Tuesday 27th October 2020 - Big Dummy ride to Thurso

A couple of photos from yesterday afternoons ride into town. 

 Had Monday and Tuesday off work and needed to take some forks to the local paint shop to see if they could mix up some touch up paint so decided it would be easier to load them on the Big Dummy. Also needed some other shopping stuff so the perfect choice. 

 It hasn't be out for a couple of months, especially since we have been running the tandem, so needed to ride it to try and see how, and if, it's still relevant to the fleet. It is fun and it can haul a serious amount of gear. So not going anywhere soon that's for sure. 

 It was such a nice day and good to be out riding after the rubbish weather lately. Unfortunately the paint shop was shut Tuesdays according to the sign :) but no problems as I got most other things sorted. Managed to take the forks into the paintshop today and a close enough colour match made. This touch up wasn't for the Big Dummy or even the forks I had with me. The paint was for the Mercian King of Mercia tourer I have had for a long while now. I am putting it back on the road for the winter touring duties and while it is getting on a bit and the paint had thinned etc, it has a few deep scratches in the sort of Kingfisher metallic blue paint, these were badly touched up by the previous owner in a flat pastel light blue that stands out more than the scratches would have. 

I just thought I am not building it up again looking like that, it just looks tatty, like some kid did it with a crayon in a whatever was left in the box. It belittles the superb ride and quality of this frameset. I gave it a quick rub down in spots and touched a few in and it looks 100% better. of course you can see it's been touched in but it doesn't look like a sight impaired colour blind child did it with a three foot paintbrush. The colour is a little bit greener than the original but way better than what was on there. The young guy in the Thurso autoparts who mixed it was really helpful and he did find an almost perfect match, a Peugeot Kingfisher blue, the computer then wouldn't give out the correct details to mix it, so after a while trying we went with the second closest. 

 Hopefully I will start to build that up over the coming weekend. Jamie

Thursday 22nd October 2020 - Flying Scot afternoon tandem ride - Local

Today up here the rain of the past two weeks finally stopped and this afternoon the sun even came out. So making the most of my time off I adjusted a few little things on the tandem and told the little man to suite up as we were off for a ride. No need to ask him as he is always asking to go for a ride on it. 

 We didn't have too much time but we got about an hour and a half scooting round the hills to the south east this time. 

It was a glorious afternoon but it was also very cold on the way back. As soon as the sun even looked like it was starting to drop the temperature went with it. Still a nice ride out. 

 The tandem is going well and more importantly the little man is loving it, not only that but he has adapted to it with no problems at all. It is a bit different to riding solo and the fact that you are inexplicably linked and need to work in...tandem makes it a much more conscious thing, such as saying when you need to freewheel, change gears, brake, put the inside pedal up when cornering quickly etc but we just seem to do it and it is only now and again with the gears where I need to even say anything. So very pleased with how it's going. One thing I am finding though is that because I have put his bars across from the Big Dummy where I had the Jones bars so they were very similar in width, I now notice how much leverage he has with them now I am on very narrow drop bars, also the fact they are higher. It's not deliberate from him but the input from him maybe turning round and then pulling himself back on one side etc is really felt especially at any sort of speed. We are still on 28c width tyres too. 

I was thinking when riding back that maybe if I put some touring bars on it like butterfly bars or such then our postures would also be the same both in being upright and also more relaxed for myself. I was already going to see about slightly wider tyres, maybe 30's if they would fit and also some Randonneur bars. 

Will see how it feels over the next few days before making any decisions. 

 Anyway here's a couple of photos as usual. :) 

 Jamie

Sunday 18th October 2020 - Flying Scot Continental Tandem coastal ride - Caithness

Well Brian and I will hopefully get our ride to Altnabreac later in the week after being postponed. Meanwhile Caleb and I spent an enjoyable afternoon out on the Flying Scot tandem. Still work to be done to suite us and most of that will be over the winter when it will get stripped down and fully serviced. For now our major problem of the front derailleur rapidly losing the ability to move was down to an outer cable falling apart at a cable guide. Next up is bars and brake levers. 

 We now had gears back and that made it easier to head up the hill behind the house and up off the coast to slowly meander through the farm roads and tracks out towards Dunnet before heading back to the coast and taking a few of the dirt tracks to see if we could get anywhere on them. Some were good and some either didn't go anywhere or were flooded due to the weeks rain. 

 We stopped at Castletown harbour and had some brownie that Caleb had cooked with Heather yesterday and I had snuck into the trunk bag. 

Weather was dry but definitely cool, winter will soon be here. 

 It was a great few hours and Caleb loved it, he is a natural on the tandem as we never have any problem with being out of sync or thinking we are about to do something we aren't, it's just very easy and natural. 

 Anyway, hope it was dry with everyone else. 

 Jamie One of our usual dirt tracks was flooded by the stream. It usually crosses here in a trickle. Brownie!!