What a difference a day makes!
Yesterdays ride with my little man on the Flying Scot tandem was cold and pretty bleak for the most part, and then todays ride was in lovely sunshine, though still cold, and to balance it, a pretty strong gusting wind, about 30mph. Today though it was the Super Clubman, the nicest, sweetest ride.
Decided after heading into town yesterday I would head up towards Dunnet Head taking in some nice quiet backroads as well as some of the nice hidden tracks. These are usually no problem for the Jack Taylor when taken with respect but today, while not a real problem were awfully boggy and wet.
Then I turned to head back into the mother of all head winds. I knew it was bad when at the top of Dunnet Head the bike is almost laid over in one of the photos otherwise the wind just flipped it completely over every time I stood back to take a photo.
It was a long slog into it all the way home but still worth it. Tonnes of wildlife about, including a Kite, Buzzards and the usual couple of dozen seals. Early days but Kittywakes and others starting to fill the cliffs. Then it was home to pizza with the family! Lovely day
I am lucky to have these rides on my doorstep especially during lockdown.
Well not much happening in this thread this week
Lovely weekend and nice dry roads so itching to get out. I had lots to do yesterday and a few things to finish off but as we are still in lockdown and I can't really vary the rides too much after all this time I would vary what I take out. So as I was working on the changing the tandems handlebars I thought, 'I might just throw all the Arabesque stuff back on the Ventoux Flying Scot and take that out. Shouldn't take too long, I had most of the morning to organise as Caleb wanted us all to go and have a picnic at his horse seen as it was such a nice day. It is also the only time he and Heather can leave the yard as they are still shielding. So a plan was hatched that I would build the Flying Scot and I would meet them up there.
..... well, it didn't quite work out as the only thing that was holding me back was I couldn't find the safe place where I had put the top tube cable clamps. I even tried the Dia Compe BMX ones I have in the loft, but no, they were a slightly bigger size. Almost out of time, what will I ride now? I pulled the Mercian King of Mercia tourer out the loft and gave it the once over and thought, it will do.
I ended up riding up to the farm where Calebs tiny pony is and having a nice lunch next to the watering hole with the horses. Afterwards I said to Heather I would take a longer way back but shouldn't be too long. Well the Mercian was riding so nicely, smooth, slick and setup lovely that I spent the next few hours wandering the counties back roads before taking the scenic coastal route home. This one rides really lovely and seems to fit a bit better and the geometry suites nicely as well. Oh well, maybe I painted the wrong Mercian
As it was I made it home to set up the pizza oven once again for a lovely dinner with the family. Think I am ready to face another week now.
Hope you all had a nice weekend and hopefully had some nice weather.
Hey! I'm back from the dead, without actually having been dead. Apologies to anybody who is dead.
Bike building has taken a back seat for a while (9 years?!), but I'm feeling twitchy again, and pining for an adventure, and to commune with the clan. Here's a picture from Orkney on Sunday, plenty of big old stones to shelter your bike behind from the wind.
Cheers Jamie, much appreciated. I was enjoying your pictures of the frozen River Thurso earlier, and was wondering if the tree lined avenue is the one to Ackergill Tower. We stayed there in the tree house, loved it and were determined to go back sometime, the week before the place closed forever :-(
20200418134540_03 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
20200418134540_03 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
20200418134540_01 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
20200418134540_02 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
