Lots More on the A84…

Categories: Diary Rides

I've mentioned before that I live next to one of THE great biking roads, the A84 from Callander to Killin. That's all of 20 miles of fast, wide sweeping bends that every so often turn into narrow, bumpy, twisty complexes that test machine set-up and rider anticipation, skill and basic sense. And far too bloody many people are failing that test: we've just had what (I think) is the third biking fatality of the year – and all of these on the mere eight miles between Callander and Strathyre, particularly through the twisties of the Falls of Leny, just North of Kilmahog and at the notorious "Doctor's Bend" a couple of miles further North.

The consequences of this aren't just limited to the motorcyclist and his or her (almost always 'his') family and friends but affect the local community: firstly, this is the only road South from here (without a 50-mile detour), so when it's closed for most of a day it has a real local impact. Secondly, and mostly importantly, people here are genuinely upset about the sheer bloody waste of life that's going – I haven't spoken to a single person who's anti-motorcycling in any way, but to many who are affected by the knowledge that another life has been needlessly lost on our doorstep and who genuinely feel the sense of lost humanity. While writing this blog entry, I've been approached by several friends and neighbours, each asking me if there's anything at all I can do to raise awareness of the specific risks of this road. So here it is.

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Posted by Richard at 08:42 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack

A821 Dukes Pass

Categories: Diary Rides

Today I should most definitely have been working – too much to do, too little time, yada yada... But by 11 o'clock the temperature was about 23° and not a cloud in the sky. I also tripped over my Arai on the way to make a coffee, which was an omen not to be ignored, so the concept of 'early lunch break' had its definition rather stretched. Besides, I wanted to test out a new toy – a little Sony GPS that records everywhere you've been – the downloaded results then being used to tag the photos you've taken along the way, before mapping them in Google Maps or Google Earth. And where should I go to test this but a second (and third) pass at a road I discovered last weekend – the A821 from Kilmahog (I kid you not) to Aberfoyle, via the Duke's pass. That's the Duke of Montrose, not the Duke of Bologna, which would have been so much more appropriate. This road is something else – it starts with a couple of fast sweepers that throw in a decreasing radius 120° corner at the last moment, then into a switchback straight which has self and machine airborne at anything over about 70mph – even with the new suspension. A large number of sump gouges and suspicious stains along this stretch tell their own tale. The road is a mixture of old and broken surface (with the occasional pothole and patch of loose gravel) and brand new shiny tarmac – overall, not too bad by Belgian standards, and less than brilliant by anyone else's.

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Posted by Richard at 05:57 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

When You've Had Your Kicks On Route 66…

Categories: Diary Rides

…Then Get Some More On The A84

Been a bit quiet of late, haven't I? There's a reason for that and, I hope, a good one: self, partner, our businesses and the cats have all been busily uprooting ourselves from our past lives – in my case, twenty years in the hinterlands of Surrey and replanting ourselves in our new demesne, the Highlands of Scotland. We've been here for two weeks today, and I'm typing this whilst looking out over the local Loch as the low Winter sun glows off the hills opposite. Which isn't a bad way to start the day, and a distinct improvement on the absolutely solid rainfall of the last fortnight. And, if the viciously incompetent British Telecom ever starts keeping its broken promises to provide us with our landlines, things will be just perfect. The lack of photographs in current posting (since updated) are just a reflection of the very limited bandwidth I have here via my mobile.

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Posted by Richard at 06:41 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Scott of the West Midlands

Categories: Diary Rides

Warning: Gratuitous and rambling nostalgia ahead: In 1981 I was living and working in Warwick, in my first 'proper' job after graduating – my prior history as a ski bum didn't really count. Now Warwick is a very beautiful olde towne in the English Midlands, but it is some 330 miles from my semi-ancestral home of Edinburgh, which is where I was intending to be for Christmas. Now I could have done the sensible thing and taken the train from Birmingham, sitting (or at least standing) in a semi-comfortable fug of other people's colds, second-hand cigarette smoke and generalised flatulence. But somehow that didn't sufficiently appeal to the masochist in me. My newly acquired pride and joy at this time was my Honda 400/4 – a finely crafted jewel of a motorcycle and an utter paragon of reliability after my upbringing on (and off) old British iron. I guess there was a mindset here that said, "I'm on a wonderful piece of to-the-minute japanese engineering. I am therefore invulnerable to the vicissitudes of the world". Which in turn led me to think, "So I'll just leap onto my machine and ride to Edinburgh for Christmas".

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Posted by Richard at 04:10 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Surrey Traffic Calming, Another of the Many…

Categories: Rides

Here's another example of good intentions gone wrong through ill-considered design and lousy implementation ââ?¬â??Ã? the traffic calming in the Surrey village of Dockenfield. It's a pleasant place, but the one road through the village had, until recently, a national (60mph) speed limit. It's also a straight road, so it's been crying out for both a speed limit and some form of traffic restriction. And a couple of years ago, it got first one, and then the other. I've no problem with that – they're long overdue & ndash; but unfortunately, the speed calming measures that have been adopted are blatantly bloody dangerous for anyone on two wheels. Look at the picture & ndash; they've put into place an angled restriction, and then made it look even narrower by extending smooth raised kerbs further into the road. Now the idea of 'perceptual restriction' is fine and dandy, but here they've managed to create an arrangement that's going to be completely lethal to the first motorcyclist or cyclist who hits one of those kerbs in the wet at night. Not to mentioned the large metal manhole cover that covers the approach. Not only that, but the quality of the work is so poor that the surface is breaking up and the kerbs themselves have moved out of alignment. So let's add this one to the ever-lengthening list of Surrey's Bad Ideas Poorly Done.

Posted by Richard at 10:50 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack