.-61.
Monet suomalaiset ja motoristit muualta Euroopasta ovat yöpyyneet Ennun kesämökkilla Kolgalla.
Viimevuosina neuvoi Enn saksalaisia matkamotoristeja Venääjänmatkoja varten.
Matkamotoristit kunnioitavat legendaarisen matkamotoristin muistoa.
Vanhan Matkamotoristin matkakuvat Keski-Aasian, Altain ja Skandinaavian
Enn Saik tunnettulla "Jawalla" 24. august 1991 Raahe. Kuva Urmas Kauniste.