Ride report!
Yay! It`s the 3 Ferries ride again! Woohoo!! Oh, and there`s that 20% hill to climb again too. Time to make the long trip again and meet up with familiar faces again. Col had called on mystical powers that none of us had suspected and produced beaming sunshine and light winds. Awesome job!
Somebuddy rocked up at the first ferry sporting a shiny carbon Boardman, on which he was having so much fun that he was frequently to be seen leading the way rather than trailing behind. Brandane had been
conned convinced to join the ride, which was brilliant as it would not have seemed the same without him. Ed would be meeting us at the first ferry landing. Which means we had better be getting on this one hadn`t we?
Once over the first crossing, Ed was not long in making his appearance and we set off around the coast. When we reached our turn-off, Ed (being Ed) needed to nip up the road to a garage, but told us not to wait, he`d catch up. So we did, after an inspection of Somebuddys front wheel which had a rattling dust seal that kept coming loose.
On we go, and the council have been busy on this road! It is almost entirely re-surfaced, absolute heaven
It is also as popular as ever with motorcycles, but since a lot of it is singletrack, cars did have to wait until we reached one of the (many) passing places. No problems with any of them though, so it was all good. We also caught up with another group doing the same ride and we would end up passing each other a few times before we were done.
After the first climb up to Loch Tarzan, comes the first descent
with Somebuddy leading the way, we went plunging downhill on a pristine surface, absolutely awesome! So much better than previous years where we were too busy dodging potholes to go fast. As we hit the bottom at Loch Striven, most of us pulled over to regroup, but Dougie was eager to get on the big climb and beetled off up the road. It wasn`t long before Brandane joined us, and who was that in the background?? It was Ed, catching us up as promised in full Time Trial mode. He swept past the waiting group to a rousing cheer of "Andiamo!!" and was off in hot pursuit of Dougie.
I don`t know which of them got to the top first. Mainly because I struggled badly on the big climb and never saw them again until we regrouped at the top. Poor Ross wasn`t doing any better than me either
It was at this point that I think my chain snapped, or rather half-snapped. In the meantime I was busy sprinting downhill blissfully unaware of what was waiting to strike, and sure enough after the second descent, it finally gave up and jammed the transmission
WTF!! I thought I`d just got a stone jammed in the mech or something, but no, there it was, one of the link plates was snapped in two. How it had survived the last of the big climb I don`t know, but now I had to fix it or was in for a very long walk.
Somebuddy set off after the group to let them know what had happened, but first I needed to get off the road to a safer place to attempt repairs. With a lay-by found, I was about to find out two things. If I remembered what that YouTube video had said a few months back, and whether the chain tool on the multitool actually worked. The answer was yes to both, but it was the joining link that had snapped, so I needed to shorten the chain by more than I would otherwise need. Three links were removed and the chain rejoined. It looked like it would work! Then a Land Rover screeched to a halt and the driver handed me a chain tool and quicklinks sent by the group! Thanks guys! Popped them in my pocket to take back an set off again.
With the chain now too short, the big ring was out of commission and I had to keep it smooth and not put lots of pressure on the chain, otherwise my bodged repair was likely to come apart, but it wasn`t long before the Failwagon rolled in to the ferry terminal. While we waited we were treated to Somebuddys tales of touring in the USA, being shot at and various medical treatments
And so the ride was nearly done, with my restricted gearing, I was way off the back chatting with Brandane. While the rest headed off to Ettrick Bay for coffee and cake, Brandane and headed for the ferry and home.
An awesome day out guys, I will see you all again soon
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