I do a reasonable amount of sketching and writing with pencils, and over the past six months or so I have become a fan of a very ingenious pencil from Uni. It is the Kuru Toga. Using a clever ratcheting clutch mechanism, the lead is rotated a few degrees every time the pencil contacts the paper. This means that writing edge of the lead is always sharp, removing the need to rotate the whole pencil in one’s hand.

In the past I have used the basic Uni Kuru Toga, which is plastic-bodied and (in my opinion) has an ineffective grip. I have circumvented the grip issue by adding an extra rubber grip around the pencil, but when I saw the metal ‘Roulette’ model (complete with knurled grip) I just had to buy one…

Here is the new ‘Roulette’ pencil next to my original Kuru Toga:

The construction is very solid and the weight in the hand feels about right. The knurled grip is great too – a big improvement over the slippery rubber of the last one.

As you might expect, there’s also a metal pocket clip and a tiny (black!) eraser at the other end:

A very nice pencil indeed, especially since they can be bought on eBay (from Japan) for only a little over £10.

So continuing my animal theme from earlier (a cycling jersey with velociraptors on it…) I have made some dogs. Actually, I know very few people who call these dogs, they are in fact low trestles to rest rowing boats on.

As you can see I went for a glue-less method of construction not dissimilar to the balsawood kits for making model aeroplanes and suchlike. I’m pretty happy with these for a 45min job equipped with only a jigsaw…

UPDATE:

The dogs work very well indeed -

So… I decided to crack out the DIY skills and make up a bike rack on the wall of the garage. Using some front wheel hooks (‘Mottez wheel hooks’) and a sheet of plywood, the final result is – I think – rather good.

Doctored HDR shot 1 (in which you can just about make out how it has been constructed):

and another (not-very-useful-to-see-how-it-is-made) photo:

and some saddles for good measure:

So a £6 impulse buy on eBay got me this amazing (read: offensive) cycling jersey. Much better though was that it has velociraptors(!) on the sleeves!!

Unfortunately, both of my Garmin GPS devices died this summer. My Forerunner 305 – which I use daily for rowing and land-training sessions – succumbed to water damage in a particularly wet session. In fact, after drying it out in a mug of rice, it recovered for a couple of weeks but another damp outing put an end to that…

My Edge 705 (a fantastic cycling GPS) was doing fine until halfway through my end-to-end cycle earlier this month, when we cycled through “one of the wettest 24hr periods on record for Glasgow”. The little flap that protects the USB port was clearly not enough and something must have short-circuited. The device actually continued working fine except that the computer connection via USB was not working – not ideal as this is half the reason for having the 705!

And so, after some fruitless attempts at reviving the devices via software updates, I gave Garmin the call to get the devices replaced. Sadly both were outside the 2yr warranty period, but Garmin’s out-of-warranty replacement service is not too bad. For around £50 for the 305 and £100 for the 705, they provided new (well, refurbished) units.

Lessons learnt:
- These Garmin devices are not completely waterproof so beware!
- Garmin’s support team are very helpful.
- Garmin will replace devices for a reasonable cost outside the warranty period.

Tip – if you’re cycling in a prolonged period of torrential rain, then it’s a good idea to put a piece of tape over the USB port on the Edge 705.

The Route:

The route we followed was not too bad for the most part. We had to use several A-roads to keep the mileage down for our 8-day target, but on the whole we kept to more minor roads (where possible). There were one or two errors, such as our off-roading on day 4 – don’t follow our route between Middlebrook and White Coppice!

Some days were (on the other hand) really quite nice. The road into Fort William through the mountains is spectacular even if it is an A-road and highly recommended. Similarly the final day from Ardgay to John O’Groats was great, particularly the section up to the coast.

The GPX files for each day can be downloaded here:

Day 1 - Land’s End to Okehampton

Day 2 - Okehampton to St. Briavels

Day 3 - St. Briavels to Chester

Day 4 - Chester to Penrith

Day 5 - Penrith to Cumbernauld

Day 6 - Cumbernauld to Fort William

Day 7 - Fort William to Ardgay

Day 8 - Ardgay to John O’Groats

Accommodation:

We stayed in Hostels or B&Bs for our trip and I would certainly recommend some of the places we stayed:

Day 0 – Land’s End Hostel Accommodation: This was a great hostel, really close to Land’s End for the first day and great value for money given that the high quality of the bedroom, showers, kitchen etc. Highly Recommended!

Day 1 – Bracken Tor YHA, Okehampton: This YHA Hostel was ok, but not much more. We were too late booking to get places in the main Okehampton hostel, which I suspect would be much better. Disadvantages were the (very) steep road to get to it from Okehampton, having to check-in at the Okehampton hostel and that there didn’t seem to be anywhere particularly warm to dry our kit out. On the plus side it was quite empty, so we had a dormitory to ourselves.

Day 2 – St. Briavels Castle YHA: This YHA was pretty good, partly just for the novelty of staying in a castle. The woman running the hostel was very friendly, there was a lock-up for bikes and breakfasts could be ordered (and dinner, but we were too late for that). A quick note here is not to arrive after 8pm on a Sunday, as the excellent local pub – The George Inn will have stopped serving food!

Day 3 – Chester Backpackers: A friendly hostel in Chester. There was space to lock up bikes and an excellent laundry service (very important when travelling so light!). We even managed to get free food for dinner as there were some leftovers from another meal.

Day 4 – Fellfoot Hostel, Penrith: This was without doubt the best hostel I have ever stayed in. Run by a very friendly couple and with secure bike storage in a shed or garage. The bedroom (twin) was excellent, as were the shower and the kitchen. The breakfast provided was also fantastic – a large continental breakfast perfect for starting a day’s cycling. In the morning Alasdair even gave us some route tips and offered to check our tyres before we set off. Highly Recommended!

Day 5 – Greenacres B&B, Cumbernauld: This B&B was comfortable enough, although not in the best location for finding food etc (especially when it’s pissing it down). The bedroom, breakfast were ok and the prices are good value. However, I’d probably pay more for somewhere else if staying around here again.

Day 6 – Fort William Backpackers: This was a busy backpackers in Fort William (full when we stayed). It was however manned by friendly staff and had a good laundry service and space to lock up bikes in a shed. I would stay here again, although I might bring earplugs in anticipation of a full dormitory of not-always-silent sleepers!

Day 7 – B&B in Ardchronie: I have no web link for this B&B – in fact it wasn’t even signed as a B&B on the road. I got hold of the number after contacting the popular Kyle House B&B who had no space. The stay was extremely good though, very friendly, comfortable rooms, and an excellent breakfast in the morning. I would certainly stay there again if travelling through.

Day 8 – John O’Groats SYHA: The John O’Groats youth hostel was ok. There was secure bicycle storage, and the shower and room were ok. The breakfast provided (ordered in advance) was not really sufficient for hungry cyclists though and the whole place could have done with a lick of paint. It was, however, good value and we didn’t really care by that point since we had finished the trip!

Some tips learnt from our trip:

• If you want to complete the journey in a relatively short time, then travel light and stay in hostels/B&B. You’d be surprised how little you can get away with – we had a set and a bit of cycling kit each, lightweight evening clothes, wash stuff (including microfibre towel) and some spares and tools.
• On the subject of hostels – take some earplugs as you never know whether you’ll have some snorers!
• Chamois cream is a great addition that stops chafing on long days in the saddle.
• Our tyres were Continental Gatorskins (in my case the “Hardshell” variety) and they didn’t suffer a single puncture over the entire 1000miles.
• If you’re using race bikes (as we did), then wheels with a higher number of spokes than usual may help you out greatly. I was running 36 on the front (a wheel from my round-town fixed gear bike) and 32 on the rear (a 105 hub/Mavic Open Pro rim). This should reduce the chance of broken spokes, and if any do fail then standard spokes are much easier to find spares for if you haven’t brought any along.
• You may find – as I did – that your bottle cages are of dubious quality. I started with a pair of plastic Specialized ones and found that over rough road surfaces, the seat-tube bottle tended to drop through the cage and rest on the frame (rubbing away some paint – grrr). I replaced the cages with Bontrager Race Lite cages, which appear much more durable.
• It is a good idea to plan out potential pubs/cafés/bike shops etc. along the route for each day. We had a couple of days when we spent a bit too long trying to find a good place for lunch or somewhere to get bike bits.
• Several of the bike shops on the route seem to be too busy to pay any attention to you, but Nevis Cycles in Fort William were very helpful, so I’d recommend going there if you’re nearby and need any bike bits or a can of degreaser.

We headed out a couple of days beforehand to get in a quick training ride and also a lap or two of the track in the car. Since I had not driven down myself I was unfortunately ‘car-less’, but had an enjoyable lap as a passenger in a Mercedes Vito (a van!). Our one short training cycle was great too, particularly since the road surfaces in Germany put the UK to shame – very nice indeed.

The day of the race was fantastic – not a cloud in sight. When we parked our van in our allocated bay next to the track, it became clear that we were not the best-prepared team. Other teams had set up large marquees and in some cases even sofas and custom made bicycle racks (we just ‘borrowed’ a barrier)!! We did have matching kit though, despite the fact that it was actually FDJ team replica kit from China…

I was down for the first leg of the race, and after pinning on numbers and sorting out the transponder (for timing), I ambled down to the start line. Turns out that in a race with over 1000 cyclists on the track at once, it’s a good idea to get to the start early as I was several hundred places back. Nevertheless, when the race started I gradually made my way forwards in the mass of cyclists. After the first couple of miles the track plunges down rapidly, with a particularly fast section where I reached 60mph (insane)! Sadly, what goes down must come up (or something like that ;) ) so the following 5km are all uphill, finishing with a particularly nasty 17% section. Thankfully it appeared that I was faster than most riders on the way up the hill, and found myself finishing the first lap in a respectable 41:46, about 3min off the lap record. We switched over quickly and it was time for my first break.

After a while we got into a good routine, and found to our surprise that we were 3rd amongst the 8-man teams. By the end of my second lap it was around 9pm and I walked back to the camp site to grab some sleep in preparation for my night lap. The night lap (at about 3:30am) was pretty amazing, and well worth the lack of decent sleep. Descending a race track with only some cheap cycle lights was exhilarating, even with the dangerous sections floodlit.

Over the course of the night we had dropped down to 6th place, but we were steadily gaining time back on the 5th place team and by early morning we had overtaken them. After another short sleep, I set off on my fourth and final lap. I pushed pretty hard, but the legs were very tired by now and the long climb was significantly tougher than before. When I came in, we had about 50 minutes left to make the cut-off for the last lap – doable but hard, so we sent out two riders together. Unfortunately they came back a couple of minutes too late to get in an extra lap, so there was no chance of catching the 4th place crew.

All in all, the race was a fantastic experience. I have never been to a cycling race of this size before, with around 1200 teams (about 3500 riders) in the 24hr road race alone and many more in the 24hr MTB race and other shorter road and MTB races.

A great weekend – time to plan for next year!

(the team)

Race photos purchased from Sportograf.

(you can just about make out the small crack to the right of the tensioning bolt)

The saddle has seen a fair amount of use (and abuse) over the last three years, but this is clearly not ideal! I have sent off a repair enquiry to Brooks, so I’ll just have to wait and see what they say. In the meantime, I think I’ll swap it for another saddle, since it could be quite uncomfortable if the bolt were to snap whilst riding…

Moral of this story: If you have a Brooks saddle, then take good care of it.

So that’s it, the end! Unfortunately there is no official photographer at 8pm in John O’Groats, just like at 8am in Land’s End… On the other hand, I’m not sure we really cared that much. The past 8 days have been an amazing experience, with ups and downs (in every sense) and both beautiful and not-so-beautiful scenery along the way!

Now for an account of the last 3 days, as best I can remember.

Day 6 – Cumbernauld to Fort William
So we woke early to yet more rain ($&?#!) and slightly damp kit that had failed to dry out. This was unpleasant [It later transpired that we had cycled through one of the wettest days on record for Glasgow!]. The Garmin had not been enjoying the weather either and so we decided to go with paper maps so the GPS could stay warm and dry in the bag. Unfortunately this did cause some routing ‘hiccups’, and the morning was slow going.

When we pulled into Callander for a break, we were cold and wet, but we found a laundrette to dry the kit whilst we had lunch. This was almost certainly one of the best decisions of the trip, especially as it stopped raining during our break! After lunch we headed onwards to Fort William, stopping for a quick coffee at Bridge of Orchy, before our final leg through the Cairngorms to Fort William.

Just as we left, we met two other LEJOG-ers (Tom and Kyle I think) and briefly cycled together. Unfortunately we were going a bit faster and had to go our separate ways again. However, the scenery during this last section was really stunning, and the time passed quickly. We eventually made it to Fort William Backpackers for the night and even managed to get our laundry done (excellent!).

Day 7 – Fort William to Ardgay
This was our latest start of the week, and we ambled out of bed around 8am, before getting breakfast from Morrisons and then heading out to Nevis Cycles to see if we could degrease and re-grease our chains after all the rain of the previous two days. The staff at the shop were extremely helpful, and we soon had the bikes back in good working order. It was however about 11am when we left…

Cycling along the Great Glen was quite scenic, albeit a little busy traffic-wise. We made good progress, and our first stop was at Fort Augustus, which was sadly a bit of a tourist-trap. The food at the cafe was rather poor and over-priced, and may even have been the cause of Andy’s food poisoning that took hold later that evening.

For our second stop, we found a nice new coffe shop in Dingwall. The food and drinks were both great, although the manager was perhaps trying too hard to please (it was a new cafe)!! The last leg up to Ardgay was slow, since Andy was feeling rather ill, but we did make it in the end, and some of the scenery was great. Avoided getting wet too, which is always good!

We pulled into the B&B at about 8.30 and found that the local inn had stoped serving. Thankfully our host was extremely nice, heating up some soup and making rolls. In all, our night was very very pleasant and breakfast good too (although Andy wasn’t up to much eating).

Day 8 – Ardgay to John O’Groats
We left the B&B at around 9am and headed over to Bonar Bridge to grab some supplies. On a sunny morning the views were fantastic.

(Bonar Bridge)

Following our host’s advice, we took an early stop at Shin Falls, where Salmon can be seen jumping up the river. Unfortunately we didn’t have long and I only glimpsed one Salmon! We continued up north through Lairg, and stopped off at the Crask Inn for a hot chocolate. The Inn is in the middle of nowhere, but very friendly and the drinks were nice too!

Further on up the road (towards the coast) were some of the quietest and most picturesque roads of the whole trip. A very enjoyable cycle indeed.

When we reached the coast, we had a stop in Bettyhill for lunch and then contiued along the coast towards John O’Groats. The cycling was hilly, and by this point Andy’s ilness and my knees were keeping the pace low. Nevertheless, we were making good time and after a short stop at Thurso, we made it to John O’Groats – an excellent feeling of acomplishment!

Two more days done since the last update.

Day four saw us leave Chester backpackers at our normal start time of around 0830 (we have been aiming for 0800 all week…). We grabbed breakfast and snacks from Tesco and cycled out north-east towards Warrington on our way to Penrith (a long long day!). Our first stop came at Westhoughton (Bolton), where we found a great sandwich shop.
Leaving Westhoughton, we followed the GPS – I have been using online mapping along with a Garmin Edge 705 – north up a steep hill. All was going well until the tarmac ran out and the road turned into a track. Being adventurous (stupid) we continued along the track MTB-style, and it was slow going!

(This photo doesn’t do the terrain justice!)

We ended up having to walk down to the road to complete our off-road detour, as the surface was completely un-rideable! Once we were back on the roads, we met up with a very friendly local cyclist who had a bit of chuckle when we explained where we had been and said the he liked to take his mountain bike along that route! Eventually we went our separate ways and we trundled over to Preston for a second stop. We found a great café and enjoyed sandwiches and jacket potatoes outside in the sun – Deli-licious!

After Preston, we pressed on (ha-ha) to Kendal, where we were in desperate need of food so grabbed a MacDonalds. Eventually we came into Penrith after about 135 miles (the longest day), but it was all worth it, since the Fellfoot hostel was almost certainly the best night so far!

Day five, shorter than day four thankfully, began with a fantastic breakfast at the aforementioned Fellfoot hostel but on the downside it was raining. Not only that, but the forecast used words such as incessant, heavy and widespread! We were soaked within minutes, but there’s not much to do about it really when you’re travelling on a tight time-frame. We stopped first in Lockerbie (in the welcoming Cafe 91) and then again in a motorway service station in Abington where made a futile attempt to dry clothes. Eventually we made it to the B&B near Cumbernauld and tucked into a massive Indian takeaway.

(Largest naan I’d ever had!)

That’s it for now – time for bed!!