Cycle Around Scotland

Commuter rage...

2010-03-10T13:21:00.000-08:00

I've been out on the bike a bit more now that the weather has finally started to ease up. I managed a 25 mile loop round by Farr and Ruthven on Saturday although there was still a heck of a lot of grit and detritus on the roads from when they were gritted. There's still loads of snow up there and it was gently thawing and draining on to the roads, so while it was all clear blue skies and no wind there was still an awful lot of water on the road. By the time I got back it looked like I'd been mountain biking not road biking!

Farr - Ruthven Circuit
Find more Bike Rides in Highland, United Kingdom

Aaaaanyway. I've decided to commute to work to get a wee bit more training in. We've not long moved house and it's a bit closer to work and R's school. Today would be day 3 of commuting.

Day 1: Leaving work and someone decides that he's going to pull out and sideswipe me, fortunately he misses. Cue much swearing on my part.

Day 2: I'm about to turn right. I position myself on the road to get ready to turn off, I signal, I'm wearing a bit orange jacket, I'm 5'11", I am on the largish side, I have both volume and mass. So WHY does the silly cow in the blue VW Beetle waiting at the junction to turn right decide that regardless of this, she will pull out and drive right at me forcing me to swerve back left into oncoming traffic and nearly getting myself flattened in the process?!! Cue swearing gesticulating and general irritation on my part. Does she even acknowledge my presence? Does she 'eck.

Day 3: No incidents to report but I've just been given a free place on the Etape Caledonia sportive! Result! So it balances out in the end.

It seems even in Inverness cycle commuting is fraught with danger. Someone recently advised that one way to get motorists to 'see' you is to make direct eye contact with them. That way they can't come out with the old 'but I didn't see you mate' chestnut while you try and figure out why you've become embedded headfirst into the grill of a BMW X5.

Postponed...

2010-02-19T05:07:00.001-08:00

A couple of posts ago I mentioned that I’d been having trouble getting a start date for the CAR due to a few issues with the University getting a placement sorted for my wife. It’s now looking unlikely that she’ll start anything before March which means she’ll be on placement and trying to juggle childcare while I’m away. The financial costs of the trip are becoming too hard to justify when there is only one of us earning money. When I factor in the amount of food I’ll need to consume to keep me going, the cost of spare parts for the bike and any repair costs, it starts to look very tight. There is also the matter of school holidays to contend with. She was originally due to finish placement before I left meaning that I’d be good to go with a clear conscience.

So I’ve taken a very long hard look at the plans and have reluctantly decided to postpone the trip.

Some of you have already donated money to the GDBA and this is weighing heavily with me. Rest assured I will be doing the trip but it’s most likely going to be in the Spring of 2011. However in the meantime I will be embarking on a series of mini challenges to justify the money folk have donated. These will be done over weekends and the occasional long weekend.

So far I’ve come up with the following.

Cycle Around Skye and Cycle Home - I’ll get the train to Kyle of Lochalsh and spend a day touring round Skye before cycling home to Inverness the next day.

Cycle Around Arran - does what it says on the tin! Circular route around Arran with time to hopefully sneak in a bit of cragging on Goatfell

Cycle Hebridies(ish) - A cycle trip from Inverness to Ullapool, ferry to Stornoway and then down through Lewis and Harris, ferry to Uig, through Skye and back home.

Cycle Northern Isles - I’ve never been to Orkney and Shetland before so quite fancy cycling there, Fair Isle could be nice too!

Any other suggestions? I’m hopefully getting a Mountain bike soon, so long off road cycles through the Glens could be good. As always you’re more than welcome to come along for any of these trips.

I’m feeling pretty deflated at the moment. I hate starting something that I can’t finish, but I need to put my family (not to mention my finances!) first. Thanks to everyone that’s offered support, hopefully I’ll be able to take you up on it next year. The blog will continue on its Scottish Cycling related theme and my other blog where I talk about other nonsense can be found at http://gaidhealtachd.blogspot.com

On a plus side it means I’ll be mega fit for it next year and will have absolutely no excuses!

If I’ve let anyone down please accept my heartfelt apologies. The trip WILL go ahead, just a bit later than originally planned.

What kind of Cyclist are you?

2010-02-03T12:29:00.000-08:00

I've been blog browsing and spotted this one written by an endurance cyclist called Jill a few years ago. She's based in Alaska and cycles in some truly awe inspiring settings, her blog is well worth reading.

I'll copy the post here, hopefully she'll be happy for me to do so! I'll email her just to be on the safe side. Are you a Sheepdog, Husky, Greyhound, Labrador or St Bernard? :-)

"... See, cyclists are a lot like dogs. No, not because they eat protein snacks and bark at cars. To most, a cyclist is a cyclist - but that doesn't stop the proliferation of a startling variety of breeds.

First there are commuters. Commuters are the Labrador retrievers of the pack. Throw them a good bicycle route, and they'll keep coming back. They love a good game of "catch"- that is, sprinting to catch green lights. They're highly sociable, largely domesticated and don't mind being leashed to the same roads day after day.

Then there are the recreational riders, the toy poodles. They're mostly out for show. They often have the best bikes on the block, as shiny as the day they were purchased - and often as unused. They coast gingerly along smooth payment, chrome sparkling in the sunlight, all while smiling dreamily to grab the attention of passers by.

In contrast, there are the extreme mountain bikers, the huskies, pulling their powerful bodies over terrain that nature never intended them to cross. Their bikes show the marks of a life fully lived, coated in mud and marred by deep scars. They live on the cusp of tame and wild, fully prepared for the roughest conditions. They work well in groups but their minds are fiercely independent, and they're never fully content when they come down from the mountain.

Recreational mountain bikers are golden retrievers. Like their husky brothers, they love going on long rides in the mountains, jumping in the mud and summoning their maximum energy level whenever they go out. However, they're also just as happy to curl up on the couch when the weather forecast calls for rain.

There are club riders, the Shetland sheepdogs, who are happiest in herds. They're always nipping at the heels of other riders to keep a good drafting speed as they move in formation along the road. Separation from the herd is a mark of shame.

Road racers, on the other hand, break out of the pack when it really matters. Like greyhounds, they move in graceful unity until the time comes to rush forward in a stunning burst of speed. Their sleek, lycra-clad bodies were built for speed and speed alone. They can be a delicate breed, prone to freezing in the winter and unable to carry the weight of life's necessities on their ultra-light bikes.

That's where cycle tourists are different. Tourists are the St. Bernards trailing behind the pack - big, bulky, slow, but built to last, built to withstand the rain and snow and ice and wind that gets in the way during the long haul. Tourists are well adept to carrying large loads on their bikes, pulling them when necessary, moving at a steady speed until they reach their final destination, whether it's 5 or 5,000 miles away ..."

The right bike for the trip.

2010-01-31T09:20:00.000-08:00

http://www.ridgeback.co.uk/index.php?bikeID=150&seriesID=41&show_bike=TRUE

I think this could be the bike I'll use for the trip. It's a Ridgeback horizon with a carbon fork and Shimano Sora gears. I'd like a slightly higher specced bike with 105 or SRAM Rival but the budget doesn't quite reach that far. I'll be able to get it on the bike to work scheme and it'll leave me about £200 to get the inevitable 'extras'. The combination of a steel frame and carbon fork should hopefully mean the miles will get soaked up with ease.... I hope!

The guys at Square Wheels were, as ever, extremely helpful and gave me plenty of advice so I'll be purchasing the bike through them. The good thing is that it'll double as a winter hack and commuting bike. Getting it this month will mean that I'll have plenty of time to train with it and get used to hauling kit about in panniers, something I've not really done before.

A quick update

2010-01-20T13:02:00.000-08:00

I've set up a twitter feed, facebook group and work are helping out by publishing details in the company magazine and on our intranet.

I've also set a provisional date of ......

...20th June. It's getting later and later but we're still second guessing what's happening with my wifes Uni course. She was supposed to start a placement at the beginning of January and due to finish at the beginning of June but this is now looking increasingly unlikely seeing as she hasn't started yet!

We've decided to sod the University and just go for it. It'll work out in the end ... I hope!

Changing Plans - Thanks Stirling University

2009-11-05T04:44:00.000-08:00

Well it seems that I'm having to review my plans for next years Cycle Around Scotland AGAIN. It's going to be June at the earliest, late June at that.

My wife studies at Stirling University and due to gross negligence, extreme incompetence and lack of anything that might resemble forward planning they cocked up her final placement. She should have been on placement since June and would have finished last week. However this didn't happen and she has been left high and dry since then. Fortunately they've managed to reschedule things for her and she'll commence her placement in January and should get to graduate on time. This means we'll have to micro manage our family time and I really can't justify swanning off round the country while she's trying to finish a placement. It wouldn't be fair of me at all.

It just means I'll miss what is usually a fairly settled period of weather in Scotland. Mind you if Dave Gorman can complete a marathon cycle around the UK in September then I really shouldn't moan about having to do it in June!

Map My Ride - a wee test.

2009-10-01T02:58:00.000-07:00

I've just registered with Map My Ride

Mondays Route:

30/09/2009 Route
Find more Bike Rides in Highland, United Kingdom

That seems to work quite nicely!

Human Sat Nav!

2009-09-29T04:30:00.000-07:00

After a disastrous Ullapool Sportive on Saturday (the less said the better, I didn't complete, I just wasn't fit enough for it) it was my turn to be a 'Human Sat Nav' for Dave Gorman.

Dave is currently on the final legs of his cycling tour round the UK where he will travel to the most Southerly, Easterly, Westerly and Northernly parts of the UK mainland. At the same time he is stopping off at venues on the way to perform his own unique brand (apologies for the cliche, I couldn't think of a better description and besides it's true!) of comedy. This has all been nicely bundled together as the SIT DOWN, PEDAL, PEDAL, STOP AND STAND UP tour. At the end of each days cycling he somehow manages to recover enough to perform a pretty energetic show in front of anything from 33 people in a railway carriage to 1000+ in a 'proper' venue.

At the time of writing he should be making his way up to Dornoch (it's pissing down!) and should finish up in Dunnet Head in the next few days - he's stopping to do gigs in Dornoch and Lyth on the way.

During the tour he's relied on his Human Sat Navs to guide him on each stage of the journey, these are people who have heard about the tour and have volunteered to help him out. It was my turn yesterday along to take him from Fort Augustus to Inverness. I roped in Colin from work to help out as he's a bit fitter than me and could get him there quicker if it turned out he was in a rush. There were two options I could have taken; the flattish and shorter A82 via Drumnadrochit on the North Side of Loch Ness or the hillier South side through Whitebridge Foyers and Dornoch. We decided to go with the South side because it's more picturesque and the roads are a lot quieter - cycling along the A82 would be tantamount to suicide!

Starting lineup at Fort Augustus

View from the top the hill after F.A - the descent was fantastic! I let Gorman beat me up the hill (honest!) - I whupped his ass when it came to the downhills though.... I did, honest.

Falls of Foyers

We had a couple of stops along the way, a wee look at the Falls of Foyers followed by a stop at Dores where the Nessie Hunter lives on the shores of the Loch.

Fortunately the weather was kind, with a tailwind helping us along the way and the forecast rain staying away for the most part.

The light kept changing on the Loch and as soon as I put the camera away it brightened up - typical! No sign of the monster though.

We got back to Inverness in good time.... just as the rain started, couldn't have timed it better.

Dave was kind enough to give us free tickets to his show at the Ironworks and I can't recommend it highly enough. I don't want to give anything away (honestly it would spoil it for you) but if you get the chance you should go and see him.

The finishing line - I look like a right grumpy arse. I had a great time, I just hate getting my photo taken!

MTB trip - Corrour to Spean Bridge

2009-08-31T11:43:00.000-07:00

'A wee jaunt' I think I called it. Little did I know.

Donald and I (check his blog out, it's in Gaelic and he's just blogged about the same trip!) took the train from Spean Bridge to Corrour station, the most remote mainline station in the UK. Our route was to take us back to Spean Bridge via Loch Treig and the Lairig Leacach, stopping off at the bothy along the way.

A stern warning from Network Rail........

... Unfortunately Donald forgot his glasses

Corrour Station

The first few miles were great, a touch boggy at the start but this soon gave way to a good track leading to the lodge at the head of Loch Treig.

Creag Uaineach Lodge (Loch Treig)

After that...... boggy! For the next few miles it was matter of pushing the bikes through bogs. The views were cracking though. Well worth all the effort we were having to make.

Heading towards Lairig Leacach

After a couple of hours of swearing and slogging we reached the bothy in the Lairig Leacach. It's a great wee spot with views across to the Sgurr Innse, the bothy itself is pretty good and has a decent sleeping platform, one to be revisited at a later date I think. Luckily the path is in great nick from here back to Spean Bridge, a short wee uphill section was followed by a great sweeping downhill run pretty much right the way back into Spean Bridge. I think my bike may be in need of a service after all that though, it was making a few distressing noises by the time I got it back to the car.

The last stop before the dowhill run to Spean Bridge

Dave Gorman - cycling the four Corners

2009-08-30T00:49:00.000-07:00

The comedian Dave Gorman will this morning be setting off on his challenge to cycle to all 'four corners' of the UK AND do a gig on each night:

"I'm cycling between Britain's four corners. From the southernmost point of the mainland to the easternmost to the westernmost to the northernmost. If that wasn't hard enough I'm going to be doing a full on one man show each night. I can't help thinking that after 50 or 60 miles in the saddle I should be lying down in a darkened room with a drip feed of carbs and protein."

It's great to see people coming up with different ideas for cycle trips (or challenges!) and whilst part of me thinks 'bugger, by the time I set off in May everyone will be sick of hearing about them' , I reckon that this can only be a good thing for cycling and will encourage more people to get on their bikes.

I sent him a message asking him to let me know if he fancies any company between the Fort Augustus and Inverness leg of his trip. Hopefully he'll use the south road on Loch Ness rather than cycling up the A82 - he'd be taking his life into his hands!

Sod all training for me this week, a combination of laziness and crap weather has meant that I've really done very little. I'm hoping to make amends for this today with a wee jaunt on the Mountain bike between Corrour and Spean Bridge.

A new milestone!

2009-08-23T13:49:00.000-07:00

Just a quick post before bed.

I took the 0900 train from Inverness to Strathcarron yesterday morning with the intention of cycling back home to Inverness. It was to be my longest trip on the bike totaling 60 miles. A flurry of texts on Friday night managed to persuade my workmate Ben to come along (although to be fair he didn't need much persuading, he's very keen!) for what promised to be a clear day with a stiff tailwind to help us along.

As promised the weather was good and the tailwind did it's best to make life as easy as possible, the odd impatient motorist tried to put a dampener on things by driving too close or beeping at us for having the audacity to cycle side by side... For the record we were on a mile long straight with no traffic coming towards us and visibility was good, the Highway code states that it's safe to cycle side by side 'when it's safe to do so'...

Ben is a lot fitter and lighter than me and when it came to going uphill would leave me behind, this was a bit frustrating but just makes me more motivated to train and lose weight. I don't find that the hills are particularly harder it's just that I've just got more weight to get up them! The one benefit of having to spin at a lower speed was the fact that I was able to take the time to admire the scenery. I feel privileged to live in the Highlands of Scotland and yesterday was definitely one of those days. On the pull away from Achnasheen I was lucky enough to spot a Golden Eagle making its way towards the Fannaichs. I'm not so sure that Ben was particularly impressed with my poo identification skills when I spotted what looked like fox poo beside the wall at one of our rest stops. If I call correctly the response was "well.. thats very interesting.." followed by a strange look!

The whole trip took three and a half hours and an average speed of 17.7 miles, much faster than I expected us to take. Not only was it the furthest I'd cycled in one trip but it was my first coast to coast, starting at the sea loch of Loch Carron and finishing up in Inverness on the Moray Firth!

Hopefully I can start to build on this, my total mileage on the bike for last week was 94 miles, if I can increase this to about 100 miles on a regular basis then I'll be very happy indeed. I need to up the miles on the longer weekend trips as the Ullapool Mor sportive is in 4 weeks time and as it stands I am nowhere near fit enough to complete it!

Oidhche Mhath,

Toby

Halfords..... the nightmare..

2009-08-18T04:36:00.000-07:00

Boardman Team Comp - great bike, awful distributor

Avoid. Avoid at all costs. Do not under any circumstances shop with these people!

I've mentioned in previous posts that I've had issues with the bike I'm using for training for next years trip. It's a bit of a saga but bear with me!

Back in January my employers decided to introduce the cycle to work scheme, unfortunately the scheme they went for meant that we could only use Halfords and not our Local Bike Shops. Halfords have a reputation for poor service and in particular the Bike Hut side of their affairs is treated with derision by most cyclists. Boardman bikes are only supplied via Halfords but they have been getting great reviews in the cycling press. After many hours poring over reviews online and magazines I decided to go for the Boardman Team Carbon (details in the review link).

The first visit to the shop ended up with me sending this email to Halfords customer service:

To whom it may concern,
I
'd like to inform you of a rather poor experience I had in your Longman road store in Inverness on Saturday 3^rdJanuary.

My company will be using Halfords for the Cycle2Work scheme and being a keen road biker I am very interested in signing up for the scheme and had gone along to the store to make enquiries about what bikes you stock.

As I was waiting to be served I noted that the service that the gentleman in front of me was very poor. He'd come in to get a bike for his son (who was with him) and had picked one out for him. At no point did the Customer Service assistant make sure that the bike was the right frame size for the boy, the bike was not checked to make sure that it was road-worthy and the customer had to point out that the tyres needed inflated. During the sale of the bike the Assistant proceeded to make derogatory comments about a customer he'd been dealing with earlier on in the day. Apparently she had complained that she's had to wait for over 3 weeks to get her bike serviced. This led to a diatribe about how impatient women were and he claimed that he'd told her all along that he had no intention of the servicing the bike till January. Sharing this information with other customers is completely unprofessional!

The quality of service was poor and unprofessional, I'm very concerned that a child was allowed to leave the shop with a bike that hadn't been properly checked or sized up. I'm concerned that a member staff thinks that it is appropriate to talk about other customers in such a manner and I also found his attitude to be rude and dismissive when I had cause to talk to him about the Cycle 2 Work scheme. He wouldn't entertain the fact that I may want to try any other bikes other than the Boardman road bikes and said that it wasn't worth my while checking out any other brand. He seemed to be utterly oblivious to the fact that getting a bike (especially one that I hope to use for Sportives as well cycling to work) involves trying out different makes and models to make sure that the right 'fit' is made.

So that was the first visit to Halfords. I eventually got the bike (after emails from the customer service department advising it had been looked in to and sorted) and after a week or so had to send this email:

Thanks for your initial reply and during my follow up visit to the shop things seemed to have improved and I ended up buying the Boardman Team Carbon midway through February.

However when I recieved the bike it hadn't been set up correctly. The front brakes were not properly set - the brake block was loose on one side (I could spin it with my finger) and on the other side the caliper seemed to have been set so that the block was continuously rubbing on the wheel. The indexing was not brilliant and it wouldn't shift up the gears particularly smoothly. The seat post had been secured so tightly that when I went to adjust it to fit me properly I thought I was about to snap the bolt due to the amount of pressure I had to use on the allen key to loosen it.

Due to the snow I wasn't able to get out on the bike for any length of time but I finally managed to get out last week. During the trip I noticed that the chain seemed to rubbing against the front derailleur and this was a cause of some concern as I didn't want the chain or the front mech to be damaged. This got worse as the day went on before I decided to return home early as I couldn't fix it on the road.

I took the bike to the Halfords store in Stirling on Saturday as I was supposed to be using it while I was down visiting friends. We weren't able to stop the chain from rubbing so I popped in to see if the staff in Halfords could help. Once the customer advisor had it in the workshop she advised that she had found the following problems:

- The front brakes were not straight (this is after me trying to sort them)
- The Bottom bracket had not been properly greased
- The Front Derailleur had been positioned too low and this was why the chain was rubbing.
- The gear cables hadn't been properly greased.

When they tried to change the height of the front derailleur they found that the bolt had been stripped and they will have to replace the whole front mech. If the person who had fitted it had tightened so much that the bolts had been stripped then I have to worry if there's any damage been done to the Carbon frame.

The Halfords store offered to replace the front derailleur and to strip the bike down and properly set it up again which I am happy for them to do. The part will take a week to order. However this means I'm without the bike for a week when I should be training for Sportives and I'll have to go back to Stirling to pick it up next week. I had no faith that the Inverness store would be able to do the a good job of it, so I would rather spend the £40 in petrol in driving to Stirling and back next week if it means I'll get the bike back in proper working order.

I have to say that I've been left feeling very angry by the whole episode. The process of buying the bike was difficult and the staff unhelpful and I've now got a bike that hasn't been set up properly and needs to be repaired before I've even had a chance to get a decent ride on it.

Regards,

I got another email from the customer services dept assuring me that it was being looked at and I eventually recieved a phone call from the store manager explaining that he had recently taken it over and was working on sorting out the customer service.... until:

To whom it may Concern,

As you can see below I had ongoing problems with the Halfords store in Inverness at the start of the year in regards to a bike I had purchased on the bike to work scheme. The manager had contacted me and assured me that these issues were being attended to.

Last Friday (10^th July) I had to return to the store with another issue with the bike. In short one of the pedals had come off and the threads were stripped in the hole on the crank. This means that the whole chainset will need to be replaced. I can only presume that this was caused by the pedals being put in with either no grease or incorrectly fitted. I was advised by a staff member called Michael that he would order a replacement part for me and would contact me by phone to let me know when it when it was in stock. I’d then be able to take the bike in to have it fitted. He couldn’t tell me when it would arrive though but assured me that he’d phone me ‘next week’.

After hearing nothing further from the store and getting no response to any phone calls I decided to visit the store yesterday to find out what was happening. I was told by the mechanic that he didn’t know anything about it and asked me to leave my name and number and they’d get back to me. I politely declined and asked whether it would be possible to speak to the manager so that this could be cleared up. He called for the manager to come upstairs to BikeHut and advised that he’d be up shortly. After waiting a further 10 minutes I asked the mechanic whether the manager was coming and was told that he was downstairs dealing with some other customers. I’d actually spotted the manager when he’d been called and he had not been dealing with anyone at that point. He’s obviously chosen to help people choose a sat nav system instead, a job that I would guess any other member of staff could do. After waiting a further five minutes I decided to leave as I had to get back to work.

I tried to phone again today to get this resolved and got put through to Bikehut but again got no answer.

I’m afraid to say that I’ve had enough of Halfords consistently poor standard of service in Inverness. There has been absolutely no improvement in service standards that I can see and I feel that the staff in the shop have absolutely no interest in the needs of the customer. Responses to queries are cursory at best and rude at worst.

This matter now needs to be resolved in a timely fashion, I have had the bike for 6 months and in this time it has been unusable for almost a full month. I would like a guarantee that the bike will be fixed with the next 7 - 10 days and assurances that the shocking service in this shop will be looked at seriously. I am incredibly angry with the way I have been treated and would appreciate it if someone from Head Office or an area manager contacts me as soon as possible.

and then....

I have now been in contact with manager at Halfords Inverness. He has assured me that they will do their best to have the repair carried out this week.

However it was explained to me that legally they have between 4 and 6 weeks to carry out any repairs, whilst I understand that from a legal standpoint this is acceptable, in regards to customer service this is in my opinion very poor. This was not explained to me when I ordered the part on July 10^th. I was told by Michael at hat he would contact me during the week to let me know when it would arrive. This did not happen. It wasn’t after 4 calls to the customer service department, one email, a visit to the store and numerous phone calls that I finally got a phone call from him. This was only in response to a call from customer services. When Michael phoned this afternoon he was rude and dismissive and seemed to think it was acceptable to give an answer of ‘it will turn up when it turns up’ when I asked when I could expect the part to be delivered.

Once the warranty repair has been carried out I will no longer be shopping at Halfords, I am also requesting that the bike to work scheme with Halfords is discontinued and that we use an alternative scheme using local bike shops. I will be undertaking a charity ride next year and I will be publicizing the fact that my training was hampered by the poor service I received from Halfords. This will be published on my website, blog and in the local and national press. I was willing to hold off on this but I am not satisfied that Halfords have taken my problems seriously. The lack of communication and the fact that I have had to chase this at every stage to even begin to get any kind of answer shows a serious lack of regard to good customer service by Halfords.

It has taken 17 days for Halfords to give me any kind of response in regards to my initial query. This is simply not acceptable. It should also be noted that my last email query sent on the 17th was not responded to within the time quoted on the email.

It eventually got sorted just in time for me to go on holiday.

The final email from Halfords went as follows:

Thank you for your email.

Your comments have been passed on to the Area Manager to take up with the Store. However,
this is a confidential process and you would not be informed of the outcome.

Please accept my apologies, once again, for the inconvenience caused.

Kind Regards,
Margaret Davidson
Halfords Customer Services

I've had enough now and I'm just happy to have it sorted. Although I did take it to Alpine Bikes to for them to check it. Guess what? They found some issues! The crank hadn't been properly tightened and they'd moved the front mech so that it was just rubbing against the top of the cog. Luckily the guys at Alpine Bikes sorted it for free! Great guys.

Halfords? Never again. Ever.

Cycle around England...

2009-08-13T04:12:00.000-07:00

.....well the south coast..

I've managed a couple of trips over the last week from Paignton, both contrasting in the amount of sheer effort and will power used to get from point A to point B (via A1 - the ice cream parlour in Dawlish!).

The first was a 50 mile round trip out of Paignton and along the coast through Torquay, Teignmouth, Dawlish, Starcross and back via Newton Abbott. Blazing sunshine and hideous traffic was the main theme for the day closely followed by endless bloody hills! The south coast along Lyme Bay is lumpy to say the least and the roads helpfully take the most direct route rather than the easiest... this meant the delight at finding a fast downhill was immediately followed by a sinking feeling as the road promptly started to wind its way back uphill again. Usually I love fast twisty downhils runs, the hiss of the wheels on the tarmac and the whistling of the wind past my ears is music only ever bettered by the singing of the birds (or whatever is on the iPod at the time - I can recommend the new Oceanlab album). However by mile ten I had quickly figured out that the fast spin downhill would be quickly followed by a long haul back uphill, so any 'downtime' was viewed with suspicion and the expectation of pain to come.

A puncture just outside of Dawlish forced me to stop and replace the inner tube. Grappling with cheap and nasty tire leavers (the type with extra flex making it impossible to get them firmly under the beads of the tire without popping back out!) it took me the best part of half an hour to get the tyre off and the tube changed. All the time being heckled by 5 year old passers by.. 'look mummy that man has broken his bike' 'look mummy that mans bike is upside down' 'look mummy that man is wearing infeasibly tight lycra...' . I may have made one of those up!

I finished the route at Starcross where I stopped to take in the views across the Exe Estuary and Exmouth. The return route took me back through Teignmouth and then up the Teign river to Newton Abbott - a ferocious final hill almost finished me off. Good wide roads and cycle paths to put Highland Council to shame, got me back to Paignton in time for tea.

Yesterday's trip had the same midpoint as the route I took on the road bike. This was a slightly more leisurely 20 mile trip down the canal path from Exeter to Dawlish and bike. I hired a couple of bikes for my wife and I from the bike shop on the quayside. We just took our time following the canal down to the point where it spills out on to the Estuary. Sometimes it's nice to get away from the traffic and pootle along on something with a comfy seat and suspension!

Devon, Dartmoor and Cream Tea's!

2009-08-06T14:36:00.000-07:00

Dartmoor Haytor Rocks (Hay Tor)

I've buggered off on holiday for a well deserved ((cough)) break.

The odd bit of bouldering, tor-bagging and spot of Shakespeare in the grounds of Cockington court has been the order of the week so far. I've taken the bike with me and I've managed to find a couple of steep hills to train on. They're fairly short but steep enough to make my legs feel like jelly! All good stuff and now that I'm getting out on a daily basis I'm seeing rapid improvements on my fitness.

Bouldering on Sheeps Tor - Dartmoor

Dartmoor Ponies

Illyria performing 'A Midsummer Nights Dream' at Cockington Court, Torbay

Cragging and Fishing

2009-07-31T04:48:00.000-07:00

Donald climbing the first route

Two evenings in a row outdoors - that doesn’t happen very often!

On Wednesday night I went out with Donald and Ruaridh to Pinnacle Crag at Duntelchaig, the aim was to get me to dangle off the end of a bit of rope and actually climb something. The missed opportunities at Erraid had been gnawing away at me and Donalds assurance of easy routes and no pressure was enough to persuade me to at least give it a try.

Ruaraidh finishing up on the second route

Success!!

After infinite patience (on Donald’s part) and much swearing, sweating and grunting (on my part) I finally managed to haul myself up a 10 metre Vdiff! Conquering my psychological fears was a bigger battle than actually climbing the thing. Moving on from there we tackled another wee route with a nice little crack that finished things off at the top, this one was probably slightly harder (certainly the top section made you think) but all the easier for the fact that I’d managed to get over my fears and go for it. I came home a bit scraped and bruised but very happy.

The View from Pinnacle Crag, Duntelchaig

Thursday night was slightly more relaxed - a fishing trip to Rosemarkie was the cure for a hectic day. My daughter tried her hand at fishing for the first time and seemed pretty taken with it, although I’m not sure that scrambling over the rock pools was more of an interest for her. I managed to lose three sets of gear in the rocks and caught the sum total of a bit of seaweed and a lump of mud! Not that I cared though. The sun setting behind us and a reasonably warm evening more than made up for it.

Rhiannon reels them in

The Cairngorms

2009-07-26T10:46:00.000-07:00

We were child free for the afternoon so decided a quick dash up Cairngorm was in order. My road bike's still knackered so the best option was a walk up a Munro I've done many, many times before. I use it as a general gauge of my hill fitness as it's reasonably straightforward (and a shortish day out with the option to extend round the Northern Corries or on to Ben Macdui)... it's not good as it turns out! My legs were killing me after the first half hour - I'm obviously not balancing cycling time with enough cross training.

It was my wifes third Munro (and the third that we've done together!) and we had relatively clear skies for the day, it's the first time that I've been on the plateau when there's been no wind - and the first time when a breeze would have been welcome!

The views across to Ben Macdui, Braeriach and the Northern Corries were very clear although the Corries seemed pretty quiet, where were all the climbers!? I thought it would have been a good day for it.

A Paraglider tried to make the best of the low winds, he didn't get too far and after taking off from the slope of Sron an Aonaich above Coire Cas he landed on the path heading to the Northern Corries. It looked idyllic though. I wouldn't mind a go myself!

Cairngorm Mountain have spent a fair bit trying to tidy the area up, it's much maligned for being a complete tip with rusting ski tows and bulldozed paths leaving scars all over Coire Cas. The funicular has helped with this in part (granted it's making sod all money!) and much of the ski and tourist traffic now use this as their main way up to the Ptarmigan. I was pleased to see that they've made a real effort with biingual Gaelic/English signage.

Next week - more training on my mountain bike. I'm using it to cycle to work and building up a good base level of fitness. Then I'm on annual leave, hopefully heading to Devon with a working road bike and lots of big Dartmoor hills to look forward to.

Tioraidh,

Toby

Erraid (Isle of Mull)

2009-07-21T07:29:00.000-07:00

What a weekend! Left Inverness last weekend for a few days on the Isle of Erraid off the West coast of Mull. The weather forecast for much of Scotland was pretty gloomy and it was looking like we were in danger of the weekend being a bit of a wash out. Happily we were completely wrong! I’ve never been to Mull before and I was blown away by the scenery.. to be honest I think the pictures tell it better than I can.

Traigh Gheal - the view from the campsite

Our campsite beside Traigh Gheal (lit: White Beach)

Argos Pro Action tent - £25 and a complete bargain, light sturdy and very, very good value for money!

The Sound of Erraid

Sunset over Iona

Dan Goodwin new routing on Erraid

Those of you familiar with the works of Robert Louis Stevenson will know that Erraid is the Island that David Balfour is marooned on in ‘Kidnapped’, the outline of the Island also bears a strong resemblance to the map on Treasure Island. Apparently you can walk across the Sound of Erraid at low tide, however we turned up at high tide and it the sea was still a good distance away. The views from the high points on the Island take in Iona, Tiree, Jura and Colonsay. It’s a nature watchers paradise too with Gannets, Shags, Buzzards, Otters, Manx Shearwaters and Sea Eagles all within the flourish of a pair of binoculars.

The intention was to camp, climb and fish, I managed two of those but unfortunately climbing wasn’t to be. I seem to have hit a bit of a mental block when it comes to climbing and the thought of tying in to the rope just made me feel nauseous and utterly terrified. I can’t pin down the reasons for this and it made me feel pretty useless. I’m seriously contemplating selling all my climbing kit but I want to climb! I’m looking back on the photos of the others climbing and I’m gutted that I didn’t manage a single route. I declared at the time that I was done with climbing, but sod it. I’m not giving up and I WILL climb again, I just need to sort my head out!

The cycle stuff is still ongoing, I’ll post a picture of the Courier article when I get a mo’ and I have a loooooong rant about Halfords that I need to air.

The end of a great trip!

More on the Cycle Path!

2009-07-02T04:49:00.000-07:00

I’ve had some good responses from people in regards to the cycle path in Inverness. I started a couple of threads on UK Climbing and Bike Radar and drummed up a bit of interest.

I was also interviewed by a someone from the Inverness Courier on the phone yesterday, I think they want to run an article on it and had said that they would contact Highland Council and ask them for their response. The courier usually publishes their articles online so I’ll link to it on here as soon as it’s up.

Cyclists Welcome? Inverness' latest 'Cycle Path'

2009-06-24T13:49:00.000-07:00

I'll let you be the judge!

So you start here:

Note the 'no entry' sign and the fact that you're going against the flow of traffic. It's not like it's a particularly wide piece of road either

So you pootle along for all of 20 yards when the cycle lane suddenly peters out:

Where do you go? Do you get off the bike and walk... do you carry on .... do you cycle on the pavement? You can see the the road narrows and it's unclear whether you can continue on the road. After all you'd be going against the one way system..

Then you hit the 'shared surface'. At least I think that's what it is? It's not really clear... the council didn't really bother to let anyone know.

At least there are double yellow lines to give a bit of definition and give folk an idea where the cars are supposed to not stop. No kerb though. And does anyone actually know what the grey bollards are for? Answers on a postcard please.

But look, the cycle lane is back, all ... uh... 4 metres of it? Thanks Highland Council for being so considerate to us cyclists!

But wait... this is a one way system and the traffic lights appear to have been switched off for traffic coming out of Ness Walk on to Young Street.. So if I try and go right I'm likely to get flattened by traffic who probably quite rightly aren't expecting me to pop out the 'wrong' way from a one way system.

The point is that cyclists should follow the rules of the road too and this rather bizarre cycle lane that they've created seems to be giving us cyclists a bit of a headache. I've tried to use it a couple of times but I really don't believe that it's safe to do so. I get looks of consternation from motorists when they see me cycling the 'wrong way' down a one way street. Surely it would have made more sense to have the cycle lane follow the flow of traffic not go against it?!

I gave up trying to figure it out and took a slightly nicer picture instead!

Shared Spaces

2009-06-18T03:37:00.000-07:00

As well as the Cycle Around Scotland stuff I’ll use this blog as an opportunity to witter on about issues relating to disabilities that I come across and that wind me up. (We’ll not mention the lazy individual at work who sees an empty disabled space as a legitimate parking spot, even though there’s nothing wrong with her other than pathological laziness. …..Did I mention she was lazy?)

The latest Government fad seems to be the introduction of ‘shared spaces’. This is an urban area that has been developed so that there is no clear definition between where the road and the pavement starts and finishes. A definition found on Wikipedia states:

Safety, congestion, economic vitality and community severance can be effectively tackled in streets and other public spaces if they are designed and managed to allow traffic to be fully integrated with other human activity, not separated from it. A major characteristic of a street designed to this philosophy is the absence of traditional road markings, signs, traffic signals and the distinction between "road" and "pavement". User behaviour becomes influenced and controlled by natural human interactions rather than by artificial regulation.^[3]

One of the concepts behind shared spaces is that pedestrians and motorists make eye contact to establish who has priority….. that’s right… ‘eye contact’. Now that immediately puts blind people at a disadvantage for what I would imagine are fairly obvious reasons.

This doesn’t just affect blind people. Children and other more vulnerable road users are going to struggle with this. What about an individual with a learning disability who may not be able to decipher what the rules of the shared surfaces are? It might not be to everyone’s overly politically correct tastes but it has to be considered.

The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association have the following statement on their campaign website:

“Blind and partially sighted people, particularly guide dog owners and long cane users are trained to use the kerb as a key navigation cue in the street environment. Its removal, without a proven effective, alternative feature, exposes blind and partially sighted people to greater risk, undermines their confidence, and so creates a barrier to their independent mobility. The kerb is also vital for children's safety when using roads. From an early age children are taught as part of the Green Cross Code to Stop, Look, and Listen at kerbs. If these kerbs are removed, how will children know where to stop?

Guide Dogs supports the aim of creating attractive ‘people-friendly’ street environments but opposes the use of shared surface streets to achieve this. For background information on our previous campaigning work on the issue of shared surface streets, please read a copy of our Campaign report."

In Inverness we have a new shared space on Ness Walk, it’s all very pretty with benches where you can sit and take in the ducks, seagulls and goosanders on the River Ness. It has one particular flaw which will cause issues for the people that use it. It’s a one way street..... fair enough. It also has a cycle lane…. In a shared space? Ok so it only runs for a couple of metres at the start and finish of the space so I suppose that’s ok…. But it goes in the opposite direction of the one way traffic! I’ve used it on the bike and I’ve been given dirty looks by motorists and pedestrians as they quite rightly presume that I’m going the wrong way on a one way street. When you get to the junction to turn on to Young Street there is no safe way of doing it as there is no traffic control in place to deal with traffic (ie me on a bike) coming the ‘wrong way’ on to the junction

And why is it that Councils seem to be intent on installing uniform grey bollards that blend in to the rest of the street in these shared spaces? There's no clear definition on them and they seem to be at the perfect height for the unsuspecting person with a visual impairment to crack their knee off.

I'm going to take a few photos tonight and get them posted on here.

Cairngorm Classic

2009-06-14T14:04:00.000-07:00

No updates for a while, apologies to anyone who may have been following this..... anyone? :o)

The training has been going reasonably well, I've found a nice flattish 25 time trial route that takes me round the Beauly Firth. So far I've got my time down to about 1 hour 50 but I know I should be able to knock at least 2o minutes off that over the next few weeks. The goal... get it down to an hour! That means doing a steady 25mph but if I lose a bit more weight and get the hours in, it should be possible.

I took part in my first cyclo-sportive on Saturday. The Cairngorm Classic starts and finishes at the Cairngorm ski carpark at an altitude of 650 metres (ish). It starts with a fantastic downhill freewheel into Glenmore and on through Nethy Bridge round Spey bridge, Loch Garten and .... back up the ski road carpark. Ouch! I chose to enter the 50 miler being a way off having the fitness to do 100 miles in a respectable time. I set a target of 'under 5 hours and I'm happy, under 4 and I'm delighted'.

I'm delighted to say that I finished it in 3 hours 44 minutes. The results are here.

I was chuffed to bits to get up the final hill without having to stop and get off the bike to push. That was the bit I was probably most worried about, I didn't want to be seen as a bit of a bumbly!

Not a bad effort for a first go at a Sportive and if I hadn't stopped for a blether (and a flapjack or 3 ) at the feed station then I would have done it in even less time than that. The actual riding time on my bike computer reads 3 hours 30. So make of that what you will. (less time stuffing my face and more time cycling methinks!)

The weather was grim to start with. Heavy rain and a clagged in carpark made for a chilly start. I was soaked through within about a minute but that didn't dampen mine or anyone else's enthusiasm. The camaraderie was great and I didn't hear a word of complaint from anyone.

Hopefully HandOnEvents will have some photo's online soon. I'll post them on here provided the sight of my sweaty carcass doesn't give too much offence.

First Donations!

2009-03-13T15:43:00.000-07:00

Thanks to Fi at work and the nice people at Pet-tacular rescue for starting the wheel (ha!) rolling with the first donations. I'm 1/100th of the way there! And I've not even started yet. It's all the encouragement I need to keep pushing forward with this.

Things to do:

Contact Local Press - Inverness Courier, Highland News, P&J etc. I'll need to get a hold of the names and contacts in other local papers around the country.

Contact Local radio stations.

Contact companies for sponsorship.

Brainstorm Marketing ideas.

Disaster!!

2009-03-04T10:40:00.000-08:00

7am this morning:

I get up nice and early after a good night sleep, raring to go and with the intention of doing some situps and a bit of Yoga.

7am and 30 seconds:

I'm lying at the bottom of the stairs in a crumpled heap after slipping on one of the steps and heading bum first to the bottom.

Bugger.

After freaking out my daughter by going a funny colour and muttering to her 'you'd best phone an ambulance, daddy doesn't feel very well' (she went and hid in her room!) I managed to get it together enough to knock on my neighbours door and get a lift up to A&E. The staff at Raigmore were brilliant and I was seen within half an hour and had the attention of a doctor very soon afterwards.

The end result:

A busted toe - the nail is ready to fall off but the doc managed to push it back under the nail bed (grim, really grim) and it should hopefully heal ok.

Bruises and scrapes down my right side. In particular a very sore arse! Lovely.

I ache all over at the moment and I can't see me doing much over the next few days. The Doctor has advised me to go easy on the bike until the toe is healed.

It could have been a lot worse - the stairs are very steep (45 degree angle), made of wood and there's a kitchen unit right at the bottom of them. I'll try and get a photo uploaded at some point.

I'm feeling pretty wiped out at the moment and it feels like all my muscles have taken a serious beating! I'll need to take it pretty easy over the weekend and hopefully get back into things by the beginning of the week.

More training, fundraising and Sportives

2009-03-03T04:56:00.000-08:00

Charities

Things are starting to take shape now and I've settled on The Guide Dogs for the Blind as the main charity. It's close to my heart as my mum is registered blind and has had Guide Dogs since I was 8 years old. I've even spent a bit of time working at the kennels in Forfar.

The second group I'm raising money for is Coisir Og Inbhir Nis, this is a Gaelic Youth choir based in Inverness and is open to all school age children in the Inverness area that attend Gaelic Medium education or who are fluent Gaelic speakers. Travelling to and from competitions, uniforms and hiring venues is a costly business and I am more than happy to fund raise for them. My daughter attends Bun Sgoil Gaidhlig Inbhir Nis and is a member of the choir so again it's an organisation close to my heart.

Training

It's going slowly but steadily, I recieved my new road bike (more on that in my next post) and I've had a couple of training runs out on it. I gave it's first middle distance run on Sunday, approx 25 miles round the Beauly Firth in just under 2 hours. We weren't exactly tanking it so I felt reasonably fresh afterwards.

Sportives

I've entered the Ullapool Mór Sportive for the 26th September, it's 130 miles long and is the motivation I sorely need to get me on the road to being fit for next year. I'll be paying for my entry to the Cairngorm Sportive at the end of this month (pay day!).

You can see my name on the entrants list for the Ullapool Mor here. Just to prove that I am actually going ahead with it!

Training

2009-01-14T10:53:00.000-08:00

As part of the training for the tour I'll need to get as many big trips done as possible. Part of this will include entering a few Sportives in and around the Highlands this year.

For starters I'll be entering the Etpe Caledonia on 17th May 2009. This is a traffic free event and I'm really looking forward to it.

Then there's the Skye Sportive on 30th May 2009.

Cairngorm Mountain Sportive - 13th June 2009

Ullapool Sportive - 26th September 2009.

I've had a long think about things and much as I'd love to time the tour with the Homecoming Scotland celebrations, time constraints are going to make it unlikely. My wife is still at University and trying to cram in a 3 - 4 week trip on top of juggling childcare and dubious finances is probably going to prove to be too difficult to manage. So the new date will be set for spring 2010. This will give me a chance to properly train and organise sponsorship.

The Route Pt 2

2009-01-14T10:46:00.000-08:00

Google doesn't seem to be able to cope with the map that I've made and it has split that map into two parts which is a bit of a pain in the arse! I'm on the lookout for some decent (hopefully cheap) mapping software, so if anybody knows of any, let me know.

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Training.....

2008-12-30T08:41:00.000-08:00

20 miles on the bike on Boxing Day started things off. The gears on my currrent bike are shockingly badly indexed and I really need to get that sorted asap, it made the trip a bit more harsh than it needed to be. The route took me from Inverness past Culloden battlefield and the Viaduct. It's 10 miles of almost continous uphill and hard graft, fortunately the wind was behind me most of the way up which helped.....

....However the wind going against me on the way back made life difficult and I ended up pedalling most of the way when I had hoped for an easy cruise back down to Inverness! Oh well, it's not training if it doesn't hurt!

The Complete Route!

2008-12-30T08:29:00.000-08:00

Total Mileage: 1535
Total Days Cycling: 19 days (Plus a minimum of 3 rest days)

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Welcome to Cycle Around Scotland!

2008-12-23T08:17:00.000-08:00

The plan:

Starting from Inverness in the Scottish Highlands I intend to head East and clockwise round the Scottish coast with the intention of finishing up back in Inverness approximately 3 weeks later. The route will as near as practical stick to the Scottish coast and at my last estimate will total about 1600 miles!

It's currently in the early stages of planning but I've pencilled in Summer 2009 as the time to do this coinciding with the Homecoming Scotland celebrations.

Why?

Partly to raise money for charity, partly for a holiday with a difference and partly to see if I can rise to the challenge. It's going to be gruelling, it'll hurt and the Scottish Weather will no doubt do its utmost to make life very difficult.

In the post below you'll see the planned route. It's still in the early stages of planning and still needs to be completed. A certain amount of fiddling with the route will still to be done depending on where we stay for the night and whether we can get any accomodation.

EDIT: Cycle Round Scotland or Cycle Around Scotland? I think the latter sounds better and grammatically more accurate.

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The Route so far

2008-11-19T06:01:00.001-08:00

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