aero plain
the last time i had cause to fly anywhere, was a brief trip to istanbul for the launch of the first of islay's two new ferries in mid-march of this year. those ferries have now suffered a delay in their delivery schedule, but given the specific reason for such apparent tardiness, we probably shouldn't be too critical. the steel for the boats was originally scheduled to be received from the ukrainian steelworks in mariupol; and we all know what happened to that particular source. secondly, the devastating earthquake in turkiye, took many of the workforce at the cemre shipyard to help with the search and rescue effort. however, to that point, much of the time had been made up and all appeared to be on track for october delivery. then the houthi rebels started pirate activities in the red sea, accompanied by missile attacks on vessels deemed to be sympathetic to the israeli cause.
this last state of affairs brought with it an unfortunate turning point, meaning that many of the materials required to complete the vessels, now coming from the far east, have been routed round the horn of africa, adding up to three weeks to delivery times. quite how a turkish shipyard might cope with that, is what we're soon to find out.
however, to briefly return to my travel arrangements from edinburgh airport to istanbul airport, these involved a very comfortable, if lengthy flight in a turkish airlines airbus a321. and to point out the glaringly obvious, the fuselage of that particular aircraft, and those of the subsequent aircriaft employed in returning me to islay, was and is, round. and though i am not even close to understanding the ins and outs of aeronautical engineering, this would appear to be quite logical in order to fit several hundred passengers on the upper deck, while storing their suitcases and other cargo below.
but would it not be a tad more practical if the fuselage were either square or rectangular? that way a commercial passenger aircraft fuselage could look similar to the average top tube of an aero bicycle frame. because in order to accommodate the requisite seating in current airbuses and boeings, means that the ceiling (if that's how you refer to the top of the fuselage) more or less has to be as tall as the fuselage is wide.
but according to the bicycle industry, round tubing is no longer necessarily the ideal means of achieving increased speed for today's peloton. flattened, ovalised tubing presents a narrow front to any incoming breeze or moving air. the downside, as i know from practical experience, is the corollary to that, when met with a strong crosswind. just try riding up uiskentuie strand in midwinter on a pair of campagnolo or lightweight carbon wheels, when there's a 70kph crosswind hitting them side on. however, any manufacturer to whom i have issued an invitation to send their finest aero bike for review during an islay winter, has politely declined so to do.
an airbus a321, as flown by turkish airlines, features a cruising speed of 833kph, accompanied by a top speed of 876kph. i doubt i will receive much in the way of contradiction when i point out that such velocities are a smidgeon greater than you or i, or even tadej pogacar could equal. yet as pointed out above, aircraft fuselages are predominantly round. were airbus or boeing to take a page from the factor, canyon or specialized playbook and instigate thin, narrow fuselage proportions, they'd either have to stack the seating inside, or ensure that any prospective passengers undertake a drastic dietary regime to fit. i'd willingly agree that the continuing production of tubular aircraft fuselages would suggest that requiring passengers to conform to an aerodynamic ideal is unlikely to prove popular with the masses.
or could it be that road bicycles with flat, ovalised or square tubing have more to do with aesthetics than computational fluid dynamics? to quote newton's third law of motion, every action has an equal and opposite reaction, meaning that those flat aero tubes may provide untrammeled forward motion, as demonstrated in a wind tunnel. but in all the time i've been receiving images of wind-tunnel tests, i've yet to see one that features the bicycle and rider at right angles to the fan; the scientific equivalent of uiskentuie strand, now that you come to mention it.
despite having managed an 'a' pass in higher physics, it's highly possible that i remain blissfully unaware of altered factors when flying at 40,000 feet, moving at 833kph, in comparison to riding a flat tubed bicycle at 50 or 60kph. maybe i was off school when that was explained.
just one of the mysteries of modern bike technology.
monday 12 august 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................it's really not about the bike
last week's men's team sprint race at the paris olympics was won by the netherlands in a time of 40.949 seconds, a new world record and the first time any nation has posted a time of less than 41 seconds for the distance. the british trio of ed lowe, hamish turnbull and jack carlin were almost a second slower in second place, an incredibly brief point in time, but at olympic level, somewhat of a chasm. in sporting terms, the result may be all but unremarkable; the dutch have always offered serious competition at international level, and world record aside, there was nothing particularly remarkable about their victory. it was never a case of it being an entirely unforeseen eventuality.
however, there is one factor in the result that could be viewed as remarkable, one that surely calls into question a significant component in the british team's offensive.
the bike.
uci rules dictate that all bicycle frames used in international competition; track, road, gravel, cyclocross and mountain bike, must be commercially available, a rule that first came to public attention when used to ban graeme obree's old faithful, despite the scotsman pointing out that it cost a mere £50 to make. matters have moved on a tad since those days, not only in the terms of the cost of a bona-fide track bike, but in the development costs surrounding their existence. though it's likely that several nations are apt to spend more than the cost of the average london mortgage on producing their own version of uci-sanctioned state-of-the-art, in order to keep things at a sensible level, i propose only to consider the carbon fibre employed by the nations contesting gold and silver in the men's team sprint event (even though the bikes employed by both nations were also used in other track events, both male and female.)
the current track bike used by team gb is that produced by hope engineering and lotus, a design that has provided many a column inch for the cycling press (including yours truly, on occasion). and, in the spirit of needing to be commercially available, a quick trip to the hope website shows the 2020 hb.t track bike along with its purchase price (though listed as the 2020 edition, i'm led to understand that anyone with pockets deep enough to click 'buy', will receive the current frame as used in paris). as you'd imagine, the price tag is not at the level you're likely to see on the shop floor at halfords or evans cycles, weighing in at a princely £25,000 (+ vat - £5,000). should you fancy a setpost on which to place your (probably) 3d printed saddle, you'll need another £2,000 (+vat), and while wondering where you might place the front wheel, you may have to find another £2,000 + vat for a standard lotus 3d printed fork. if you fancy one of those really odd looking track forks allowing fitment of a tractor tyre, you'll have to put your hand up and politely ask, indicating that £2,000 + vat might be a few pence shy of the total.
though numbers are not my strong point, my calculations bring the total for frame, forks and seatpost to £34,800, and that's before you take a look at wheels, handlebars, tyres, chainset and sprocket.
for those of you who are desperate for me to get to the point of this numerical maze, the winning dutch sprint team were to be found aboard a production koga kinsei frame and fork, costing, according to the manufacturer's website, £8,152 with associated handlebars. since koga is based in the netherlands, it's unlikely that the above prices include britain's vat, so just to be sure, if i add that to the above price, the total cost is £9782. there's no spec given for the seatpost, but the roadgoing version accepts the age-old standard 27.2mm, so i'm going to assume that the track version does likewise. the ritchey wcs carbon seatpost on my road logic bicycle costs £260, bringing the total price to £10,042.
this effectively means that the netherlands were able to kit out all three members of their winning sprint team for a lot less than the cost of one british track bike.
i'm sure i don't actually have to labour my point any more than i have already done so; at the end of the day, it's down to the men and women sitting in the saddles, but surely undermining any apparent need to spend millions on lottery provided development costs, when you could simply put in an order with one of the world's major bicycle manufacturers. rumour has it that team gb once spent £10,000 on a chainring. and ultimately, even outright success brings mere minutes of glory and a few round bits of precious metal on a ribbon.
do not misunderstand me; i am not aiming criticism at the world's track events or at olympic competition - far from it. but why does team gb (and presumably several others) spend inordinate amounts of money on bespoke equipment to come second or third? and even if they'd won gold (as did the women's sprint team), how do we know how much was down to the amounts of money spent, and how much to the superiority of the athletes? to make it truly about the latter, maybe the olympic committee ought to specify one manufacturer every four years to supply the bicycles for use in track events, creating the ultimate level playing field.
to the best of my knowledge, remco was aboard an off-the-shelf specialized on his way to road race gold, including the replacement to counter for his late-stage puncture.
at least they saved money on the gloves.
sunday 11 august 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................lost and found
in 2004, brand consultant, simon mottram, in partnership with luke scheybeler, created rapha cycling apparel, reputedly as an antidote to the cycle clothing available at the time, the majority of which suffered from a complete lack of design ethos, or simply attempted to reproduce profesional team clothing without the inherent quality. of course, that's a bit of an over-simplification, and discounts the likes of castelli and assos which, though appealing only to certain corners of the velocipedinal world of the day, did offer quality product at a price. it was that particular market that rapha either aimed at, or inadvertently became a part of, due to a pricing structure that didn't find favour with every cyclist.
in a visit to the original imperial works in kentish town around 2005/2006, adjacent to simon mottram's desk, was what was internally referred to as the 'wall of pain', featuring cycling images that had inspired rapha's iconic design, and several prototype adverts, one of which acknowledged the pricing dilemma. it's caption read "it's good that you're used to pain and suffering. now, about our prices...'.
the founding ethos to be witnessed at imperial works was that of an antidote to the often garish designs available in a bike shop near you at the time. rapha's initial offerings in july 2004 were either black or white sportwool (a polyester/merino wool fabric hitherto unheard of in cycling circles), featuring a white or black contrasting hoop on the left sleeve. this may, or may not have been based on the french sporting tradition in the early 20th century, when the nation's champion sprinter was allowed to wear a white armband tied to his sleeve. though not a feature invented by rapha, it was subsequently often to be seen on the sleeves of rapha's imitators.
the pricing and apparent clique-ness fostered in those early days (deliberately or otherwise), often led to great disparagement and criticism in the cycling media and the nascent social media. however, given that it was hardly compulsory to purchase any of rapha's cycling apparel, effectively proved its success; those who wanted it but couldn't afford it, simply resorted to criticism. in short, the effect was similar to the culture built around single malt whisky; we weren't simply buying a cycle jersey, we were buying into a unique velocipedinal culture and lifestyle, based on cycle sport's celebrated heritage and the pain and suffering meme, even though most of us preferred to avoid contact with either.
the image was enhanced by the existence of the rapha condor cycling team, kitted in black, white and pink, the latter reflecting simon mottram's affection for the giro d'italia and all things italian. getting hardened roadies to confidently wear pink was arguably a major success of the brand. however, nothing ever lasts forever, and it's possible that rapha's success and incessant desire to expand, laid the bedrock of its apparent demise (solely my opinion and one not necessarily reflected elsewhere). though purely a subjective observation, i think it may have been the sponsorship of team sky that sowed the seeds of discontent. sportwool, wonderful fabric though it is, is less than practical when it comes to the demands of the professionals, meaning rapha had to divert its attention away from cultivating a fan-base that figured the sunday ride counted as an example of pain and suffering, in favour of world tour pragmatism.
i was once moved to contact former north american manager, slate olsen, to point out that rapha's website looked more like an advert for sky tv, a state of affairs that showed no sign of reciprocation. he didn't disagree.
since the company was bought lock, stock and barrel for £150 million in 2019 by steuart and tom walton, through their rzc investments company, it could be said that the company has lost its way. i remember asking simon mottram if, given the new owners' proclivity for mountain biking, it was likely that the range would subsequently include mtb clothing, he said they could do what they liked because it was now their company, not his. very soon afterwards, they did. and very soon after that, in 2021 simon mottram stood down as ceo in favour of his chosen successor, william kim, a man who left the position less than a year following his appointment, succeeded by two existing rapha employees, francois convercey and daniel blumire, perhaps not the ideal arrangement.
rapha's clothing range, meanwhile, became more and more similar to the very style of cycle clothing that had spurred simon mottram to create a simple and effective monochrome alternative in the first place (an observation with which he appeared to concur). though i am by no means an observant industry analyst, it surely can't be entirely coincidental that rapha has recorded annual financial losses for several years in succession.
assuming my personal observations coincide with those of rapha works (sadly renamed from imperial works after the last move of premises to elthorne road) the appointment as rapha ceo (beginning september 2024) of fran millar, sister of former professional rider, david millar, might just begin to restore faith in the brand for those (like me) who think they've lost their way in recent years. though fran millar facilitated the introduction to dave brailsford and team sky, i have my fingers crossed that we might just see a return to the halcyon days of yore, when black, white and pink, pain and suffering and the rapha continental were the compulsive 'order of the day'. this should not be seen as nostalgia, but hopefully a return to the days when i didn't ever receive mailshots featuring the subject heading 'oil slick gets quicker', referring to a garment's colourway.
saturday 10 august 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................the more things change...
it is frequently stated that, on the whole, people are resistant to change, a comment that is undoubtedly a sweeping generalisation, but one that most likely becomes a truism the older we get. what i might term the 'younger generation' are probably less resistant to change because they have yet to become used to the stringencies that are not yet a part of their lives. in early teens, things often appear to be in a state of constant flux; you need only make observations regarding the internet to appreciate that particular state of affairs. apps, operating system and software changes almost on a daily basis, meaning there is rarely anything to become used to for any length of time.
netscape navigator, altavista search engine, myspace, internet explorer and numerous other technologies have essentially become redundant, replaced by the 'next big thing', and it's evidently likely that artificial intelligence is only likely to accelerate that process. where adobe flash once reigned supreme, instantly loading background videos now abound, and now the ability to create realistic and believable video footage without setting foot near a video camera, pretty much encapsulates the concept of change. meaning today's youth has little chance to become used to anything, let alone become nostalgic for any particular mode of existence.
old farts, such as yours truly, have decades of experience upon which to call, decades in which things undoubtedly changed, but rarely at the pace seen today. i am on record, somewhere or other, as mentioning that my affection for the road bike stemmed from sheer frustration with the world of mountain biking, a genre not so much recorded for introducing the world of 'gnarly, but accelerating the rate of technological change within the velocipedinal realm. road bikes, at the time, exuded unaltering simplicity.
take the humble headset/stem combination, a pairing that had remained steadfast for the better part of a quarter century. the quill stem allowed easy height adjustment on any bike to which it was fitted. i once possessed a short-stem, with a stainless steel shaft, allowing me to convert my first mountain bike into a touring machine, raising the bars to a comfortable height and bringing them a tad closer for ease of riding on a fully-loaded bicycle. even though my current road bike is fashioned from good old steel, its carbon fork means that i can alter the angle and reach of the stem, but height adjustment was effectively set when cutting the carbon steerer.
the introduction of the aheadset, intially specified as a means of reducing weight (a bit of a red herring really), also meant that adjustment could be made using a single allen wrench instead of two oversized spanners that no-one ever carried with them. one door opens while another closes. then we had the faffing with umpteen different bottom bracket standards, oversized tubing, electronic gearshifting, hydraulic disc brakes, all of which have occurred within the last two decades. of course, the luddite brigade, of which i am a paid-up member, demands the right to pick and choose which of these innovations are welcomed with open arms, while others are castigated as the work of the devil. how many of us would be keen to revert to downtube gear levers?
change is in the eye of the beholder.
leaving aside the purported advantages of electronic shifting (actually, there aren't any), it's probably the advent of disc brakes that have brought about many instances of fisticuffs at the school gates. they make credible sense for mountain bikers, where the need to brake suddenly when riding ever-changing terrain is part and parcel of the working day. and there may even be a legitimate case made for their implementation on cyclocross bikes, where ever-changing parcours demand a level of braking versatility, despite champions like sven nys and even wout van aert having acquitted themselves perfectly well on the now heavily disparaged cantilever brake.
but road bikes?
granted, in the heat of battle, when riders fall immediately in front of you, the ability to stop on a sixpence might be seen as a distinct advantage, but how often have you found that to be a component of the sunday morning ride? mostly, the requirement is weighted towards scrubbing off excess speed to navigate corners or other potential obstacles. from personal experience, anytime i have had need of stopping in a great hurry (even in the wet), rim brakes have been perfectly adequate. i can honestly say that i have never been in a situation where i have fervently wished my ritchey featured discs. and i cannot recall any of my fellow pelotoneers being similarly troubled. but the industry's unsubstantiated dictate seems likely to leave us little in the way of choice.
or does it?
though sram and shimano seem both to be in the process of killing off the rim brake, and it's becoming harder and harder to purchase a new road bicycle devoid of discs, only campagnolo seem happy to persist in our favour. it would, therefore, be a welcome leap of faith should any of the major bicycle manufacturers choose to release a rim-brake version of one of their top range models. which is exactly what colnago has just done.
interestingly, colnago have pointed out the eccentricity of the c68 rim-brake edition by saying that it's a choice that could be viewed as unconventional, given their claim to have been the first brand to have introduced hydraulic discs on a road bike with their c59 (a bike first reviewed on the post). however the bike was produced for those "still fond of the traditional rim-brake system." various novelties (their word, not mine) have been introduced to make it rim-brake-ready, with the fork having been modified to fit a direct mount, double-pivot brake system. the seat stays have also been engineered (in other words, they've reverted to the way they used to do things) to accept direct mount rim brakes. and the frame dropouts are 3d printed titanium, a metal that perfectly bonds with carbon fibre without any risk of oxidation or damage to the structure.
only available as a frameset kit, including fork, headset and seatpost, retaining your love for (still highly pragmatic) tradition will relieve you of £6,300. if you're struggling with what to get me for christmas...
thursday 8 august 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................fleetwood mac
for at least a decade, up until the early years of the current century, i was more intrigued by computers than their purpose in life truly deserved. and when it comes to computers, i am firmly on the side of the apple macintosh; i learned some very rudimentary programming in the 1980s on an apple ii, and when first i was brought into the local newspaper office over thirty years ago, the newspaper was produced on an original mac plus, pagination created in the predecessor to quark xpress, which was snappily titled 'ready, set, go!.
in those halcyon days of yore, when microsoft had created their own version of ibm's pc dos, eponymously named msdos, before appropriating apple's icon driven interface and naming it windows, then sitting it on top of msdos, the technicalities involved in making the latter marriage work could be incessantly irritating. though apple had effectively purloined their own operating system from an icon-driven interface originally produced at xerox parc, since they made both hardware and software, things tended to work rather smoothly, without falling over every few minutes.
nowadays, that youthful enthusiasm has waned sufficiently to allow me to consider the apple computers at my behest simply as tools. they provide the necessary wherewithal to produce not only a fortnightly newspaper, one or two (very) rudimentary websites, and have enabled me to advertise myself as a black belt in photoshop, as well as write these daily monologues reputedly about road cycling culture. i no longer subscribe to any of the macintosh magazines (if such publications still survive), i rarely look at apple's website unless in search of a specific product. and were it not for the fact that the unsubscribe link on macworld's daily e-mail newsletter seems to have ignored my earnest ministrations, my inbox would not be subject to its regular arrival each morning.
however, similar to annual cycling product launches, apple has a proven tendency to release new stuff around easter and again in the autumn (or 'fall' as i believe it is referred to in cupertino). next on the horizon is the iphone 16, and i could almost guarantee that the day following its release, rumours about what is likely to appear in the iphone 17 will be posted online, along with the unbridled disappointment of learning what apple didn't put into this year's launch.
today's macworld newsletter opened with the subject heading, 'Apple is planning a mess of M4 Mac updates this fall, with 'dramatic changes' in store.' the m4, to which the heading refers, is the latest version of the company's computer chip that powers many of its devices. having declared that it intends to enable artificial intelligence features throughout all its products, apparently the power of this particular chip is necessary to have this technical wish come to fruition. knowledge of this fact has encouraged untrammeled punditry, far more like that espoused by television's football/soccer commentators, reputedly 'confirming' a whole slew of rumours about what might be on the horizon.
knowledge of this has hardly increased my interest in computing, but it has had me wondering whether the cycle industry suffers from similar curiousity? i'm happy to admit that i do receive regular cycling trade newsletters, and that unlike my lack of frequenting apple's website, i do regularly appraise the information to be found on the trade websites, along with several of the cycling media sites. yet, unless i have been less than diligent, i cannot recall having happened upon rumours concerning what canyon, colnago or pinarello might or might not be about to uleash upon an adoring cognoscenti.
unlike the secrecy avowedly practised by apple, the cycle industry appears to work the other way round; proudly displaying their latest wares ahead of release, while continuing to deny their existence. witness this year's unbound gravel event in kansas, where the sram corporation oufitted the bicycle of valtteri bottas (amongst others), with their latest red xplr axs 13-speed groupset, then refused to comment further. this deliberately cultivated great interest in a product eventually released on 1 august. even that was the result of a remarkably similar practice; i received a press release, replete with dedicated imagery, over a week in advance of the official release, but with an embargo of thursday 1 august.
it is common practice to provide advance, but embargoed details about upcoming products to the cycling media, but the embargos tend to be 48 hours at most. certainly not an entire week and two days. unlike apple's computers, ipads or iphones, many media outlets have been provided with pre-release samples well in advance in order that comprehensive reviews and videos can be published on the day of release.
in the interim, i can't say i've come across any consolidated rumouring that campagnolo is working on an ugly wireless version of their 13 speed ekar gravel groupset to compete with sram and (presumably) shimano. and while several riders in last sunday's olympic road race were riding single chainring groupsets, i've not come across a rumour mill that contends a majority of next year's tour de france peloton will be doing likewise. the oddity is that the sporting portion of the cycling media are more than happy to theorise about which rider might be moving to which team for next season.
sadly, there is no underlying point to be learned from such musings. if nothing else, it simply points to the knowledge that apple fans will lap up endless pontification concerning what they may or may not be able soon to find at a nearby apple store. whether our relative insensitivity to what might be heading our way might change, the more electronic gimmickry inveigles its way onto the double-diamond, will be interesting to watch. perhaps a heavily attended keynote speech by ernesto colnago is not too far distant, where, as he leaves the stage following a slew of mundane announcememnts, he turns to an expectant audience and says, "oh, just one more thing..."
wednesday 7 august 2024
..........................................................................................................................................................................................................precipitation
it never ceases to amaze me just how many visitors to islay manage to find saligo bay; the last stop between here and the eastern seaboard of canada. we have been guilty at times, of misleading the gullible by advising that, if stood on a set of stepladders at the entrance to the beach, it's possible to see the canadian coastline. about two kilometres farther round the coast, is kilchoman beach on machir bay, a very popular stretch of golden sand bordering the oft-times rough and tumble atlantic ocean. historically it is renowned as the scene of washed up victims from the troop ship hms otranto in 1918 when, in the midst of a storm, she collided with a french fishing boat.
adjacent to kilchoman beach is a military cemetery, where many of the dead are buried, and perhaps for this most gruesome of reasons, machir bay is well signposted and documented, receiving, during the summer months, a consistent number of visitors, often bookending a walk along the sizeable beach, with a visit to the café at nearby kilchoman distillery. however, though saligo bay can be found on any map of the island, it has no similar significance, nor any specific signposting that would enlighten visitors to its existence. the sandy beach cannot readily be seen from the road. yet, pass by the cottage overlooking the atlantic during the summer months, and you will almost always find several cars randomly parked by the roadside.
the highest number across which i have chanced, was during the ride of the falling rain in august 2019, when i counted as many as two dozen. but when i passed saligo on sunday, there was not a vehicle to be seen within several kilometres of the bay. that said, even had there been, the serious amount of rain on my rudy projects would surely have obscured all from view. in 2024, the ride lived up to its title with aplomb and vigour.
and just like my surprise at the number of folks who find saligo bay, it is every bit as much a surprise, though far more pleasant, to welcome so many riders to each year's ride of the falling rain. in the early years, before the interweb was quite so entrenched in our daily lives, and steve jobs had yet to turn the majority of the population into scrolling zombies, we held a post ride pasta party. and to ensure there was sufficient pasta to go round, i would send out entry forms for the ride, the return of which would give a reasonable idea of how many were likely to participate on the first sunday of august each year.
nowadays, very few people have to trouble themselves by completing paper forms, and i confess that i am less than inclined to concoct a pdf form that could be handled online and returned via e-mail. with the pasta party a distant memory, to an extent, there's less need to know just how many intrepid souls are likely to see past the name and decide to travel to islay nonetheless. and should you think that i confer too much in the way of tenacity upon those who do arrive, i received a number of e-mails this year from several who were unable to secure either a place on the ferry or accommodation on the island (or both).
hopefully the ferry situation will improve when the first of the two new ships under construction in turkiye (apparently the preferred spelling) arrives in a few months, and by this time next year, all those wishing to cycle in the rain will have the choice of two new, identical boats that are larger than either of those serving the route at present.
this year we welcomed an american couple on a tandem (which we think might have been a first) as well as many others clad preventatively in waterproof jackets. aside from the full distance, there still exists the conversational ride the existence of which i highlighted to all and sundry prior to the grand départ. though obviously completely mistaken, i was thus under the impression that this particular option sounded favourable to quite a few. but following our ride into port charlotte village (not helped by two sets of roadworks traffic lights, which, it transpired, were both stuck at red), when a friend and i turned left for some conversational cycling, each and every other participant, turned right towards kilchiaran, leaving the two of us to ride the conversational parcours on our own for the remainder of the day.
though slightly breezy, the morning remained cloudy but dry as we made our dual way to ardbeg distillery, effectively the half-way point and the expected source of sustenance for the second half. unfortunately, the gas supply for the distillery kitchen was the subject of yet-to-be-completed, re-certification, meaning the only vittels available were sponge cake or carrot cake along with a mug of designer coffee. not quite the outcome for which we'd hoped.
heading out of port ellen in the opposite direction for a ride along the high road to bridgend, we were pushed along by the tailwind that had been the headwind we'd experienced on the outward journey. feeling a tad fitter and comfortable than i'd expected, i opted to perambulate loch gorm, via gruinart, while my colleague up till that point decided to retrench and head directly to debbie's. he may have made the more salient choice.
though the forecast had portended heavy rain, up till that point it had been happily conspicuous by its absence. however, before even reaching gruinart flats on the way to the rspb centre at aoradh farm, the rain had begun, progressively becoming heavier until, by the time i passed saligo bay, it was torrential, i was completely soaked and the space between my rudys and the prescription insert had completely steamed up. visibility was, to be blunt, very limited. and by the time i was heading past coull farm on the way to kilchoman distillery, the breeze had increased as i turned into a headwind on the way to foreland.
though i divested myself of my so-called waterproof jacket as i entered debbie's, i still had to apologise to aileen for creating a small swimming pool 'neath my seat. and we still had the 15km trip back to bowmore with which to contend. trading standards are unlikely to have any concerns over the title of the 2024 ride of the falling rain.
now, surely that has you checking the calmac timetables for next august?
a reminder for those who participated: please donate £10 per person to world bicycle relief
tuesday 6 august 2024
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