Today's ROAD ride
- Thread starter Mike Muz
- Start date
Re:
No pictures as today was just a training ride in the run up to my Scotland trip next month.
However, I do have a warning for people to watch out, as while riding along a single track road with passing places that I use a lot, I saw a flatbed transit towing a horse box coming towards me. I was nearest to a passing place so I pulled over and waited for the flatbed to pass. I spotted that there were three guys in the cab and at the very last moment instead of the 'thank you' wave that I vainly hoped to receive I saw the drivers arm coming out of the window. My reactions were fast enough that I looked away just in time to get the contents of the drivers water bottle over the right side of my head and face.
I have no idea what kind of person would think to do this, obviously not a nice one, but I guarantee that if I drove to the nearest 'travellers' site, which is just a couple of miles from where this happened I would find the flatbed, the horse box it was towing and the sad individual who threw the water.
Needless to say I have not yet refitted the camera bracket to my summer bike, not that it would do much good as I am pretty sure the Police would find the flatbed was running on false number plates, plus I suspect the camp is a no go area for the Police anyway. Still, it would have been nice to be able to do something. :evil:
Go careful folks, there are some real nasty b'stards out there.
No pictures as today was just a training ride in the run up to my Scotland trip next month.
However, I do have a warning for people to watch out, as while riding along a single track road with passing places that I use a lot, I saw a flatbed transit towing a horse box coming towards me. I was nearest to a passing place so I pulled over and waited for the flatbed to pass. I spotted that there were three guys in the cab and at the very last moment instead of the 'thank you' wave that I vainly hoped to receive I saw the drivers arm coming out of the window. My reactions were fast enough that I looked away just in time to get the contents of the drivers water bottle over the right side of my head and face.
I have no idea what kind of person would think to do this, obviously not a nice one, but I guarantee that if I drove to the nearest 'travellers' site, which is just a couple of miles from where this happened I would find the flatbed, the horse box it was towing and the sad individual who threw the water.
Needless to say I have not yet refitted the camera bracket to my summer bike, not that it would do much good as I am pretty sure the Police would find the flatbed was running on false number plates, plus I suspect the camp is a no go area for the Police anyway. Still, it would have been nice to be able to do something. :evil:
Go careful folks, there are some real nasty b'stards out there.
Sounds like a right pack of a**holes to do that to you.
Thankfully you were OK and it was just water.
I had a very short ride today with my son after changing a few things around on the Jack Taylor and then having a quick shake down ride of about 4 miles. Hopefully be out on it again tomorrow as trying to sort between the King of Mercia and the Jack Taylor as to which may get painted later in the summer. I just used the bars and seat of the Mercian on the Taylor hence why the cables are so short at the moment. All will be sorted, just trying to work out priorities. Have the good Nitto randonneur bars and nice Mafac levers that will end up on this eventually.
Jamie
1 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
2 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
7 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Thankfully you were OK and it was just water.
I had a very short ride today with my son after changing a few things around on the Jack Taylor and then having a quick shake down ride of about 4 miles. Hopefully be out on it again tomorrow as trying to sort between the King of Mercia and the Jack Taylor as to which may get painted later in the summer. I just used the bars and seat of the Mercian on the Taylor hence why the cables are so short at the moment. All will be sorted, just trying to work out priorities. Have the good Nitto randonneur bars and nice Mafac levers that will end up on this eventually.
Jamie
1 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr2 by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr7 by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrA bit of cheating this one as it was actually last weekends ride and not exactly retro beside style of ride and riders, but thought I would share it here as it was a good one and shows off some nice countryside. I originally posted this over in the Macretro section.
Due to some family stuff going on I needed to be home for Sunday and Monday and so couldn't really make it to Forth Fat but I still had Friday and Monday booked off so managed to get in a ride on the Long Haul Trucker.
Was looking at possible rides and decided on Thursday to plan out a DIY Randonneur audax route for Saturday. Brian and I had talked about a few routes in the past and one was from his home in Dingwall up to mine. This sounded good and so I mapped out a route from Dingwall, over the Struei, Bonar Bridge, Lairg, Altnahara, Betty hill and through Thurso to home. Looked good on paper so I logged it and on Friday afternoon I caught a train down to Brians with my bike, arrived around 7pm to be greeted with a giant pasta dinner waiting. Cheers mate.
Brian said he would join me to the top of the Struei which was a couple of hours in so all sounded good. Forecast was good with a tail wind to boot.
Bikes were checked and readied before retiring for the night. My LHT was sorted and running with just my handlebar bag with glasses, wallet, phone etc and Carradice trunk bag on the rack with multitool, spare tube, jersey, jacket etc.
Up at 5.30 loaded with porridge and on the bikes for 6 am from up the top of Brians road. It was a great looking morning, sunny and with a bit of heat already coming through, very pleasant.
A steady climb up out of Dingwall before dropping down towards Evanton it was nice to start with a bit of sun on some really quiet roads, just that early morning feel to it. We then slowly climbed up for the next hour or so to the top of the Struei where Brian said he would ride down with me and maybe stop at Bonar Bridge where we would eat and then maybe he would go on to the west to Ledmore and the long loop home via Ullapool.
Bonar Bridge came pretty quickly after such a rapid descent and I said to Brian I would push on to Lairg and get breakfast there, Brian said he may as well join me as it wasn't that far and I couldn't blame him as the sky was looking black to the west and the wind was also coming straight from the west at that piont. Onto Lairg only to be dissapionted as the lovely cafe I had been holding out for was shut and by now after 3 hours I was pretty hungry. So there was nothing to it but raid the Spar shop, breakfast consisted of a sausage roll, an all day breakfast sandwich from the fridge, of which I am sure the egg and sausage was artificial, boking, but it was fuel and this was followed with 2 custard doughnut balls.
At this stage Brian decided that he had come this far that he may as well join me, which was great news and we were also a 1/4 of the way there. We then climbed steadily for the next hour or two and then had the good fortune to have a clear run down into Altnahara. This was enjoyable as last time when I was fully loaded with the tent and everything I rode up this climb from Altnahara. It must be about 5 klm long and clearly still lingers in my mind. I was barely turning a pedal and was cruising around 30 - 40 kph.
I don't usually stop at the hotel at Altnahara, don't find it welcoming, and seen as there is nothing else it makes it a long way from crask to Betty Hill between food or drinks. This time though the B&B on the Tongue side had a sign out saying Tea and coffee served. So it was we had a brilliant cup of tea sitting in these peoples conservatory on a very comfortable sofa. Very freindly stop.
Just out of town we turned right off the Tongue road and headed towards Betty Hill, skirting round the western side of the Loch keeping a good average pace going. We passed another tourer here who was not happy with the wind blowing in, or the road, or the towns, just not happy which was the opposite to us so after a brief chat we pushed on, there's no way he was going to make us that negative. Just shows though, he was young, had a flash bike, a really nice new looking Thorn with all the bells and whistles, like the new annodised red Rohloff hub on the back and SON on the front riding or walking in his case througha very beautiful part of the world and he was not anywhere near happy.
The road here, which was still singletrack as it had been since Lairg was now following the river and instead of the big climbs was more rolling hills with short sharp climbs.
We soon hit the north coast and turned right to enter Betty Hill, climbed the steep climb past the shop and headed down to the tourist information centre and the new cafe we had seen the signs for. Only we found it shut, f**king shut! really, Sunday afternoon on a Bank Holiday weekend on the route of the North Coast 500 and it's shut. Despite the signs evrywhere telling us we can't sit at their tables , we can't use their toilet, we can't park our bikes, we did use their tables and park our bikes, they sure as hell weren't using them. besides the fact they have little signs strategically placed all over the roads leading into town, this place is the tourist information centre. Soon I'll most likely see in the local paper about the people of Tongue complaining no one stops their anymore. You can probably tell by now that I was hungry and this place which i have stopped at three time has never been open just made us laugh, and rant obviously. I defiantely needed a snickers. So we sat at their seats and ate our bananas, custard doughnut balls, and mars bars before heading east up some pretty decent climbs. This section has a few long steep climbs that while we managed no bother which suprised me we did stop at Melvish further on at one of the hotels for a coffee. We had both ridden out this way recently when we went down to Forsinard so knew we should make it bake to mine no problem. We turned off the main road at Reay and followed the national cycle route through to Thurso and after stopping for a quick drink headed out for the last 3/4 of an hour ride to home. Stopped just before home and put my last banana on a stone wall as a offering to the cycle gods and wind gods for a very good day, then headed home.
Made it home inside the time in just on 13.05 hours for 202klm with a lot of elevation/climbing as well as a few good descents.
Both bikes, my Trucker and Brians Pompino had no issues with the same result for the riders. I must mention here that it was a big ride but for Brian, he was running a three speed Sturmy Archer hub, so while he must be crazy, he must be a crazy guy with legs of steel
Thanks Brian for coming all the way up with me.
Jamie
6.00am Tulloch Castle behind ready to start the ride.
a by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
b by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Dornoch Bridge on the Background
c by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
d by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
e by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Top of the Struei looking North West
f by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
High country, still some snow about
g by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
h by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
i by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
j by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Altnahara down behind the trees and we then followed the further shoreline of the loch to head directly on past the loch.
k by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
l by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Betty Hill to Reay, one of the climbs and looking back from where we had come from
m by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Just about home and beat the rain.
n by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Here is the map but I don't know why it's not saying the 202klm that it does on the stats, I also noticed it's not showing the time :shock: I hope that shows up on the GPX file I sent for validation!
Phew, found it now :facepalm: Distance 202.19klm, Time 13.12Hours, Climbing 7115m, steepest gradient 18%
map by Jamie Dyer, on Flickr
Due to some family stuff going on I needed to be home for Sunday and Monday and so couldn't really make it to Forth Fat but I still had Friday and Monday booked off so managed to get in a ride on the Long Haul Trucker.
Was looking at possible rides and decided on Thursday to plan out a DIY Randonneur audax route for Saturday. Brian and I had talked about a few routes in the past and one was from his home in Dingwall up to mine. This sounded good and so I mapped out a route from Dingwall, over the Struei, Bonar Bridge, Lairg, Altnahara, Betty hill and through Thurso to home. Looked good on paper so I logged it and on Friday afternoon I caught a train down to Brians with my bike, arrived around 7pm to be greeted with a giant pasta dinner waiting. Cheers mate.
Brian said he would join me to the top of the Struei which was a couple of hours in so all sounded good. Forecast was good with a tail wind to boot.
Bikes were checked and readied before retiring for the night. My LHT was sorted and running with just my handlebar bag with glasses, wallet, phone etc and Carradice trunk bag on the rack with multitool, spare tube, jersey, jacket etc.
Up at 5.30 loaded with porridge and on the bikes for 6 am from up the top of Brians road. It was a great looking morning, sunny and with a bit of heat already coming through, very pleasant.
A steady climb up out of Dingwall before dropping down towards Evanton it was nice to start with a bit of sun on some really quiet roads, just that early morning feel to it. We then slowly climbed up for the next hour or so to the top of the Struei where Brian said he would ride down with me and maybe stop at Bonar Bridge where we would eat and then maybe he would go on to the west to Ledmore and the long loop home via Ullapool.
Bonar Bridge came pretty quickly after such a rapid descent and I said to Brian I would push on to Lairg and get breakfast there, Brian said he may as well join me as it wasn't that far and I couldn't blame him as the sky was looking black to the west and the wind was also coming straight from the west at that piont. Onto Lairg only to be dissapionted as the lovely cafe I had been holding out for was shut and by now after 3 hours I was pretty hungry. So there was nothing to it but raid the Spar shop, breakfast consisted of a sausage roll, an all day breakfast sandwich from the fridge, of which I am sure the egg and sausage was artificial, boking, but it was fuel and this was followed with 2 custard doughnut balls.
At this stage Brian decided that he had come this far that he may as well join me, which was great news and we were also a 1/4 of the way there. We then climbed steadily for the next hour or two and then had the good fortune to have a clear run down into Altnahara. This was enjoyable as last time when I was fully loaded with the tent and everything I rode up this climb from Altnahara. It must be about 5 klm long and clearly still lingers in my mind. I was barely turning a pedal and was cruising around 30 - 40 kph.
I don't usually stop at the hotel at Altnahara, don't find it welcoming, and seen as there is nothing else it makes it a long way from crask to Betty Hill between food or drinks. This time though the B&B on the Tongue side had a sign out saying Tea and coffee served. So it was we had a brilliant cup of tea sitting in these peoples conservatory on a very comfortable sofa. Very freindly stop.
Just out of town we turned right off the Tongue road and headed towards Betty Hill, skirting round the western side of the Loch keeping a good average pace going. We passed another tourer here who was not happy with the wind blowing in, or the road, or the towns, just not happy which was the opposite to us so after a brief chat we pushed on, there's no way he was going to make us that negative. Just shows though, he was young, had a flash bike, a really nice new looking Thorn with all the bells and whistles, like the new annodised red Rohloff hub on the back and SON on the front riding or walking in his case througha very beautiful part of the world and he was not anywhere near happy.
The road here, which was still singletrack as it had been since Lairg was now following the river and instead of the big climbs was more rolling hills with short sharp climbs.
We soon hit the north coast and turned right to enter Betty Hill, climbed the steep climb past the shop and headed down to the tourist information centre and the new cafe we had seen the signs for. Only we found it shut, f**king shut! really, Sunday afternoon on a Bank Holiday weekend on the route of the North Coast 500 and it's shut. Despite the signs evrywhere telling us we can't sit at their tables , we can't use their toilet, we can't park our bikes, we did use their tables and park our bikes, they sure as hell weren't using them. besides the fact they have little signs strategically placed all over the roads leading into town, this place is the tourist information centre. Soon I'll most likely see in the local paper about the people of Tongue complaining no one stops their anymore. You can probably tell by now that I was hungry and this place which i have stopped at three time has never been open just made us laugh, and rant obviously. I defiantely needed a snickers. So we sat at their seats and ate our bananas, custard doughnut balls, and mars bars before heading east up some pretty decent climbs. This section has a few long steep climbs that while we managed no bother which suprised me we did stop at Melvish further on at one of the hotels for a coffee. We had both ridden out this way recently when we went down to Forsinard so knew we should make it bake to mine no problem. We turned off the main road at Reay and followed the national cycle route through to Thurso and after stopping for a quick drink headed out for the last 3/4 of an hour ride to home. Stopped just before home and put my last banana on a stone wall as a offering to the cycle gods and wind gods for a very good day, then headed home.
Made it home inside the time in just on 13.05 hours for 202klm with a lot of elevation/climbing as well as a few good descents.
Both bikes, my Trucker and Brians Pompino had no issues with the same result for the riders. I must mention here that it was a big ride but for Brian, he was running a three speed Sturmy Archer hub, so while he must be crazy, he must be a crazy guy with legs of steel
Thanks Brian for coming all the way up with me.
Jamie
6.00am Tulloch Castle behind ready to start the ride.
a by Jamie Dyer, on Flickrb by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrDornoch Bridge on the Background
c by Jamie Dyer, on Flickrd by Jamie Dyer, on Flickre by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrTop of the Struei looking North West
f by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrHigh country, still some snow about
g by Jamie Dyer, on Flickrh by Jamie Dyer, on Flickri by Jamie Dyer, on Flickrj by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrAltnahara down behind the trees and we then followed the further shoreline of the loch to head directly on past the loch.
k by Jamie Dyer, on Flickrl by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrBetty Hill to Reay, one of the climbs and looking back from where we had come from
m by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrJust about home and beat the rain.
n by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrHere is the map but I don't know why it's not saying the 202klm that it does on the stats, I also noticed it's not showing the time :shock: I hope that shows up on the GPX file I sent for validation!
Phew, found it now :facepalm: Distance 202.19klm, Time 13.12Hours, Climbing 7115m, steepest gradient 18%
map by Jamie Dyer, on FlickrRe:
Looks absolutely amazing, and 202k... in a day, way more than I could manage.
I am much further to the West for a week at the beginning of June, I hope we have similar weather.
I may be up your way next year though, as I fancy some touring in parts of Scotland I have never visited, and I have rarely been North of Oban.
Looks absolutely amazing, and 202k... in a day, way more than I could manage.
I am much further to the West for a week at the beginning of June, I hope we have similar weather.
I may be up your way next year though, as I fancy some touring in parts of Scotland I have never visited, and I have rarely been North of Oban.
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Still getting carefully getting back into the saddle......
Yesterday really did remind me how lucky i am to get out and about under my own steam. Every village had a cricket match in full swing, every cliched cotswold village was in spring bloom, every road was empty.
Maybe there'd been a Midsommer Murder?
A busy saturday afternoon in Winchcombe
Stanway opposite the big house
Riding home through Didbrook
Still getting carefully getting back into the saddle......
Yesterday really did remind me how lucky i am to get out and about under my own steam. Every village had a cricket match in full swing, every cliched cotswold village was in spring bloom, every road was empty.
Maybe there'd been a Midsommer Murder?
A busy saturday afternoon in Winchcombe
Stanway opposite the big house
Riding home through Didbrook
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Nice write up and photos Jamie of an area I used to know well, Dornoch Bonar Bridge, Lairg- caught my first Salmon in the River Shin, not been for many a year. Used to go to and stay in the Altnaharra hotel when it was run by two brothers (they took turns in running it).
Did the run you describe on numerous occasions, along the north coast (Tongue, Dunnet etc). Wonder if the friendly counterculturally village is still there - recall it was on an old base (Army/RAF) ? Friend of mine has a B&B in a landmark building(!), guess I'll have to get myself back there and visit.
Rk.
Did the run you describe on numerous occasions, along the north coast (Tongue, Dunnet etc). Wonder if the friendly counterculturally village is still there - recall it was on an old base (Army/RAF) ? Friend of mine has a B&B in a landmark building(!), guess I'll have to get myself back there and visit.
Rk.
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