Sun Mar 19, 2017 - Mercian ride

Well another day and another changeable type of forecast. Woke this morning to it really coming down, heavy and consistent.
After heading out for lunch with the family and between showers taking the dog out, it started to show signs of it being sunny for longer periods.
Decided that I would head out for a bit, do a rough type loop to the south and inland and maybe head back along the coast as it was really crazy wind blowing about 30mph. can't escape the wind up here so I manned up and decided to head straight into it and then if I needed to get back quickly I would get the benefit on the return run. I was really just meandering and thought I would take a couple of back roads and some gravel as well rather than just push into a wind on the open country up here. While it has been quite wet, the wind was so strong it was drying the tarmac out quickly as well as some of the gravel stretches. Out from the loft came the Mercian as I wanted to see about it's setup and how to improve it as it's still pretty much cobbled together build wise and I do have some new Nitto stuff ready for it.
Ride started sunny, though the wind was pretty bitter and after cruising a long for about an hour or so, always into this wind, I stopped after one of the local villages and noticed that the rain was sweeping across the coast where I was headed. Went a few more miles and noticed that it was closing in on me pretty quickly. Decided to turn and race it back, as I could see it was already closer to my place than I was on the coast.
It was a very fast ride back, one of those where I turned around and was moving along an open stretch thinking that the wind had died down, only to see my speed up a long gentle rise was almost double what it was rolling down it
I also felt the wind when about a mile from home I turned across it and it took me from one side of the road to the other, and then I felt the rain drops. Just made it back and even took a pic out front of home as you could barely see the water let alone Hoy across it.
Hope the weather was better with everyone else, but hey, any rides better than no ride

Jamie

Starting out looking south west, storm had passed so a clear window opened. 
Storm has passed A Short stretch of gravel Rain coming back in Looking back to the south west just before home and taken not far from where the first one in this post was taken.